Rodney Diverlus.

Biographie

Rodney Diverlus is a Haitian-Canadian movement artist whose work encapsulates dance, physical theatre, puppetry, and diasporic traditions. His works have been presented at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Gardiner Museum, SummerWorks Festival, Irie Music Festival, Footsteps Across Canada Showcase, Annual Alberta Dance Festival and Tableau d’Hôte Theatre. Previously, Rodney danced with Decidedly Jazz Danceworks during the 2014-2018 seasons, and has worked with Peter Hinton/Denise Clarke [Canadian Opera Company], Darryl Hoskins [Dietrich Group], Noemi Lafrance [Bentway], Kevin Ormsby [Kashe Dance], Mumbi Tindyebwa, [IFT Theatre], Eddie Elliott [Red Sky Performance], Charles Smith [Wind in Leaves Collective], Hannah Kiel, Michele Moss and others. Rodney is the recipient of the 2019 Canadian Stage Award for Direction.

Central to his work is an obsession with Black moving bodies interacting with anomalous, and often public performance spaces; bunker, phone screen, gallery, container, & the street as examples. Rodney moonlights as an artivist and community advocate. He is a co-founder of Black Lives Matter – Toronto and has co-curated a series of large-scale public installations that blur the lines of protest and performance, most notably #Won’t Back Down (2017) and #blackPride.