“Do Gwe“ Dance & Research
Merge performance with research to manifest your full creative vision
I am a dance artist, researcher, and am curious about creating work and collaborating on projects that manifest our deepest explorations and dreams.
Photo credit: Roya DelSol
The Toronto Arts Council has graced me with a grant to continue my dance piece, The Release, about healing the decision to interrupt a pregnancy. I greatly appreciate the support and invite women and gender non-binary birthing people to a first gathering to hear about this project on September 26, 2025.
Registration is required for location.
Sign up here.
What’s Going On…
The Canada International Black Women of Excellence have recognized me as one of the top 100 Black women to watch in 2025!
I am so appreciative and honored to receive this award on October 25, 2025!
In February 2023, I was a guest on The Social on CTV, demonstrating how Caribbean folk dance can offer therapeutic benefits.
In 2020, I started putting my research into movement and co-created a solo performance about Black North American history and the efforts of Mary Ann Shadd Cary, a nineteenth-century anti-slavery activist, teacher, intellectual who published the Provincial Freeman (1854-1857) in present-day Ontario.
During The Gathering Fall 2020: Exploring Anti-Black Racism in the Arts and Thinking Digitally: Integrative Strategies for IBPOC Arts Practices organized by Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario (CPAMO), I shared ideas on how to locate Black people in Canada’s historical art scene in the archives.
Explore. Heal. Manifest.
“Do Gwe“ [Dow Gway] dance & research, (previously Emijr Projects) is a multi-faceted performance, research, production & creative consulting company inspired by the dance process of curiosity, intuition and exploration founded by Dr. Emilie “Zila“ Jabouin.
Past Events
Join me for “Allies & Friends,“ on March 21 & 22nd, 2025 at the Citadel Company in Toronto hosted by the Wind-in-the-Leaves Collective, for my performance of a new piece in development, “Jérémie, au coeur de ma vie.“ I created this piece during a one-month artistic residency with the Festival Quatre Chemins in Jérémie, Haïti where my parents grew up, doing research on the massacre of Les Vêpres under Duvalier in 1964.
This piece is in memory of those who lost their lives and to my paternal grandfather who died of a heart attack shortly after witnessing the events.
To further support this artistic endeavour, please consider contributing and sharing my fundraiser!!! I am raising money to take my work further and to pay the talented artists I am working with!
Haitian Dance classes in Toronto
“Do Gwe” [Dow Gway] dance classes are Ayisyen (Haitian) dance classes that focus on Haitian folk rhythms, including the water rhythm of yanvalou, as well as, Mayi and Yaya Ti Kongo. Every Saturday AND Sunday at Anandam dance studio, 221 Sterling rd. in Toronto, unit 5 (at the back). Special seasons on Maskawon & Banda also available.
PLEASE NOTE: this programming is currently on pause. But email me or sign up to stay updated on future workshops!
