Saturday, November 21, 2026
Join us at 10:00 AM for the Open Studio (drop-in) of NEPA’s Animikiig Creators Unit, where you’ll get a chance to chat with the artists and learn about the projects. Then stay for 2:00PM to see in-progress sharings.
And then return at 7:30 PM for presentations of IXKAME: Baile de los ancestros (Jaguar Death: Dance of the ancestors) by B'atz' Recinos.
The Animikiig Creators Unit (ACU) is a two-year development program for emerging Indigenous creators. The Animikiig Creators Unit offers Indigenous creators across Turtle Island and beyond who are early in craft and in the emerging stages of theatrical creation the opportunity to develop their craft through individualized development plans and resources under the guidance of professional mentors.
Drop-In Event
Animikiig Creators Unit Open Studio
SHYANNE DUQUETTE (CREATOR)
Shyanne Duquette is a mixed-Cree emerging multidisciplinary theatre artist based in Amiskwacî (Edmonton). A writer, director, actor, and facilitator, they create provocative theatre that confronts identity, belonging, and the things that unsettle us. Their work has been presented at Found Festival, SkirtsAfire, Edmonton Fringe, Nextfest, and Ignite, and they have participated in national development programs, including the ThisGen Fellowship with Whynot Theatre, Fresh AiR and Riser with Common Ground Arts, the Major Matt Mason Wildfire Developmental Unit, and the Tarragon Young Playwrights Unit.
Shyanne has collaborated with theatre companies across Turtle Island dedicated to pluralism, dismantling norms, and ethical relationships (not only interpersonally but with surrounding communities and the land itself). They also facilitate workshops and occasionally teach, cultivating dialogue and reflection through theatre, as they continue to develop bold, boundary-pushing work across Turtle Island, leaving audiences moved and slightly on edge.
IOTA’KERATENION THOMAS-BEATON (CREATOR)
A Kanien’kehá:ka and Ojibwe artist from Kahnawà:ke Mohawk Territory, Quebec, and Keeseekoowenin Ojibwe First Nation in Treaty 2 Territory, Manitoba, Iota’keratenion has held a strong belief in storytelling and the visibility of Indigenous art since graduating from Cegep in 2018. These beliefs have led to opportunities to work alongside artists from across Turtle Island, representing a wide range of artistic backgrounds. Each endeavor strengthening his resolve for more art by Onkwehon:we creators to be put on display. With a commitment to decolonizing not only theatre but also society’s attachment to colonial practice, Iota’keratenion hopes the stories he helps create will inspire others to reflect on their own experiences and use their voices to spark discussions around the deconstruction of imperial hegemony.
CAMERON FRASER-MONROE (Creator)
Cameron Fraser-Monroe is a choreographer and director, and a member of the Tla'amin First Nation. At three years old he started Ukrainian dancing in Vernon, BC, and he was privileged to receive several years of training and performance with World Champion Hoop Dancer Dallas Arcand and studied Grass Dance with Elder Mollie Bono.
Since graduating from the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, he has performed with many companies across Turtle Island including Dancers of Damelahamid at Kia Mau Festival in Aotearoa and the International Cervantino Festival, at Jacob’s Pillow Festival, with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Friday Creeations at the National Arts Centre, and with the Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada.
As a choreographer Cameron has received commissions from the National Ballet of Canada, Fall for Dance Festival NYC, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Ballet Kelowna, Winnipeg Summer Dance Collective, Whim W’Him Seattle, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Toronto, Royal Winnipeg Ballet Aspirants, Artist's Climate Collective, Transformation Cabaret at the Cultch, and both PULSE and Indigenous Day Live! on APTN, among others. He continues to practice and present Hoop Dance.
He has taught across Turtle Island, most recently as a Guest Lecturer at Bard College Centre for Indigenous Studies in New York. He has also taught grass dance to the New Pathways Indigenous students at the National Theatre School, and run dance workshops at James Thomson Elementary in qathet.
He trained at Toronto Actors Studio and in the Linklater Method at the National Theatre School of Canada and voiced the lead in Level Up with Kevin Loring. He has a principal role in the limited series Bones of Crows on CBC and APTN, and in the feature film of the same title which premiered at Toronto International Film Festival.
For the past six years Cameron has served as Artistic Director of the Winnipeg Summer Dance Collective, making dance more accessible in downtown Winnipeg. During the 2025/26 Season Cameron is the Associate Artist at Ballet Kelowna, and the Artist-in-Residence at L’École Nationale de Théâtre/National Theatre School of Canada.
Website: cameronfm.ca
IRMA VILLAFUERTE (2026 PROGRAM DIRECTOR)
Irma Villafuerte is a Tkaronto-based dance artist, choreographer, and educator, and the first-generation daughter of refugees from Nawat Territory, Kuskatan (El Salvador). A Dora-nominated artist, her work explores migration, historic memory, and Salvadorian identity, drawing from matrilineal histories and the emotional geographies of displacement.
She is the Program Director of Native Earth Performing Arts’ Animikiig Creators Unit, where she supports the development of emerging Indigenous artists through mentorship, creation, and professional practice. Villafuerte is also the co-founder of the Dora-nominated CinnaMoon Collective.
A finalist for the Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award (2021), she has performed across the Americas, including at Fall for Dance North, Bienal de La Habana, and CounterPulse (San Francisco), and has collaborated with artists such as Kaha Dance Theatre, Victoria Mata, Sharon B. Moore, Karen Kaeja, and Alejandro Ronceria.
Her choreographic voice has been shaped through residencies with DanceMakers, Toronto Dance Theatre, and Aluna Theatre. Her recent works, including Xilopango and the dance film Siwat Piedra, trace emotional and ancestral landscapes shaped by displacement, resistance, and the persistence of memory.
Is it a journey into madness and possession? Is it an illness or a spiritual initiation?
IXKAME: Baile de los ancestros (Jaguar Death: Dance of the ancestors) follows a being simply called—the vessel. Caught in a space between worlds, between time, they exist.
Through movement feeling the rhythms of the cosmos, of life itself, they dance. Through ritual they dance to understand, to awaken, to call upon energies that exist between space and time; energies that lie dormant emerging from the depths of Xilbalba. Energies that have been hidden deep within themselves. Come witness as we follow their journey into the depths of the underworld to discover what happens to the vessel when they have lifted the veil.
Creator: B'atz' Recinos (Mayan)
Content Warning: Burning of sacred medicines, Themes of madness/psychosis, Frightening images, partial nudity
This project is produced with the support of the City of Toronto through Toronto Arts Council.
Presentation
IXKAME: Baile de los ancestros
by B'atz' Recinos
B'atz' Recinos, Creator
Joseph B’atz’ Recinos was born and raised on Turtle Island and is of Latinx/Indigenous descent with mixed Mayan roots from Iximulew (Guatemala). A creator, performer, advocate, and Harold Award recipient for the performing arts of Tkaronto. Their commitment to equitable and diverse practices within the arts has led them to speak at YouthREX and several other panels and conferences and publish articles with NOW, Intermission Magazine, and contribute to The Director’s Lab book published by Playwright Canada Press. A trained facilitator, B’atz’ has delivered various workshops on diversity, inclusion, art and self-care with youth, artists, and communities across Ontario. Some creative offerings include: TAOS: The Music Series in Vancouver as part of Rumble Theatre’s Tremors Festival, TAOS: The Art of Storytelling at Why Not Theatre’s RISER 2022, TAOS 2.0 as part of Aluna Theatre’s CAMINOS Festival, the music video ¿Quien Somos Ya? for RISER Digital. B'atz' has worked with a myriad of companies and organizations in various capacities and has served as producer at Luminato Festival, bcurrent arts, and as Cultural Programmer at the City of Toronto to name a few. Joseph is a Humber Performance graduate and founder of Creative Mafia Arts.
