Dance, dance to freedom. In solidarity with Iran’s enduring spirit — 47 years of ongoing resistance and the relentless pursuit of basic human rights under a suppressed regime. Here’s to that day.
Saturday May 9, 16, 23, 30
1pm-4pm
with space before and after for conversation and tea
At the Citadel Ross Centre for Dance – 304 Parliament St
Dance & Freedom is an intensive four-session workshop that blends sorcerer-inspired movement with contemporary dance practices to explore embodying resistance. Open to both trained dancers and non-dancers, the workshop examines how dance and the human body have been suppressed across cultures and how they continue to re-emerge as powerful tools for freedom.
What to expect: Each session includes learning movement vocabularies, lectures, verbal exercises, writing, structured and play-based improvisation, and discussion, concluding with prompts for the next session. Participants dance, record, watch, and reflect together while having dedicated time to build networks, enjoy themselves, and connect socially.
Time in process: The workshop consists of three 3-hour sessions and one seven-hour shooting day with professional cameras, lighting, and live music, giving participants the opportunity to experience the differences between dancing for the camera and for a live audience. A short dance video serves as the artistic outcome.
Dance & Resistance offers a unique opportunity to explore contemporary dance, creative embodiment, and somatic awareness. Participants leave with a deeper understanding of movement as storytelling, resilience, and artistic expression, while contributing to a collaborative, visually compelling project that celebrates the body’s capacity to resist, reclaim, and transform.
Creator and facilitator: Alireza Keymanesh
Director of Photography: Misha Petrenko
Musician: Ilyse Krivel
Photo: 33School – 2019; An underground somatic and dance school in Iran
Photo credit: Jeremy Suyker
Artists
acCessibilIty
Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
This venue is wheelchair accessible.
Will the event be ASL Interpreted?
Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.
Will the event be described for Blind and low vision audiences?
Please contact us to request an audio describer.
In partnership with
Art must not look away from suffering — it must bear witness.
Sunday March 29
2pm-4pm + volunteering after
St Luke’s United Church
Join former Danny Grossman company members to learn repertoire from Triptych (1977).
Following the workshop, participants are invited to volunteer at the Out Of The Cold community meal offered on site.
We hope that through Dance&Housing, we can pay closer attention to the various layers of ‘Art & Life’ alongside ‘Representation & Reality’. How can art play a role in how we see, understand, and empathize with others?
Participants will be led in a focused repertoire exploration of Triptych (1977), choreographed by Danny Grossman. Created during a period of heightened social awareness, the work confronts themes of homelessness, marginalization, and the stripping away of illusion to reveal essential humanity.
Triptych unfolds through three distinct yet interwoven characters whose emotional landscapes include anger, fear, vulnerability, and an urgent desire to transcend tragic circumstances.
Former company members Meredith Thompson and Eddie Kastrau will teach selected segments from all three roles, offering participants insight into the physical vocabulary, character embodiment, and relational dynamics that define the work.
Over the two-hour workshop, participants will learn and assemble a 3–4 minute excerpt, culminating in an informal sharing in groups of three. Beyond learning choreography, dancers will engage with the emotional architecture of the piece and reflect on its continued relevance.
The workshop will conclude with participants volunteering at a community meal on site, grounding the artistic experience in direct community engagement.
Artists
Eddie Kastrau
Former professional dancer turned dance archivist and arts IT consultant, preserving legacy while supporting creative organizations.
Meredith Thompson
Meredith (she/her) lives, learns, and works in Tkaronto, and has recently transitioned from professional dance artist to expressive arts therapist.
acCessibilIty
Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
This venue is wheelchair accessible.
Will the event be ASL Interpreted?
Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.
Will the event be described for Blind and low vision audiences?
Please contact us to request an audio describer.
In partnership with
“The land is to the people what blood is to the body” – Tránsito Amaguaña (1909-2009)
Soil Study (2024) is an ongoing series by artist sarah koekkoek of discursive experiments, processes, interventions and conversations between the human body and soil/soil memory.
sarah has been deeply engaged in these explorations over the past 3 years, working through an array of artistic mediums including sculpture, photography, screen printing, movement, choreography, digital GIFs and ASCII art. Much like our bodies, soil hosts ecological life, political struggles and cultural memory through slow accumulation, care and violence. This presentation of a process based performance is situated on the ancestral lands of many First Nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat. The audience is invited to witness a weaving together of personal memories etched into mine and the performers bodies together with 9,000 years of collective, historical and biological narratives of soil bodies. These memories, embedded in both human and soil archives, collide, converge, resist, mourn, celebrate and repair in unison.
Engaging with soil in this way means confronting questions of repair, responsibility, and futurity. Together we resist the damage of industrial, agricultural and colonial extraction. Manifesting alternative time scales, where like the soil, we accumulate memory through repetition, sedimentation and decay.
Curated by Holly Chang
Choreographed by sarah koekkoek
Performed by sarah koekkeok & Eve Tagny
Outside eye support by Amanda Acorn & Aisha Sasha John
Inspiration for this includes:
sarah’s practice and the performance Soil Study is inspired by nature, environmental systems, queer and feminist theorists like Donna Haraway, Sylvia Fredrici, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and Maria Puig de la Bellacasa as well as deep and non linear timescales
cUraTor & Artists
Holly Chang
Holly Chang is a Toronto based artist, curator, and researcher. Her practice is focused on topics of hybridity, craft, and ecology.
sarah koekkoek
sarah koekkoek is an ecology focused multidisciplinary artist working with movement, dance, flora and biomaterials from Tkarón:to (Toronto).
Eve Tagny
Eve Tagny is a Tiohtià:ke/Montreal-based artist.
Amanda Acorn
Amanda Acorn is a dance artist, researcher and choreographer currently based in Toronto, Canada.
Aisha Sasha John
Aisha Sasha John is a performer, choreographer and poet.
acCessibilIty
Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
Details about this venue are still being confirmed. We prioritize accessibility at all events and will share specifics once we know them.
Will the event be ASL Interpreted?
All live events will offer ASL interpretation (upon request). Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.
Will the event be described for Blind and low vision audiences?
This performance does not include audio description.
We will write between image and word, wet and dry, light and shadow, sensing how language appears through what it omits — the negative space it’s bound to speaking.
In this workshop, we explore the alchemical potential of a mixture of practices from the repertoires of Serena Lee and Fan Wu, including: qigong, taijiquan, narrative meditation, calligraphy, poetry, and somatic translation.
We begin by grounding ourselves in space and in the presence of our bodies.
We will read and counter-read Fenollosa’s “The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry” by pushing at the limits of alphabetical languages that are traditionally considered non-pictographic.
We will follow Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Du Fu, Ikkyu — and many others in the lineage of a supple phenomenology of attention — and compose using the density of the ordinary as an ever-replenishing raw material.
Mon April 13
4pm-7pm
Cinecycle
Artists
acCessibilIty
Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
CineCycle is not yet fully wheelchair accessible. The laneway entrance beside 129 Spadina has two steps and no automatic doors. The rear entrance has no steps, but the path is uneven. Inside, the space (including gender-neutral washrooms) is all on one level. We’re working with the 401 building to improve accessibility. If you have any specific access needs or would like to arrange a walkthrough, please get in touch.
Will the event be ASL Interpreted?
Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.
Will the event be described for Blind and low vision audiences?
Please contact us to request a describer.
In partnership with
“The best way to know each other is to be together. The only way for art to flourish is to do it.” – Curator Maxine Heppner
Thursday April 16
7pm & 9pm
180 Shaw Street
In gaming, CrossPlay refers to the ability for players on different systems to come together and play simultaneously, expanding possibilities and creating new shared worlds.
In that spirit…
Curator Maxine Heppner created CrossPlay as a 2 month exploratory residency for dance and live music artists to be in the game of creating shared worlds.
Maxine has facilitated, from an open call, dance-music partnerships of artists curious about the infinite possibilities within their chosen collaborations.
The artists are a cohort who are curious about how sound and movement live in their forms and influence each other, excited to connect with other artists across disciplines, across generations, across backgrounds, and open to open to experimentation, dialogue and discovery.
In a culminating event, the artists will share their discoveries.
From Curator Maxine Heppner:
”It’s a pleasure to be in the studios with these 30 gifted artists and their curiosities and approaches. The 9 groups have each found convergences, each group following its own course, some digging into expressiveness, some expanding ways of interacting, some riffing on themes, images. Working from knowledge, experience, sensation, inspiration, each partnering is original.”
7pm sharing in Intergalactic Studio:
– Alicia Grant, Aisha Sasha John, George Stamos + Ali Massoudi
– Chantelle Mostacho, Ori Chacon + Fedor Bondar
– Rachana Joshi + Luis Anselmi
– Mafa Makhubalo + Honey Paw
– Oriah Wiersma + Grace Scheele
9pm sharing in Small World Music:
– David Norsworthy-Shibatani, Rakeem Hardy, Patrick O’Reiley + Just Prince
– Rumi Jeraj, DIVKA + Ooldouz Pouri
– Pulga Muchochoma, Newton Moraes, Andrea Kuzmich + Shalva-Lucas Makharashvili
– Brianna Maltais, Tarek Ghriri + Gandhaar Amin
Sign up for one (or both!) events to experience CrossPlay!
cUratOr & Artists
Maxine Heppner
Curator Maxine Heppner is a dance & inter-medial artist & educator known for her dedication to collaboration and community building since the 1970’s.
Alicia Grant
Alicia Grant is a dance, performance, video and installation artist.
Aisha Sasha John
Aisha Sasha John is a performer, choreographer and poet.
George Stamos
George Stamos is a celebrated Montreal-based transdisciplinary dance artist and filmmaker, acclaimed for genre-crossing works.
Ali Massoudi
Ali Massoudi is an Iranian-born percussionist, composer, and educator based in Canada
Chantelle Mostacho
Chantelle Mostacho (she/her) is a Filipino-Canadian multidisciplinary dance artist bridging street dance and contemporary concert forms
Ori Chacon
Ori Chacón is a singer, songwriter and healing arts facilitator, co-creator of Sonic Breath
Fedor Bondar
Fedor Bondar is a multi-instrumentalist and live-looping artist, co-creator of Sonic Breath
Rachana Joshi
Rachana Josh i is an independent dance artist based in Tkaronto. She completed her Bharatanatyam arangetram under the tutelage of Lata Pada in 2017 and is currently a company dancer and teacher at Sampradaya Dance Centre.
Luis Anselmi
Luis Anselmi blends Venezuelan roots and world music, performing with GRATITUD to create vibrant, rhythmic, uplifting Latin-World sounds
Mafa Makhubalo
Mafa Makhubalo is a Movement Poet trained in folk forms from the Regions of African tradition, Southern African contemporary, and Western-Contemporary.
Honey Paw
Honeypaw’s vision is to explore the connection between Finnic and Baltic cultures to create rich and enchanting soundscapes.
Oriah Wiersma
Oriah Wiersma is a multidisciplinary dance artist and actor based in Tkaronto.
Grace Scheele
Grace Scheele is an unconventional electroacoustic harpist and composer noted for her innovative take on experimental and ambient forms.
David Norsworthy-Shibatani
David Norsworthy-Shibatani is a dance artist, choreographer, and artistic director. His work deals with improvisation, co-creation, dialogue, and transformation.
Rakeem Hardy
Rakeem Hardy is a dance artist, creator, and educator. They received their BFA from Purchase College, SUNY, and currently dance with Kidd Pivot.
Patrick O’Reiley
Patrick O’Reilly is a composer, artist, and community-driven fixture in the Toronto creative music scene.
Just Prince
Toronto-based singer-songwriter Just Prince blends Western and Eastern traditions through genre-defying, soulful songwriting and experimental expression.
Rumi Jeraj
Rumi Jeraj is an Ismailli muslim hailing from Sherwood Park Alberta.
DIVKA
DIVKA uses folk songs from Ukrainian and global women’s music-making traditions
Ooldouz Pouri
Ooldouz Pouri is a Toronto based Iranian singer who has implemented her voice in Azeri, Persian folklore songs.
Pulga Muchochoma
Pulga Muchochoma, Dance artist born and raised in Mozambique and founder of Pulga Dance based in Toronto.
Newton Moraes
Newton Moraes is a Brazilian/Canadian choreographer and movement director blending contemporary dance, storytelling, and cultural rhythms for stage and screen.
Andrea Kuzmich
Singer/guitarist Andrea Kuzmich’s signature style is to tickle the listeners’ senses into an irresistible, groove-driven experience.
Shalva-Lucas Makharashvili
Shalva-Lucas Makharashvili is a Toronto-based vocalist specializing in Georgian polyphony, performer, workshop leader, and cultural ambassador blending tradition with jazz.
Brianna Maltais
Brianna is a tap dance-based artist whose work explores textural soundscapes, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and fosters opportunities for youth in her hometown of Barrie.
Tarek Ghriri
An awards nominee for Canadian and Ontario Folk Music Awards.
Flamenco and fretless guitarist with over 22 years of experience in the music industry
Gandhaar Amin
Gandhaar Amin is a music composer and producer, known for his innovative reimagining of the Indian fusion music genre.
acCessibilIty
Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
Youngplace is a fully accessible building and both studios are wheelchair accessible.
Will the event be ASL Interpreted?
Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.
Will the event be described for Blind and low vision audiences?
Please contact us about audio description.
In partnership with
How do we care for the bodies that move and move towards care for each other?
As part of our Dance& series, we invite multi-disciplinary artist & certified Acu-Detox Practitioner Nyda Kwasowsky to guide participants through movement and medicine as forms of self and community care.
Nyda will offer a movement score to explore ones own body as well as the other bodies in the space. After a break for some tea and light snacks, Nyda will share more about her practice.
The Acu-Detox originates from the Black Panthers, Young Lords and Barefoot Doctors (China) in the 70’s to attend to community care needs during the drug epidemic in NYC.
The practice is rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine and is held in a circle framework. Acu-Detox can support and alleviate stress, anxiety, grief, depression (self injury), anger, fear, sleep, trauma, addictions (mood, emotional distress, cravings, withdrawal), pain and so much more.
Come think through the way dance relates to care, both of the self and the community with Nyda and Dancemakers. Register at the link below!
Artists
acCessibilIty
Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
Yes! We prioritize accessibility at all events.
Will the event be ASL Interpreted?
Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.
Will the event be described for Blind and low vision audiences?
This workshop can include audio description. Please contact us to request a describer.
Hosted by
Interested in learning more about Dance Curation?
Hosted by CoFigure at the Dance Centre
677 Davie Street, 7th Floor
No RSVP needed, just show up!
Dancemakers Co-Artistic Producer Christina will be in Vancouver for their Industry week. Alongside past Dancemakers Guest Curator Lamont, they will host an informal coffee hour to meet Vancouver artists and audiences, answer any questions about dance curation and learn more about local Vancouver artistic practice. Snacks and hot beverages will be available.
Come hang out with us and chat about dance curation!
We are grateful to CoFigure Arts Residency for hosting us in their space at the Dance Centre
Artists
Lamont
Lamont is an emerging contemporary mover and creator.
Christina de la Cruz
Christina de la Cruz is a Hip Hop dancer, artistic producer, curator of dance and performance and waitress.
Ralph Escamillan
Ralph Escamillan is a queer, Canadian-Filipinx performance artist, teacher and community leader based on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh Nations – on so called Vancouver, BC.
acCessibilIty
Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
Yes! We prioritize accessibility at all events.
Will the event be ASL Interpreted?
Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.
Will the event be described for Blind and low vision audiences?
This performance does not include audio description.
In partnership with
The best way to know each other is to spend time together.
The only way for art to flourish is to do it.
This is an invitation
In gaming, CrossPlay refers to the ability for players on different systems to come together and play simultaneously, expanding possibilities and creating new shared worlds.
In that spirit…
Our CrossPlay is for dance and music artists to be in the game of creating shared worlds. They are a cohort who are curious about how sound and movement live in their forms and influence each other, excited to connect with other artists across disciplines, across generations, across backgrounds, and open to improvisation, dialogue and experimentation.
This 2-month residency in 2026 will open doors to find new partners, provide studio-space to work together, and facilitate sharing of discoveries.
This is a paid opportunity. More details are included in the application form.
Expressions of Interest will be open until Friday December 19 2025.
Artists
acCessibilIty
Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
Both studios are fully wheelchair accssible.
Will the event be ASL Interpreted?
All live events will offer ASL interpretation (upon request). Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.
Will the event be described for Blind and low vision audiences?
This performance does not include audio description.
In partnership with
A year-long working group exploring Dance Curation as a practice and role.
This group of independent dance curators will attend all of Dancemakers’ programming as well as other relevant programs across the GTA to experience, reflect, discuss and engage with dance curators working in the field.
Throughout the year, they will work with invited guests to discuss various emergent practices found within dance curation.
These dance curators were selected by our Call for Curators selection committee.
Artists
Kaili Che
Kaili Che 謝祖弘 is a Vancouver-based interdisciplinary artist, choreographer, and movement educator.
Shalon T. Webber-Heffernan
Dr. Shalon T. Webber-Heffernan is an independent curator and writer.
Aisha Sasha John
Aisha Sasha John is a performer, choreographer and poet.
Megha Subramanian
A multi-disciplinary artist, Megha Subramanian practices several forms of storty-telling, constantly engaging with diverse thoughts that question her conditioning.
Wai Liu
Wai Liu is a Hong Kong-born movement artist based in Toronto.
Ralph Escamillan
Ralph Escamillan is a queer, Canadian-Filipinx performance artist, teacher and community leader based on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh Nations – on so called Vancouver, BC.
Tia Kushniruk
Tia Ashley Kushniruk (亚 女弟) is a Chinese-Ukrainian Queer dance/theatre artist based in ᐊᒥᐢᑿᒌᐚᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ (Amiskwacîwâskahikan) Treaty 6/Métis Territory of Edmonton AB.
Rachana Joshi
Rachana Josh i is an independent dance artist based in Tkaronto. She completed her Bharatanatyam arangetram under the tutelage of Lata Pada in 2017 and is currently a company dancer and teacher at Sampradaya Dance Centre.
Dhvani Ramanujam
Dhvani Ramanujam is a writer and emerging curator currently pursuing a PhD in Cinema and Media Studies at York University
Brianna Maltais
Brianna is a tap dance-based artist whose work explores textural soundscapes, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and fosters opportunities for youth in her hometown of Barrie.
Roxy Menzies
Roxy Menzies seamlessly weaves the disciplines of dance, writing, and healing arts.
Ranganathan Rajan
Ranganathan Rajan (He/Him) is originally from India and is currently based in Tkaronto.
acCessibilIty
Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
Yes, the venue is wheelchair accessible including ramps into the building, elevators and wheelchair accessible washrooms.
Will the event be ASL Interpreted?
All live events will offer ASL interpretation (upon request). Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.
Will the event be described for Blind and low vision audiences?
This performance does not include audio description.
In partnership with
What if improvisational musicians and freestyle streetdancers had a conversation in their own languages – and we were invited to watch?
Dancemakers Guest Curator Abel Hagos selects Toronto’s finest musicians, pairing them established Canadian dancers to explore the themes of play that thread through both improvisational music and dance.
Expect a night of stylish vignettes, inventive pairings and live battle culture. Witness technical explorations with lighting design from Emerson Kafarowski and James Feenstra, and projections from Brigita Gedgaudas and Nathan Bruce.
Notes about the location:
The Bentway’s Strachan Gate is located outside and is open to the elements. We ask folks to check the weather forecast and dress accordingly.
The majority of seating at Strachan Gate is on a grass hill. We encourage bringing blankets or small camping chairs for your comfort!
Artists
Abel Hagos
As a Street Dance artist and community advocate, my work is rooted in the belief that dance is a powerful tool for expression, storytelling, and cultural preservation.
Roshane Wright
Roshane Wright is a dynamic percussionist, drummer, composer, and educator hailing from Portmore, Jamaica.
Kosi Eze
Kosi seeks to promote a healthy knowledge of self and emotional intelligence – as it impacts the ways we engage within street dance culture as messengers, leaders and mentors for the generation to come – through her art.
Daniel Chang
Daniel is an eclectic and committed performer whose work spans dance, clown, and character-driven storytelling.
Anh Phung
Anh Phung takes the flute to space as she continually dives deep into the capabilities of the instrument.
Marc Manhertz
Marc Manhertz is a 35-year-old musician from the Greater Toronto Area.
Joanna Majoko
Joanna Majoko is a Toronto-based vocalist, composer, and lyricist known for her distinctive sound and dynamic presence.
Ash Chawla
Ash Chawla is a dancer
Caleb Klager
Caleb Klager has solidified his place in Toronto’s rich electronic music scene performing machine – driven techno, electro, and experimental live sets.
Kwasi Obeng Adjei
Kwasi Obeng Adjei is a Canadian multidisciplinary artist, emerging choreographer, and dance educator based in Brampton, Ontario.
acCessibilIty
Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
Yes, the venue is wheelchair accessible including ramps into the building, elevators and wheelchair accessible washrooms.
Will the event be ASL Interpreted?
All live events will offer ASL interpretation (upon request). Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.
Will the event be described for Blind and low vision audiences?
This performance does not include universal audio description. If you are interested in a whisper-guide experience, please email artistic@dancemakers.org.
