EDUCATION PROGRAMS
Join us! DanceWorks Education Programs include film screenings, virtual and in-person Workshops, Study Guides, and artists interviews.
Film Screening Fee: $50.00 for unlimited access to a film for five days, including a Study Guide and Artist Interview package.
Virtual and In-Person Workshop Fee: $150.00 for a 60-75 minute Workshop, including a Q & A with the artist.
Below is our roster of available artists and films, from January 2023 - June 2023. Email education@danceworks.ca for more information and to book a program.
Crossing Waters
Crossing Waters is a cultural re-imagination showcasing first-generation Filipino-Canadian dancers performing contemporized Philippine dance. The film depicts Pangalay, the fingernail dance performed by communities in the Sulu Archipelago in the southern Philippines. The movements are slow and meditative, imitating the Sulu Sea combined with modern hip hop music and street dance styles.
Candace Kumar is a Filipino/Indo-Fijian dance artist based in Toronto/Mississauga. Her work aims to contemporize cultural dance forms to reimagine traditional culture from the diasporas. She believes traditional dance is not an art form of the past, but can guide us through the future as we navigate life on land that is not our ancestral home.
Study Guide, Artist Interview, Workshop available. Email education@danceworks.ca to book.
Intrinsecus Latet
Two women find themselves in a veiled world. An abstract work that focuses on women’s emergence in new media and self expression in the digital world.
Kylie Thompson (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary performer, creator and educator residing in Toronto, Ontario. Her credits include the Barenaked Ladies, the Garage, Gadfly Dance Company, TIFF, Hit and Run Productions, Dance: Made in Canada Festival, Toronto Fringe and more. She considers herself an ally to the BIPOC and LGBTQ2S+ communities and is committed to ongoing education, conversation and action towards equality and de-colonization of Western Dance practices.
Study Guide, Artist Interview, Workshop available. Email education@danceworks.ca to book.
WITHOUT YOU
WITHOUT YOU attempts to define the confusing line between what is real and what is memory.
Mackenzie Carlson is a dance artist and choreographer in Vancouver BC. Before finding her home in Vancouver, Mackenzie worked in the Middle East, China, Singapore, and Canada. She has worked with prominent companies and artists such as Cirque du Soleil, Mandy Moore, Creativiva, Jeff Dimitriou, Transcendance, Hanna Kiel, Release Dance Project, Steph Rutherford, Kylie Thompson, and Raymond Dance Company. Mackenzie’s choreography has been featured throughout stages and screens, including the short film TEETER.
Study Guide, Artist Interview, Virtual Workshop available. Email education@danceworks.ca to book.
puan
puan is a coming-of-age performance exploring self-identity and womanhood as a young Indonesian. The project illustrates the journey to self-acceptance and liberation.
Elvina Raharja (she/they) is an Indonesian interdisciplinary artist currently working within dance, film, and fashion in Tkaronto (Toronto). Their artistry strives for conscious and intentional creation, stemming from their experiences as a Southeast Asian immigrant, and mindfulness practices. Elvina champions authentic storytelling and honest expression in all of her endeavors. Their works have been presented at TMU Library’s Creators Grant, CanAsian Dance Festival, Dancing In The Park Online, and Homepage for Change by Juliet Creative.
Study Guide, Artist Interview, Workshop available. Email education@danceworks.ca to book.
Forthcoming
Forthcoming is a collaboration between Sarah and the machine learning process (VOS system), and centres on speed, dynamism, and restlessness of the modern body.
Sarah Hin Ching U 余衍晴 (she/her) is a Chinese-Canadian emerging dancer, choreographer, and creator of live and digital performances. Her work examines human relationships, identity and desire, and is grounded in experiences that have touched her deeply and personally. Collaboration is essential to her practice, and she prioritizes hosting and creating space to share knowledge and skills between artforms.
Study Guide, Artist Interview, Virtual Workshop available. Email education@danceworks.ca to book.
Footprints / Lábnyomok
This short site-specific dance film was produced in Budapest on the site of the ’Shoes Sculpture on the Danube’, where in 1944-45 the Hungarian Arrow Militia gathered Jews of Budapest and shot them into the river. The film, using mostly Hungarian dancers who spoke no English, honours the memory of the nearly half million Hungarian Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
Created by Laurence Siegel
Study Guide, Artist Interview, Workshop available. Email education@danceworks.ca to book.
Transversare
Transversare explores the feeling of urgency in our daily lives, portrayed through fast movement and film techniques juxtaposed with an ever present static city. Random encounters lead to interesting interactions between strangers.
Miha Matevzic (Director / Choreographer) has over 15 years of professional dance experience in jazz, hip hop, house and locking. Miha moved to Toronto in 2014 from Slovenia, and has danced for the Much Music Video Awards and Junos, performed at Breakin’ Convention, and is also a part of Holla Jazz Dance Company.
Study Guide, Artist Interview, Workshop available. Email education@danceworks.ca to book.
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2020
SNEAK PEEKS
FEBRUARY 26, 2021 FILM PREMIERE
Human Body Expression's film Again
Again focuses on nine dancers with disparate lives and painful pasts as they embark on a journey towards forgiveness and the unconditional love of a child.
The film is choreographed by Hanna Kiel and features an intergenerational cast of dancers: Susie Burpee, Kendra Epik, Bonnie Kim, Ryan Lee, Pulga Muchochoma, Kelly Shaw, Darryl C. Tracy, Oriah Wiersma, and 11-year-old dancer Eva Teece-soter.
JANUARY 27, 2021
An Interview with Choreographer Wen Wei Wang
DanceWorks Curator, Mimi Beck, interviews founder of Wen Wei Dance, Wen Wei Wang.
Wen Wei Wang began dancing professionally in China with the Langzhou Song and Dance Company. In 1991, he came to Canada and joined the Judith Marcuse Dance Company, followed by seven years with Ballet BC. In 2000, he received the Clifford E. Lee Choreographic Award and since then has choreographed for Alberta Ballet, Ballet BC, and Ballet Jazz de Montreal. In 2003, he founded Wen Wei Dance.
LIVE PROGRAMMING ON HOLD
Due to Covid-19 our Mainstage and CoWorks Series are on hiatus. We will be back with live events when we can gather safely.
COC’s Free Noon Hour Concerts
Post-show Talk Backs
Carol’s Dance Notes
Pre-show Chats
LIVE ON INSTAGRAM
THANK YOU TO OUR FUNDERS, SPONSORS & DONORS
Donors are the heart of our season.
We acknowledge the Toronto/Tkaronto as One Dish One Spoon Indigenous territory. We honour the ancestral caretakers of this land: the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Wendat and most recently the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation who have a Treaty relationship with Canada. We are grateful to have the opportunity to work in their community, on this territory. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and future.
Photos:
Transversare by Ricky Fu
River by Colleen Snell