Mushtari Afroz
Dancer, Choreographer and Artist-Researcher; Current Creative Partner
Originally from Bangladesh, Mushtari Afroz is a dancer, choreographer, and artist-researcher based in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). She initially trained in various Bengali folk dances in Bangladesh before devoting her focus entirely to the North Indian classical dance form, Kathak. Over the span of more than 20 years, Mushtari honed her skills under the guidance of various Kathak gurus and mentors from Toronto and India. In addition to Kathak, she trained in Capoeira and “Yorchha,” a contemporary Indian dance vocabulary that blends Odissi dance, Chhau dance, and Vinyasa Yoga, developed by Ananya Dance Theatre, USA. These diverse influences inform her body with movement possibilities and multiplicity in approaches to embodiment. Since 2016, Mushtari has embarked on a new journey as a choreographer, creating stage-based solo and ensemble pieces that dialogue with contemporary social, political, and cultural ideologies. She employs the movement aesthetics of Indian classical dances and other South Asian body-based movement vocabularies as the foundational form for her dance creations. Her works have been presented to audience in Toronto, New York, California, and Chicago.
In recent years, Mushtari’s artistic practice has ventured into new territories. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent closure of performing arts venues, Mushtari embraced the city’s public spaces as allies, utilizing them to explore her creative impulses. This shift coincided with her enrollment in the artistic research MA program, “Performing Public Spaces,” at Fontys Academy of the Arts in the Netherlands, which she completed in 2023. During her time at Fontys, she cultivated an interdisciplinary practice termed ‘Choreosensing.’In this new practice, Mushtari creates site-specific dance works and performative interventions, delving into the interplay between the built environment and the human body and mind. Her focus lies in examining how the carefully curated materiality and sensoriality of urban public spaces strategically control the performance of everyday life in neoliberal cities and how they contribute towards the constitution of fixed identities and functionalities of these urban spaces, prompting questions about their publicness.Through embodied walking she immerses herself in the tangible and sensory aspects of public spaces; through attentive observation, she deciphers the urban choreography of people within these spaces; through choreographic thinking she creates dance and performative interventions as an emancipatory praxis, offering alternative narratives for these spaces; and by sharing it with the public through participatory practice she invites city dwellers to re-evaluate and re-imagine their relationship with their public spaces, fostering genuine transformation in their citizenship.
Shawn Barry
Musician, Graphic Designer; Past Creative Partner
Shawn, a traditional creative professional with a background of working in national advertising and marketing agencies, has developed a strong portfolio with brands like Coca-Cola, Olympics, P&G, Molson and Labatt over the course of his 25 year career. One day, Shawn chose to leave the full time agency environment to expand his skills into digital design and formed Booster Rocket Media in November 2013.
Shawn, as Booster Rocket Media, began working with freelancers of various disciplines, including camera operator Nolan Riley and the late Anthony Taylor, photographer and developer. Shawn added these two new friends and associates to the BRM collective and began taking projects such as concept development, graphic design, web design and development, along with video production, post production and animation. Shawn, a musician of many years, is also involved in many arts projects, recording, producing and editing dance and music events for many artists, particularly in the South Asian classical arts.
Noor Alimran
Actor, Musician, Dancer; Current Creative Partner
Noor Alimran has trained for over 10 years in Contemporary Dance, Kathak and Hip Hop. As a principal dancer with several dance companies Noor has performed in dance dramas and dance shows at Toronto Fringe Theatre Festival for three years in addition to various company shows and corporate events. He had also been one of the dancers at the Opening Ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. In addition to dance, Noor has also trained as a theatre actor within multiple studios across Toronto. When he isn’t performing on stage, Noor has worked as a choreographer and also dabbled in dramaturgy to bring real, grounded and human stories to stage using dance and acting performances to bring awareness to ignored and forgotten stories of human struggles. Besides theatre, Noor has a keen interest in music and has been training for around 8 years in Indian Classical Music-vocal.
Tanveer Alam Shawjeeb
Semi-classical Vocalist and Music Composer
Tanveer Sajeeb Alam is a Semi-Classical Vocalist specializing in Nazrul Geeti(a major genre in Bengali Semi-Classical stream) and a music composer specializing in the collaboration between North Indian Classical Music and World Music. He was a child prodigy winning many national competitions including the largest one in Bangladesh titled ‘Notun Kuri’ at the age of only 7. His passion for Nazrul Geeti led him to study at one of the finest fine arts schools in Bangladesh ‘Bulbul Lolitokola Academy’ from which he graduated with distinction in 1991. Later he studied at Toronto Film School and graduate with a B.A. degree in Sound Technology with an intention to apply the knowledge in music composition.
As a solo vocalist Tanveer has been presenting his live work at many major concerts and Television shows in Bangladesh, USA and Canada since the early 90’s. He has released his first solo album ‘Shadharon Eakdin’ sponsored by Muktodhara, New York in 1998 and since then he has released 5 solo albums. Tanveer started writing and composing his own songs since early 1990 and released two songs in the album ‘Urban Turban’ by a Toronto based band TASA in 2005. Since then he has composed scores for many commercials, short films, theatre and documentaries. He has also delivered university level courses and workshops on sound engineering to art organizations and universities in Bangladesh. In 2006, Tanveer went back to Bangladesh to further explore her passion in Bengali music. Recently, he is hosting a music show ‘Gaanwala’ in a private TV channel Nagorik TV in Bangladesh. Despite being a busy musician Tanveer shares his time and musical experience with family and friends between Bangladesh and Canada.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOMQXWgPNwRgEGq3-CLxLyA
Dewan Masud Karim
Professional Engineer, City Planner, Published Author, Researcher; Photographer
In the labyrinth of urban tales, Dewan Masud Karim emerges, a sage of 25 years steeped in the symphony of urban mobility. From the sakura-scented streets of University of Tokyo to the mosaic paths of Toronto Metropolitan University, he crafts symphonies of possibility in the realm of multimodal mobility. He wears the robes of engineering across four Canadian provinces. His voice resonates in global amphitheaters unveiling the secret patterns of human mobility, creative public space reclaims, and downscaling mobility facilities to match the basic instinct of human mobility code. His accolades include special awards like “Best Planning System” from MIT Media Lab and “Project of the Year” from ITE in 2015. Beyond applause, his pen inscribes a chapter in “Disrupting Mobility” and authors “Shifting Mobility” in its entirety. In addition to his professional career, he leveraged photography as a powerful visual medium to showcase his concepts and ideas related to public spaces. While engaged in public service and cultural venues, he served as an official photographer and videographer for various artistic research projects, supporting public space exploration, performances, and cultural activities.
Taskin Anha
Dancer
Taskin is a dedicated Bharatanatyam dancer hailing from Bangladesh. She trained under the esteemed Amit Chowdhury from Bangladesh, with additional guidance from Rajdeep Banerjee of Kolkata and Smt. Kirti Ramgopal of Bangalore, India. Her training was undertaken through Kolpotoru, a branch of Shadhona – A Center for Advancement of Southasian Culture. Under the artistic direction of Lubna Marium, she has flourished, gaining numerous opportunities to perform in Shadhona’s dance productions and represent her country on international tours.
In addition to classical Bharatanatyam, she has a diverse dance repertoire that includes folk dances and dances influenced by Rabindranath Tagore. Recently relocated to Canada, she continues to pursue her passion for dance, bringing the rich cultural heritage of South Asian performing arts to new audiences.
Christine Samuel
Dancer
Christine Samuel is an Indonesian-born Odissi dancer based in Toronto. Her love for dance started when she was a child, watching Javanese and Balinese dance performances on TV every evening. She was mesmerized by the unique movements of the dancers. Although she never took dance training as a child, the Indonesian dance styles were deeply imprinted in her movement of expression.
After she immigrated to Canada at the age of 26, she started getting more exposure to different cultures. She found familiarity in Classical East Indian dance with the dance styles she knew as a child. After all, the East Indian’s influence is deeply rooted in Balinese and Javanese culture and ancient history.
In her 30’s she decided to reconnect with a childhood passion and began training in dance. For the first nine years, she studied Bharatnatyam under the tutelage of Janak Khendry in Toronto, In 2017, she decided to explore Odissi Style and since then she has been training with Saveeta Sharma, from Upasana the Spirit of Dance.
She has been performing in the annual Odissi student recitals. A woman [Sinful] Desire will be her first debut performing as an emerging artist.