Sunday F Workshops 10:40 am - 12:10 pm

Presented by   Marcel Stewart and Emerjade Simms

Type of Session:  Active Workshop (90 minutes) 

Target:    Secondary (9-12), Beginner or pre-service teachers, French and English Language Educators, Experienced Arts Educators, Arts Researchers 

'Reclaiming Black Canadian History' is one of bcurrent’s educational programming pieces, using drama to embody untold stories. Building on this approach, we now turn to the future: How do we imagine a future that belongs to us?

This interactive workshop fuses drama, dance, and AI to explore Afrofuturist storytelling, while inviting participants to bring their own cultural perspectives, histories, and questions into the work.

We begin with a sensory world-building exercise, asking: What does the future look like? Feel like? Smell like? Through a five-minute brain dump and discussion, participants generate the foundations of an imagined world.

Next, we translate these visions into movement-based storytelling, drawing from Octavia Butler’s Speech Sounds to explore communication, resilience, and the power of futurist storytelling.

Then, we introduce AI as a creative collaborator, inspired by Lucy AI, an AI-powered artistic archive. Participants will use ChatGPT to generate monologues from future beings shaped by their world-building, then critique, remix, and reinterpret AI-generated text, layering in movement and sound.

The session culminates in a critical discussion on AI and storytelling. How do we wield technology to tell our stories? What futures feel possible now? The future isn’t waiting to be handed to us. We shape it.

• Hands-on experience at the intersection of drama, dance, and AI – Delegates will actively engage in movement-based storytelling, speculative world-building, and AI-assisted text creation, applying these techniques in real-time.
• A framework for integrating speculative fiction, AI, and embodied performance in arts education – Participants will gain practical tools for incorporating Afrofuturist and speculative narratives into drama and dance education, with adaptable exercises for students and artists.
• Critical engagement with decolonization, technology, and AI ethics in performance-making – The session fosters deep discussion on authorship, bias, and ethical AI use, inviting artists and educators to question technology’s role in storytelling and representation.
• Resource guide for further exploration – Attendees will receive a curated list of readings and tools on Afrofuturism, speculative fiction, AI in performance, and interdisciplinary approaches to drama and dance education.

Marcel Stewart is the Artistic Director of bcurrent Performing Arts and the Director of Artistic Outreach for SpiderWebShow Performance, where he co-curates FOLDA, an annual festival of live digital art. Formerly Outreach Director at Suitcase in Point, he co-founded the Nest Artist Residency and Electric Innovations.

As an artist, Marcel tells stories that connect audiences to cultural and ancestral pasts while envisioning borderless futures. His work centers on joy as resistance to colonial narratives shaping the Black Canadian experience. Using digital technologies, Marcel expands access and fosters interactive, welcoming storytelling spaces.

An arts educator, Marcel has taught at the National Theatre School of Canada, Brock University, and Sheridan College. 

bcurrent.ca

folda.ca

Emerjade Simms is a Jamaican-Canadian actor and storyteller. She is a graduate of the Acting program at the University of Windsor and holds a BFA degree. Emerjade is also a 2016/17 graduate of the Mechanicals program at Factory Theatre. Select theatre credits include White Taffeta Silk: or Don’t Do It Bestie (TIFT), Come Home: The Legend of Daddy Hall (Tarragon), Every Day She Rose (Black Theatre Workshop), Sweeter*(Cahoots/Roseneath), Redbone Coonhound (Arts Club), Calpurnia (RMTC/NAC), The Mountaintop (Persephone Theatre), 1851: Spirit and Voice (Soulpepper/Myseum), 21 Black Futures: Omega Child (Obsidian/CBC), Peter Pan (Bad Hats/Soulpepper), School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play** (Obsidian/Nightwood), The Bird Killer (Let Me In). Television credits include Forbidden, Fear Thy Neighbor, See No Evil and Paranormal 911. Emerjade enjoys napping in her downtime and loves her mom like cooked food. *Dora Award Nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble (TYA). **Dora Award Winner for Outstanding Production. @em.er.jade on Insta. 

 Presented by   Cheri- Anne Byrne 

Type of Session:   Active Workshop (90 minutes) 

Target:   Elementary (Grades 1-4), Elementary (Grades 4-8), Experienced Arts Educators 

 The workshop will take delegates through pieces of a full project based unit which infuses cross-curricular pedagogy. Beginning with the possibilities of what a dream playground can look like for a community, educators will bring data collection, pattering elements of dance to life through movement. This workshop will also explore how to infuse role play through providing voice to inanimate elements found in nature and in play space. This workshop will highlight how drama and dance are used for understanding literacy and numeracy kinestheically. 

Delegates will be provided with a fully realized unit and outline of process and activities which will allow them to bring this experience direclty into their classrooms. Educators will also be provided with names of picture books which are used to support learning in this Unit. 

Cheri-Anne Byrne is an Ontario Secondary Drama and Dance educator with 17 years of classroom experience and the current treasurer of the Council of Ontario Drama and Dance Educators. Her teaching practice is anchored in infusing anti-oppressive and anti-colonial approaches to breakdown bias and barriers in educational spaces. She graduated from the University of Waterloo with an Honours degree in drama and obtained her BEd from Ottawa University.  Cheri-Anne has facilitated professional development at multiple CODE on the Road conferences, Alglonquin-Lakeshore, Hamilton-Wentworth and Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board.  Currently she is an consultant in Indigenous Education with a focus on supporting Indigenous Youth in DPCDSB 

 Presented by  Jillian Rahim

Type of Session:  Active Workshop (90 minutes)

Target:   Secondary (9-12), Experienced Arts Educators, Arts Researchers 

 What happens when we use our experiences to create connection and criticality? What does it look like for Black, Brown, Indigenous and other marginalized groups to access a dance space where they can develop practical skills to navigate a variety pathways? My workshop will explore the evolution and impact of South Asian and Caribbean diasporic dance, and include critical perspectives of movement from a variety of lenses. Participants will learn about the evolution and sociocultural context behind Bollywood film and dance. We will explore the norms, expectations, barriers and issues that challenge diverse Caribbean and 1st generation communities communities while learning how to promote culturally relevant dance and performance opportunities without appropriating culture. Participants will participate in a warm-up, skill building and short choreography to better understand the power of movement in learning.  

From our workshop presentation, delegates will learn and execute the basic mechanics of Kaeja Elevations, and watch more advanced variations of the technique. Through this exploration, they will learn how concepts in physics can be applied to mediums like dance, and how its practical application can allow for more dynamic and efficient movements. The workshop will provide an insight into physics outside of the classroom, and how Art and STEM intersect. 

The participants will receive both video demonstrations and written descriptions of the particular Elevations they learn.

Jillian Rahim is a Guyanese-Canadian dancer performer, entrepreneur and secondary arts educator who brings professional and entrepreneurial experience into the arts space. Jillian has represented South Asian and Indo-Caribbean dance styles on a variety of cultural and national stages including Calgary Stampede, National Arts Center of Ottawa, and DesiFest. She has a passion for making dance accessible to all learners, leading to her success as a Dance Educator. She has used dance as a learning tool throughout her own educational journey and seeks to provide life skills and deep insight into how movement and creation can support STEAM skills such as innovation, problem-solving as well as support literacy and numeracy gaps 

Presented by  Laurel Brown 

Type of Session: Active Workshop (90 minutes)

Target:   Elementary (Grades 4-8), Beginner or pre-service teachers 

This workshop looks at 

1) The Water Cycle and 

2) Physical Weathering and Erosion through arts-based movement. 

DANCE Overall Expectations:  A1. Creating and Presenting: apply the creative process to the composition of a variety of dance pieces, using the elements of dance to communicate feelings and ideas; A2. Reflecting, Responding, and Analysing: apply the critical thinking process to communicate their feelings, ideas, and understandings in response to a variety of dance pieces and experiences.

The Water Cycle refers to the process of evaporation, condensation, precipitation.  Weathering and Erosion refers to the processes where rocks and shells break down at the Earth’s surface and are transported away from their original site due to factors like water, wind and ice.  These processes play a crucial role in shaping the Earth's landscape over time.  

Vocabularies using the key points from the Water Cycle, Weathering and Erosion will be represented creatively with movement.  

Participants will apply the Elements of Dance - Body, Energy, Relationship, Space, Shape and Time as well as the 8 Efforts of Laban to create the phrases of movement.  Therefore, participants are asked to wear comfortable clothing and be willing to collaborate in small and larger groups as they create their performances, moving their body through the space from low to high positions. 

Delegates will learn how to use arts-based Dance strategies to enrich learning.  They will receive the workshop notes/handouts that include: the lesson plans with Minds On, Action and Consolidation; connections to the the Earth Sciences Curriculum for Grades 4-8, and the Specific Dance Arts Curriculum Expectations; Accommodations and Modifications; Assessment; and, Activity Extensions. 

Laurel Brown is a retired WRDSB secondary Dance and Drama educator who currently enjoys instructing teacher candidates at the Faculty of Education, Brock University, how to implement Drama and Dance strategies to enrich all curriculum for students.  

She is Past-President of Ontario Secondary School DANCEFEST (www.ossdancefest.ca).  after initiating and leading this unique dance celebration since she hosted the first event in 2003.  She held positions on the Board for the Council of Ontario Drama and Dance Educators (CODE) from 1996-2006 and returned in 2022 to be West Region Coordinator. She was also Treasurer of WORAAC, Western Ontario Regional Arts Advisory Committee. 

Laurel was presented with the Mentor Award from Kitchener Waterloo Arts Awards in 2004 for her work with youth - DANCEFEST and ACTING OUT, a musical theatre experience for youth in Stratford she began and was Artistic Director for 18 years.  She has directed and choreographed numerous productions over the years for schools and several regional theatre companies in Southwestern Ontario.  She is a triple-threat who last performed in Drayton Entertainment's It Runs In The Family in Cambridge and Grand Bend in 2022. 

Her background also includes curriculum writing and adjudicating the Wellington-Waterloo 2024 NTS Drama Festival.