![speaker-photo](http://atlanticpresenters.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/SQx-Dance-1-PHOTO-Carmen-Moreira-scaled.jpg)
SQx Dance Company
MISSION: Use contemporary dance to promote kinship, collaboration, and teamwork.
PRIMARY ACTIVITIES: Since 2012, we have been creating and disseminating performances and performance programming. Both have a blended social-cultural theme that balances the promotion of art and culture with social change-making. Use dance to make the world a better place.
DEFINING VULNERABLE: We engage with people who have been systemically underserved in Canada’s history as well as those who currently experience hegemonic inequities (physical, economic, or social). In using the term “vulnerable,” we're not blaming or disempowering vulnerable populations. Instead, we recognize the systemic barriers that prevent people from fully participating in society. We also note that a person’s proximity to hegemonic characteristics (e.g. male, white, urban, cis, heterosexual, wealthy, able-bodied, and thin) affects their degree of vulnerability.
We have HIRING PREFERENCES because it’s critical to the identity of our organization, and it’s how we work towards continuously improving SQx and our programming and performances to ensure our work considers the experiences of diverse audiences and participants. Our goal by ensuring diverse artists are at the forefront of creation is to give voice and visibility to vulnerable populations. Each artist brings special knowledge and experiences that influence the social inclusivity outcome of our works.
What does SQx mean? A SeQuoia is a giant tree. And our programs and performances deliver a giant eXperience. All the above ensures that we’re always growing, which is why our logo is a tree and our name is derived from Sequoia tree. Big growth is part of our organizational vision. We’re a part of a forest; we’re a part of a community that nurtures us.
FR, EN, & ES: We present our work in both official languages and Spanish.
Our work is supported by Government of Canada, Province of British Columbia, Vancouver Foundation, Leon & Thea Koerner Foundation, Columbia Basin Trust, participACTION, Canadian Tire - Jumpstart, Governo dos Açores, and the European Commission.
Our has been presented across Canada as well as Portugal, Morocco, Spain, Norway, Italy, Greece, Germany, Serbia, Austria, England, Mexico, Poland, & Iceland.
Recent Highlights:
2019: Presentation at International Festival of Tale and Arts, Zagora, Morocco in collaboration with Global Affairs Canada.
2020: Creation of Active Inclusion Program: An interactive performance program using dance to disrupt discrimination, intolerance, racism, and hate.
2022: 10th Art of Management and Organization Conference: Art as Activism. Presented “Social Innovation in Interactive Performance Programming” in Liverpool, England.
2022: 2022 International Conference on Opportunities in the Arts: Create the Future in Boston, Massachusetts. Presented, “Digital Choreographic Solutions for the COVID Era”
2023: Publication of of Policy Paper, “Revolutionizing Arts Education Curriculum | Disrupting Discrimination & Racism Against Underserved Youth”
2023-24: Creation and presentation of Tidal Wave: a dance performance, outreach program, and screen dance in British Columbia, Iceland, & Portugal.