Workshop & Conversation Series

Upcoming

Conversations for Dancing Humans

The Spring series of Share Dance: In Practice fosters broader conversations around teaching as creative practice. Join evolving conversations by sharing the language, energy, intentions, and physicality of your teaching practice. This series is envisioned as a space to hold our collective questions, build a community of colleagues, and activate the conversations that will carry us forward from here.

This is an invitation to dive into big questions, and ground ourselves in our actions of teaching and sharing dance. Dance teachers, and all dancing humans, are welcome to join in. This series will be co-curated by In Practice Facilitators Lisa Mariko Gelley and Carolina Bergonzoni.

Share Dance: In Practice

with All Bodies Dance Project

Wednesday, March 8, 11:30am – 1pm PST | Online, Zoom

Presented in partnership with All Bodies Dance Project.

This conversation will be co-facilitated by Jennie Chantal Duguay and Sebastián Oreamuno. More information on conversation themes to be announced soon.

Image Description: a group of ten dancers lit by pink and blue lighting on a dark stage. Some are seated in manual wheelchairs, others are standing, kneeling, crouching, each finding support in the other dancers. Most have arms outstretched, with an upward gaze into a spotlight.

Image Text: Share Dance: In Practice with All Bodies Dance Project. March 8, 11:30am to 1pm PST, Online. In conversation around the creative practice of sharing and teaching dance. Conversation will include speech to text and ASL interpretation will be provided upon request. www.newworks.ca.

Jennie Chantal Duguay is of French and Irish ancestry and grew up on Algonquin Anishinaabe territory in Ottawa. They have been living in Vancouver on unceded Tsleil-Waututh, Skxwú7mesh, and Musqueam land for the last 20 years. Jennie’s lived experience has led to expertise in areas of Disability Justice, Community Based Care practices, and Community Care Collectives. Jennie has co-created anti-oppressive community guidelines, developed curriculum, organized fundraising events, and provided consulting services on topics of accessibility and inclusion for disabled people. Jennie is also a published poet and creative non-fiction writer.

Image Description: Jennie is pictured from the waist up wearing a long sleeve denim shirt and a wide brim hat. They have shoulder length brown curly hair and are smiling. They are leaning against a wall with a mural of a blue cat flying through space with ice cream cones and bon bons.

Born in Santiago, Chile, Sebastián Oreamuno is a queer Toronto-based artist and academic currently pursuing his PhD in Dance Studies at York. His doctoral research explores the relationship between diasporic embodied memory and cueca, the Chilean national dance. Other interests include the participatory body and performing ability; popular culture; men and pointe; and multi-media artistic practices. His work is deeply inspired by Jennifer Dick, Aria Evans, and Sashar Zarif, with whom he’s grateful to have worked.

Image Description: Sebasitán is pictured from the waist up against a brick wall. He has long brown hair and is wearing a black long sleeve shirt with his arms gently crossed at his waist. He has brown eyes, and a hint of a smile.

Caring Spaces Through Inclusive Language

This conversation will be co-facilitated by
Katia Asomaning and Marcelo Ponce

Language matters! Let’s chat about the ways our language can either harm or validate youth. In this workshop we will talk about trauma-informed language, stigmatizing language, and bystander intervention. Join us in creating more caring learning environments! .

Sunday, March 26, 3:30pm – 5:30pm PDT | Online

Learn more about access in the space here.
Above photo by Carla Alcántara.

Katia Asomaning (she/they/he) is a settler on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. They are passionate about: advocating for marginalized people; creating opportunities for community; building equity into as many sectors as they can get their hands on; and plants.

In addition to their work in community relations and outreach with Vines Art Festival, Katia is also Director of Operations for Pink Flamingo, a Black-led advocacy group that uplifts the QTBIPOC community, and sits on the Board of Directors for Helm Studios, a not-for-profit, music production studio that offers sliding scale and zero cost services.

Marcelo Ponce (they) is a young neurodivergent, trans and queer person from Iztacalco mexico city living in Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam territories since 2012. Marcelo’s independent work includes consultation, programming development, resource creation, and training on gender and disability. They have worked as the Accessibility Director at Vines Art Festival since 2019. They centre lived experience and anti-oppression, and strive to build relationships based on mutual respect and compassion through their work.

The Child As A Teacher

Co-facilitated by Julie Lebel and Starr Muranko.

Dance in the early years of life is a powerful developmental experience. In this workshop we will share stories, ideas, practices and applications/games to support and expand possibilities in child-led curriculum. Join us in conversation and movement that supports us in creating safe and nurturing dance environments that allow each child to bring their whole selves, with their own desires, knowledge, and joy.

Sunday, April 23, 3:15pm – 6:15pm | In Person – Q7 Studios, 77 East 7th Avenue, Vancouver BC

Learn more about access in the space here. Above photo by Carla Alcántara.

Julie Lebel gratefully lives and dances on the ancestral and unceeded Indigenous territories of the xʷməθkʷəjˀəm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil Waututh) First Nations. She is a francophone choreographer invested in interactions between public space, interdisciplinarity and community exploring the poetics of intergenerational connection and the practice of Ensemble Thinking, with a body of work spanning 25 years. She is the director and founder of Foolish Operations creating new dance experiences for and with people of all generations, especially very young children. She is a member of Lower Left Collective (USA, Germany, Norway and Canada) teaching and performing Ensemble Thinking. She is the proud mother of 12yrs old twins who are the first consultants in all her endavours.

Can teaching be about holding space for a chosen topic to explore together? Through Foolish Operations, we hold long learning and creating creative cycles to allow for new ideas to emerge from many points of view. Learning cycles often materialize in the form of a performance, which allows us to both dive into a topic and share our curiosity about it with the world. In this way, Foolish Operations’ teaching practices align with “emerging curriculum” practices and are concerned with the well being of all who participate. // Photo by Riz Herboza

Starr Muranko is a dancer, choreographer and Mother and has been an Artistic Associate with Raven Spirit since 2009. As a choreographer she is most interested in the stories that we carry within our bodies and Ancestral connections to land that transcend time and space. Her choreographic work has been shared both locally and nationally including presentations at the Dance Centre, Talking Stick Festival, Coastal Dance Festival, Dancing on the Edge, Weesageechak Begins to Dance, Impact Festival and InFringing Dance Festival.

Starr has been a proud company dancer with the Dancers of Damelahamid since 2005, touring across Canada and internationally with the company and trained under the guidance and mentorship of the late Elder Margaret Harris. She has facilitated several dance workshops through ArtsStarts in Schools, Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre, the NEC – Native Education College, Vines Art Festival and recently was invited as a guest choreographer to co-lead an exciting creation lab with Ballet BC and Margaret Grenier.

She is passionate about leaving a meaningful legacy for future generations and has worked with children and youth on community art projects in her Mother’s home territory of James Bay (Treaty 9) in the communities of Attawapiskat and Moose Factory. Starr honours and celebrates her mixed Ancestry of Cree (Moose Cree First Nation), French and German in all of her work. // Photo by Melanie Orr

Bodyminds in Space:
Principles of Trauma-Informed & Anti-Oppressive Practice

This conversation will be co-facilitated by
Lili Robinson and Veronique West.

Join the facilitators as they offer discussion, sharing, and writing in a workshop that gives us space to reflect on our current facilitation approaches, our relationship to bodymind “norms”, accessibility practices for mental health, trauma, and neurodivergence, and ways to emotionally support ourselves and others.

Sunday, April 30, 3:15pm – 6:15pm | In Person – Q7 Studios, 77 East 7th Avenue, Vancouver BC

Learn more about access in the space here. Above photo by Carla Alcántara.

Lili Robinson (she/they) is a theatre artist, poet and facilitator based on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Lili is passionate about centring voices at the intersections of queerness, Black diaspora, socio-economic diversity and femme identity in their work. Since graduating Studio 58 in 2018, Lili has worked and trained with theatre companies including Theatre Replacement, Playwrights Theatre Centre, Rumble Theatre, the frank theatre, UpintheAir Theatre, and the Arts Club. Lili’s debut play, Mx, was the winner of the 2019 Fringe New Play Prize and the 2019 Cultchivating the Fringe Award. Currently, Lili is a resident curator at rEvolver Festival, and she is also developing two new plays, Infest and Maroon. As an organizer and facilitator, in recent years Lili has been a part of Rumble Theatre’s Future Facilitators cohort, co-founded and co-facilitated the Rest and Resilience event series for Black queer community members, and co-founded the Vancouver Black Theatre Archival Initiative.

Drawing from the work of Black feminist scholars, activists, and somatics/healing justice practitioners, Lili will be offering basic principles of anti-oppressive practice as informed by Sonya Renee Taylor’s “Ladder of Bodily Hierarchy” framework, as well as strategies and considerations for integrating mindfulness of one’s own somatic responses when holding a leadership role in a room. Lili’s portions of the workshop will include a basic breathwork practice, and reflection on how dynamics of privilege and oppression that arise in a space can be navigated from a place of somatic awareness.

Veronique West (she/they) is a non-binary artist, arts worker, and disability advocate of Polish descent, based on stolen Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories. Their practice draws from their lived experience of neurodivergence, madness, and chronic illness. As an artist, their projects explore how disability can reshape understandings of self, kin, and community. They have collaborated across various mediums, including performance, sound art, web-based art, and virtual reality. As an advocate, Veronique contributes to disability-led consultation, education, community organizing, and peer support initiatives.

Image Description: Veronique, a white non-binary person, looks into the camera and smiles a little. Veronique has short, wavy brownish-blonde hair and wears a comfy crewneck sweater.

Past

Workshops for Dance Teachers

Growing as a Guide | Sunday, January 29, 3:15pm – 6:15pm

In this workshop two arts leaders + teachers will share their insight and experience on guiding the passions of young artists. How, as teachers and guides, can we best support reflection, personal regulation and resilience in young dancers? Gain tools to engage the ‘first time dancer’ in true creative experience and foster meaningful experiences for new dancers. This workshop will empower you with tools to keep developing your unique voice as a dance educator.

Workshop with Ily Ponce: Do you want to become an extraordinary guide regardless of your age, strengths, or personality? To achieve long-term success and vibrant well-being, we must seek clarity, generate energy, raise necessity, increase productivity, develop influence and demonstrate courage. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to lead others better, increase your sense of confidence and implement daily practices to prep, recover from and adapt to stress and challenges. The main goal of this workshop is to provide strategies to encourage and support an effective and sustainable practice of energy-management skills to lead better.

Workshop with Marissa Wong: Marissa will share her experiences and reflections learned through teaching competitive ballet and directing her contemporary dance company. She will challenge the way participants interact with their students by facilitating conversations around: Leading with care; Embracing individual human experience; Fostering growth beyond the studio; Balancing hierarchy within a room (teacher/student, choreographer/performers); Examining negative dance myths.

This workshop will be facilitated by Ily Ponce and other artist Marissa Wong.

A passionate and self-motivated woman committed to driving well-being and social impact by coaching, teaching and sharing with others through arts, creativity and business. I was trained as a professional dancer for over 15 years, allowing me to develop a career as a public speaker at a very young age. Subsequently, I became a certified instructor of coaching, yoga and meditation techniques to further nurture my vocation as a teacher. Throughout my career, I have participated as an ambassador and speaker for multiple international brands on meditation, well-being, mental health, climate change, leadership and women’s empowerment. Additionally, I have over nine years of experience developing a career as a marketing professional and event producer for not-for-profit organizations and start-up tech environments across the globe. // Photo by Eduardo García

Marissa Wong is a Chinese-Canadian dance artist who has the privilege to create, play and share on the unceded territories of the Skwxwú7mesh, Səlílwətaɬ, and xwməθkwəyəm Nations, also named Vancouver, BC. She is the Artistic Director for The Falling Company and her engagement in the Vancouver dance community demonstrates her capability to educate, produce, perform, and host works. Marissa strives to change the systemic structure in dance through facilitating inclusive and sustainable arts spaces. She is invested in continuous learning and her work reflects her observations of the human experience. For more information visit: www.thefallingcompany.com

Honouring Diversity in the Classroom | Sunday, January 8, 3:15pm – 6:15pm

Build your understanding of what is diversity and how to become a more inclusive educator. This workshop will offer up practical tools to work with marginalized or at risk communities in an authentic practice. Learn skills to celebrate, make space for, and bridge experience across cultures How can we best facilitate shared experience while honouring existing diversity of experiences?

Workshop with Kay Huang Barnes: Kay will explore how to address different types of diversity in a class: At its core, collaboration and creativity is about bringing together different ideas and transforming them to make something new, unique, and personal.

This workshop will be Facilitated by Kay Huang Barnes and Starr Muranko.

This workshop is presented with the support of Community Partner Crossmaneuver.

Kay Huang is an Asian choreographer, educator, and dance artist living in the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Salish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh Nations known as Vancouver. She danced professionally with Karen Jamieson from 1987-1996. Her own choreography has been featured in Vancouver BC, San Jose, California, and Barcelona, Spain in numerous festivals. She is a faculty member at Arts Umbrella and UBC for twenty-five years, teaching and mentoring young artists. She has piloted many dance outreach programs in Vancouver BC, including the Downtown East Side, Down Syndrome Research Foundation, Vancouver School Board, and the Surrey School Board. She founded Crossmaneuver in 2011 as a vehicle for young artists to be trained and to participate in interdisciplinary works of art. In 2020, she formed a collective with Virginia Duivenvoorden named VDCM to pursue performance and digital collaborative works. It marks a return to performing and choreographing for herself after leaving the performance world in 2000. As a dance instructor, she is known to be inspiring and joyful, who is deeply committed to the growth of her students.

Starr Muranko is a dancer, choreographer and Mother and has been an Artistic Associate with Raven Spirit since 2009. As a choreographer she is most interested in the stories that we carry within our bodies and Ancestral connections to land that transcend time and space. Her choreographic work has been shared both locally and nationally including presentations at the Dance Centre, Talking Stick Festival, Coastal Dance Festival, Dancing on the Edge, Weesageechak Begins to Dance, Impact Festival and InFringing Dance Festival.

Compassion and Self Care: Creating Safe Spaces | Sunday, November 20, 3:15pm – 6:15pm

Develop your skills to support safer spaces for every body in the dance classroom. Together, we will explore teaching with compassion, body positivity/body neutrality, and supportive and invitational language. Learn about and model self care inside and outside the classroom so dancers can thrive in creative spaces and identify and advocate for their own needs. How can we embody and share the practice of agency as teachers?

Workshop with Damian Kai Norman: Come join us for an evening of conscious group work, somatic movement, and the therapeutic practice of Conscious Connected Breathwork, focusing on nervous system repatterning. There is a transformative power behind coming together as a collective to engage in group work that allows us to tap into our vulnerability, authentic expression, and sense of empowerment.

This event is backed by scientific research found in concepts such as Polyvagal theory, increasing your window of tolerance, basic neuroanatomy, nervous system repatterning, and somatic therapeutic approaches which all inspire the content of this program. Experience what it is like to enter an intentionally created safe space facilitated by diverse professionals who are trained in advanced trauma care and are dedicated to integral attuned space holding. If you are looking to process blocked emotional patterns, reprogram limiting core beliefs, and come back into alignment with your purpose and intuition. This is the place for you! Let’s co-create the world we want to live in by working on ourselves collectively and individually.

Workshop with Isak Enquist: Isak Enquist will propose three aspects of supporting compassion and self care in dance spaces, engaging in open discussions, analyzing, and role-playing scenarios:

Discussing applications for sharing and facilitating dance, striving for safety in uncomfortable environments.
Sharing practices to promote care in community and/or professional training, creating habits for healthy careers in the dance field.
Discussing boundaries for professional connection: facilitator-to-student and peer-to-peer relationships.

This workshop will be facilitated by Damian Kai Norman and Isak Enquist.

As a certified counsellor specializing in trauma and somatic therapy, a certified breathwork facilitator, an integration counsellor, and a holistic movement practitioner; Damian Kai Norman values community, freedom, and physical-emotional embodiment. Norman loves facilitating group work and wellness retreats, creating safe containers for authentic vulnerable conversations, exploring how we can master our nervous system, and cultivating our capacity to feel and express fearlessly. // Photo by Andi McLeish

Isak Enquist is a dance artist, teacher, choreographer, and experimental musician/sound designer living on occupied traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh, Skwxwú7mesh, and xʷməθkwəy̓əm nations. Raised in the Kootenays/Ktunaxa of Canada, Isak began formal training in Shotokan Karate-Do (Currently 1st Dan) before pursuing post-secondary dance education at Simon Fraser University and Modus Operandi (Vancouver), as well as training intensives with The Ailey School (Italy/New York) and Springboard Danse Montréal.

He has had the pleasure of working professionally with Out Innerspace Dance Theatre, Compagnie Vision Impure, Dance Victoria, Mahaila Patterson-O’Brien, Kaia Shukin, Amber Funk Barton (the response.), CAMP, Mascall Dance, Generous Mess, Radical System Art, Corporeal Imago and Anne Plamondon Productions. Touring with these companies have included performances across Canada, USA, Europe and Israel. // Photo by Richie Lubaton Photography

Mental Health Awareness | Sunday, November 6, 3:15pm – 6:15pm

In this workshop we will investigate questions such as: What is trauma and how might it express in the body? What does it look like to emotionally regulate, create safe spaces, and express authentically? What is Neurodiversity and how can I better support neurodivergent students in a dance classroom? Learn skills to better prepare yourself as a dance teacher to understand the role of Mental Health in the studio and to support young dancers in their body-mind wellbeing.

Workshop with Hartley Reed Schuyler: Though the conversation around mental health in the dance classroom is shifting, many students and dancers entering the field are still experiencing harm in the studio. Come with an open mind to discuss how we can shift our perception on what it means to create a safer mental health space, empower our dancers to be able to play with movement as a trauma-informed and trauma-healing practise, and to build a more holistic sense of how to honour neurodiversity and self-expression in our dance spaces. A section of the workshop will involve movement, so come prepared to explore your own personal intersection of dance, play, and healing!

Workshop with Stephanie Ng: This workshop explores trauma and its effect on physical and mental health. We will examine what it means to be regulated emotionally and physically, and how being in a regulated state is central to learning. Participants will have experiential opportunities through art-based prompts to practice grounding techniques, enrich personal and professional resources and toolboxes, and understand how a trauma-informed approach can create a safe, supportive environment that is also sustainable and connective.

This workshop will be facilitated by Hartley Reed Schuyler and Stephanie Ng.

Hartley Reed Schuyler (they/he) is a queer/trans, Mad and disabled interdisciplinary artist located on the stolen lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Peoples – colonially known as Vancouver. Within their own identity, Hartley finds home in storytelling, spoken word, acting, dance, drag, theatre tech, and visual art. Hartley grew up training and performing at Burlington Dance Academy and McMaster University, with a focus on contemporary, modern and improvisational techniques. Much of their work is focused on creating intersectional space, the expectations of queer and disabled storytelling, and learning how to love being messy. Hartley has had the privilege to work in numerous arts and dance based communities, most recently as an Executive Member and Choreographer for MacDance. Currently, you can find them jumping between different performance art projects, blending drag and dance together all over the city, and working at Carousel Theatre for Young People as their Outreach Coordinator.

Stephanie Ng (she/her) is a Registered Clinical Counsellor and Professional Art Therapist who serves the community on the unceded, traditional, and ancestral lands of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the territory of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), S’ólh Téméxw (Stó:lō), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Stephanie has a background in Psychology and Counselling. She has worked in the educational field at community and learning centres, playgroups, primary, secondary and tertiary institutions, and supported individuals with developmental and educational needs before completing her Master’s in Counselling Psychology: Art Therapy. Stephanie now works at a non-profit organization and a private practice, using a client-centered approach that is strength-based and trauma-informed.

Stephanie works closely with trauma survivors through the PEACE program (Prevention, Education, Advocacy, Counselling and Empowerment) for children and youth aged 3-18 who have witnessed/experienced violence and abuse, and supports caregivers through psychoeducation, emotion coaching and parenting sessions. Stephanie connects compassion and creativity and integrates the non-verbal modalities of Art Therapy, Play Therapy, Sandtray and Sandplay Therapy.

Besides working with individuals and families, Stephanie also facilitates workshops focusing on self-care, mindfulness, self-compassion, identity and promoting therapeutic art-making in group settings. In her spare time, Stephanie enjoys aerial yoga, traveling, and self-expression through art-making, poetry-writing, and journaling. // Photo by Anova Hou