History, reflected through motion
Harbourfront dance event has creators exploring their common African heritage
In one of its most ambitious showcases to date, Toronto’s Dance Immersion is bringing together six local companies for Movement in Time, a Canada 150 celebration that aims to highlight the depth and range of work being produced by Canadian artists of African heritage.
The title of the program, which will have two showings this Saturday only, comprises several ideas. At the most basic level, it could stand as a definition of dance itself. It also references the historical and mostly involuntary movement of peoples of African heritage to the Americas, their gradual settlement across the continent and the evolution of distinct African-American cultures.
For Vivine Scarlett, Dance Immersions’ founder and executive director, the title serves to spotlight the fact that Canadian dance artists of the African diaspora are part of a dynamic continuum. Thus, Movement in Timefeatures younger and emerging artists alongside such well-established organizations as Ballet Creole and COBA (Collective of Black Artists). The program also celebrates the diversity of styles and motivations that inspire the event’s participants, from funky jazz dance and street dance to contemporary fusions of Afro-Caribbean and modern dance, to work steeped in African tradition.
Says Scarlett: “Movement in Time speaks to who we are and what has made us as artists in Canada.”
“It reflects the continuity of the dance community,” says Jamaicanborn dancer/choreographer Kevin Ormsby, whose eight-year-old company, KasheDance, will perform excerpts from a longer work called Baraka.
“All the artists in this program work from different angles and in different genres,” Ormsby says. “But we’ve all contributed to what dance is in Toronto.”
Ormsby hopes Movement in Time, with its variety of dance expressions, will help dispel lingering stereotypes about Black dance. “People make all these assumptions but it’s much more complex. I see myself as an artist who happens to be Black,” explains Ormsby, whose choreography reflects his training in ballet and modern dance in what he calls “a new genealogy of Afro-contemporary dance.”
In her evening-length work Ashes, choreographer Shameka Blake, founder/director of AIM (Artists in Motion) traces a journey from the shores of Africa to the Americas. For Blake, who came to Toronto from Jamaica at age 10, it’s a tribute to her ancestors and their struggle for freedom and dignity, but the choreographic style in which she expresses herself has only tangential references to traditional African dance.
Blake, who graduated from George Brown College’s Commercial Dance program, has developed a distinctive blend that draws on everything from hip-hop to dancehall.
“We need to explore our roots and ancestry,” says Blake, who is presenting three sections of Ashes on Saturday. The closing section, appropriately, tells of the Underground Railroad that in the mid-19th century helped thousands of enslaved Black people escape from the South to find refuge in Canada.
Lua Shayenne, a dancer, actor and choreographer who founded her own Toronto-based company six years ago, has spent extensive periods in Africa, training in and researching both traditional and contemporary forms. It has deepened her sense of the importance of legacy and the need to remember and honour one’s ancestors.
For Movement in Time, Shayenne is presenting two new pieces, choreographed in traditional style. The first, a welcoming dance, is about acknowledging and connecting with the ancestors. The second is an initiation dance. “Initiation means growth and transformation,” Shayenne says. “It’s about gratitude towards our legacy, but also about moving that legacy forward.”
Shayenne says she’s excited to be sharing the same program with such a range of artists who, despite their different artistic directions, share a common bond.
“I think all of us have been showcased by Dance Immersion at some point. Most of us have worked together one way or another, so this is going to be very much a family affair.” Movement in Time is at Harbourfront Centre Theatre, 235 Queens Quay W.; Oct. 14; harbourfrontcentre.com or 416-973-4000.