PANEL
Grounded in wellness panel
Saturday AUG 24
12:00 - 2:00PM
Toronto Metropolitan University
Our new YENSA (Let’s Dance) Grounded in Wellness Panel features a group of outstanding Black women dance practitioners leading a conversation and exchange on the healing power of dance, the preservation of Black joy, and the promotion of mental health.
Our invited panelists will share their personal journey of movement and dance wellness, inspiring action and empowerment. They will discuss how they, alongside a nurtured community of Black women dancers, advocate for wellness and confidence. Join us as they share their healing traditions, enriching our understanding of dance in holistic well-being.
PANELISTS
I’THANDI MUNRO (Halifax)
PANELIST
I’thandi Munro is a mixed Afro-Euro L’nu Professional performance and Visual artist living in K’jipuktuk, Miꞌkmaꞌki, the unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People. As a racialized person living in a postcolonial environment, Munro uses the representation of line and of lineage as the underlying concepts through her fine art, craft, and dance. Often merging mediums into finished pieces there is always a sense of multiness within her work. Melding notions of the digital within her craft Munro continuously seeks to learn new ways of making. They leave space for her pieces to naturally evolve through reaction and discussion. This creates an ever changing flux body of work that can be continued, explored, and realized in many different ways. Munro is a parent of two young children, which often influences their work and is at the core of their creativity.
SHÉRANE FIGARO (Montreal)
PANELIST
Shérane Figaro is a dancer, choreographer and teacher based in Laval (Canada). After more than 20 years evolving as a dancer, Shérane founded her dance company Oredans in 2009. She works with different groups of dancers, teaching them the basics of traditional Haitian dances. Through the ESANS method that she has designed, Shérane wants to deepen what defines the gestures of traditional Haitian dances. As a choreographer, she is interested in different themes related to social issues, history and spirituality. For Shérane, tradition is a thread that keeps alive the dialogue between generations. In her creative process and her choreographic works, one can observe the connection between tradition and contemporaneity. Shérane was nominated in 2021 for the CALQ prize: Artist of the Year, in Laval. She is also a professional member of the Regroupement québécois de la danse (RQD), and of Culture Laval.
MOSA MCNEILLY (Toronto)
PANELIST
Born in Toronto, Mosa McNeilly Born in Toronto, Mosa McNeilly has been working in Ontario for 35 years. She sees her work as part of a tradition of Black women artists, educators, activists, and spiritual practitioners concerned with social justice, cultural reclamation, and freedom. In her interdisciplinary research, Mosa investigates themes of cultural memory and memorialization, Carnival and emancipatory joy. She draws from a background in printmaking, drawing and painting, Graham technique, South and West African voice, drum, and dance.
In her Middle Passage memory work she integrates encaustic, assemblage, and installation with clown, movement, and mask. As a Carnival masquerader, she is part of the Blue Devil Moko Jumbie Mas Camp led by co-conspirators Natalie Wood and Michael Lee Poy. Mosa’s artwork is featured in a group exhibition, Practice as Ritual / Ritual as Practice, curated by Andrea Fatona, paying tribute to the historical 1989 DAWA (Diasporic African Women’s Art) exhibition, Black Wimmin: When and Where We Enter. The cross-Canada tour includes A Space Gallery, Toronto, 2022, Articule Gallery, Montreal, and Libby Leshgold Gallery, Vancouver, 2023, Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, 2024, and Art Gallery of Hamilton, 2025.
In a dedicated African cultural arts education practice, Mosa has delivered hundreds of projects reaching thousands of children. She has received numerous awards for her artistic and educational work. An Acker Award recipient, 2019, she was one of the 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women Honourees of 2020. A graduate of OCADU and the Toronto Dance Theatre, she holds an MES from York University.
DIANE ROBERTS (Montreal)
PANELIST
Diane Roberts is an accomplished director, dramaturge, writer and cultural animator, who has collaborated with innovative theatre visionaries and interdisciplinary artists for the past 30 years. Her directorial and dramaturgical work has been seen on stages across Canada and her reputation as a mentor, teacher and community collaborator is nationally and internationally recognized. Diane is a 2019 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Scholar and current PhD Candidate in the Fine Arts Interdisciplinary HUMA program.
Diane’s celebrated Arrivals Personal Legacy Project, developed during her 7-year tenure as Artistic Director of Urban Ink productions, has birthed new Interdisciplinary works across Canada, throughout the Americas, in the UK, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. This work has allowed her to articulate, cultivate and realise a vision for theatre that encourages Indigenous ways of knowing as a steppingstone to creative expression. She is a founding member of Obsidian Theatre and backforward collective, Founder of The Arrivals Legacy Project and co-founder and Artistic Director of Boldskool Productions with playwright Omari Newton. Alongside her professional career, Diane is a PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Studies, Fine Arts Humanities at Concordia University in Montreal; a 2019 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar; and a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship award holder.
ESIE MENSAH (Toronto)
PANELIST
Esie Mensah is an award winning choreographer, director, dancer, movement director, educator, and TEDx speaker. A member of the Canadian Guild of Stage Directors and Choreographers, was the choreographer of Canada’s Got Talent Million Dollar Finale as well as a four-time Dora nominated artist.
She has worked with megastars like Rihanna, Howie Mandell, Kenny Ortega, Janelle Monae, Nelly Furtado, Arcade Fire to historic brands like Holt Renfrew, Coca-Cola, TIFF, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto Raptors, and more. In theatre Mensah has worked as a choreographer/movement director on the Dora award winner production Three Sisters (Soulpepper/Obsidian), Ransacking Troy (Stratford Festival), Russian Play, Victory, Farmers’ Revolt (Shaw Festival) and directed Serving Elizabeth (Theatre Aquarius).
Original creations include ZAYO, The Audition, (INNER) Beings, as well as Dora-nominated production Shades and films A Revolution of Love and TESSEL. Last year, Robert Binet (Ballet) and Mensah (Afrofusion) were commissioned by Canada’s National Ballet School, to co-choreograph “The Call” for Assemblée Internationale. Lastly, she was the choreographer for Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha: A Musical Reimagining that was named top 10 in the New York Times Best Classical Production of 2023 and recently received 6 Dora nominations.
NICOLE INICA HAMILTON ( Toronto)
MODERATOR
Nicole Inica Hamilton Nicole Inica Hamilton is an award-winning choreographer and the Founder/ Artistic Director of Inica Dance Industries. A certified educator and teaching member with Dance Masters of Canada/ 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.
Hamilton is a Counsellor and actively works in the dance health & science sector. She is a member of the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, a wellness team member and counsellor with Canada’s Ballet Jörgen, and Board of Director with Healthy Dancer Canada. Her research on practices of self-care, injury prevention, holistic education, and psychological stress have been presented on national and international platforms including but not limited to; En Avant-RAD World Convention, Healthy Dancer Canada, Toronto Dance Teacher Expo, PowerUp, and the Performing Arts Medicine Association.
Recognized for her work in broadcasting, Hamilton is an on-air radio Host at CIUT 89.5 FM and 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. Hamilton is the in -suite moderator for the Dora Mavor Moore award winning dance Immersion, and has operated as a guest correspondent on media and discussion platforms across Canada. Her voice has been featured on national commercials, film & television networks where she has moderated and facilitated conversations with leaders across the globe.