Anti-Racism, Decolonization and Performance Panel

On March 26, 2021, the SCPA Speaker Series hosted an Anti-Racism, Decolonization and Performance panel with well-recognized dance artists and scholars from across North America.

Seika Boye, a scholar, writer, educator, artist, and Director of the Institute for Dance Studies at the University of Toronto, spoke about her long-term project to document the presence of black dancers in Canada for her archival exhibition It’s About Time: Dancing Black in Canada 1900-1970 (2018).

C. Kemal Nance, a performer, choreographer, and scholar and Assistant Professor in the Departments of Dance and African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, reflected on his performance and film work for his all-male dance company, the Nance Dance Collective.

Ahalya Satkunaratnam, an active Bharata Natyam dancer and choreographer and Assistant Professor of Arts and Humanities at Quest University, discussed both short term and long-term projects to consider how dancing bodies intersect with and address larger issues of conflict, such as the protracted civil war in Sri Lanka.

The event ended with a roundtable discussion to ponder how issues of equity, diversity and inclusion are playing out in both academic institutions and the wider art world.