Exit Strategies: A Performance Series

Aria Evans is a queer, Toronto-based interdisciplinary artist born on the West Coast, with a winning practice that spans dance, theatre and film. Aria is a certified Intimacy Coordinator and with a large-scale vision, collaboration is the departure point to the choreographic work that Aria creates under their company POLITICAL MOVEMENT. As a public speaker, activist and creative leader, Aria draws on their experiences of being mixed race to advocate for inclusion and representation of diversity, as well as questioning the ways we can coexist together. 

Tavia Christina is a neurodivergent Métis & Maltese artist residing in Tkarón:to (Toronto, ON). As a creator, Tavia seeks out humanness–work that is not just for the stage and final production, but for the mind, body, and soul. Their practice is based in somatic movement, improvisation, and spiritual endurance. Tavia employs a variety of mediums such as dance, creative writing, magic, film and photography to convey their messages and most of their work lands in the multidisciplinary realms. They have created pieces that revolve around the unspoken socio-political stories in today's society, with a particular emphasis on queer perspectives and their lived experiences.

Nickeshia Garrick is a settler on the stolen land of Tkaronto and has performed on this land for over 25 years. They are an unapologetically Black, Queer Artist, who believes in the healing power of breath through raw emotion and movement. Nickeshia is a Dora Mavor Moore Award winner as well as a multi-nominated artist who holds a BFA in Dance from Simon Fraser University. She has received dance training at the National Ballet School of Canada, the Toronto Dance Theatre, the New York Institution of Dance and Education and more. In addition to her performance endeavours, Nickeshia teaches Movement to TV/Film Actors at the Toronto Film School.

Rodney Diverlus (they/them) is a Haitian-Canadian multi-hyphenate artmaker whose work spans different realms, including theatre, dance, film, literature, and protest. They are co-owner and Producer with Above the Palace, a Black and Brown-owned production company that produces singular stories that need to be told. Beyond their artistic practice, they moonlight as an ‘artivist’ and community activator. They are a co-founder of Black Lives Matter—Canada, the Wildseed Centre for Art & Activism and author of Canadian bestseller “Until We are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada.”  Their artivism imagines large-scale high-impact public installations that blur the lines of protest and performance; arts-based interventions that shift culture.

Kéïta Fournier-Pelletier (she/they) is a queer, Métis, Franco-Manitoban artist based in Tkaronto, Ontario. They are discovering what their intersecting identities mean to them, and the role they play in art. They have performed and choreographed for festivals like the Skylines Film and Dance Series, Toronto Fringe Festival, SummerWorks Dance Festival, Bloom Festival and Covid Dance Hug TO. After graduating from the School of Toronto Dance Theatre, they joined SQx Dance Company, working with youth across Canada and internationally. Kéïta is interested in creating work that questions power, heteronormativity, and other societal norms that reject her identity.