What We Do

Photo of Ranganathan Rajan from Entry Waves 2025 by Fran Chudnoff

Vision Statement

CanAsian Dance strives to create a supportive and inclusive environment that centres, amplifies and celebrates the creativity of Asian diasporic dance artists, facilitating dialogue and cultural exchange, nurturing creativity, diversity and community solidarity.

Our work remains centred on dance, with four pillars of development:

  • Programming that supports artists, builds community and strengthens ties between different dance forms practiced within Asian diasporic dance communities.

  • Creating programming and presentation contexts that foster criticality and knowledge-sharing, and recenter the dance sector to a more representative one.

  • Developing reciprocal relationships with organizations (within and outside of Ontario) that share our curiosities and values in amplifying Asian diasporic dance activity.

  • Public programming that focuses on audience and community development to continue developing diverse conversations and familiarization with and appreciation of artists of the Asian diaspora and their work and processes.

Photo of Wandering Talks 2025 artists by Fran Chudnoff
Photo of Magic Mixing Montreal 2025 artists by Phil Creamer

CanAsian Dance is situated in Tkaronto, a Mohawk word meaning “the place in the water where the trees are standing.” It is the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples, and it continues to be the home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.

This land is under the Dish with One Spoon covenant, an agreement between the Anishinaabeg and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. This land is a dish to be shared and cared for and we all share one spoon; the spoon is to be used to take only what is needed and to leave enough for others, thus ensuring a viable and abundant future. We recognize the enduring resilience of Indigenous peoples and we acknowledge that we are accountable to these relationships and these agreements. 

We carry these values of responsibility in sharing and caring in abundance with consideration of not only ourselves but of our communities that we share together.

Land Acknowledgement

We are grateful to the following funding partners for their ongoing support