Jena Alma

Jena (she/they) is a mul­ti-pas­sion­ate Indo-Lokono-Afro-Guyanese artist who grew up on Tur­tle Island. She has been an active mem­ber of Tkaronto’s Sal­sa com­mu­ni­ty for the past 20 years, con­tribut­ing in many roles, includ­ing stu­dent, vol­un­teer, instruc­tor, coach, team direc­tor, per­former, and com­peti­tor. Jena is a trau­ma- and social jus­tice-informed peer sup­port work­er and facil­i­ta­tor who believes deeply in the pow­er of com­mu­ni­ty and the impor­tance of com­mu­ni­ty care. She is com­mit­ted to cre­at­ing safer, more inclu­sive, and equi­table spaces where his­tor­i­cal­ly exclud­ed groups and indi­vid­u­als are seen, cel­e­brat­ed, and empow­ered.
With a back­ground in the­atre, Jena is a sto­ry­teller known for her unique abil­i­ty to emote and express through move­ment. Her first love was Hip-Hop, and fusion inevitably plays a role in her cre­ative expres­sion. While she has spent many years train­ing in stu­dio envi­ron­ments, Jena still con­sid­ers her­self a street dancer at heart. Her exten­sive train­ing and teach­ing expe­ri­ence spans var­i­ous Afro-Latin dance styles, includ­ing Sal­sa, Bacha­ta, Merengue, ChaCha, Pachanga, and Afro-Latin Funk, as well as Caribbean and Street Dance styles. As both a leader and fol­low­er, she is cap­ti­vat­ed by the mechan­ics, intri­ca­cies, nuances, and social aspects of part­ner danc­ing.
Jena’s acco­lades include being the 2019 World Ris­ing Star Bacha­ta Clas­sic Cham­pi­on (with part­ner Jason Ng) and the 2019 Cana­di­an Team Bacha­ta Cham­pi­on (with Steps Dance Com­pa­ny). She holds mul­ti­ple titles as a Ris­ing Star and Pro Female Sal­sa Soloist and was a Top 70 final­ist on the 4th sea­son of So You Think You Can Dance Cana­da in 2011. She has trained under some of the most renowned instruc­tors in the inter­na­tion­al Sal­sa community,including Tama­ra Livol­si & Tito Ortos, Saman­tha Scali & Adri­ano Ier­poli, and Anya Kat­sev­man. Jena is hon­ored to have rep­re­sent­ed some of Toronto’s lead­ing dance com­pa­nies, such as School of May­hem, Latin Ener­gy Semi-Pro,
Dance to Live Pro, Korikoa Pro, New Skin Ladies, Steps Dance Com­pa­ny, Amo­ra Dance Com­pa­ny, Car­ni­val Spice, and Araguacu Latin Dance Com­pa­ny.
Jena believes that every­one deserves care, resources, and access and that, as Naki­ta Vale­rio elo­quent­ly states, “Shout­ing self-care at peo­ple who real­ly need com­mu­ni­ty care is how we fail peo­ple.” She is a firm believ­er in the arts as a means to unite, con­nect, heal, and serve as a cat­a­lyst for social change and com­bat­ing stig­ma. As some­one with lived expe­ri­ence of neu­ro­di­ver­gence, chron­ic pain, and dis­abil­i­ty, Jena is pas­sion­ate about explor­ing the arts as med­i­cine and mak­ing move­ment and dance acces­si­ble for all bod­ies.