My name is Emilie Jabouin. I am a dance artist, a researcher, and a community advocate who has re-discovered her passion for dance. After listening to my intuition at the beginning of this year, I realized I had to involve dance in everything that I do including my research projects. Or else I would get sick. As I opened myself up to that possibility, all of my projects and dreams began to fall into place.

For 7 years, I supported women who survived violence and want to continue my training to become a professional dancer, and also to use my art to support well-being, healing from trauma and community empowerment through story-telling.

I am currently running this campaign to raise 2,500$ because:

1. I am continuing my dance training and seek support to continue to grow;

2. I must engage in networking events and dance festivals that require registration, participation and travel fees. 

I will be using 500$ to pay for an intensive dance training program with Ballet Creole and COBA (Toronto, Canada) in contemporary and modern dance, A-feeree technique, Dunham technique, African dance, Caribbean dance over the course of the summer. Although I have previous dance background in Ballet, Jazz, Tap, contemporary & Hip Hop, training my body to communicate stories, and to become the art piece itself still requires more work. Afro-contemporary dance is a unique dance form in itself.

An additional amount of 1000$ will be used to participate in an all-inclusive 10-day retreat with other like-minded artists to work on my projects and focus my career goals (writing of grants, defining my vision more clearly, creating a yearly calendar for my goals).

The remaining 1000$ will be used for registration fees when travelling to conferences, like Cari-fiesta in Barabados this year, where networking in the dance world takes place.

In my future plans, with the help of this training and opportunities, I want to follow an Afro-based dance training in Montreal with Zab Maboungou's Nyata-Nyata Company. Her technique focuses on healing and grounding dance exercises. This last training workshop will help me fulfill my project of running dance workshops for wellness and body healing. After working in the movement to end violence against women for 7 years, I would like to work especially with women who have survived violence, with a special focus on survivors of war and torture. Pursuing my dance training, along with the Nyata-Nyata training will help me develop my own workshop. I will create my own choreography to support all body types and guide women in their healing process from body trauma.

I have learned that people heal from being heard, and from self-expression. That is the contribution I want to make to the world.