The Arrivals Personal Legacy Workshop has toured extensively across Canada, as well as in Europe, West Africa, the Caribbean and South America. It is the culmination of ten years of focused artistic research and draws on almost 30 years of experience as a theatre student, practitioner and educator by the founder of the process, Diane Roberts.
This innovative workshop is for artists working at the emerging, intermediate and senior levels; diverse First Nations & cultural communities; and artistic companies & organizations – all with a desire to connect in new ways to their authentic historic bodies as a powerful source for artistic expression, personal & community empowerment.
The individual and group experience of the APL workshop breaks down barriers of artistic, cultural & generational understanding. We gather diverse ethnicity, lifestyles & artistic practices and engage in a guided, physical process of exploring & exchanging the experiences, values, and traditions of each person’s chosen ancestor.
With a common language and process with which to explore and exchange emerging stories, artists and community members are inspired to preserve and disseminate them through traditional cultural expression and modern-day artistic practices.
Performers learn skills in grounding, listening, authentic exploration of space, increased body knowledge, and character development.
Writers and creators learn to tap into their creative source through embodied research, exploring personal and collective history.
Arts and cultural organizations discover a meaningful process of connecting with diverse Indigenous and cultural artists and communities.
Thank you to Green Shield Canada for financial support of this program.
Program Cost: $380 ($125 tuition+$255 meals/accommodations)
Local Price: $239 (program cost without overnight, without breakfast)
Please register at least 2 weeks in advance to secure your place in this program
Leadership
Diane Roberts
Diane Roberts is an accomplished director, dramaturge, writer and cultural animator who has collaborated with innovative theatre visionaries and interdisciplinary artists for the past 25 years. Diane has directed for such companies as Theatre Direct, The Company of Sirens, Black Theatre Workshop, b current, Cahoots Theatre Projects, Obsidian Theatre, Native Earth Performing Arts, Women in View Festival, The Sudbury Theatre Centre and The Stratford Festival. As Artistic Co-Director of Nightwood Theatre from 1994 to 1996, she spearheaded the Groundswell Festival of New Works by Women.
As Artistic Director of urban ink, Diane has found a home to articulate, cultivate and realise a vision for theatre that encourages Indigenous ways of knowing as a stepping stone to creative expression. Her celebrated Personal Legacy process has birthed new Interdisciplinary works across Canada, throughout the Americas, in the UK, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. www.urbanink.ca
Liliona Quarmyne
Liliona Quarmyne is a choreographer, performer, teacher, doula and community development facilitator who deeply believes that movement and art can play a central role in the development of self-identity, and in the growth and empowerment of communities. She is particularly interested in the body’s ability to link us to past and future generations.
Liliona draws on her Ghanaian/Filipino background, and on a diverse set of training and experiences – including dancing with Nyata Nyata, obtaining a Masters in African Studies, teaching extensively, working on the Arrivals Project, and running Generations in Motion – to generate a creative and unconventional vision of how we are in the world.
Shauntay Grant
Shauntay Grant, Program Resource Group (PRG) facilitator, is a writer, spoken word performer, and musician. She has shared her blend of words and music internationally at festivals and events, and she was named a Poet of Honour at the 2010 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in Ottawa. As Halifax’s third Poet Laureate (2009-2011) Shauntay organized Canada’s first national gathering of Canadian Poets Laureate in 2010.
Her first children’s picture book Up Home (Nimbus 2008) won a 2009 Best Atlantic Published Book Award, and her words and music have been featured nationally on radio, television, and in several anthologies. Shauntay conducts arts workshops and performances for youth and adults at festivals, schools and community centres around the country. A recipient of a 2011 INSPIRE Award from Big Brothers Big Sisters, she serves on the board of Youth Voices of Nova Scotia, and she is founder and curator of the Halifax-based arts-for-social-change performance series CommUNITY.