August 1, 2018 – February 1, 2019
Fourth year movement for actors course, Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Toronto. Photo credit: Alyson Hardwick
Seika Boye is a scholar, writer, educator and artist whose practices revolve around dance and movement. She is a Lecturer at the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of the Toronto, where she teaches practical and lecture courses.
From 1995-2010 Seika performed and presented her choreography across Canada. She danced professionally with Ballet Creole, Electric Company Theatre, Judith Marcuse Projects, Lucie Mongraine, Sarah Febrarro and other independent choreographers. Most recently, Seika has worked as a movement dramaturg with Syreeta Hector (Distant Histories, 2018-19); Deanna Bowen (The Long Doorway, 2017/Gibson Duets 2019); Heidi Struass/adelheid dance (re*research choreographic intensive, 2018); and Djanet Sears (Adventures of Black Girl in Search of God, 2015).
Invested in movement histories and the archive, Seika’s current research explores blackness and dancing in Canada. In 2018, she curated the archival exhibition It’s About Time: Dancing Black in Canada 1900-1970 (Dance Collection Danse Gallery/ OCAD Ignite Gallery). Her publications include writing for Dance Chronicle, Canadian Theatre Review, alt.theatre, The Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism, Performance Matters, Dance Collection Danse Magazine, and The Dance Current. Besides being Director of the Institute for Dance Studies (UofT), she participates in and collaborates on a range of research communities and projects including the Toronto Photography Seminar and Gatherings: archival and oral histories of Canadian performance (SSHRC Partnership Development).
Seika’s book project Dancing on Dime: Social Dance within Toronto’s Black Population at Mid-century, is contracted to McGill-Queens University Press. Her research was supported by the Ontario Graduate Scholarship and SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship. She completed her doctoral degree at the University of Toronto in 2016. Seika was recently appointed as an Adjunct Curator at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto. Seika lives and works in Toronto with her husband and their two sons.
This is a unique residency; Seika will be in residence concurrently with Sandra Brewster over a period of six months. This will allow the artists to share the studio space, their ideas and experiences. Areas of focus for both artists synergize around ideas of accumulation; photography and representation; animating the archive.
Cover design: Laura Rojas