Candace Kumar is a Filipino/Indo-Fijian dance artist based in Toronto. Her work aims to contemporize cultural dance forms to reimagine traditional culture from the diaspora. Some of her notable performances include the 2015 Pan Am Games, Nuit Blanche, SummerWorks Festival, and international festivals in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Mexico, Alaska, and the Czech Republic. Candace has worked with Little Pear Garden Dance Company, Nova Dance, Anandam Dance Theatre, Creativiva Entertainment and more. She shares her experience as a mixed-Asian Canadian artist in hopes of inspiring other artists to explore their relationship to their culture through dance.

Crossing Waters
Crossing Waters is a cultural reimagination piece inspired by the natural flow of water. The dancers perform 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.

Show Credits
Choreographed by: Candace Kumar
Assistant Choreographer: Diana Reyes, Faye Roncesvalles
Performed by: Candace Kumar, Diana Reyes, Faye Roncesvalles
Composer: Lex Junior
Costume: Folklorico Filipino Canada
Artistic Consultation: Parangal Dance Company
Indigenous Culture Bearer: Sitti Obeso

Carleen Zouboules is a contemporary dance artist who graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly known as Ryerson) in 2020. Carleen's latest credentials include performing in Guillaume Côté's "Touch". Carleen dances for the Canadian Indigenous dance company, Red Sky Performance and recently joined the Toronto company ProArteDanza. She has performed at Fall for Dance North twice, once in Red Sky Performance's piece "Flow" and once under Anne Plamondon in her piece "Fiddle Embrace".

Vania Dodoo-Beals is a contemporary dance artist who graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly known as Ryerson) in 2020. Vania's latest credentials include working as the Assistant Choreographer to Siphesihle November's new work "On Solid Ground", which premiered alongside "Elite Syncopations", and "Skyward". Emerging in the Creative Industry, Vania has developed a reputation for being innovative, detail oriented and present strong leadership skills. During her time at Ryerson, Vania had the privilege of working with Peggy Baker, Anne Plamondon, Dylan Crossman (Cunningham trust) and Vicki St Denys. Sharing her heritage with African and English culture, Vania seeks to represent and advocate for black women in contemporary dance.

Beyond the line
Beyond the line explores the relevance of boundaries in the mental and physical state. Through movement and conversation, we dissect the idea of self-generated boundaries, boundaries within a partnership and breaking/crossing boundaries.

Show Credits
Choreographed by: Carleen Zouboules and Vania Dodoo-Beals 
Performed by: Vania Dodoo-Beals and Miyeko Ferguson 
Music Creation by: Laith Hakeem and Santiago Rozo 

Kiyo Asaoka is a flamenco dancer, who also produces, teaches, directs and choreographs. It's been over 20 years since flamenco became a part of her life and a part of herself. In 2016, she started managing Tablao Flamenco Toronto, a non-profit organization that produces a monthly live flamenco performance.

Hikidashi
A Japanese traditional music instrument player/singer Aki and a flamenco dancer Kiyo bring their collaborative artistic material together. It is a mix of two different art forms, and newness and tradition.

Show Credits
Choreographed and performed by: Kiyo Asaoka
Music and musical performance by: Aki Takahashi

Samantha is a contemporary dance artist, choreographer, and teacher based in Tkaronto. Her ancestry is Ktunaxa and Scottish/British Settler. She completed the Arts Umbrella Dance Diploma Program in 2018. She has worked as a guest artist with Ballet BC and an associate artist with Red Sky Performance. Samantha explored what aspects of her Ktunaxa culture, history, and traditional knowledge can be pulled into her choreography. She has presented works at Matriarchs Uprising by O.Dela Arts, and the Paprika Festival.

Kaqwiⱡȼi
kaqwiⱡȼi is an exploration of bringing the Ktunaxa language to dance. This work finds ways to translate a traditional language into movement as a way for the artist to deepen her understanding with it.

Show Credits
Choreographed and performed by: Samantha Sutherland
Composition and Sound Design by: Sophie Dow
Language Teacher: Alfred Joseph
Voice: Sophie Pierre
Voice: Marie Nicholas
Mentor: Sebastian Hirtenstein
Mentor: Teneil Whiskeyjack

Sofía Ontiveros is an artist, performer, and choreographer based in Tkaronto, Ontario and Mexico. She immigrated to Canada in 2017 from her native city and country Monterrey, México to pursue her dance studies. Sofía is a cis-gender, queer, white, Mexican, Latina woman, and carries these parts of her identity through her works by questioning and exploring social constructs and how they play on individual or interpersonal relationships. Sofia graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University’s The Creative School Dance Program in 2021, and was chosen for the Lipson Family Endowment Award for an Emerging Choreographer.

Ojalá...
"Ojalá..." ("Hopefully...") explores the aftermath of interpersonal betrayal. When one who loves you deeply, hurts you deeply, two contracting truths begin to coexist: the love and lack thereof. "Ojalá..." is about two bodies who connect, stumble upon betrayal, and search for healing.

Show Credits
Choreographed by: Sofía Ontiveros
Performed by: María Riaño and TBD

Stuti is a Bharatanatyam exponent based in Ottawa. She received her Diploma in Bharatnatyam from Kalamandalam Performing Arts, Kolkata, in 2005 and did her Arangetram in 2019. Stuti continued her advanced dance training with Guru Kalakshetra Amarnath Ghosh. In 2019, Stuti performed at the Ottawa Arts Gallery for an emerging artist showcase commissioned by Canada Council for the Arts. She also performed at TEDx uOttawa and Parliament Hill events organized by senators. Stuti had the privilege to be a dance juror for the Ontario Arts council's dance project 2020. Stuti was awarded a Fellowship in 2021 by Indian Raga dance productions, USA.

Rasamanjari: a garland of emotions
Rasamanjari: a garland of emotions is explored through the eyes of a south Asian female protagonist/ heroine in a Navarasa Pada varnam named “Angyar Kanni,” composed by Shri Lalgudi Jayaraman, choreographed by Bhavajan Kumar and performed by Stuti Mukherjee. 

Show Credits
Choreographed by: Bhavajan Kumar
Performed by: Stuti Mukherjee

Ana  Claudette Groppler is an artist based in Toronto. A Canadian and German Citizen raised by Lesbians and extended family from various cultural backgrounds. A graduate of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, Groppler has worked with Social Growl Dance, Political Movement, wind in the leaves collective, Signal Theatre, Lara Kramer Danse, Kaeja d’Dance, Peggy Baker Dance Projects, and Kemi Contemporary Dance Projects. Groppler has performed her own work in shows with Dance Matters, Nextfest, and The Parahumans. She has performed internationally in Mexico, Germany, and Scotland. Ana is also a spiritual healer, Therapeutic Pilates Instructor and Physiotherapy Assistant.

SOLOsupport
The audience witnesses the expression and honesty of a person discovering how they can support themselves. Through emotion, movement, and text the audience experiences relatable stories and maybe learns something that they didn’t know before.

Show Credits
Choreographed by: Ana  Claudette Groppler
Performer and Collaborator: Kiah Francis
Music and Composition by: Maggie Bitten

Kieran Heralall (K.H. Kanna) underwent extensive training in Bharatanatyam under gurus Smt. Malini Pararajasingham, and Sri. Sheejith Krishna. Credits include Vancouver 2010 Olympics, Sanctuary Season 2, Karl Wolfe, and a short movie with choreographer Jae Blaze; the productions “Ganga” and “Kaal – Time” by the Janak Khendry Dance Company (Kuwait, Oman, India.); The 2017 Toronto International Dance Festival, The 2017 Kalanidhi Festival, hosted by The Menaka Thakkar Dance Company; “Howzat!” by Sampradaya Dance Creations, “Nadi” by Spanda Dance Company; the annual Vengamala Bhagavathy Temple festival in Tiruvananthapuram, Kerala; and the Luminato Festival commissioned film “New Monuments” with Nova Dance.

Tandavesha
While performing the "Tandav", Lord Nataraja's bell is dislodged from his foot and soars into the air. To save the Earth from its impact, he receives the bell on his head, and as it bounces to the ground, the first ever percussive syllables are created.

Show Credits
Choreographed and performed by: Kieran Heralall
Musicians: Aathy Aravinthan, Myuran Thananjeyan, Sriparan Yoganathan

Originally from Bangladesh Mushtari is a GTA based Kathak dancer and choreographer and has been practicing within the South Asian diaspora since early 2000. While her movement vocabulary is rooted in the classical form, her work is rooted in the essence of ‘Now’ that manifests itself through conceptual wit, physical rigor and poetic metaphors.

Christine Samuel is an Indonesian born Odissi dancer based in Toronto. She found familiarity in Classical East Indian dance with the dance styles - Javanese and Balinese dances - she knew as a child. She studied Bharatnatyam under the tutelage of Janak Khendry in Toronto for nine years. In2017, she decided to explore Odissi Style and since then she has been training with Saveeta Sharma, from Upasana the Spirit of Dance.

Catastrophe in ‘C’
Catastrophe in ‘C’ is an attempt to bring to our consciousness the repetitive nature of crisis that is inseparable from Capitalistic societies. It is a reminder at a time when the entire globe is already in one such major catastrophe that the exact same event of the past does not repeat. What repeats is our suffering that catastrophe brings us that Capitalism creates the possibility for to happen.

Show Credits
Choreographed by: Mushtari Afroz and Christine Samuel
Performed by: Mushtari Afroz, Christine Samuel, Alina Mehra, Kaavya Sharm
Composer: Tanveer Alam Shawjeeb (Canada & Bangladesh)
Percussion: Pallab Sanyal (Bangladesh)
Flute: Mamunur Rashid (Bangladesh)