Dance

Fancy footwork: Dance takes centre stage at Hart House

siddiq22 — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 15:01:50 +0000

Fancy footwork: Dance takes centre stage at Hart House

siddiq22 Wed, 04/26/2023 - 11:01

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This spring, Hart House is home to all kinds of dance – from championship events to performances and classes to learn a wide variety of genres (supplied image)

Megan Mueller

Topic

Our Community

Dance

Arts

Culture

Fitness

Hart House

Hart House Theatre

Student Life

From a popular dance festival to hosting the qualifying round for Canada's national breakdancing championship, the University of Toronto's Hart House is centre stage for dance this spring.

U of T will welcome some of the best breakdancers (known as "breakers") in Canada on April 29 when Hart House Theatre hosts the Ontario Open – the qualifying rounds of the Canada DanceSport (CDS) National Championships, which will be held in Vancouver in June. The winner of that series will progress to the World Dance Sport Federation's World Breaking Championship, taking place in Belgium in September.

The event comes as the status of breaking (also called "b-boying" and "b-girling") is steadily rising – the sport will even be included in the summer Olympics for the first time next year when the Games are held in Paris.

Geoff Reyes, lead organizer of the
Ontario Open breaking championship at
Hart House (supplied image)

Geoff Reyes, a graduate of U of T's civil engineering program in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, has been involved in the Canadian breaking scene for many years – the former Varsity athlete and dance instructor, who is the breaking sports director for CDS and the president of Breaking Canada, is the lead organizer of the Ontario Open at Hart House.

For Reyes, the founder of Ontario-based breaking groups How Hip Hop Helps and You Be ILL, returning to Hart House will be like a homecoming.

“During my time at U of T, Hart House meant community and gathering. I taught breaking with the U of T Dance Club and hip hop dance at the Fitness Centre," Reyes recalls. "My dance group, as well as my students, performed at the Hart House U of T Festival of Dance."

Hosting the Ontario Open is just one of many ways Hart House has supported and showcased the art form of dance over the years.

“There’s a substantial dance community at U of T, and Hart House Theatre is a key part of this,” says Doug Floyd, Hart House Theatre's director of theatre and performance art.

The theatre often hosts and collaborates with dance groups of all genres, including student-led ensembles such as the Silhouettes Dance Company – one of the largest U of T dance troupes on campus – who will perform at Hart House Theatre later this year. Another student-run dance group, the Only Human Dance Collective, often rents the Hart House Theatre to run classes for students of all experience levels.

The University of Toronto Dance Team – which won three consecutive dance competitions in March against 28 teams across Canada, are another campus group taking to the Hart House Theatre stage to wrap up their season, presenting some of their best dance pieces in a performance on April 29.

Such collaborations are key to Hart House's ongoing commitment to programming dance, says Michelle Brownrigg, Hart House Theatre's senior director and chief program officer.

“Community and academic partnerships are so important,” she says. “For example, we have several collaborative workshops with U of T's Institute for Dance Studies, with most recent support to their keynote on disability and dance earlier this year."

Kiki Ballroom Alliance (supplied image)

Some of those partnerships include the one with Breaking Canada, rehearsal space for vogue dance group Kiki Ballroom Alliance and initiatives with Dance Immersion that focus on the African dance diaspora in tap and jazz dance – a connection that was fostered by Seika Boye, director of the Institute for Dance Studies.

Hart House Theatre's longstanding association with dance is highlighted each year through the annual Hart House U of T Festival of Dance – one of the largest university dance festivals in the country, the showcase offers a wide variety of performances across genres, including jazz, ballet, ballroom, modern, hip hop, musical theatre, Irish, Latin, belly dancing and k-pop. This year's event ran from March 31 to April 1 and included 60 different dance numbers.

“Some dance groups have their own large shows, but some don’t – so the festival is even more important for those smaller companies," Floyd explains.

“With such an abundance of dance groups associated with U of T, participation in the festival is a great opportunity for dance groups to interact, collaborate and promote their own work and ventures.”

Breaking Canada holds a class on breakdance at the Hart House Fitness Centre (supplied image)

Dancers don't have to be onstage to enjoy some fancy footwork at Hart House, which offers several popular classes at the Fitness Centre, including Zumba, cardio dance party, Afro cardio dance, Bollywood and k-pop.

Those who get inspired by the breakdancing competition can take a new breaking class this spring. Breaking Canada, in partnership with Canadian Women & Sport, will be offering B Thee Rise, a national b-girl initiative where participants will learn the fundamentals of breaking with guidance from leading b-girls.

“Whether you’re a novice to breaking or looking to improve your abilities, this program is inclusive, safe and most of all, fun,” says Vanessa Treasure, director of fitness, wellness and recreation at the Fitness Centre.

With its focus on experiential learning through the arts and active living, Hart House's longstanding pas de deux with dance offers something for everyone on campus – from showing off skills in the spotlight to learning new moves for the first time.

His journey featured in a Hollywood film, Lesra Martin helps recognize students who improve Black lives

rahul.kalvapalle — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 15:04:35 +0000

His journey featured in a Hollywood film, Lesra Martin helps recognize students who improve Black lives

rahul.kalvapalle Tue, 08/10/2021 - 11:04

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Lesra Martin, an Innis College alumnus whose remarkable journey was captured in the 1999 movie The Hurricane, helped establish a 'changemaker' award to recognize students contributing to Black excellence and inclusion (photo by Richelle Marie Photography)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Dance

Diversity and Inclusion

Alumni

Black

Faculty of Arts & Science

Innis College

At age 15, Lesra Martin was poor, illiterate and navigating a tough inner-city New York neighbourhood.

But his life changed forever after a chance encounter with a group of socially minded entrepreneurs who offered to take care of his education. With their backing, Martin moved to Canada, completed high school and earned a degree in anthropology from the University of Toronto.

Today, Martin is a highly respected civil lawyer in Kamloops, B.C., a writer and motivational speaker – and he wants to pay it forward.

At U of T’s Innis College, where he was a student, he has helped establish the Lesra Martin Student Changemaker Award, which recognizes the efforts of students whose scholarly achievement or extra-curricular initiatives contribute to Black excellence and inclusion.

“Education has been the key to my future,” Martin says. “When I was a young boy, I couldn’t read or write at the age of 15. Because of the help and kindness of some strangers who came into my life from Toronto, I went on to obtain an education – that no one could take away from me – and become a lawyer.”

Martin is perhaps best known for helping bring about the release of imprisoned boxer Rubin “The Hurricane” Carter, a campaign he began as a teenager. After hearing Carter's story, Martin began corresponding with the boxer – who was convicted of a triple-murder but had maintained his innocence – before visiting him in prison.

Convinced of Carter’s innocence and inspired by his courage, Martin urged his Canadian foster family to help him fight for the boxer’s release. They were ultimately successful, with Martin’s involvement in the case depicted in the 1999 movie The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington as Carter and featuring Vicellous Reon Shannon as Martin.

Vicellous Reon Shannon (left) plays Lesra Martin opposite Denzel Washington as Rubin “Hurricane” Carter in the 1999 film The Hurricane (photo By Getty Images)

Between his Canadian mentors and Carter, Martin says he’s been fortunate to receive guidance and inspiration from unlikely places.

“They literally changed my life,” Martin said. “I wanted to be able to give something back because of what these strangers did for me, and I thought the Changemaker Award would be an awesome way to start.”

Charlie Keil, principal of Innis College, says the award – valued at around $1,000 for each recipient – was created as the college looked to re-examine how it was serving Black students in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“Out of that was born the Black Student Experience Working Group at Innis, and a series of conversations with Lesra Martin about how best to recognize Black students who are making a difference,” Keil says.

“Lesra’s commitment to social justice and the value of education, particularly for Black students, helped fuel this initiative. The Changemaker Award is designed to reflect Lesra’s values, while also shining a light on the formidable achievements Black students are making on and off-campus.

“I am so proud of Francisca Wiafe-Amoako and Kassia Neckles, the inaugural recipients of the award, as they epitomize the engaged Black students that we want to see celebrated.”

Wiafe-Amoako, who graduated this spring, founded U of T’s Afro-Dance and Culture Club, a student club that offers Afro-dance workshops and promotes African diasporic culture through music and dance.

She says she was actively involved in Afro-dance and cultural programs in high school but couldn’t find a club specifically geared towards her interests when she reached university. So, she decided to start one herself in 2019.

“Myself and other students who I’d spoken to were very interested in having a space where we could enjoy listening and dancing to Afro-beat music,” she says. “That was the motivation – the desire to fill a gap that we felt was missing on campus.”

Originally set up as a dance-focused initiative, the club has since evolved to include activities such as discussions on a range of topics pertaining to African and Black culture.

“It’s become like an all-round cultural hub for us,” Wiafe-Amoako says. “So many students have benefitted from the networking that it has provided, and the safe space it has provided for us to enjoy our culture and share our culture with others who aren’t from that background.”

This fall, Wiafe-Amoako will move to Baltimore to pursue a master’s degree in nursing at Johns Hopkins University. But she hopes the Afro-Dance and Culture Club will continue to reach new heights.

“Even though I created it, it wasn’t just ‘something Francisca likes’ – it’s something multiple students expressed an interest in, so the longevity of the club would be a great testament to the fact that this club was something people really wanted,” she says. “I would love to come back and visit U of T in 10 to 15 years and see the new generation of the Afro-Dance and Culture Club.”

The Afro-Dance and Culture Club performs in 2019 at Innis College as part of a benefit concert to raise money for refugee students (photo courtesy of Innis College)

For Wiafe-Amoako, winning the Lesra Martin Student Changemaker Award capped off a momentous month that also saw her graduate from U of T’s Faculty of Arts & Science with a double major in neuroscience and physiology, as well as a minor in Spanish.

She was also selected to represent Innis College as a divisional ambassador during U of T’s virtual spring convocation.

“I feel like I’m on cloud nine,” she says. “There are so many Black students who are doing things and having great impacts in their communities, but don’t receive recognition for the work that they do. So, it’s been really affirming and I feel really privileged not just to be a recipient of the award, but one of the inaugural recipients.”

Neckles, a fourth-year Innis student majoring in cinema studies and English, was recognized with the award for her publications analyzing race, representation and portrayals of Blackness in film.

In Filmdaze, an independent publication, she discussed the impact of the 2006 film Akeelah and the Bee on her upbringing and identity. The film is about a young Black girl preparing to compete in the National Spelling Bee.

“I saw so many echoes of myself in Akeelah that it was almost overwhelming,” Neckles wrote in Filmdaze. “Just like me, Akeelah was unambiguously Black, wore glasses, and was opinionated and honest. This was the first time I watched a coming-of-age film in which I felt seen and, as a result, my own coming-of-age felt validated. For once, the love I had for this medium was reciprocated.”

Neckles says that, as a film student and Black woman, she’s long been interested in portrayals of Blackness in film – or the lack thereof.

“I would not go as far as saying that the representation of Black people in film will enact systemic change, but I do think it is nonetheless important and potentially transformative for Black people to be able to see themselves on screen,” she says.

Neckles says the Lesra Martin Student Changemaker Award reaffirmed her commitment to boost Black voices in film and media.

“It can be very easy for me to undermine my efforts and work as inconsequential – both as a single person in a world of billions and as a Black person in a world so rife with anti-Blackness,” she says. “This award, in a sense, assures me that my efforts to support my community and inspire change are not entirely futile.”

Neckles adds that she hopes future recipients of the award will be provided with a similar boost for their own ambitions.

“I am only an inaugural recipient of this award, which means that there will be so many more recipients after me who will be rightfully recognized,” she says.

“Awards like these – that not only award people in name but monetarily – are examples of meaningful support that can contribute to real change… I cannot wait for this award to help more people.”

Going forward, Neckles says she plans to graduate next year, and plans to continue pursuing her education, film journalism and creative writing.

“My ultimate goal is to create content that gives voice to Black people, whether that is through films, novels, or otherwise,” she says. “Whatever I end up doing in life, I just want to make sure I am helping others and supporting my community – even if in a small way.”

Martin says both Neckles and Wiafe-Amoako are a testament to the energy, creativity and optimism of the next generation.

“There’s something going on now in our society where young people are beginning to recognize that they have a role to play, and they’re finding their voice more and more,” he says. “I think they’re beginning to recognize that it’s important for the rest of society to hear their opinions and hear what they have to say.”

Martin adds that he hopes the award will help its recipients in their endeavors and inspire them to lend a helping hand to others.

“I hope that everyone who ultimately receives this award will, at some point in their lives, have the opportunity to pay it forward, embrace it, make the best of it – and keep on keeping on.”