View Video Message with ASL Interpretation HERE

VIew VIdeo Message with Audio Description HERE

 

Happy International Dance Day 2022.

 

Dance reflects what it is to be human. Beautiful messy humans. Dance is a reflection of our world. Dance is how we are together.  We shift perceptions, we open hearts, we allow ourselves to be, true to our identity. We dance because we have something to say. Say it loud, be proud. We take up space as no one else can – moving, shifting, transferring our weight into action.

Dance is an eco system and we are all interconnected – one show, one sharing, one class can reverberate across the province and open new pathways. Let’s reach and expand whose voices are heard, let’s bend and be flexible to all ways of expression, let’s hold each other up.

 We have opportunity to rise from this pandemic and say what needs to be said, your own vision, and what the world needs. In our diversity we find our strength. Listen deeply, to voices that need to be heard, and to your inner stirrings. Rise, twirl, swirl, dig deep, find your resilience. Collaborate, partner, acknowledge the truths and be aware of how we impact each other and the land we create on. Let’s rise together, leave no one behind, and re-emerge to Dance and Dance and Dance.

 

About 2022 Ambassador Renata Soutter

A co-founder of Propeller Dance, Renata Soutter has dedicated her professional career to socially-engaged dance innovation through creation, performance, community outreach, and education. Numerous creations for Propeller include Living the Desirable Life (2017), The Wild Life (2017), Flesh and Spokes (2015), Drifting Up (2013), a commission by Dusk Dances Ottawa, and collaborations with the Ottawa Inuit Children’s Centre and Royal Ottawa Place. Renata co-developed (with Weaver and company dancers) a methodology of collaborative creation that focuses on the unique aesthetics of artists with disability and the primacy of self-expression. Her influences include the natural world, extensive travel and a strong belief in the power and beauty of diverse cultural expression. Renata holds a BFA in Contemporary Dance from Concordia University and further specialized in integrated dance with Candoco in London UK and Alito Alessi among others. She is a Diamond Jubilee recipient (2012) and a recent finalist for the Ottawa Arts Council Mid-Career Artist Award (2019).

 

Dance Ontario collaborated with The Dance Current and Dance Umbrella of Ontario to bring you this year’s message for Ontario.