Generations of African-based vernacular continues in contemporary time. Join Miss Coco Murray in movements rooted in community engagement and social life of the Western region of Africa. Experience dancing in relationship to the live musicianship of polyrhythms from the ethnic communities in Guinea.

Collette “Coco” Murray is a dance artist-scholar, cultural arts programmer, and arts leader with a mobile, dance education business that amplifies Afro-diasporic dance vernacular. Murray is artistic director of Coco Collective, an intergenerational and multidisciplinary team offering culturally responsive projects in African and Caribbean arts. Murray received the 2022 Racial Justice Award in Creative Arts from Urban Alliance of Race Relations, recognized as one of 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women in 2020, and Toronto Arts Foundation’s 2019 Community Arts Award recipient for advancing cultural arts, anti-racism work in dance and significant contributions to creating access and inclusion to arts and culture. Murray pursues a Ph.D. in Dance Studies, holds a master’s in education, an Honours BA in Race, Ethnicity, and Indigeneity, and a Sociology BA from the University of Toronto. Murray leads with an EDI lens in the arts and dance sector as board chair of Dance Umbrella of Ontario, and board members of the National Council of Canadian Dance Assembly and Arts Etobicoke.

Photo by Christopher Cushman

*This workshop is free for participants thanks to the support of Arts in the Parks Toronto.