By Kyla Pugen

Performance dance students at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) stepped on stage at OCAD University on Oct. 25 to 26 as part of the Up Next program at the Fall For Dance North (FFDN) festival.

According to their mission statement on their website, FFDN “exists to break boundaries and remove barriers.”

Now in its 11th year, it aimed to “offer affordable, inclusive and accessible entertainment” with performers and audiences from across the world.

The TMU dance students performed in an Afro Latin jazz ensemble choreographed by New York-based artist Sekou McMiller.

“It’s a festival where we invite people to come and fall in love with dance. We bring the best artists from our city and some of the best artists from around the world,” said FFDN artistic director and co-CEO Robert Binet. “This year, more than ever, we’ve made a big investment in local artists.”

He explained that it’s important to support art students and that “as a festival and an organization whose mission is to make it more sustainable for dance to exist in this city, we have to start with people just emerging into the profession.”

TMU performance dance program director Vicki St. Denys said that performing at FFDN “exposes our students to the public in a big way… it provides some public awareness of the program and the quality of the students in our program.”

St. Denys also said this festival is a great opportunity for their students as they get to perform on a big stage, with a large audience and work in the studio with acclaimed international artists. “When potential applicants and candidates for our program [learn about] this prestigious partnership, it’s a nice draw,” she added.

Inside OCAD’s Great Hall, where the performance took place, the atmosphere was both electric and intimate. The audience was placed in a circle around the stage, with people standing up, some sitting on benches and others on the floor, allowing them to be immersed into the dance.

The Up Next program itself featured four different performances but the TMU students closed out the program with their dance titled ‘¡SÍ, BUENO!’ by McMiller. The playbill described it as “A trilogy of bliss. Celebrating the many ways joy shows up in our lives.”

One of the performers, third-year performance dance student Thandi Strybos, explained that the dance featured three different sections as a “compilation of different points of joy in our lives.” She said they started with a big grand opening, then a sultry middle section and finally, a big celebration of love and life.

For fourth-year performance dance student Liyah Simbulan it was “very special to be part of this process and this performance.” She said that FFDN had a lot of Afrofusion in their programs which meant a lot to her as a Black dance artist in Toronto.

Simbulan added, “Every single dancer in the room was lifting each other up throughout the whole thing and it just made it really beautiful.” The performance deepened her love for jazz, she said.

Third-year performance dance student Madison Costa, said, “Even if we’re not in a certain section and we’re off stage, we’re always in it.”

She added, “I think the biggest sense of community is found within the last piece…and I think the audience will feel that as well.”

Third-year performance dance student Olivia Morris recalled the fast-paced rehearsal process as they auditioned on Friday and began rehearsing the very next day. “We jumped right in…I learned so much…about myself. I learned so much about dance.”

She said ‘¡SÍ, BUENO!’ opened her eyes to new possibilities in the dance world and how “dance isn’t confined to a box.”

Strybos said “during the process, a lot of tears were shed, a lot of frustration, a lot of just forgetting to breathe.” But, McMiller’s advice boosted her confidence. “His big thing is telling us to live life through every moment in our body, every aspect of ourselves.”

Ultimately, FFDN was a defining moment for the dance students. By sharing the stage with international and Canadian artists, the young dancers gained invaluable experience that will shape their careers.