Dance&: A series of workshops based around dancemakers values

Dance& Workshops

June 21, 28 & July 5

Multiple Facilitators including dancers, cultural experts, educational researchers, and healing artists

In 2023, the Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence concluded a research period on how to bring Dancemakers of the past, into right relationship with it's community of the present and imagine it into the future of art in Canada. This report yielded important community feedback that has now become a pillar of Dancemakers: 

Beyond equity, diversity and inclusion, we value a Dancemakers that is decolonizing,
abolitionist, embodied, artistic, joyful, supportive, decentralizing and socially, ecologically and historically conscious.

To continue our committments to these values, we are introducing Dance&: a workshop series that invites different artists and thinkers to investigate these values and bring them into practice with our community.

WORKSHOP 1: DANCE&ABOLITION

Join Kosi and Furqan for their Dance& Abolition workshop “No Half Steppin, No Half Measures”: a freestyle dance and journalling workshop exploring the themes of Abolition & World Building in 2 parts

June 21
12:30-3:45
Venue: Society Clubhouse
967 College St, Toronto, ON M6H 1A6
Pay-what-you-can

What does a world without prisons, police, or carceral punishment look like—and how do we build it? This interactive workshop invites participants into an exploration of abolition, its roots and branches, first as a political framework, and then as creative and imaginative practice. Grounded in the belief that building a world rooted in care, accountability, community, and refusal to acquiesce to imperial, capitalist, and oppressive system of the (in)justice system(s) requires radical imagination— we turn and connect to Hip Hop through dance, which in its rhythms and improvisation, mirrors our movements towards abolition as a powerful tool for visioning and building new futures.

PART ONE, Facilitated by Furqan Mohamed:
Participants will engage in a mix of guided and group and reflective journaling. This part of the workshop will create space to unpack and outline core abolitionist ideas—drawing from the work of historic organizers, neighbours, thinkers, and artists—and explore how these concepts show up in our everyday lives. Through writing prompts and dialogue, we’ll reflect on questions like: What does safety mean to you? To your kin? What does “justice” really mean? How can we perform acts of abolition in our everyday? What would we need to give up, and make room for? What do we need to be healing from, and what are we moving toward, together?

PART TWO, Facilitated by Kosi C Ese:
Kosi's workshop titled ‘No Half-Steppin’ is a nod to the infamous Big Daddy Kane ‘Ain’t No Half Steppin’ which makes a case for playfulness in rhyme and adaptability in and around structure within hip-hop. The title also points to staying clear of hesitation informally. A closer reading of Hip-Hop freestyle dance presents the idea that "hip is to be in the know and hop is the movement we create with said knowledge". 

Participants will engage in guided freestyle exercises to Hip-Hop music and use concepts of play and improvisation to generate conviction in the body. This portion will invite us to reflect on how we move forward and build the abolitionist futures we desire by going backwards to gain the necessary context. 

WORKSHOPS 2 & 3 TO BE ANNOUNCED!

Banner image credit: Fran Chudnoff

Banner Image description: Three Dancers face towards each other in a circle in an outdoors shopping promenade. THey all have their right leg bent and are tapping the outside of their heel. They wear variations of street clothes with bucket hats, shirts tied around their waists and bandanas respectively. There are lawn chairs and bystanders in the background.