Centennial College: Arts & Cultural Programming
Dance and Documentary
The first video is a video program, where audiences will witness a compilation of various styles and genres of dance, such as acrobatics, jazz, contemporary, and hip-hop, all centered around the concept of resilience.
The second video is called Homesick. It is a short documentary shot in 2017 during Bosco da Costa's first semester in Centennial College's Broadcasting - Radio, Television, Film & Digital Media program. It consists of a series of interviews with immigrants in Canada, as they reflect about culture shock and the challenges of moving to a different country.
Moderator:
Celestine Eagle
Celestine Eagle
Program Developer, Coordinator, Professor, Choreographer, Educator, and Creative Director, Centennial College
South African born Celestine Eagle grew up in Australia which is where she began her rewarding career as a professional dancer, well-respected choreographer, creative director, educator, and instructor. She has directed, created, and performed internationally in stage productions, theatrical and television shows, commercials, music videos, fashion parades, and various dance productions across Australia, Asia, and North America. Her success within the entertainment industry, stage productions, and creative arts led her to become a Creative Director for a US-based production company, where she developed choreographic works for Disney Entertainment, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruise Lines, and many other well-known entertainment companies throughout America.
Eagle brings to the City of Toronto more then 20 years of experience teaching classical ballet, jazz, contemporary, Broadway, musical theatre, commercial, and modern dance. As the founder, coordinator and professor of the Centennial College Dance Performance Program, Eagle is inspired by her love of dance education and thrives in sharing her knowledge and experience with her students.
Eagle also holds a Master of Arts Degree in Leadership.
Artists:
Bosco da Costa
Bosco da Costa
Broadcasting – Radio, Television, Film & Digital Media Graduate class of 2020, Centennial College
Bosco da Costa is a filmmaker born in Recife, Brazil. Da Costa grew up in Recife, a culturally rich city, in which he developed his admiration and connection to Brazilian culture, art and history. Da Costa studied Law but decided to switch careers in order to follow his true passion in life: Film. He moved to Toronto in 2017 to pursue a career in the entertainment business. Da Costa has screened his films in several festivals around the world, including at the Academy of Motion Pictures in Hollywood. Among his award winning films are Argemira, This-Ability and Dinner.
Ryan Lee
Ryan Lee
Choreographer and Independent Artist, Centennial College
Independent dance artist Ryan Lee graduated from Ryerson University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Throughout his career, he has been fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with Emily Molnar, Gilliume Cote, Kevin O'Day, Tino Sehgal, Stephen Pier, D.A. Hoskins, Darryl Tracy, Sharon B Moore, Julia Sasso, and Menaka Thakkar. Lee has also worked for companies such as Human Body Expression, ProArteDanza, Toronto Dance Theatre, Kaeja d’Dance, Anandam Dancetheatre, inDANCE, Larchaud Dance Project, Transcendance, The Chimera Project, and TOES for Dance.
He has also been nominated twice for the Dora Mavor Moore award for outstanding ensemble performance - in 2011 for In between by Roberto Campanella and Robert Glumbek; and in 2018 for Chasing the Path by Hanna Kiel. Lee has been commissioned to produce works by ProArteDanza, Anandam DanceTheatre, ACE DanceTheatre, The Emerging Artist Intensive, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, Ryerson University, George Brown College, Dance Ontario, Etobicoke School for the Arts, and The School of Toronto Dance Theatre. In 2019 Lee co-founded The Platform, a Toronto based collective focused on exchange, creation and collaboration.
Kayannush Mehta
Kayannush Mehta
Choreographer and Student, Centennial College
Kayannush Mehta started his training in with Shiamak Davar International Institute for Performing Arts- UAE/ India (SDIIPA), for the past 8 years gaining experience in ballet, contemporary, modern, Graham, Horton, Limón, hip hop, and jazz. He completed several certification programs with the company. Along with that he toured and performed in numerous stage shows, films and TV shows as a company member. Mehta has also excelled in the graded examinations conducted by the Royal Academy of Dance and Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing London. He has five years of teaching experience with SDIIPA.
Mehta has trained in The school of Toronto Dance Theatre for a year and is currently in his final year at Centennial College's Dance Performance Program. He is looking forward to establishing himself as an artist and a choreographer after he graduates.
Nina Strazzulla
Nina Strazzulla
Professional Performer and Professor, Centennial College
Nina Strazzulla is a professional performer and dance instructor. Well-versed in many dance disciplines, she has completed high-level exams in Vaganova and RAD Ballet, and has received national scholarships in acrobatics.
For five years, Strazzulla worked for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines as a dance captain, aerialist, and tumbler, and still continues to monitor and demonstrate for their Toronto-based auditions. While with Royal Caribbean, she was a featured dancer in Moment Factory’s Starwater, and danced in Robert Stigwood’s Saturday Night Fever: The Musical. She has also toured with Spirit Productions and has worked locally with A2D2 Aerial Dance Cirque Company.
Strazzulla's career has also taken her to the screen, where some of her credits include placing in the Top 40 of Seasons 2 and 3 of So You Think You Can Dance Canada, being a montage dancer in the Oscar-nominated movie Amelia, and an infomercial for Trendy Top. Being enthusiastic about dance education, she is the director of Dance Masters of Canada’s Junior Membership Program, a role which has placed her on the chapter’s executive committee.
Strazzulla graduated on the Dean’s List with a Bachelor of Arts & Science and Classics (Honours) from McMaster University. Combining her professional experience, education, and certifications with DMA, PAA, and Acrobatic Arts, she is thrilled to be able to bring her expertise to the students of Centennial College’s Dance Performance Program.
Manpreet Virdi
Manpreet Virdi
Dancer and Student, Centennial College
Manpreet Singh Virdi is an Indian based dancer, choreographer and teacher. He is trained in various dance styles such as jazz, classical ballet, contemporary, modern dance, bollywood and commercial.
Back in India, Virdi has had collective experience of 9 years professionally being in the dance industry. He received his training from The Danceworx institute and further was associated with their repertoire company. Being one of the principal dancers, he got to perform and choreograph for events like Delhi Contemporary Arts Week 2017, No boundaries- a world dance day production and JHUMROO (Bollywood production). His dance journey expanded over television as well as he represented the Top 10 dancers at the national dance reality show Dance India Dance. His most recent works include being part of music videos of renowned artists like Bobby Newberry (Chance-2018) and the Shuffles Demons (Have a good one-2021) with works of Jenn Larchaud of Larchaud Dance.
Dance has brought Virdi to the city of Toronto as a student at Centennial College and is currently enrolled in the Dance Performance Program under leadership of Celestine Eagle.
Valeriia Zakharova
Valeriia Zakharova
Dancer and Student, Centennial College
Valeriia Zakharova (she/her) is a full-time student in the Dance Performance program at Centennial College. Born and raised in Russia, she was always curious about living abroad. After high school, Zakharova pursued a technical career until her artistic calling took over. She took charge of her destiny, left the "cookie-cutter" past behind, and moved to Europe. Throughout her life, she's been lucky enough to gain experience dancing not only in Russia but France and Spain. Dancing has been a part of her life for 17 years, and now she's studying it professionally in Canada. Dance isn't her only passion. Before joining the Dance Performance program, Zakharova had a chance to explore her artistic gifts in the Arts and Design Fundamentals program at Centennial College, which opened up many more possibilities for self-expression and landed her a Dean's Award for the highest GPA.