Black Excellence – Rodney Diverlus

February is Black History Month. To honour Black excellence in the dance community, we’re spreading the word about some amazing Black artists and their upcoming events and creations. Today we’re highlighting Rodney Diverlus.

Rodney has an upcoming solo in Wind in the Leave Collective’s Allies and Friends series, which is being presented by Citadel + Compagnie. The program interweaves poetry and movement in performance. Shows  on March 24/25th at 8pm

Their work, vagabond, vakabon, et al, is described as follows: 

A character study. They switch and chip, slither and flaunt; simply and fervently. A provocateur restrained, a fixture moults, spills out of bondage…..good evening, good evening, good evening, good evening, good evening, good evening…  

Rodney recently performed in the world premiere of Allen’s I am the Child of…this past November as PART OF TORQUE Contemporary Dance Series 2022.

Rodney’s Bio

Rodney Diverlus (@rodneydiverlus | They/Them) is a Haitian-Canadian multi-hyphenate artist and artivist who uses the body and voice as sites to host movement, text, and protest. Their work samples from contemporary, jazz, and afro-diasporic dance, physical theatre, and public arts-based political interventions. A vagabond, their work presents, at times, flaunts emergent representations of blackness, and weaves in ancestral, diasporic, and queer narratives of life and freedom. Described by the Toronto Star as "one of Toronto's fastest rising dance talents," Rodney has created choreographic works for Toronto Dance Theatre, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, Tableau d’Hôte Theatre, Art Gallery of Ontario, SummerWorks Festival, Irie Music Festival, and has interpreted works by Holla Jazz, Canadian Stage, Luminato Festival, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks and others. Beyond their artistic practice, they moonlight as a community activator and writer. They are a co-founder of Black Lives Matter—Canada and the Wildseed Centre for Art & Activism.