Plymouth teenager ‘chases dream’ and opens dance studio

A 16-year-old has set up a dance school to give back to the community that made her feel welcome after arriving from Romania a decade ago.

Maria, who moved to Devonport in Plymouth when she was six, has been running AMR Street Dance for six months while balancing her studies at college.

She said she wanted “little children, like I was, to express themselves and to have somewhere where they can feel safe”.

Dancer Toby Gorniak, her mentor, said: “To be 16 and be teaching and sharing and doing that is a huge, huge thing, so I’m just really proud of her for chasing that dream.”

Discussing her childhood in Plymouth, Maria said: “I used to dance every day – it made me feel like I had somewhere to be.

“It was a home for me and when I moved here I didn’t really have anyone but the children in my primary school were just really welcoming.

“I just felt like I belonged somewhere because I had just felt like a foreigner.”

Maria also said she hoped her dance school at Total Fitness, near Mutley Plain, could help others who may feel like she did.

“I hope it will help them socialise with other children and help them make a lot of friends,” she said.

The school currently caters for children up to 15 but Maria said she planned to run classes for adults in the future.