Inaugural YENSA Festival Celebrates Black Women in Dance

By Neil Armstrong

Photo credit: Dahlia Katz          Lua Shayenne

The YENSA Festival — the first Canadian international biennial festival that celebrates the work of women in dance from African and Afro-diasporic culture — is the result of meaningful exchanges over the past four years that Lua Shayenne, artistic director of Lua Shayenne Dance Company, had with many female Black dance practitioners based in Toronto. 

 

In 2018, they held an iteration of a small celebration with live dance and drumming that was successful. “The seed was planted from that event as well but I have to say nothing happens from one day to another. The many informal discussions that I had over the years with many Black women really underline the lack of such existing platforms.”

 

Shayenne gives credit to Soraya Peerbaye who was a senior program advisor with the Canada Arts Presentation Fund at the Department of Canadian Heritage and called her to tell her about a development grant for festivals and their need for Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) to apply. 

 

“She acknowledged the lack and thanks to her encouragement, her guidance, many conversations cause that’s what it takes, a whole year later we applied,” says Shayenne underscoring that the support of the funders has been essential.

 

She also consulted with festival leaders such as Vivine Scarlett from dance Immersion, Michael Caldwell and Ilter Ibrahimof of Fall For Dance North, Naomi Campbell of Luminato, and Jenn Goodwin of Nuit Blanche. Ibrahimof is mentoring Shayenne.

 

“These pillars of the dance community have been my support and I have to say the historic circumstances during COVID, I think, also highlighted even more so the need to give platforms to Black folks and not relegate us to the back.”

 

Lua Shayenne Dance Company was founded in 2011 and the artistic director says it has been a long journey.

 

The company is strongly culturally rooted in traditional West African dances says Shayenne while acknowledging that Africa is a continent and there are many dances.

 

“I do feel that our work has been boxed in a very specific pocket and seen in a very specific way because it is so strongly rooted in that particular genre. It’s not a white contemporary dance, let’s put it that way.”

 

Shayenne says for her it has been “a huge push to assert ourselves and claim the validity of what we have been presenting; and then on the other hand it has been great to see the evolution and the openness of the industry in terms of access to funding.”

 

She trained at Collective of Black Artists (COBA) and has noticed that there is definitely a difference in what the scene looks like now.

 

“It’s important for Toronto to start acknowledging the lack of specificity when we keep saying West African dance and that doesn’t mean anything or we say Caribbean dance and that doesn’t mean but we never say European dance. We say Irish dance, we’re very specific about white-centric dances. Why can’t we be? I’m slowly starting that process because you have to meet people half way through. You can’t just say I’m doing dances from Guinea right away because then people are scared.

 

“So with this festival, I think it’s an introduction to the variety of styles, genre, artistic practices that Black women have and offer.”

 

The activities are open to everyone, not just women and only Black women, says Shayenne.

 

“The whole idea is to create a platform where we could be heard, listened, and where we could share our knowledge and our contribution to the Canadian scene.”  

Photo credit: Dahlia Katz            Monique Pascall and Rose-Mary Harbans  

From August 13-28, the festival will feature workshops and performances by Tasha Ricketts, Tamla Matthews, Shameka Blake, Jaz ‘Fairy J’ Simone, Funmi Adewole, Esie Mensah, Ekspresyon, Lua Shayenne Dance Company, and more. 

 

It will begin with a series of workshops including: “Dancing the Cloth: The Joy of Skirts and Sashes in Caribbean Dance” with Tamla Matthews; Hip Hop Fusion Choreography by Shameka Blake; followed by a public talk and conversation titled “ Crafting the story of your choreography: for Black female dance artists” with Funmi Adewole; and much more.

 

The closing weekend will include performances at Daniels Spectrum’s Ada Slaight Hall showcasing black women in dance featuring: Jaz ‘Fairy J’ Simone, Artists in Motion Dance Company, Lua Shayenne Dance Company on August 26; Funmi Adewole, Esie Mensah, and Ekspresyon on August 27; and an ATSIA CIRCLE, a dance and drum celebration led by US master drummer Fara Tolno on August 28.

 

With the onset of the pandemic, they had to postpone the festival by one year — something that worked out well for Shayenne who describes planning a festival as quite daunting. 

 

“The enthusiasm was through the roof. The amount of support was yes, yes, and yes, count me in, and a lot of ‘it’s about time.’

 

“I think when we say it’s about time, I think when we speak of racial inequality and the place that women — especially the place that Black women occupy in society — I think it’s beyond ‘it’s about time.’ It doesn’t mean that we were waiting for some magic to happen. It’s just that we did not have the means to do it and the company barely has the means to do it in the sense that our capacity is still very small.”

 

Shayenne says her company has a small staff working on this inaugural festival and they are working very hard to grow and be sustainable and viable. 

 

“I’m grateful to be in this supportive cocoon with these women to show our practices and who we are today,” says Esie Mensah.

 

The festival includes an invitation only choreographers lab, a free public talk involving choreographers, dancers and the public that will be led by Funmi Adewole on August 19, with livestream and in-person options.

 

“We don’t want it to be an exclusive conversation. We don’t want it to be, oh, the Black community lives in its own bubble, absolutely not. We want white folks, Asian folks, all races, all genders, all identities and all ages to participate in this conversation because I strongly believe that unity can only be achieved when all parties are involved.

 

“It’s not a heavy topic. There may be deep thoughts that are shared but dance is also creative, it’s fun, it’s emotional so all the events that we’ve picked they are simple.” There are workshops where people can have an embodied experience, says Shayenne. 

 

The YENSA Festival invites audiences to participate and celebrate the incredible history and evolution of Black dance. 

 

Shayenne, whose mother is Ghanaian of Fanti ethnicity, and father, Italian, was born and raised in Côte d'Ivoire. It was her mother who gave her the word ‘yensa’ for the name of the festival.

 

“I actually spoke to my mom. I said to mom I really want some ideas for names and you need to be able to pronounce it, it needs to be simple, and she was like, oh, yensa/yenka. ‘Yensa’ means let’s dance and ‘yenka’ means let’s talk.”

 

 

The festival will spark conversations about the diversity of African Diasporic aesthetics, its histories and politics through performance, workshops, exhibitions, and public talks.

 

 The mission is to champion, highlight and present choreographic work by women of Black, African Diaspora and African descent. Its driving principles are solidarity, sisterhood and artistic excellence. 

 

 

The events will take place at Daniels Spectrum's Ada Slaight Hall in Regent Park and at Toronto Metropolitan University. Visit www.yensafestival.com for more information.