October already feels like SO long ago with all that has been happening in the world. As COIVD-19 numbers continue to increase across Ontario, Branch Collective continues to feel thankful that we decided to keep all programming online. Dancing with one another online does not have the same magic as dancing with one another in person, but we hope that our meeting online builds a small bridge from your home to ours. In October we had some awesome dancers lead Monthly Practice ONLINE workshops. Below is some information for you to continue to follow and get to know who they are.
GORGEOUS portraits from StudioBabyCupid
Simisola Tayo
Simi lead Freestyle House + Hip Hop class every Friday in the month of October and has provided us with an awesome playlist to keep you moving as the days get shorter.
We also NEED some absolutely images of Simi captured by aKaiserPhoto. This fall, Branch Collective set up out first community focused photo shoot, providing local dancers with an opportunity to work with Mike and Brittany of aKaiserPhoto for free and walk away with movement photos and a head shot. This collaboration also provides Branch Collective with images for our social media, empowering us to promote and share images of local dancers and avoid dance stock photos. Now we have beautiful photos of movers from our community. The photo shoot was a huge success and we look forward to hosting more collaborative shoots in the future!
In the meantime, take a look at some of Simi’s absolutely awesome shots:
Tanveer Alam
Branch Collective had the absolute pleasure of inviting Tanveer to teach as a part of Monthly Practice for the second time! Dancing with him this past October reminded me of how fun it was to dancing with him in person. In November, 2019, Tanveer led a workshop open to the public at Thorneloe University as well as a class at Sudbury Secondary School for the dance students.
Tanveer teaches at the Collective Space (221 Sterling Rd,Toronto, Unit 5) near Lansdowne station on Sundays from 2-5pm. For those of us who are not in Toronto, Tanveer is also open to teaching online! You can reach out to him on instagram, facebook, or his website. Of course Tanveer has put together a playlist, check it out!
Ixta Richie
Branch Collective has been trying to find a way to work with Ixta for a long time now. Pre-COVID, our team was working with Ixta on an absolutely awesome project that was slated for August 2020. Of course, the project did not happen (as it was meant to be a live, in-person project), but we hope to revive this collaboration when it is eventually safe to gather once again. And yes, that was an intentionally teaser for the AWESOMENESS that is to come in the future. In this time, we all need things to look forward to, and we look forward to resuming our collaboration with Ixta in the future.
We were SO excited that she could join us in this workshop series and lead her workshop Contemporary Movement throughout October.
Ixta is a member of the team at Dance Evolution, well as frequently teaching in the public school system. Follow her on the gram to stay in touch and know when she is teaching in the future. Make sure to stay groovy with her playlist!