wind in the leaves with allies and friends

Friday, April 28, 2017
Doors open 7:30pm and show starts at 8:00pm

The Citadel
304 Parliament Street
Toronto, ON M6N 2V7

Regular admission: $15.00 | Students and arts workers: $10.00

The wind in the leaves performers are: aria evans, jesse dell, lilia leon, charles c. smith and shakeil rollock.  Guest artists are Banoo Zan, stedmond pardy and dane swan.

Bios:
Banoo Zan. Writer, translator, teacher, editor and poetry organizer BänooZan has been writing poetry since the age of ten and has published more than 80 poems, translations, biographies, and articles. Two books of her poetry are due to be released in 2015 and 2016. She is the founder, and an organizer and host of Shab-e She’r (Poetry Night), the most diverse of its kind in Toronto. For more than two years, Shab-e She’r has been bridging the gap between diverse poetry communities, bringing together people from different ethnicities, nationalities, ages, disabilities, religions (or lack thereof), genders, sexual orientations, poetic styles, voices and visions.

Aria Evans works in film, dance creation and performance. She draws on her experiences as a woman of mixed race as well as her BFA to capture meaningful social and cultural themes through her interactive art. The Canada, Ontario and Toronto Arts Council’s have supported Aria’s endeavours as well as Jumblies Theatre, Native Earth Performing Arts and b current. Aria is Artistic Director of The Go To Company and co-Artistic Director of hub14. Her critically acclaimed work has been presented with  SummerWorks – Dance Series, The Toronto Fringe, the University of Toronto Scarborough, FRESH BLOOD, the Gardiner Museum, the Harbourfront Centre’s Next Step Series, Series 808 and Dance Ontario, Long Winter, Labspace Studio and many more. Her work in video dance has led her to being Kaeja d’Dance’s resident videographer and editor. Independently she has collaborated with many of Toronto’s leading dance artists and organizations. Aria does film work for Hop To It Productions Inc. whose documentary work premiers on Network Television where Aria has associate producer, editor, photographer and videographer credits.

 A graduate of the dance program at York University Jesse Dell has worked as a contemporary dance artist for over a decade, performing across Canada and the USA while creating over ten original choreographic works. As a dancer Jesse has had the privilege of working with choreographers Peggy Baker, Aria Evans, Kate Franklin, Susan Lee, Shannon Litzenberger, Sharon Moore, Tracey Norman, Julia Sasso and Holly Small, as well as for Kaha:wi Dance Theatre under the Artistic Direction of Santee Smith, The Canadian Opera Company in The Barber of Seville, the National Arts Centre in I Lost My Talk, Larchaud Dance Project, The Scandelles and JDdance, a collective she co-founded in 2009. As a choreographer, Jesse has created work for Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Dance Ontario, Toronto Fringe Festival and The School of Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre. As a film maker Jesse has presented short dance films with Dans Kamera Istanbul (JDd) and dance: made in canada/fait au canada. Jesse also enjoys her work as a costume designer, graphic designer, vocalist and dance teacher.

Originally from Mexico City, Lilia Leon is a passionate dance artist working in the fields of dance performance and education. She holds a B. A. in dance from York University, and is a graduate of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre. From 2007 to 2010 she was a member of MataDanZe collective, where she performed and created original works around feminist and Latin-American issues.  As an independent dance artist, she has worked with Canadian and international artists including Aluna Theatre (Canada/ Colombia), Neil Ieremia (New Zealand), Earth in Motion World Indigenous Dance, Carlos Rivera (Mexico), and Jasmyn Fyffe Dance.  She balances her performance career with a diverse teaching practice. She has taught ballet, creative movement and contemporary dance in different private studios in the city since 2006, and recently joined the faculty of Aluna Theatre’s Young Panamerican Voices, teaching dance and composition in their Summer 2012 program.  Lilia is a core teacher with Kaeja d’Dance, and has been teaching their method -Express Dance- in the Toronto School Board since 2009. She became a certified Royal Academy of Dance ballet teacher in 2011 and is currently on faculty at Pia Bouman School for Ballet and Creative Movement where she finds inspiration while training the next generation of arts supporters and art-makers.

charles c. smith is a poet, playwright and essayist who has written and edited twelve books. He studied poetry and drama with William Packard, editor of the New York Quarterly Magazine, at New York University and Herbert Berghof Studios. He also studied drama at the Frank Silvera’s Writers’ Workshop in Harlem. He won second prize for his play Last Days for the Desperate from Black Theatre Canada, has edited three collections of poetry (including the works of Dionne Brand, Marlene Nourbese Phillips, Claire Harris, Cyril Dabydeen, Lillian Allen, George Elliot Clarke, Clifton Joseph), has four published books of poetry and his poetry has appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including Poetry Canada Review, the Quille and Quire, Descant, Dandelion, Fiddlehead, Anti-Racism in Education: Missing in Action (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives), the Amethyst Review, Bywords, Canadian Ethnic Studies and others. charles was the founder of the Black Perspectives Cultural Program in Regent Park and recently received a grant from the Ontario Arts Council’s Writers Reserve Grants Program and the Toronto Arts Council Writers Grants Program.

Shakeil Rollock is an emerging Toronto-based dance artist, choreographer and instructor. At the age of seventeen, he started his training in dance mainly in urban genres. Later, he extended his training in modern, ballet, contemporary and jazz techniques. His training includes the School of Toronto Dance Theatre’s summer intensive program, with the Kaeja intensive, York University (full year scholarship recipient to a BFA in Dance). Shakeil is a graduate of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre where he has, since graduation, workied with Louis Laberge-Côté, Heidi Strauss, Allen and Karen Kaeja, Nova Bhattacharya, Draico, Hollywood Jade, Debra Brown, Christopher House, Meagan O’shea among others.