How do trained dancers translate their knowledge beyond performance? How does dance inform your personal and professional experiences? What are the benefits of dance and movement as co-curricular programs in learning environments?
Overview
The Well Being Collective @ Hart House presents this first event in a newly developed series led by the Institute for Dance Studies at the University of Toronto Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies in partnership with Hart House. Moving, Dancing, Knowledge series engages learning communities within and beyond the university to explore and highlight dance scholarship and practice, the role of dance and movement in physical and mental well-being, and the considerations of dance as both an artistic and activist form that embodies intersecting identities as well as broader social issues.
These collaborative initiatives involve many partners, seek to engage with existing programming and to inform and develop new learning and practices. A focus on communities that have typically been under-represented and underserved in dance, wellness, artistic and academic settings is a key consideration in all programming.
Moving, Dancing, Knowledge: Dance Beyond Performance, the first event in the 2020-21 series welcome an array of speakers, including those who have professional dance training who can speak to how this has informed other areas of their achievement, development and career experience. It also includes those who have fostered dance initiatives for students to enhance and enrich their educational and student experience. The session will explore the role of dance and embodied practice and the ways in which it informs, translates into, and enriches academic and professional settings.
Guest Speakers
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Santee Smith / Tekaronhiakwa
Multidisciplinary Artist
Santee Smith is a multidisciplinary artist from the Kahnyen’kehàka Nation, Six Nations. She trained at Canada’s National Ballet School, completed Physical Education and Psychology degrees from McMaster University and a Dance MA from York University.
Santee premiered her inaugural work Kaha:wi in 2004 and later founded Kaha:wi Dance Theatre which has grown into an internationally renowned company. Her body of work includes 14 productions and numerous short works and collaborations.
She is a sought-after teacher and speaker on Indigenous performance and culture. Through embodied storytelling and performance her work speaks to Indigenous identity and continuance. Smith is the 19th Chancellor of McMaster University.
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Kara Patterson
Dr. Kara Patterson is a physiotherapist, an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Toronto and a Senior Scientist at the KITE-Rehabilitation Research Institute. She leads the RELEARN lab which strives to advance neurorehabilitation practice in order to improve mobility outcomes and psychosocial well-being for people living with neurological conditions. Her research interests include motor learning and rehabilitation of gait and balance using novel strategies, including rhythm-, music- and dance-based interventions. Dr. Patterson’s work is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.
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Robin Waley
Robin Waley is the General Manager - Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging for the YMCA of Greater Toronto. Currently working in the charitable sector, Robin has ten years of experience supporting diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging initiatives within education at the University of Toronto and working as a consultant in anti-oppression. He uses a strategic mindset, a communities-based approach, and operational experience to drive the actions needed to create meaningful change.
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Jessica Rayne
Jessica Rayne is a program coordinator and events producer. Jessica loves building community and facilitating personal and professional growth through experiential learning opportunities. Since joining the Hart House team two years ago Jessica has been creating and delivering impactful programs and events that inspire dialogue, self-discovery, personal empowerment and social change among students and the broader community.
Jessica is the co-lead of the Hart House Hip Hop Education program and the Black Futures program which both center the knowledge and voices of Black, Indigenous and racialized communities, and establish a space that challenges colonial ways of knowing and learning. Both programs integrate arts, dance and movement as essential to supporting holistic learning and wellness. Through her work Jessica has developed a deeper appreciation for dance and movement and has recently begun her own personal journey through Dance— Afro-Contemporary, Contemporary, African Dance, Ballet.
Before arriving at Hart House, Jessica worked in both the college and university sector supporting students' access to post-secondary education and their success while enrolled. Jessica holds a Master’s degree in Sociology and diplomas in business management and marketing, and she hopes to complete a Ph.D. someday.
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Ingrid Lui
Ingrid Lui graduated from the University of Toronto in 2020. Throughout her undergraduate career, she was heavily involved with the U of T dance community, most notably in her executive roles with the Hart House U of T Festival of Dance (FoD) and the Only Human Dance Collective (OHDC), a student-run dance company that prides itself on being the longest-running dance group at U of T with a unique all-inclusive mandate. She served as the FoD Festival Coordinator from 2018 to 2020 (and remained a member of the Festival Executive until 2022) and was the co-Creative Director of OHDC from 2019 to 2022.
Moderator
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Seika Boye
Seika Boye is a scholar, writer, educator, and artist whose practices revolve around dance and movement. She is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Institute for Dance Studies at the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Toronto.
Seika curated the archival exhibition It’s About Time: Dancing Black in Canada 1900–1970 (2018) and co-curated Into the Light: Eugenics and Education in Southern Ontario (2019). Her publications have appeared in numerous academic journals and magazines, and she is an Associate Editor for Canadian Theatre Research (2021). Seika is currently a co-investigator on Gatherings: archival and oral histories of performance (SSHRC Partnership Development Grant).
From 1995-2010 Seika performed and presented her choreography across Canada. She danced with Ballet Creole, Electric Company Theatre, Judith Marcuse Projects and many independent artists. Most recently, Seika has worked as a movement dramaturg with artists including Natasha Powell/Holla Jazz, Syreeta Hector, Mix Mix Dance Collective, Deanna Bowen, Heidi Struass/adelheid dance, taisha paggett, and Djanet Sears.
Seika is a sought-after speaker, instructor, and consultant in the performing arts sector. She was an Artist-in-Residence at the Art Gallery of Ontario (2018), Toronto District School Board’s African Heritage Educators’ Network Arts Honoree (2019) and a 2020 recipient of the Lieutenant Governor’s Heritage Trust Award (co-curator, Into the Light). She is the inaugural recipient of The Dance in the Public Sphere Award presented by the Dance Studies Association (2021), for her work on It’s About Time. Seika loves and works in Toronto with her husband and two sons.
Partner
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