Meet the Dance Stewards Shaping d:mic/fac 2023

As the countdown to the d:mic/fac festival narrows to a single week, our spotlight turns to the diverse group of Dance Stewards as part of this year's event. These emerging dance artists, hailing from various backgrounds and training, come together to create a piece for the WYSIWYG series and have also been provided professional development workshops and events, such as a brilliant workshop led by the esteemed Peggy Baker.

Allow me to introduce you to some of the Dance Stewards a part of this year's festival:

• Alli Carry is a Toronto-based multidisciplinary dance artist who recently completed a residency at The Garage and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from TMU (2022).
• Sophia Hassenstein, an alumna of Alberta Ballet School, School of Toronto Dance Theatre, and York University, has performed in festivals like Luminato, Fringe, and SummerWorks.
• Micaela Janse van Rensburg is in her final year at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and was awarded the First Year Excellence in Performance Prize. She has worked with Movement Market Collective and performed in Toronto Summer Works.
• Aryana Malekzadeh is an Iranian Canadian dance artist and arts educator. She graduated from The School of Toronto Dance Theatre and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from York University.
• Frédérique Perron is a dance artist from Abitibi-Ouest QC, based in Tkaronto. She graduated from The School of Toronto Dance Theatre and explores human sensations and instinctive movements.
• Zuri Skeete, an emerging dance artist in Toronto, is a recent graduate from York University's Choreography/Performance Specialized Honours BFA in Dance.
• Logan Whyte is an emerging queer dancer and choreographer from Brockville, Ontario, and a recent Dance Program graduate at TMU.
  

Workshop with Peggy Baker

The steward's creative journey kicked off with an inspiring workshop led by Peggy Baker. A luminary in the Canadian dance world, Peggy Baker's contributions are exceptional as a choreographer, dancer, and educator. For this year's festival, she has worked with some of the artists from the Binet series and shared her knowledge with the dance stewards in a three-hour workshop.

The workshop began with a sit-down dialogue where Peggy shared her dance journey. She talked about some history of Toronto's vibrant dance scene and reminisced about everything from the beginnings of Toronto Dance Theatre, the inception of York University's dance program to working with luminary figures such as Lar Lubovitch. Peggy has a beautiful openness and genuine willingness to share about her practice, meet artists where they are, and generously impart her experience.

Peggy shared that Toronto's early dance scene was marked by a fervent love for dance. Despite the financial constraints that are always present in dance, a thirst for knowledge propelled the community forward. It was a time of reciprocal learning. Study grants paved the way for dancers to explore, learn, and bring their newfound knowledge back to the city.

Peggy explained that in her time training in Toronto, there were no formal dance programs —a stark contrast to the roomful of emerging dancers, recent graduates or nearing the completion of their training in different dance programs, in turn representing a vibrant spectrum of Canadian dance education today.

Then they began to move!

Under Peggy's guidance, the stewards immersed themselves in movement exercises, embracing a language steeped in physicality. Her approach was to meet the participants at their individual points of growth and movement journeys. Drawing on a creative process influenced by a list of words outlined by Richard Serra, an American artist known for his large-scale sculptures, the group created material. They were asked to trust their intuition. Peggy advised them to be reflective of their processes and intentions in their creations. She reminded them not to be critical of themselves, but to analyse how and why they were working in the way they were, as a means of understanding their own artistic choices.

Reflecting on Peggy's words, one sentiment that reverberates with me is the empowerment to craft one's dance empire, a sentiment echoed by Peggy's career and the essence of the d:mic/fac festival itself. d:mic/fac was created from the ground up based on the passion and necessity seen by its artistic director Yvonne Ng and festival co-directors, Jeff Morris and Janelle Rainville.

Rehearsals for their Performance in the WYSIWYG Series

The next event provided to the Stewards was a networking lunch that I was unable to attend. Yet, I was able to participate in their most recent rehearsal, as they now channel their energies into their final performance for the WYSIWYG program.

Over 20 hours of rehearsal time, the group will make a five-minute work as part of the series. Their rehearsals occur all over the city, booked everywhere from Toronto Dance Theatre, the Citadel, Meridian Hall and the Windborne Studio.

You can feel the camaraderie in their rehearsals, as they talk not only about the project they are working on, but share about the different performances and intensives they are also a part of this summer, as well as their personal life stories.

In the last rehearsal, there was lots of setting of material that they have been working on in past creative building rehearsals. You can catch glimpses of their rehearsals on the d:mic social media. You might notice a fun little prop being played with - foam balls, used to play, inform and obstruct their movement. I cannot wait to see where the piece leads!

Next week, I will catch up with dance stewards Frédérique Perron and Micaela Janse van Rensburg as they share their journeys through the program.

See you at the festival next week!

For more information:

Check out: www.dancemadeincanada.ca/festival/2023-dmic

The festival will take place from August 16th to 20th, 2023, at the Betty Oliphant Theatre (404 Jarvis St, Toronto, ON M4Y 2G6). Tickets are available online here.

@dancemadeincanada @dmicfac

Written by Deanne Kearney. DeanneKearney.com