History

In 1997, in the final days of Toronto’s Asian Heritage Month Festival, members of its Dance Committee created CanAsian Dance Festival, later known as CanAsian International Dance Festival.

Under the leadership of founding artistic director Denise Fujiwara, the festival was the centrepiece of CanAsian Dance’s programming, running for 18 years.

Eventually, the festival exposed a need: to nurture local, emerging, and mid-career choreographers. Shifting our focus, we created two new programs. In 2012, we launched KickStart. We gradually prioritized KickStart’s development while winding down the festival, which ended in 2015. In 2021, we launched Grit: Short Dances. Through these programs, we commission and present new works from local choreographers, and provide dramaturgy, mentoring, and other support. The programs now run in alternating years, with Grit focussing on emerging choreographers and serving as a seed program for KickStart.

After Denise Fujiwara departed in 2022, we engaged consultants to consult with community members, including our core contributors. Among our aims? To investigate models of co-leadership in which the artistic vision does not rest with a singular individual.

We also began revisiting our vision, mission, and values, taking an activist turn in keeping with the urgencies of our time. Prioritizing the creativity of Asian diasporic dance artists and practitioners of Asian dance forms, we aim to support dance artists who are working against the grain of white supremacy.