“The last two years have been a rollercoaster. I keep yelling at all the friends who come back to the stream like, ‘Why are you here?’” Allard said in a phone interview with Lifewire. “I’m still so shocked by this journey every single day. I can’t believe the amount of people who continue to come back and be so supportive.”
Humble Beginnings
Born and raised in Ottawa, Canada, Allard takes the nice Canadian stereotype and morphs it into reality. Her energy disarms the hardest audience members as they’re lulled by her performance stylings. Art has been a pivotal part of her journey through self-discovery. An admittedly anxious child, she had trouble communicating except through art. “I found it very difficult to communicate when I was young… a lot of this is learned. I kind of threw myself into many forms of art. I started writing, visual arts, singing, and I did theatre and dance as well,” she said. Art is a form of communication, and she used it to connect in ways she couldn’t via traditional, verbal methods. This became a throughline throughout her life. Connecting with people through her creative abilities. The young Allard would increasingly find herself through artistic endeavors. Blossoming at her performance art high school, the trained singer would find a passion in music. Eventually, becoming a teacher in the arts herself. A reality that would lead her to discover the virtual side of being an artist “Twitch started as an experiment and what happened was beyond my wildest dreams,” she said. “There was no plan in place, I just got really fortunate to connect to all these people in the Twitch Music space.”
The Connective Power of Music
The global health fiasco of 2020 caused a mountain of upheaval for everyone, especially live performers like Allard. Canceled shows and changing teaching dynamics led her to the world of streaming in an attempt to remain connected to students and fans. “I was so desperate to make something happen and make it some and my students could be together somehow. So, if I had to figure out how to stream to do that, then I would,” she mused about starting her streaming journey. “I just wanted to give my students more confidence in hitting the Go LIVE button.” Little did she know, she would connect to a lot more than just her friends. The difference in discoverability between Twitch and Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram convinced the music professor to stay the course. Sooner than later, it was more than friends and students joining her performance-based live streams. It was music lovers seeking comfort through the isolation of 2020. Aggressively supportive and chaotically wholesome. That’s how Allard describes the diverse community of music lovers she’s cultivated over the past two years on the live streaming platform. Known affectionately as Dinosaurs, they’ve allowed her to flourish artistically in new ways. That audience would eventually become her support base, and her star would rise on the platform as the Twitch Music community welcomed her into the fray with open arms. Whether she’s doing covers or performing original songs, the stream is all about the emotive power of music. In two short years, she’s already leaving her mark on the community through innovative moves and an infectious personality. Among her proudest moments was starting the Dinosaur Stream Fest. Beginning as a way to commemorate her birthday, the virtual fest has transformed into a way to connect audiences with like-minded streamers and maneuver them through the platform. “All those moments where I see people overcome that anxiety are the biggest and proudest moments that have come out of this. All because I decided to play music on the internet,” she ended. “You don’t understand the ripple effect of all the choices you make. So, go do the scary thing.”
