This Mitchells Plain woman is dancing her way through negative stereotypes and has become a Facebook star for skutting her biscuit.
Shirmeez Samaai, 24, says after years of hearing that ‘dancing is for thin people’, she is finally coming into her own and says being a “triple-digit girl” isn’t stopping her from being a show stopper.
“I weigh 102 kilograms and, yes, I’m a triple-digit girl, but I’ve got game,” the fun-loving goose says.
Shirmeez says she had a miserable childhood and was “known as the fat girl”.
“I was always teased for being fat and when I danced, my friends and family would tell me that dancing is for thin people,” she says.
“But I loved dancing, and would dance behind closed doors, because I was too scared to hear what people would say.”
Shirmeez attended Cedar High School of Arts where she really wanted to dance, but chose drama instead.
“When I got to college, I joined the gym and did Zumba classes to lose weight, but I grew to love Zumba and I felt free to dance again.”
She is now a qualified dance and Zumba instructor at Virgin Active in Tygervalley.
She hopes the videos that she posts on her Facebook and Instagram pages, called “Curve Dancer”, will encourage other curvy meisies to take to the dancefloor.
“I teach dance privately, I dance at functions and also do my Zumba lessons with the masses every week. They said I was too fat to dance, but look at me now, I’m a curvy dancer with a following,” she says with a smile.