Directions for Dance
A Frog in Hand X The Fifth Collaboration
For the first time, Frog in Hand and the Fifth are teaming up to co-produce a series of 5 unique classes followed by short conversations about strengthening the dance community. Led by dancers with Mississauga roots and practices, we're asking: how can we learn from each other to increase the visibility of dance, and foster connections in our shared networks?
When: Monday, December 4th-Saturday, December 9th
Where: Mon-Thu (The Fifth Dance, Toronto) Sat (Art Shelter, Mississauga)
Investment: PWYC (min $8)
The Workshops
CLASSES AT THE FIFTH
Monday 4th - 10:30am - 12pm CLARKE BLAIR*
Tuesday 5th - 12:30pm - 2pm SUMA NAIR *
Thursday 7th - 12:30pm - 2pm CANDACE KUMAR*
*classes to be followed with a 20-minute discussion
At the ART SHELTER
December 9th - 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM ABBY SILVERA
December 9th - 12:30-2:00 PM COLLEEN SNELL
The Artists
CLARKE BLAIR
Clarke Blair (she/her) is a queer emerging dance and dance-theatre artist, choreographer, and science educator based in Toronto. She has worked as a collaborator and performer with Social Growl Dance (Riley Sims), Frog in Hand (Colleen Snell & Noelle Hamlyn), Naishi Wang, Adehleid (Heidi Strauss), Christianne Ullmark, Tia Kushniruk, and Susannah Haight, and she was a company member with the Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre from 2011 – 2015. Her work as a choreographer has been presented in Toronto (Dance Matters, Sweet & Sultry Burlesque) and Barrie, ON (Talk Is Free Theatre), and in Edmonton and Calgary, AB (Major Matt Mason Collective). Clarke “practices performance” as a science educator at the Ontario Science Centre, and she holds an Honours BSc with High Distinction from the University of Toronto in neuroscience and cell biology.
COLLEEN SNELL
Colleen works with a broad range of dance and movement organizations in a variety of roles: educator, choreographer, collaborator, outside eye, fight director and performer. Colleen devises and performs collaborative work with musicians, spoken word poets, actors, fight directors, visual artists and martial artists. She holds an MA from England's London Contemporary Dance School. She is an advanced actor-combatant with Fight Directors Canada, a published writer and an avid arts educator. Her collaborative choreographic process and work is highly regarded, as is her work in improvisation and site specific production. Colleen's unusual passion for grant writing has yielded support from well over 8 distinct sources, and her fight choreography incorporates site-specific approaches with dance. Currently, Colleen is thrilled to be launching Frog in Hand’s first ever digital storytelling app, Anomaly, and Frog in Hand’s new artistic home - the Art Shelter.
SUMA NAIR
Suma Nair is the Artistic Director of Sampradaya Dance Creations, an award-winning South Asian dance company based in Mississauga, Canada. Trained in the Indian classical dance form of Bharatanatyam, Suma is a dance choreographer and producer. She is also a voice artist and a theatre actor. She is the co-founder of ĀṬAM Arts Collective, a Malayalam theatre group based in Toronto. With an education in Business Management and Mass Communications, she blends her existing skill sets with a career in performing arts. Winner of the MARTY
award for Dance by the Mississauga Arts Council in 2018, Suma holds an MFA in Dance from York University, Toronto where she was awarded the Susan Crocker and John Hunkin Scholarship in Fine Arts in 2014-2015.
ABBY SILVERA
my name is abby silvera (they, she) and i am an interdisciplinary artist from british columbia who is currently living and working in tkaronto. i’ve been dancing since i was four years old, and strive to maintain a deep connection to my body and impulses in all the work i do. i revel in finding spaces that combine my love of theatre and dance, and work that takes elements of both to create something exciting and experimental. i am also a musician, playwright, poet and songwriter. i am drawn to strange work, unsettling work, silly work, and work that leaves you with more questions than answers; whether it is through music, theatre, film, dance or something outside of these categories. recent credits includes: Cairo in Noir (Frog in Hand), Olivia in Sugar Plum (Nightwood Theatre), a creator/performer in this is our religion (snorkmimimi collective, with support from Nightswimming and the OAC), Alex/Ensemble in War of the Worlds (Frog in Hand, 2022)
CANDACE KUMAR
Candace Kumar is a cultural dance artist, educator and choreographer from Mississauga and based in Mississauga and Toronto. She specializes in Filipino folk dance, practicing diverse styles from all across the Philippines. Her work aims to reimagine traditional dance forms from the Canadian diaspora. She believes traditional dance is not an art form of the past but can guide us through the future as we navigate life on land that is not our ancestral home.
Candace is a graduate of the University of Toronto and is currently an instructor and principal dancer for Folklorico Filipino Canada, where she has been training for over 17 years. Candace has also expanded her learning to organizations abroad, such as Parangal Dance Company in San Francisco and the Tao Foundation for Culture and Arts in Manila. Her work embodies a diasporic approach, looking at traditional dance through the lens of self identity. Aside from Filipino dance, Candace has trained in contemporary, jazz, ballet, street styles, Latin, Indian, and Chinese dance.
Candace has worked with Little Pear Garden Dance Company, Anandam Dance Theatre, Creativiva Entertainment, Nautanki Creations, HATAW, A La Una, Han Han and more.
Her notable performances include the 2015 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games, Nuit Blanche, SummerWorks Festival, and international festivals in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Mexico, Alaska, and the Czech Republic. Her recent work includes "Crossing Waters," presented by Guelph Dance and the Citadel + Compagnie, "My Maria Clara," presented by Kapisanan at the AGO, and "Voyage," presented by the Mississauga Arts Council.
She has been recently featured in Nova Bhattacharya's work "Svaha" and Emily Chueng's piece "Tales of China." Candace was recently awarded the Mississauga Arts Council Established Dance Artist Award of 2023 and the City of Mississauga Civic Recognition Award of 2023.
Candace views dance as a community-based practice, with a commitment to placemaking and collaboration. In her future work, she hopes to continue developing the Filipino dance community in Canada and create unity between diverse Asian dance forms across the Can-Asian landscape.