Fall for Dance North Festival

Kathak & Ballet: Signature Programme 3 opens tonight! ✨ Kathak & Ballet will astound you with its focus on two historic dance forms from eastern and western traditions.   🗓️Oct 23-25 📍Bluma Appel Theatre 🎟️Tickets are $25 (+fees) There’s limited tickets left for Saturday’s show, so get your tickets now before it’s too late! ✨Featuring the UK’s The Royal Ballet, India’s Nad-Roop Company and Dheerendra Tiwari, and Toronto’s own Tanveer Alam, KATHAK & BALLET will interweave highly codified dance forms and complex choreographic works to tell a new story of confluence and divergence across eastern and western movement traditions and aesthetics. 🇮🇳Kathak is a form of Indian classical dance traced to the 18th century, marked by extraordinary footwork, intricate arm movements and dazzling spins. 🩰Ballet dates back to the 15th Century and although completely different, its hallmarks are also footwork, intricate arm movements and spins. FFDN brings Kathak sensations and a jewel of the Ballet world together for an unforgettable evening of virtuosic artistry.🤩

Fall for Dance North Festival returns! Save the date for FFDN 2026 spotlighting Canadian and international professional dance of all forms. 🗓️October 15 - 25, 2026 📍St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts Co-Presented by TO Live Pre-sale tickets get released early for newsletter subscribers on June 16th! Become a newsletter subscriber today & get first access to front row seats.🍿✨ Signature Programmes only $25 +fees for single tickets, and discounted festival packages will be available!🎟️ We can’t wait to share the full-festival lineup in just a few short weeks! Don’t think, just fall🤍

Opening night for HOMEGROWN: Signature Programme 2 💫 You have two more chances to celebrate the global connectivity of Toronto’s dance scene! ✨A bold new work from The National Ballet of Canada by Ethan Colangelo ✨International Street Dance sensation Lady C’s 2024 Dora Award-winning solo CYMATIX ✨Traditional West African Dance from Lua Shayenne Dance Company ✨A world premiere by Nigeria’s Ambrose Tjark and Brampton’s Kwasi Obeng Adjei 📍 Bluma Appel Theatre 🗓️ Oct 18-19 🎟️ Tickets $25 (plus fees) Get your tickets now!

Announcing 2026 Signature Programme Co-curator Kwasi Obeng-Adjei!🌟 Kwasi has been working closely with FFDN Artistic Director Robert Binet to curate a programme that will make you fall in love with dance all over again. 🤍 “As Co-Curator at FFDN this year, what I hope to accomplish is fostering a space of community, inclusivity, and creating an environment where people from all backgrounds and walks of life feel welcomed, valued, and inspired to connect through a shared love of dance and creativity. I believe that when individuals feel seen and supported, we are able to build deeper, more meaningful, and long-lasting connections.” - Kwasi Obeng-Adjei More about Kwasi: A Brampton-based multidisciplinary artist, emerging choreographer, and dance educator whose practice is rooted in traditional African forms and African street dance. With over a decade of experience in the dance community, Kwasi has built an impressive performance and creative resume, including appearances with the Pan Am Games, Giants of Africa Gala, Raptors Halftime Show, Asake Canadian Tour, AfroFest, Luminato Festival, Kultureland Festival, and many more. Kwasi’s choreographic journey expanded in 2023 when he presented an original work at Night Shift, produced by Citadel + Compagnie and co-presented with Fall for Dance North. Drawing on a free-form, exploratory approach, his work is driven by connection, cultural lineage, and curiosity. In 2025, Kwasi presented Echoes of the Same Tree in collaboration with Nigerian-based artist Ambrose Tjark as part of Homegrown Signature 2 programming for Fall for Dance North, marking a significant milestone in his artistic development. Images: 1 & 8 - Kwasi Obeng-Adjei, Photo: Amanda Lee Coffey 2 & 5 - Amelie Giusta and Kwasi in Devon Healey and Esie Mensah’s “Dancing With Blindness” from Up Next: Signature Programme 4 (2025), Photo: Drew Berry 3 & 8 - Percy Anane Dwumfour and Kwasi in Ambrose Tjark and Kwasi’s “echos of the same tree” from Homegrown: Signature Programme 2 (2025), Photo: Bruce Zinger 4 & 7 - Kwasi, and Kwasi and Percy in the COC Free Concert Series (2025), Photo: Dan Truong 6 - Kwasi and Ambrose holding 2025 FFDN Festival merch

Fall For Dance North’s International Presenters Program (IPP) is back October 21 - 24, 2026, and we are inviting local professional dance artists to apply for our Open Call.📣 IPP is an opportunity for Canadian artists to showcase their tour-ready work, and engage with national and international dance presenters, curators, artistic directors and cultural leaders. 🗓️Program Dates: Oct 21-24, 2026 ✍️Apply by: June 18th, 2026 🔔Results Notification: End of July Local artists are offered venue space and basic technical support for a 15 minute showcase, as well as an IPP artist badge to access the program’s events and activities, networking opportunities with presenters, and discounted tickets to Fall for Dance North Festival performances.  Artists will also receive guidance from industry experts and past successful artists as part of a newly initiated “Pitch & Network” workshop, to help prepare their showcase in advance of the program. 🔗For more information see link in bio!

Happy International Dance Day! 💃🩰🤸🏼‍♀️🙆🕺🎉 Celebrating dance is at the heart of what we do at Fall for Dance North. Every year, our festival invites you into an intergenerational, intercultural celebration of movement that truly brings down the house. None of this happens alone—it takes diverse partnerships with dance organizations, presenters, curatorial voices, venues, arts service organizations, and educational institutions. And above all, it happens because we let artists lead: curators, choreographers, scholars, creators, and dancers who ask us—and you—to rethink what dance can be. We nurture those artists by commissioning original work, putting local and international artists on the same program, and building year-round residencies and mentorships. Because our work doesn’t stop when the festival ends. Through international connections and professional development, we help amplify Canadian talent globally. And through the festival itself, we help grow audiences for professional dance all year long. Together, we strengthen, enrich, and celebrate the vibrant dance ecology of Toronto and of Canada.🇨🇦 So today, we celebrate dance the way we always do: together, accessibly, bravely, and with deep respect for the artists who make it all possible.🥳💐✨🪩👏

In honor of National Volunteer Week, we want to extend a heartfelt thank you to our amazing volunteers who always greet our audiences with a warm smile. 🫶 We are grateful for all you do in contributing to a successful festival each year. We couldn’t do it without you!🎉

ꜱᴛᴇᴘ ᴏɴᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴀɴᴄᴇ ꜰʟᴏᴏʀ 🎉 no seats, no expectations, just rhythm, movement, & connection. Fall for Dance North is excited to join Luminato Festival in partnership on their presentation of Katma by Azzam Mohamed. Many of you may have seen Azzam at FFDN’s Up Next in 2025. Get your tickets now and join Azzam on the dance floor! KATMA By: Azzam Mohamed Presented by Luminato Festival in partnership with Fall For Dance North Wednesday, June 17 – Saturday, June 20, 2026  Ada Slaight Hall - Daniels Spectrum Created & directed by Azzam with the “Katma” team, this immersive, all-ages club experience draws from underground party cultures from Sudan to Australia and legendary dance spaces around the world.  Performed by seven dancers blending street and club styles, from breaking and hip-hop to house and Afro dance! This performance unfolds as a living ritual shaped by music, movement, and the energy in the room. 🙌 This show is designed as a welcoming space for everyone — whether you’re a seasoned clubber or simply curious — “Katma” invites audiences to witness, move, and feel the pulse of the dancefloor together.🪩

Experience as a Box Office Manager?🤔 Fall for Dance North is hiring! Apply before April 15th, 2026 for this hybrid position to work closely within FFDN & with our ticketing partner TO Live. Think this is the right opportunity for you? Learn more about this role by visiting our website: ffdnorth.com > About Us > Join Our Team Apply today!

Dance break anyone? 🩰💃🕺🏼 What better way to spend time between meetings. We promise we’re working hard on planning for this year’s festival! Stay tuned for a pt2🙈

More on our 2026 Artist-in-Residence: Alyssa Martin✨ 📣 Our Artist-in-Residence program is designed to meet mid-career artists at a pivotal moment, giving them the skills and momentum to build international recognition through: 🤸 Choreography: Creating work for the FFDN stage. 🪴 Curation: Bringing a unique curatorial voice to support festival programming. 🤝 Community Engagement: Connecting with artists and the audiences at the heart of it all. Alyssa creates genre-defying dance-theatre rooted in athleticism and absurdity. She is known for her humour, empathy, and an anti-patriarchal ethos that challenges convention while prioritizing collective responsibility and play.🎭 Surprises are in store! Stay tuned for what’s to come with our Artist-in-Residence. Photographer: Drew Berry @drewberry.photography

🌙 Night Shift applications open! We are now seeking works by professional dance artists to present at Night Shift 2026, our annual late-night event taking place at The Citadel: Ross Centre for Dance, October 15-16-17, 2026.  Working in partnership with Fall for Dance North, Night Shift will present 3 individuals, collectives, or companies per night, providing a total of 9 unique performance opportunities, as part of Fall for Dance North 2026.  Application Deadline: April 17, 2026 @ 11:59PM EDT Edited by Juliette Coleman