Rodney Diverlus was born in Haiti and is a Queer, Black dancer and choreographer, multidisciplinary performer and curator. Rodney has danced with Decidedly Jazz Danceworks during the 2014-2018 seasons, and has worked with Peter Hinton/Denise Clarke [Canadian Opera Company], Darryl Hoskins [Dietrich Group], Noemi Lafrance [Bentway], Kevin Ormsby [Kashe Dance], Mumbi Tindyebwa, [IFT Theatre], Eddie Elliott [Red Sky Performance], Charles Smith [Wind in Leaves Collective], Hannah Kiel, Michele Moss and others Rodney is the recipient of the 2019 Canadian Stage Award for Direction. His works have been presented at the Art Gallery of Ontario, SummerWorks Festival, Irie Music Festival, Footsteps Across Canada Showcase, Annual Alberta Dance Festival and Tableau d’Hôte Theatre. He is currently a Guest Artist with the National Ballet of Canada.
Central to his work are diasporic traditions and the theme of Black bodies interacting with anomalous, and often public spaces like bunker, container, streets.
Rodney is also a strong activist and community advocate. He is a co-founder of Black Lives Matter – Toronto and has co-curated a series of large-scale public installations that blur the lines of protest and performance, most notably #Won’t Back Down (2017) and #blackPride. Rodney’s writing has been published by the Toronto Star, Globe & Mail, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and recently as a consulting author to Artistic Citizenship: Artistry, Social Responsibility and Ethical Practice, published by Oxford University Press. Rodney is a graduate of Ryerson University (Performance Dance program).