Sarah Tumaliuan
Curator
Sarah Tumaliuan has shared dance with many communities, organized a public streetdance event under Parks N’ Wreck, and has been involved with many leading national arts outreach agencies such as BluePrintforLife/BluePrint Pathways (Hip Hop outreach in remote Canadian cities and young offender centres), UNITY Charity (positive mental health in youth through Hip Hop), Projet RAD (for inclusive dance programming regardless of abilities), and KeepRockinYou (Bgirl community development). She got funky, boogied down, and grooved it out in Mix Mix Dance Collective’s “Jack Your Body” at the 2014 Fringe Festival and 2015 Next Stage Theatre Festival, and again at the 2014 Guelph Dance Festival. Exploring dance through many styles she has a varied arsenal of movement language. She has most connected with urban street styles, particularly hip hop and house, and she has shared the essence of these cultures through drop-in classes at Toronto studios (The Underground, City Dance Corps, Cornerstone, Rightfoot), Gadfly community classes in Thunder Bay and Sioux Lookout, TDSB highschools with UNITY and Back2daUnderground, and dance programs (George Brown, Randolph, RSVP33). A limitless dancer who works at the nexus of public health and the arts, Sarah constantly expands her purpose as a dancer, advocating for the ways in which the arts, specifically dance, benefits individuals and contributes to healthy communities. She is currently Associate Curator, Public Programs and Learning at Museum of Toronto.
Curatorial Statement
As part of Parks N’ Wreck:
Cypher Playground celebrates club culture. We honour the city’s street dance history, the underground clubs and spaces that fueled its evolution. Through parties, conversations, and community events, we connect the past with the present, preserving and amplifying the voices and movements that have defined Toronto’s street dance scenes. Our events and weekenders celebrate the richness of local street dance culture, and connect across dance styles and musical genres to highlight spaces, people, music and moments in Toronto that have shaped these dances today.
