Tuesday, April 29, 2025
05:30 pm – 7 pm

Dance Collection Danse is launching an annual lecture series to be held each April to celebrate International Dance Day and honour DCD’s co-founders. The lecture will form the first event in the new Dance History Downtown series held in collaboration with Canada’s Theatre Museum.

The ability to record and preserve dance history in Canada was fundamentally transformed by the work Lawrence and Miriam Adams began in 1986, when they founded Dance Collection Danse following their Encore! Encore! Reconstruction Project.

Programming, publishing, research, and education are threads that have been woven into DCD’s sense of dance in this country because of their vision and forethought. Popularizing Canada’s dance history is the foundation of DCD, grounded in the belief that one can tell a good story rooted in solid research.

Please join us for this inaugural event

Location: Canada’s Theatre Museum at The Elgin & Winter Garden Theatres 189 Yonge St., Toronto, ON M5B 1M4  Terrace Level Lobby, 3rd Floor

RSVP: [email protected]

Featuring Guest Speaker Sashar Zarif

Dance artist, researcher, and educator Sashar Zarif has conducted intensive ethnographic research into Sufi/Shamanic performing rituals (including both dance and music); traditional dance and music and contemporary popular culture of the Western and Near Asian regions. He will speak about his research and his own story in dance. The lecture will be followed by a short Q&A and reception.

Sashar Zarif a multidisciplinary artist, performer, scholar, and mentor who bridges rural traditions and contemporary institutions. With over 30 years of experience across 40 countries, he specializes in the intersections of dance, music, and stories within traditional and ritualistic practices of Western and Central Asian cultures, focusing on Sufi and Shamanic arts within Islamic societies. Through his signature approach, Living Stories, Zarif weaves together reflective research, transformative education, dynamic creation, and collaborative performance to explore cultural Heritage, embodiment, and narrative as dynamic, living experiences rather than static records of the past. As both an artist and scholar, he bridges academic inquiry and creative expression to reimagine and preserve these traditions in contemporary contexts. As founder and director of the Sashar Zarif Dance Company, he cultivates a heritage that honors cultural roots while adapting to the present, inviting a vibrant cross-cultural dialogue that connects personal reflection with communal unity.