Native Earth Performing Arts will current Syreeta Hector’s piece Black Ballerina from Might 23-25, 2025 at Aki Studio. The work relies on Hector’s personal experiences on the planet of classical ballet as somebody who’s each Black and Indigenous, and explores problems with id and becoming in.
“Black Ballerina could be for anybody that has struggled to suit into society or a specific neighborhood,” mentioned Syreeta Hector in a press release. “It’s not nearly race, it is usually about reimagining what we are able to do for the sustainability of dance efficiency in our future.”
Black Ballerina is Half 2 of Native Earth’s Niimi’iwe Dance Collection, which started with What We Carry by Barbara Kaneratonni Diabo in February 2025.
Syreeta Hector
Dance artist and educator Syreeta Hector is an Assistant Professor in Dance at York College. As a performer, she has labored with outstanding firms akin to Adelheid Dance Tasks, Danny Grossman Dance Firm, Peggy Baker Dance Tasks, Citadel + Compagnie, and Toronto Dance Theatre. She earned as Masters degre in Dance Research from York College, and is a graduate of The Nationwide Ballet Faculty’s Instructor Coaching Program and The Faculty of Toronto Dance Theatre.
A Mi’kmaq, African-Canadian and French Acadian, she relies in Toronto, Ontario. Syreeta is at the moment engaged on a second chapter within the Black Ballerina collection, and up to date commissions embody ensemble works for Mocean Dance (Nova Scotia) and ProArteDanza (Ontario), and a brand new work for Kittiwake Dance Theatre (Newfoundland).
Syreeta Hector’s Black Ballerina: The recording of this efficiency was showcased on the Constructing an IBPOC Touring Community: A Convention, Might 29-30, 2023 on the Citadel + Compagnie (Toronto, ON, Canada)
Black Ballerina
Black Ballerina started as a brief work, and has taken the stage in varied shorter variations since 2017. Hector has been performing the steadily evolving piece on the SummerWorks Competition, and in a digital model throughout the pandemic in Stratford, the place she gained the Stratford Competition Lab Award for Analysis and Creation in 2019. Hector and Black Ballerina additionally garnered a Dora Mavor Moore Award nomination in 2020.
It’s been carried out for dwell in Halifax, St. John’s, and Winnipeg, and Hector launched a metropolis tour in Calgary in February 2025. Music for the efficiency contains Nick Baker’s Bizarre Creatures, Marie Davidson, Richard Reed Parry, A Tribe Referred to as Purple, and Kendrick Lamar.
“In previous seasons, we introduced Niimi’iwe as a double-bill night of dance. This season, we selected to increase the choices to every maintain their very own house in our season, and in order that we are able to honour the person tales that each comprise,” mentioned Joelle Peters, Inventive Director of Native Earth.
“Every bit works by itself, however in connecting them in our Niimi’iwe Collection, we’re inviting audiences to discover the nuances of Indigenous id tales and highlighting the significance of self-expression in dance.”
Native Earth Performing Arts is Canada’s oldest skilled Indigenous theatre firm, and is at the moment in its forty second yr devoted to creating, growing and producing skilled creative expressions of the Indigenous expertise in Canada.
- Black Ballerina takes the stage Might 23, 24 and 24 at Aki Studio. Discover extra particulars and tickets (costs on a sliding scale) [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is a Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. She is an skilled freelance author, blogger and writing teacher.
