KasheDance Intensive DAYTIME ONLY Package

Our KASHEDANCE INTENSIVE is here to support the professional development of future dancers, and to complement the continued development of professional dancers in diverse dance techniques.

Throughout the INTENSIVE week we will focus on two areas:

💪🏾 PHYSICAL & 🧠 MENTAL TRAINING: Dance training is of foundational importance in a dancer’s career. Class is the first site for cognitive awareness and physical strength as dancers mold the body for performance. Classes are intended to support the technical skills required as a dancer with a focus on diverse training rooted in traditional/contemporary instruction from the Caribbean and African Diaspora.

🎨 CREATION: We realize that there is a need to support dancers and artists with the ways they approach creation. Our creative practice sessions will invite participants to experience various approaches to creating a piece. Whether a new creator or experienced choreographer. The Creative Practice sessions will be a tool for participants’ own creation and exploring ensemble work.

♥️ KasheDance is in the first year of a 2 year Training funding for pre-professional / professional dance artists! Thank you Canadian Heritage for acknowledging not just KasheDance’s continual need for training but IBPOC dancers to have a space where that training can occur.

DETAILS:

Dec 9-13:

🗓️MON to FRI 10AM - 4PM

*Showcase & talkback Friday afternoon

We also offer sessions below as INDIVIDUAL CLASSES if you want to experience more than one class!

Esie Mensah is an award winning choreographer, director, dancer, movement director, educator, and TEDx speaker working across dance, theatre and film. A member of the Canadian Guild of Stage Directors and Choreographers, choreographer of Canada's Got Talent Million Dollar Finale as well as a four-time Dora nominated artist, Esie has worked with megastars like Rihanna, Drake, Howie Mandell, Kenny Ortega, Janelle Monae, Nelly Furtado, Jully Black, Arcade Fire and more. Working with historic brands like Holt Renfrew, Coca-Cola, TIFF, Estee Lauder, Giants of Africa, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Toronto Raptors. In theatre Mensah has worked as a choreographer/movement director on the Dora award winner production Three Sisters a co-production between Soulpepper and Obsidian Theatre, Russian Play, Victory, and Farmers’ Revolt at the Shaw Festival directed Serving Elizabeth at Theatre Aquarius and is making her debut at Stratford Festival choreographing Ransacking Troy directed by Jackie Maxwell next year. Esie's original creations include the Dora-nominated production Shades, The Audition a commission from Toronto Metropolitan University, (INNER) Beings a commission by Ballet Kelowna, The Call co-choreographed by Esie and Robert Binet a commission from Canada's National Ballet School and ZAYO whose full production will premier in 2026. An excerpt of ZAYO was being performed at Harbourfront Theatre presented by dance Immersion. Lastly Esie was the choreographer for Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha: A Musical Reimagining presented by Luminato Festival and TOLive that was named in the New York Times as top 10 Best Classical Production of 2023 and will be making its US premiere at the Harris Theatre in Chicago.

Georgia native OTIS DONOVAN HERRING, received a BFA in dance from Howard University. Otis danced for several notable companies in DC & NYC (2007-2013). He immigrated to New Zealand pursuing dance, acting, and modeling with great professional success (2013-2022). Otis now calls Los Angeles home. He teaches and choreographs contemporary and African movements, globally. In addition to honing the craft of acting under Kacie Stetson, he’s been cast in series on Apple TV+, Amazon Prime, Netflix, and other networks Mr. Herring has just returned from a 30 city tour with R&B legends Xscape and SWV.

Patriann Edwards is an interdisciplinary performing artist, choreographer, multicultural educator, and cultural researcher from Trinidad & Tobago. Trained extensively in Caribbean Dance, West African Dance, and the fire arts, she holds a Master of Arts in Creative & Innovative Education from Georgia State University, a Post Graduate Diploma in Arts, Culture & Enterprise Management (Distinctions) from the University of the West Indies, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Performing Arts - Dance from the University of Trinidad & Tobago.

Director of the Division of the Arts at University of Wisconsin Madison, Professor in the Dance Department and founding artistic director the the First Wave Hip Hop and Urban Arts Program at UW-Madison. WALKER is a multi-hyphenate contemporary dance and performance artist from Jamaica who’s creative research reengages the technology at the core  of the traditional and urban ritual practices across the African diaspora. His research intersects dance choreography for the concert stage, movement as dramaturgy for theatre as well as devised movement collaborations with visual and performance artists for museum, alternate spaces, and video/film