LITTLE ISLAND FESTIVAL
PIGPEN AND AYODELE CASEL

Meet two of the Artists-in-Residence at New York’s Little Island festival: Ayodele Casel and Arya Shahi of PigPen Theatre Company. They talk to us about how prioritizing underrepresented artists could be the catalyst for significant change in the city’s theatre industry. 

RANDELL ADJEI
ONTARIO'S POET LAUREATE 

Ontario’s first Poet Laureate, performing artist, and community leader Randell Adjei speaks with Smart Magazine about breaking free from structure, the transformative power of art and performance, and the beauty of finding poetry in everything.

JOFFREY BALLET
ASHLEY WHEATER - ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

"What we need to make sure happens is that there is access for people that want it. As one of our beautiful, beautiful Black dancers in the company, Dara Holmes, said: 'Not everybody wants to dance, but we have to make sure the support is there to see people succeed.'"

FALL FOR DANCE NORTH FESTIVAL
ILTER IBRAHIMOF - ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

"What we do is very social; we’re used to being in theatres for hours at a time together, creating, designing, chatting backstage, gossiping, planting seeds for future collaborations… this is where it happens. That just hasn’t been possible; I think that’s the difficult part: the transition. But I think we're transitioning to something hopeful, optimistic, and I think there is so much opportunity there for us to really expand our reach, expand how we create, how we present, how we connect our audience with the arts and the people behind the arts."

CHOREOGRAPHER x LIGHTHOUSE IMMERSIVE

GUILLAUME COTE - CHOREOGRAPHER

"I find what's special about dance is truly the connection with the flesh, the breath, the grounding, the personal relationship, the energy, the magnetism of the person and of the people connecting to each other. The one thing that I do feel that I very much am lacking – in ways of transferring dance to technology – is a little bit of that connection and that sensitivity of humanity."