RBC Pilot Episodes: Public Sharing with Miss Coco Murray
Friday December 17 at 4:00 p.m. EST
Curious about what’s happening during RBC Pilot Episodes and the discoveries that are taking place? Join us online or in person on December 17 for a Public Sharing to find out what creator Miss Coco Murray is experimenting with in the studio.
Coco will be sharing and discussing some of the material she generated during her week with the company, reflecting on her Pilot Episodes journey and the different ideas they have unearthed in rehearsals. The TDT ensemble and program co-facilitators Tedd Robinson and Andrew Tay will join the conversation, followed by an open discussion with attendees.
RBC Pilot Episodes is a series of one-week residencies in which choreographers or creators have the opportunity to work with TDT’s dancers for the first time. Learn More
Special thank you to RBC Foundation for supporting this program.
About Miss Coco’s Research
What is our conversation today, in a pandemic reality?
Dance is beyond performance in Africa, as it is embodied experience and has a continuity with the past, as it evolves. Miss Coco’s choreographic research residency explores this question with Mandinka and Susu dance-music systems from the Guinean region in West Africa. Through neo-traditional movement, we interrogate how can we shift from remote learning to interact in ‘pandemic’ spaces and rebuild community? Discussions around culture, structure, functions, space, embodiment, interactions and the symbiotic relationship with drummers are included. How will participants respond polyrhythmically, through and out of a pandemic? An interactive dialogue awaits with Collette “Coco” Murray and an ensemble of live musicianship from Coco Collective drummers.
Photo by Sean Harrison
About Miss Coco Murray
Collette “Coco” Murray is a dance educator and cultural arts programmer. Her performance background ranged in Caribbean Folk, traditional West African and other diasporic dance styles. Her artistry includes performance, teaching, arts education, mentorship, research, and writing. This award- winning artist is recognized as one of 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women honouree in 2020 and the 2019 recipient of the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Community Arts Award. Murray pursues a PhD in Dance Studies at York University. Along with Miss Coco Murray, her mobile, dance education business, Murray also is the Artistic Director of Coco Collective offering culturally-responsive projects connecting participants to African and Caribbean arts.