Mimi Beck, Founding Curator
Dedra McDermott, Co-Executive Artistic Producer
David Norsworthy, Co-Executive Artistic Producer
Neetika Sharma, General Manager
Catherine Romano, Education & Outreach Manager
720 Bathurst Street
Toronto, ON
M5S 2R4
Canada
We acknowledge the Toronto/Tkaronto as One Dish One Spoon Indigenous territory. We honour the ancestral caretakers of this land: the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Wendat and most recently the Mississaugas of the
Credit First Nation who have a Treaty relationship with Canada. We are grateful to have the opportunity to work in their community, on this territory. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and future.
DanceWorks is a community-focused, artist-centered choreographic presentation platform based in Tkaronto, what is colonially known as Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Established in 1977, and led by Founding Dance Curator Mimi Beck until 2023, the organization’s artistic vision is now stewarded by Co-Executive Artistic Producers, Dedra McDermott and David Norsworthy.
We curate vigorous and intentional choreographic performances that weave skillful physicality with a dedication to artistic practice and research.
We recognize the gift of presence that audiences bring and understand that the practice of witnessing performance takes time and trust to develop. DanceWorks earnestly welcomes the curious, the hesitant, the open-hearted and the subversive to gather—inviting audience members to experience a diversity of thought and expression. We are in dialogue with artists who represent the breadth of the wondrously atypical movement practices present on this land and critically engage with the violent and mystifying histories that shaped this nation, now known as Canada. As a community-focused organization that is ardently committed to belonging with Toronto’s dance communities, we work horizontally to respond to our sector’s needs and evolving potential.
Vision
DanceWorks contributes to the well-being and creative vibrancy of our society by:
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cultivating a space for artists and community alike to engage in a thoughtfully nuanced discourse that critically reflects on their contemporary lived experience.
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advancing the communities that engage with dance and choreography.
Mission
DanceWorks is a presenter of choreographic performance—championing stories, explorations, and lived experiences that challenge euro-centricity, heteronormativity and dominant culture to uplift the possibilities of life beyond the norm. We empower artists and audience members to hold difference, exchange knowledge, build community, and form bonds of solidarity.
Values
Reciprocity, Intersectionality, Transparency, and Accountability.