DAY 3 - THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 2025

PERFORMANCE & CREATION WORKSHOP

Black Pledge is excited to bring together some of the country’s incredibly skilled and talented artists and teachers for day long workshops. These workshops are exclusively for Black creatives with a relationship to performance.

Compassion care funds for child care, transportation or other needs are available courtesy of Balancing Act. Participants can indicate if they need the compassion fund in the registration form. Lunch will be provided. Email ggrant@theblackpledge.ca for the promo code for no cost registration

REGISTER

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

The day runs from 10:30am - 5pm. Participants can choose one workshop per day. Workshops are happening simultaneously at the Wild Seed Centre for Art and Activism.

10am - 10:30am - Welcome

10:30am - 11:00 - Opening Ritual

11:00am - 1:00pm - Workshop - Part 1

1:00 - 2:30pm - Lunch (will be provided)

2:30pm - 4:30pm - Workshop - Part 2

4:30pm - 5:00pm - Closing Ritual


WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS

Djanet Sears

A Masterclass in playwrighting

Multi award winning playwright, director and trailblazer in theatre in Canada, Djanet Sears shares a masterclass on playwrighting.

Djanet Sears is a multi-award-winning and internationally-renowned African Canadian playwright, director, editor and assistant professor. She is the driving force behind the AfriCanadian Playwrights’ Festival, a founding member of the Obsidian Theatre Company, and editor of Testifyin Vols. I & II, the first anthologies of plays by playwrights of African descent in Canada 

Janelle Cooper
The Voice Within - A Musical Theatre Masterclass

Join Janelle Cooper, a multidisciplinary artist who has worked nationally for a special music theatre masterclass in music theatre. Bring your songs and let’s dig in, with accompanist Alexa Belgrave.

Janelle Cooper is a multidisciplinary Artist, specializing in cultural excavation through multi-genre storytelling and devised creation.

Pianist/Music Director/Educator, Alexa Belgrave has been an active member of Toronto’s music community for almost a decade. Upon completing her ARCT and a degree in music from UofT,  Alexa has created and collaborated with multiple projects spanning across diverse genres and mediums. She most recently released her debut album “Let’s Talk” under her personal project, Moodset, in March 2024. As a musical director she has worked with Dance Immersion (winning a 2024 Dora for Outstanding Achievement in Design- Sound for their ’Young, Gifted and Jazz’ project), Nightwood Theatre, Bad Hats Theatre, Musical StageCo, Sheridan Theatre, Obsidian and more. Recent show credits include ‘Heathers’, ‘I was unbecoming then', ‘Boy Boy and the magic drum’ and ‘Urinetown’.  As a keyboard pit player, recent credits includes Tarragon/Musical StageCO’s ‘After the Rain’,  YPT’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Sheridan’s Something Rotten. Alexa currently teaches at Sheridan College, Randolph College and Mayfield Secondary School of the Arts as well as freelances in various musical roles.

Diane Roberts and Natasha Eck 

Arrivals Legacy Project's Weaving New Legacies of Knowing

What are the legacies we carry in our mind, body and spirit? What legacies call us and what must we leave behind? This workshop invites you into an exploration of your root cultural voice, rhythm and performance. Through this offering you will be invited to enter an embodied self-reflexive moment to engage your culturally storied bodies in a dynamic dance between self and other. Join Arrivals Legacy Project AD Diane Roberts and members of her co-facilitation team as they lead you through an embodied story-weaving process that explores ancestry as a jump-off point for creative expression.

Diane Roberts is an accomplished director, dramaturge, writer and cultural animator, who has collaborated with innovative theatre visionaries and interdisciplinary artists for the past 30 years. Her directorial and dramaturgical work has been seen on stages across Canada and her reputation as a mentor, teacher and community collaborator is nationally and internationally recognized. Diane has directed for such companies as urban ink, Black Theatre Workshop, The Theatre Centre, Theatre Direct, The Company of Sirens, Frank Theatre, b current, Cahoots Theatre Projects, Obsidian Theatre, Native Earth Performing Arts, Women in View Festival, The Sudbury Theatre Centre and The Stratford Festival. She is the former Artistic Director of urban ink productions in Vancouver (2007-2014) and former Artistic Co-Director of Nightwood Theatre in Toronto. She is also a founding member of Obsidian Theatre, Co-founder of backforward collective and founder and Artistic Director of the Arrivals Legacy Project.

Natasha Eck is a multi-talented artist, dancer, Kemetic Yoga practitioner, and Educator who passionately advocates for creative culturally responsive experiences and its potential to enhance the health and well-being of communities. With over a decade of refined expertise, Natasha has dedicated herself to shaping and leading culturally responsive creative movement workshops across Canada. Her dance journey, cultivated at Bird College in England and guided by luminaries such as Vivine Scarlett, Milton Myers, and Eleo Pomare, has expansively enriched her repertoire. Natasha is an alumna of York University, holding both a Bachelor of Honors in Fine Arts and a Bachelor of Education. Her performing experiences include works like "The Ballet,"choreographed by Ben Love and Richard John Majewski at the Royal Opera House, England; Vivine Scarlett’s dance collective - V Works; and a company member of COBA (Collective of Black Artists), featuring works by Jeanguy Saintus, and Vincent Mantose.

Funmi Adewole Elliott 

Explore the interplay: dance, text, and imagination

The workshop will begin with warm-up and improvisation exercises inspired by African dance styles, leading into creative improvisation that explores textures, rhythm, and movement qualities. Dancing in a circle will encourage connection, spontaneity, and a shared sense of presence.

In the second part of the session, participants will engage in storytelling, writing poetic text inspired by the movements explored in the first half. These materials will serve as the foundation for short compositions that combine movement and voice, speaking through movement and moving through speech.

Open to all levels of experience, this workshop offers a playful yet focused approach to performance-making, inviting participants to explore the interplay between body, text, and imagination.Funmi Adewole Elliott is a movement artist, dramaturg, and educator. She is the founder of FAE Studios and Enact Arts, working across professional and community contexts in Europe, Africa, and Canada. Her practice bridges storytelling, dance, and intercultural collaboration.

Funmi Adewole Elliott is a movement artist, dramaturg, and educator. She is the founder of FAE Studios and Enact Arts, working across professional and community contexts in Europe, Africa, and Canada. Her practice bridges storytelling, dance, and intercultural collaboration.