Wandering Talks
Wandering Talks is a public series that invites a pair of Asian diasporic dance artists to be in conversation as they lead a group of people through a neighbourhood of personal significance—for example, where they live or work.
Talking while wandering is a rich mode for the public to learn more about an artist and connect a place to the artist’s creative process. Our identities both influence and are influenced by the places we inhabit. Each wandering talk will “emplace” each programmed artist: They will weave place, life, and art together as they explore topics of interest to them, focusing on their relationship to the land and the communities that gather there. Conversing with another artist adds dialogue and sociality while reflecting that we are formed and re-formed through our encounters with others.
Our next Wandering Talks event is coming up!
Next up we have Megumi Kokuba and Oliver Husain
Megumi Kokuba was born on the southernmost island of Japan, Okinawa. She studied ballet with joy from the age of two. After graduating from College in Okinawa, Megumi came across contemporary dance and was smitten. She moved to Toronto to train in dance and is a proud graduate of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre (now Dance Arts Institute). Megumi joined the company as a TD Dance Intern in 2012/2013, and she has had many inspiring creation and performance opportunities in Toronto ever since. As a dance artist, her main focus is to help the environment. Actions like listening, holding space and prioritizing active communication are at the forefront of her personal practice.
Artist and filmmaker Oliver Husain grew up in Germany and India and is based in Toronto, Canada since 2006. His projects are often collaborations with other artists and friends, and typically begin with a fragment of history, a rumor, a personal encounter, or a distant memory. He uses a wide range of cinematic languages, technical experiments, and visual pleasures—such as dance, puppetry, costume, and special effects—to animate his research and fold viewers into complex narrative set-ups. Collaborations with dancers and choreographers have been a consistent element of his practice, including work with Megumi Kokuba (French Exit, 2018, and Streamy Windows, 2020); Tripura Kashyap (Squiggle, 2005); Naishi Wang (not wanting to make a decision, but taking a stance anyway, 2014; Isla Santa Maria 3D, 2016); Deepak Kurki Shivaswami (were here, 2017); and Tanveer Alam (Beauties of Lucknow, 2023; Pink Schlemmer, 2025).
ARCHIVE
May 15 2025
Frequent collaborators and friends, Tanveer Alam @_tanveeralam_ and Atri Nundy, as they walk you through Cabbagetown and Regent Park, sharing the life and dance spaces that have been significant for them.
Wandering Talks with Bee Pallomina and Annie Katsura Rollins
November 24th, 1-2 pm 2025
Bee Pallomina, one of CanAsian Dance's Curatorial Committee Memebers is a dance artist who has worked with many choreographers and dance companies including Dancemakers and Dancetheatre David Earle. Long-term collaborative relationships include performance and creation with Amanda Acorn, Public Recordings, musician Germaine Liu and the Magandang Gana collective.
Annie Katsura Rollins is a researcher, community arts worker, theatre artist, and educator, with an artistic practice based in traditional Chinese shadow puppetry. She began an ongoing apprenticeship with traditional shadow puppeteers in China in 2008 and was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 2011 to continue the work. Annie completed a Phd in 2019 at Concordia’s University's Centre for Interdisciplinary Studiesin the Humanities and was named the Fine Arts valedictorian for her PhD dissertation on the precarity of safeguarding traditional puppet forms. She has created or collaborated on over 20 original puppetry works, which often incorporate movement and dance. Annie teaches at the University of Connecticut and Centennial College in Toronto and harnesses the transformational power of community arts to build community as the program manager at MABELLEarts in Toronto. Portfolio at www.anniekatsurarollins.com. Chinese shadow puppetry information at www.chineseshadowpuppetry.com.
