Recent Work
aCrossGEN: Roots Under / Routes Through
description in progress
Short Film Creation Residency: Namibia
May 2024 - present
Windhoek, Namibia
Collaborator: OYO Dance Troupe
In collaboration with the OYO Dance Troupe, CDS Movement Collective founder Samara dos Santos travelled to Namibia for a month-long artist residency. She directed and choreographed dances for a short film. Made with support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the film focuses on a love story between discordant couples where one partner happened to be HIV-positive. The film is intended to bring social awareness around HIV/AIDS to young people utilising contemporary dance and physical theatre.
SarakaFest
August 2024
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Client: Ballet Creole
As part of Toronto Arts Council’s “Animating Toronto Parks” program, “Saraka in the Park”, which took place on August 24, 2024 in Toronto’s Fountainhead Park, was a community event honouring the African feast of Thanksgiving. Dancers from Ballet Creole performed a ballet in eight sections, each one defined by a clear and specific cultural influence from the Caribbean. CDS Movement Collective provided project design, financing, and administrative services leading up to and during the event. The festival, which also included drumming and dance workshops, and food and craft vendors, drew participants from all over the GTA in worship of the ancestral spirits who brought freedom to the mother-land.
Past Projects
Ballet Creole's 30+ Dance Season
Sharing Caribbean Dance in Nuremberg, Germany
Sagoma Doc: People of Colour, Mental Health & Spiritual Tradition
Carifesta XIV in Trinidad & Tobago
Dance Expo for Diverse Dance in Toronto
Ballet Creole's 20th Anniversary of Soulful Messiah