About Us

dance Immersion is a charitable non-profit organization established by Vivine Scarlett in 1994 to produce, promote, and support dancers and dances of the African Diaspora*.

Our award-winning programs offer presentation, artistic skill development, and networking opportunities for Blacks in dance, serving artists who practice contemporary and traditional movement forms from Africa, the Caribbean, North America, South America, and Europe.

With decades in service, dance Immersion experiences considerable success in connecting dance artists across Canada and around the world.

*The African Diaspora refers to communities around the world that are descended from the historic, primarily forced, movement of peoples from the continent of Africa.

Vision: To inspire understanding, opportunity, and meaningful change through dance.

Mission: dance Immersion advances and connects communities through producing, promoting, and supporting dancers and dances of the African Diaspora.

We provide our services via three interconnected platforms:

Presentation of dance works to the public
Incubation of choreography by emerging and established artists
Education for artists and communities of all ages.

This work is all part of our expanding role as a home for the development of exceptional new Black Canadian dance works.

ARTISTIC VISION STATEMENT

dance Immersion’s curatorial and programming practice is driven by the rhythm cultures that continue to be developed around the world by African and African Diasporic artists. We present performance works and educational and mentorship programs that embody the fluidity of the past, present, and future, viewing a connection to cultural traditions as a grounding base from which contemporary expression can take root to fly. Our work connecting people is founded in the spiritual, intergenerational nature of learning, sharing, and community. We platform artists with a view of passing on wisdom through art, and our medium is dance. May everyone touched by our work dance to the music of these universal rhythms.

30 Years

of Service in the Arts

75 +

Stage Presentations

300 +

Dance Education Events

2 000 +

Black Artists Served

35 000 +

Community Members Engaged

WHAT DO WE DO?

Video by Jillian Greyson featuring footage by Eric Smith from the 2023 IABD Conference & Festival of Blacks in Dance.

MEET THE TEAM

Board of Directors

Kai ner Maa Pitanta – Chair

Yanmife Fajek – Treasurer

Solange Fermin

Junior Alexander Francis

Valerie Augustine

Yvonne Francis

Ayanna Lee-Rivears

Staff

Timea Wharton-Suri

Curator & Executive Director

Timea Wharton-Suri serves communities through her work as a dance educator, curator, producer, and executive. For decades she has studied, performed, taught, curated, produced, programmed, administrated, and advocated for the ancient art of embodied communication – dance – in Canada. While gaining this experience, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Dance from York University, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Arts and Media Management Graduate Diploma from Schulich School of Business. She continues studies in dramaturgy and Black liberation.

Timea performed for several years with dance companies such as Ballet Creole and Ronald Taylor Dance, eventually serving as Rehearsal Director for each, before opening a dance/fitness studio – one of the first that now proliferate in urban centres. She has produced events for TO Live, North York Arts, Holla Jazz, Toronto Comic Arts Festival, Toronto Dance Theatre, and the Remarkable Women Awards, and curated dance performances for dance Immersion, TO Live, and Canadian Stage. Performances she created, curated, or co-presented have garnered a total of 18 Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations and five wins to date. A frequent moderator, Timea has conducted on-camera artist interviews and panels for Toronto International Festival of Authors and Harbourfront Centre Performing Arts, CPAMO, Canadian Stage, The Dance Current, and On The Move.

Timea served as the Interim Managing Director of Toronto Dance Theatre in 2020, and previously in administrative roles for the Dancer Transition Resource Centre, TVOntario, and Toronto Arts Council (TAC), where she managed the dance and literary arts portfolios. At TAC, she successfully advocated for significant increases to dance funding and co-developed the What’s Your Story?, Toronto Lit Up, Long-Term Dance Projects, Cultural Leaders Lab, Performing Arts Facilities, and Animating Toronto Parks programs. In 2019, Timea co-developed and facilitated curriculum delivery for dance Immersion’s Legacy Leaders Arts Project Management course. She served as the Chair of the Board of Directors of Dance Media Group (The Dance Current) from 2019-2021, and is a member of the International Association of Blacks in Dance, Ontario Non-Profit Network, and Black Founders Network. www.timeawharton.ca

Statement from Timea: “I step into the leadership of dance Immersion with a passionate vision to contribute to our liberation from the confines of colonial understandings of African Diasporic arts/life, and to expand our role as a home for the development of exceptional new Black Canadian dance works.“

Vivine Scarlett

Founder & Global Engagement Advisor
Executive Director Emerita

The Founder of dance Immersion, Vivine Scarlett is an administrator, choreographer, and instructor, whose artistic goals and aspirations are rooted in the love of dance.

Vivine’s contributions to the field of dance are generated from an energy that has led her on a journey for over 35 years of giving and serving through the arts. As former Artistic Director and performing member of the Usafiri Dance & Drum Ensemble, Vivine created and presented works in both traditional influenced African and contemporary dance styles. Drawn to all forms of dance expressions and movement, Vivine’s passion has manifested many experiences that have served Canadian artists of African descent. She has taught for numerous institutions and organizations throughout Canada and continues her creative explorations as a freelance choreographer.

Vivine is a recipient of a Dance Ontario Lifetime Achievement Award. Her choreographic endeavours in the theatre production of “The Adventures of a Black Girl in search of God” won her a Dora Mavor Moore award in 2002, and her work in “The Freedom of dreams: The Story of Nelson Mandela” received a Dora nomination in 2003. Vivine is the recipient of the 2011 Planet Africa Heritage Award for her contributions to dance. In 2008 she received a Chalmers Arts Fellowship to work with youth in Ghana, West Africa. She is the 2005 K.M. Hunter Dance Artist award winner, and the 2021 Toronto Arts Foundation Muriel Sherrin award winner for her outstanding contribution to the arts. See our profile on Vivine HERE.

Statement from Vivine: “My journey has been one of service to my love of dance and the excellence of who we are. The creation of the organization was done at a time when it was needed, driven by an understanding that no matter who or what tried to discourage me, I would continue to serve within this vision. The organization has created space for dancers to work from their own experiences and environment; to be exposed to new experiences, gain development opportunities, and expand their networks and much more, all while acquiring tools that enhance and support careers in dance. dance Immersion has witnessed the growth, expansion and contributions of many artists who have connected with the organization over the past 30 years.”

Zahra Badua

Administrative & Engagement Coordinator

Zahra Badua is an administrator, choreographer, dance educator and a former residential youth counselor born in Lybia from Ghanaian parents. She grew up in Montreal, Quebec. A bilingual individual who started dancing as a means to understand and learn more about her African heritage, she is a trained Traditional West African, Afro Caribbean Folklore dancer as well as other West African and Caribbean street styles.

Her educational background is in Legal Administration and Community and Justice Services. She has worked with various schools within the GTA building recreational, academic and/or dance programs to help students cope with their school and life stressors, conflict management, self-esteem and confidence building, or simply to provide an outlet for the youth to express themselves and learn about African and/or Caribbean cultures.

Whether it is through teaching movement, lectures, seminars, podcasts or her administrative work, Zahra is dedicated to disseminating knowledge about the vast beauty and history of Afro-Diasporic dance and to use the arts to promote happiness, self-expression, and confidence. With over 15 years of dance and teaching under her belt, dance is a way she communicates and explores the dance practice and music of her culture. She teaches all ages from kinder level to post secondary as well as recreational and semi-professional adults all over the Greater Toronto Area. Zahra is also a movement coach for adults with different developmental abilities and children living with autism.

Zahra also is the founder of an educational and performance brand called ZahraMoves.

Jillian Greyson

Programming & Communications Coordinator

Jillian Greyson is a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University who majored in social work and minored in acting and dance studies. Passionate about dance, she has experience in hip-hop, contemporary, jazz, ballet, kizomba, and several Latin dance forms. Through the Coco Collective mentorship program, Jillian gained knowledge of various West African dance forms. This wide-ranging education helped her gain tools to support her passion for giving back to the community.

In addition to her role with dance Immersion, Jillian is the assistant program manager of Girl Power’d, a hip-hop gymnastics program aimed at providing young girls identifying as Black an education in gymnastics and dance. Through this work, along with employment with other youth programs, she has aided organizations in the building of social media platforms, outreach initiatives, and communications materials.

Jillian continues to seek out ways to combine her passion for social justice with arts-based programing and ensuring that those within the community have access to adequate resources.

Nicole Inica Hamilton

Event Moderator

Nicole Inica Hamilton is an award-winning choreographer, and the Founder/ Artistic Director of Inica Dance Industries. A certified educator and member of Dance Masters of Canada and Dance Masters of America, Hamilton has served as a guest teacher, mentor and speaker at institutes across Canada including but not limited to; George Brown College, University of Toronto, York University and University of Calgary. As a touring educator and speaker, she has presented in national and international conventions and championships including; En Avant-RAD World Convention, Toronto Dance Teacher Expo, Creation Dance Championships, the Performing Arts Medicine Association and more. Hamilton serves as an on-air radio Host at CIUT 89.5 FM, and is the Producer/ Host of Turn Out Radio. She reports on the current news affairs of our time with special focus on arts, health, career and business news on CIUT 89.5 FM. Hamilton serves as the Moderator for the Dora Award winning dance Immersion, and operates as Co-Host of Fall for Dance North’s Mambo Podcast with Ilter Ibrahimof. In her work in health, Hamilton is a Counsellor and actively works with organizations to advocate for and promote healthy practices for Dance Artists. Her presentations on practices of self-care, injury prevention, holistic teaching practices and psychological stress have been presented at schools and on nationwide platforms, festivals and conferences. www.inicadance.com/nicole-hamilton

Follow Nicole @n_hamilton_

Images of Vivine, Timea, Zahra, and Jillian by Crated Dozen Photography