The furniture in Leslie McCurdy’s Windsor, Ontario, home is permanently pushed up against the edges, appliances are mounted to the walls, and the hardwood floor is bare.

The Canadian performer cannot live without a dance studio. In fact she can’t seem to live without art in her life.

“I guess I was born into it,” McCurdy says. “My mom said I danced before I was even born. If there was music, I was dancing. I wanted to be Tina Turner.”

A string of chance occurrences have steered her life down many paths, McCurdy says, but one fact remains true — she is always performing.

Although she has a lengthy list of acting performances on her resum‚, McCurdy says she never saw herself as an actress.

“I just thought the roles seemed interesting,” McCurdy says. “I always thought of myself as a dancer.”

Just before going into training with the prestigious Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, a quick turn of events occurred.

“I tripped and fell into acting,” McCurdy says. “Literally, I tripped and broke my hip.”

Not long after, a friend of hers asked her to play the role of Harriet Tubman in a one-woman play he was directing. McCurdy says she has always admired Tubman and since she now had some time on her hands she accepted, but she did not like the script.

“I didn’t like the way Tubman was portrayed,” McCurdy says. “It had her doing it out of anger and hate, and I never saw it like that. I started thinking about doing it my way.”

She began writing her own play, and four weeks later “The Spirit of Harriet Tubman” was finished. McCurdy has been performing the one-woman play since February 1997.

“Harriet Tubman’s been my personal hero for as long as I can remember,” McCurdy says. “Hell, I knew about her back when I was dancing to Tina.”

McCurdy says her admiration stems from Tubman’s character and spirit.

“She was a phenomenal woman,” McCurdy says. “She was physically strong, mentally strong and spiritually committed. She was selfless in an extreme way.”

McCurdy says if it is through her art that she can make people think, then yes, she is an activist.

“I have a lot of strong opinions, and I don’t mind sharing them,” McCurdy says. “I like to challenge people’s perceptions.”

She has had an idea about another performance for a couple of years from now.

“It would be a social, political, autobiographical commentary, one-woman piece,” McCurdy says. “The title I’ve always envisioned is ‘Thoughts on Life from a Woman from Windsor, Ontario, Who Just Happens to be a Black Chick.'”

McCurdy says her future is just beginning. There is plenty more to follow the plays.

“I’ve only been writing for seven or eight years, so who knows what will be next,” she says. “I would love to do a song and dance show.”

Right now, though, McCurdy is going with the flow and trying her hands at a little bit of everything.

“I’m still developing my voice, maybe it will be as diverse as anything else I’ve ever done.”