Timea Wharton-Suri is a catalyst, serving communities through her work as a curator, producer, and arts executive. For decades she has studied, performed, taught, curated, produced, programmed, administrated, and advocated for 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.
Timea has served as a Big Sister mentor, taught thousands of movement classes to adults and youth, and has been engaged as a speaker on the topics of equitable access to public programs, arts funding, and career skills for over 20 Canadian arts organizations. She also mentors emerging artists, and many have gone on to have successful careers and contribute meaningfully to the arts. 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: “Today’s challenges are vast and the need for opportunities to create and develop quality dance work in nurturing environments is high. With this in mind, I am stepping into this position at dance Immersion with a passionate vision to develop and present the work of African and African Diasporic artists who aspire to move us forward with thoroughly-researched, rigorously-crafted art; and provide more resources for dance artists at all levels to support them in reaching this goal.”