IBPOC Artist-Curators in Dance

The Project:

The Cana­di­an Dance Assem­bly, in part­ner­ship with Dance­Works, is host­ing a project that invites 10 Indige­nous , Afro-descen­dant, and Per­son of Colour Artist-Cura­tors in dance to gath­er in Toron­to between May 12–17th, 2025. The aim of this project is to resource the careers of IBPOC Artist-Cura­tors and sup­port equi­ty-dri­ven trans­for­ma­tion with­in exist­ing mod­els of dance pre­sen­ta­tion. 

For the pur­pos­es of this project, we are con­sid­er­ing Dance Cura­tion as an act of care, being in rela­tion, con­nect­ed to dance prac­tice, and cul­tur­al­ly informed. We also con­sid­er cura­tion as an action of select­ing artists and/or con­struct­ing a space to gath­er; rec­og­niz­ing that cul­ti­vat­ing a space, encounter, event, or oppor­tu­ni­ty for per­for­mance and cre­ative explo­ration are all aspects of cura­to­r­i­al prac­tice. 

The 1‑week gath­er­ing will offer the select­ed par­tic­i­pants a paid oppor­tu­ni­ty to engage in dis­course, devel­op skills and build rela­tion­ships amongst peers. 5 Artist-Cura­tors from the Greater Toron­to Area and 5 from across Cana­da will be invit­ed through this open call.

The shared val­ues of those stew­ard­ing this project are; Care, Inter­sec­tion­al­i­ty, Access, Trans­paren­cy and Col­lab­o­ra­tion. This project will be con­duct­ed with a com­mit­ment to Equi­ty and Anti-Oppres­sion.

The Cohort:

We are thrilled to announce the cohort of our Indige­nous, Afro-descen­dant, and Per­son of Colour Artist-Cura­tors in dance project

🥰 We received 70 appli­ca­tions, we were sup­posed to wel­come 10 per­sons.
Here we are, we will hold the space for 14 Artist-Cura­tors May 12–17th, 2025.

💫
Ziyian Kwan (she/her), Van­cou­ver
Mpoe Mogale (they/them), Cal­gary
Shri­na Patel (she/they), Edmon­ton
Lind­say Cot­tin (she/her), Regi­na
Jas­mine Liaw (she/her), Toron­to
Christi­na de la Cruz (she/her), Toron­to
Nova Bhat­tacharya (she/her), Toron­to
Nid­hi Baad­kar (she/her), Toron­to
Jena Alma (she/they), Mis­sis­sauga
Ang­ie Cheng (she/her), Mon­tréal
Saman­tha Hinds (she/her), Mon­tréal
Vic­tor Vân Tran (he/him/they), Mon­tréal
Raven Davis (they/them), Hal­i­fax
Reequal Smith (she/her), Char­lot­te­town

pho­to: Mario Asi­do

Tes­ti­mo­ni­als:

Reequal Smith, dancer, chore­o­g­ra­ph­er, Artis­tic Direc­tor of Oshun Dance Stu­dios

Vic­tor Tran, Fes­ti­val Co-Direc­tor, Van­cou­ver Inter­na­tion­al Dance Fes­ti­val

Nid­hi Baad­kar, Emerg­ing Dance Artist, Arts Man­ag­er and Chore­o­g­ra­ph­er

The Open Call: 

* THE CALL IS CLOSED*

Please find the appli­ca­tion form and details about remu­ner­a­tion here.

Accept­ing appli­ca­tions between Decem­ber 16th 2024 and Jan­u­ary 24th 2025
Appli­cant must be ful­ly avail­able May 12th — May 17th 2025

Appli­ca­tions can also be sent to shelby@cda-acd.ca as video or audio files, dura­tion no longer than 15 min.

The Assessment Committee:

Dedra McDer­mott, David Nor­swor­thy, Kar­la Eti­enne, Olivia C. Davies, and Pam Tzeng 

Based in Tkarón:to/Toronto, Dedra McDer­mott (she/her) is a new-gen­er­a­tion artist-researcher, emerg­ing cura­tor, and move­ment dra­maturg inter­est­ed in per­for­mance and chore­o­graph­ic method­ol­o­gy, visu­al and media arts, and diver­gent approach­es to engag­ing with archival prac­tices. Her artis­tic research explores iden­ti­ty, mem­o­ry, and grief—utilizing autoethno­graph­ic method­ol­o­gy to weave move­ment and lit­er­ary chore­o­gra­phies to cre­ate live, filmed, and instal­la­tion works. As a move­ment artist whose cul­tur­al posi­tion­ing places her at the inter­sec­tion of Black (Jamaican, First-Gen­er­a­tion Cana­di­an) and woman-iden­ti­fy­ing, all of her knowl­edge coa­lesces into her danc­ing body—a ves­sel that holds an accu­mu­la­tion of embod­ied prac­tices and unwa­ver­ing resilience. She holds a BFA in Chore­og­ra­phy and Per­for­mance (York Uni­ver­si­ty) and an MA in Dra­ma, The­atre and Per­for­mance Stud­ies (Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to). Through cura­to­r­i­al prac­tice, Dedra aims to sup­por­t­ive­ly chal­lenge artis­tic communities—shaping and serv­ing cre­ative envi­ron­ments to encour­age fel­low­ship. McDer­mott is cur­rent­ly an MFA can­di­date in Crit­i­cism and Cura­to­r­i­al Prac­tice at OCAD Uni­ver­si­ty.

David Nor­swor­thy (he/him) is a Tkarón:to/Toronto-based dance artist, chore­o­g­ra­ph­er and pro­duc­er of mixed Japan­ese immigrant/British set­tler descent who is “an excep­tion­al­ly lucid per­former, impres­sive and artic­u­late” (Globe and Mail). A grad­u­ate of The Juil­liard School where he trained in Euro-Amer­i­can con­tem­po­rary dance, David delights in ask­ing ques­tions, and believes deeply in the trans­for­ma­tive pow­er of danc­ing. David has per­formed with dance com­pa­nies and col­lab­o­rat­ed with dance cre­ators in Cana­da, USA, Swe­den and Aus­tralia, and his chore­o­graph­ic career has includ­ed inde­pen­dent­ly pro­duced full-length works, inter­na­tion­al tours, and com­mis­sioned projects for com­pa­nies, uni­ver­si­ties and schools. His chore­o­graph­ic work has focused on com­mu­ni­ty-build­ing through co-cre­ation; cul­ti­vat­ing par­tic­i­pa­to­ry envi­ron­ments that work with the mate­ri­al­i­ty of emo­tion and dia­logue through impro­vi­sa­tion­al scores. David is the grate­ful recip­i­ent of the Liv­ing Arts Centre’s Ron Lenyk Award and was one of three final­ists for the Toron­to Arts Foundation’s Emerg­ing Artist Award. David is a Co-Founder/­Co-Direc­tor of TOES FOR DANCE, a Board Mem­ber of CanAsian Dance, and a part-time Rehearsal Direc­tor for Nor­rdans, a con­tem­po­rary dance com­pa­ny in Swe­den.

Kar­la Eti­enne is the Exec­u­tive Director of the Cana­di­an Dance Assem­bly and Co-Artis­tic Direc­tor of Furies Dance Fes­ti­val in Gaspésie. A grad­u­ate in cul­tur­al man­age­ment (HEC Mon­tre­al) and envi­ron­men­tal sci­ences (UQAM), Kar­la Eti­enne, a marathon run­ner in every sense of the word, has trav­elled the plu­ral­i­ty of roads and path­ways which lead to a deep­er and more accu­rate appre­ci­a­tion of what today con­sti­tutes the strengths and the poten­tial of our artis­tic and cul­tur­al com­mu­ni­ty in Cana­da. She is a dance artist who has worked with Zab Maboungou/Compagnie Danse Nya­ta Nya­ta for more than 20 years. She has col­lab­o­rat­ed as a dancer in projects by George Sta­mos, Kim­ber­ley de Jong, Katya Mon­taignac, Sophie Cor­riveau and Priscil­la Guy. Her com­mit­ment is rec­og­nized today, notably for the renew­al of cul­tur­al poli­cies con­cern­ing equi­ty in the field of art, on all lev­els of prac­tice, man­age­ment and dis­sem­i­na­tion with the insti­tu­tions and orga­ni­za­tions that are respon­si­ble, includ­ing the Con­seil des arts de Mon­tréal. In 2021, she received the Nya­ta Nya­ta Stel­lar Award for ser­vice to the greater dance com­mu­ni­ty.

Olivia C. Davies cre­ates and col­lab­o­rates across mul­ti­ple plat­forms includ­ing chore­og­ra­phy, dance, direct­ing, writ­ing, and sound design. Davies’ body of work explores the emo­tion­al and polit­i­cal rela­tion­ships between peo­ple and places, often inves­ti­gat­ing the body’s dynam­ic abil­i­ty to trans­mit nar­ra­tive, seek­ing to tra­verse bound­aries and chal­lenge social prej­u­dice by con­vey­ing con­cepts and impres­sions that open dif­fer­ent ways to expe­ri­ence the world. Her work has been pre­sent­ed in BC, Alber­ta, Ontario and Que­bec since 2011. She is the Man­ag­ing Artis­tic Direc­tor of O.Dela Arts, and cre­ator and cura­tor of  the Matri­archs Upris­ing Fes­ti­val series that cel­e­brates the work of Indige­nous women danc­ing sto­ries of trans­for­ma­tion. Recent projects include Maa­mawi: Togeth­er through the Fire ~ in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Pep­pers Ghost New Media Col­lec­tive that is a vir­tu­al real­i­ty immer­sive expe­ri­ence and live per­for­manceretelling the Anishi­naabe 7 Fires Prophe­cy through the lens of Indige­nous Futur­ism; where you go ~ in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the choral ensem­ble Music Inti­ma; and Straight, No Chas­er ~ a bio­myth mon­odra­ma that explores Olivia’s blood mem­o­ry and the lessons passed down to her from her moth­er.  She hon­ours her mixed Anishi­naabe, French-Cana­di­an, Finnish and Welsh her­itage. www.oliviacdavies.ca

Pam Tzeng  曾小桐  (she/they) is a sec­ond-gen­er­a­tion Tai­wanese-Cana­di­an chore­o­g­ra­ph­er and change work mul­ti-hyphen­ate based in Mohkin­st­sis / Cal­gary, Treaty 7 Ter­ri­to­ry. Pam is a com­mit­ment to offer­ing the breadth of their cre­ativ­i­ty and intel­li­gences to the work of equi­ty and anti-oppres­sion in the arts and cul­tur­al sec­tor. They are ded­i­cat­ed to trans­form­ing con­flict into con­nec­tion through the many dimen­sions of their prac­tice includ­ing their work as an artist, facil­i­ta­tor, con­flict res­o­lu­tion prac­ti­tion­er, somat­ic coach and con­sul­tant. Cur­rent­ly, Pam is an advi­sor with the Cana­di­an Dance Assem­bly, an embod­ied lead­er­ship con­sul­tant with Gen­er­a­tor Toron­to, a mem­ber of the Cul­tur­al Insti­ga­tors — a col­lec­tive of artist activists vision­ing an anti-racist future for Cal­gary and part of Cal­gary Arts Development’s EDIA work­ing group.

The Full Team: 

Ann-Marie Williams — Can­Dance Net­work: Project Col­lab­o­ra­tor
Brandy Leary — Anan­dam Dance: Project Col­lab­o­ra­tor
David Nor­swor­thy — Dance­Works: Project Partner/Facilitator
Dedra McDer­mott — Dance­Works: Project Partner/Facilitator
Kar­la Eti­enne — CDA: Project Ideator/Facilitator
Olivia C. Davies — O.Dela Arts : Project Advi­sor
Pam Tzeng — CDA: Project Advi­sor 
Shel­by Wright — CDA: Project Coor­di­na­tor
Timea Whar­ton-Suri — dance Immer­sion: Project Advi­sor

This project is made pos­si­ble by the Cana­da Coun­cil for the Arts with a Sec­tor Inno­va­tion Grant.

Fund­ing from Met­calf Foun­da­tion

And Spon­sor­ship from the Alber­ta Dance Alliance and Dancer Tran­si­tion Resource Cen­tre (DTRC)