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Article: Black Dance in Toronto.
- Article from:
- Dance Magazine
- Article date:
- February 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Dance Magazine, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A New Voice in the Global Village
In 1960, Toronto was a sleepy outpost of the British Empire. Four decades later, the city has become a vibrant global village that boasts a hundred languages and dialects as mother tongues. Today Afro-Canadians make up one-fifth of Toronto's population, and black choreographers are beginning to express a unique voice that speaks from their own ethnic and racial experiences.
The overwhelming majority of Toronto's Afro-Canadians come from the former British islands of the Caribbean. Curiously, although Jamaicans are the largest group, professional dance is dominated by Trinidadians. As one "Trini" quipped to this writer: ...