U of T researcher brings more than 70 years of Black dance history across Canada 

A collaborative research initiative led by Seika Boye is uniting scholars, artists and communities to preserve Black performance histories in Canada.  

“If you ask anyone, anywhere, globally, ‘Where are you allowed to dance? Where do you have fun dancing? Where is it safe and who makes the rules about where you can dance?’ you’ll learn so much about that community, society or institution,” says Boye, an assistant professor, teaching stream in the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto. 

Boye is among several researchers from various institutions leading the Gatherings Project, which is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and focuses on preserving Black performance histories. 

One of the projects supported by Gatherings is Boye’s long-term project It’s About Time: Dancing Black in Canada 1900–1970 and Now, an archival exhibition highlighting the often-undocumented history of Black performance in Canada. Launched in 2018, the nationally touring exhibition features biographies of influential performers, the media reception of their work, significant dance sites and legislation that sought to restrict performance and social dancing. 

Its impact extends beyond the gallery. 

Through It’s About Time, Boye has trained artists and students across Canada in archival research related to Black performance histories. The exhibit also commissions local Black artists in each host city to respond to the material.   

“For artists, it helps them to understand the legacies that they’re working within and the historical context that may impact their artistic practice or their social engagement,” Boye says.  

“We’re also building a body of material that will be further resources for researchers to use when they’re thinking about dancing history.” 

The exhibit will be displayed at Dalhousie University from January to April, its fifth stop of the tour. At Dalhousie, the focus will include honouring the history and considering the future of African Nova Scotians with new archival materials. 

Opening night included a reading by George Elliott Clarke, award-winning poet, playwright and professor in the department of English at U of T. Born in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Clarke has written extensively about African Nova Scotian and African Canadian life, garnering national honours including the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Order of Nova Scotia.  

The exhibition also features new works and performances by Nova Scotia-based artists, including quiltmaker Anja Clyke; visual artist Preston Pavlis; photographer Allen D. Crooks, whose photographs document an anniversary celebration in East Preston, one of Canada’s oldest and largest Black communities; and a performance and installation by choreographer kay macdonald. Paintings by Nigerian Canadian artist Ibe Ananaba celebrate Nigerian street dance to reflect on recent Black migration to the province.  

“We wanted to emphasize the more than 400-year presence of a distinctly Black Canadian community here,” says Pamela Edmonds, director and curator of the Dalhousie Art Gallery.  

“The exhibition speaks to the heart of Black Nova Scotia and Black Canada – the past, the present and future.”  

The exhibition also draws on photographs and videos from the Nova Scotia Archives, including images of dances hosted at the Conway Public School in Digby, Nova Scotia in the early 1950s. While the show centres joy, social dance and community, it also points to the historical barriers Black communities faced in gathering and performing. Alongside new images from Nova Scotia, Boye has included a ‘Questions for Future Research’ element to support teachers visiting the exhibition and to encourage students and researchers to consider dance as a point of focus and exploration. 

Edmonds says the collaborations behind It’s About Time reflect a collective responsibility for how Black histories are preserved and shared.  

“When archives, curators and institutions collaborate, there’s a stronger chance the material is presented with care, accuracy and community responsibility,” Edmonds says. 

Innovation in dance studies 

For Boye, whose career began as a professional modern and post-modern dance artist, taking research into community is central to her practice. 

She founded the Institute for Dance Studies in 2016 to connect dance researchers and advocate for the value of dance scholarship beyond performance. The non-curricular institute supports interdisciplinary and non-traditional approaches, including scholar talks, workshops, and a 2024 pilot Dance Artist in Residence program with Hart House to support academic and community dance initiatives. 

Boye will work with the Dalhousie’s Fountain School of Performing Arts to support learning from the exhibition and to provide an example of the important role dance studies can have in performance training.  

“Dance is the site for innovation in academia because it’s so much more than performance,” Boye says. “It’s a way of knowing, connecting and innovating across disciplines.”  

“It is essential that work that happens within the university reaches the communities, artists, studios and the dance floors where people come together and do the dancing that we are writing and thinking about.” 

BRN Brilliance is a multimedia series produced by the Black Research Network. The series spotlights Black-led interdisciplinary research, teaching and collaboration at the University of Toronto.