Our Team

Lauren Runions (Lover since 2020) (she/they) is a dance artist, choreographer, and facilitator based in Tkaronto. Their work investigates the role of choreography as a reciprocal spatial practice between self + other. Through deliberate movement experiments and staged interventions they begin to expand this notion; turning to shores, rivers, parks, highways, fences, construction, and desire paths as information.

Their project I/O Movement offers performances, community workshops and residencies with the intention to consider our partnership with place. Through this project, Lauren has installed site-specific work across the city in parks, closets, elevators, living rooms, ice cream shops and under stairways. I/O Movement has facilitated their own public dance residency. In 2018, this residency was supported by The Bentway’s Community Incubation Program. 

As community development increasingly drives their practice, Lauren has hosted public workshops including Movement at the Mall (Art Starts), Dancing + Drawing (I/O Movement), Mapping Inside/Outside (Gallery 1265), and Field Guide for Performance in Public Space (Maximum City).
 To mark the opening and closing of MOCA’s 2020 winter exhibitions, Lauren choreographed and performed Intervening “A Sudden Beginning” taking place within and alongside Carlos Bunga’s large-scale cardboard installations. In 2022, they will present Stories a durational dance performance for Nuit Blanche Toronto.

Leelee Oluwastoyosi Eko Davis’ (Lover since 2021) (they/them) practice is rooted in foundations of contemporary dance and intermedia creation methodologies. As a disabled, transgenderqueer artist of Nigerian/French/Algonquin descent, working in decolonial frameworks is central to their research and creations. Being from Treaty 1 Territory, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Leelee has had the opportunity to train and work professionally across Turtle Island. Their artistic goals are to merge performance and life, stage and experience, building a bridge to revealing the human condition. They can most commonly be found producing their own work as a solo artist, however often collaborate across milieus. Leelee has had the profound pleasure of collaborating with artists and choreographers such as Jolene Bailie, Dayna Danger, Raven Davis, Jesse Dell, Yannick Desranleau, Vanessa Dunn, Audrey Dwyer, Reginald Edmund, Gambletron, Chloe Lum, Ryan MacNamara, Kate Nankervis, Evalyn Parry, Sara Porter, Lou Sheppard, Alexandra Tigchelaar on works for theatre, film, and stage. Eko Davis also works as a program designer, facilitator, and consultant in the field of Social Innovation and Adaptive Change. visit @leeleeoluwatoyosi to connect with Leelee on instagram, or learn more about their work at www.leeleedavis.com

Camille Rojas (she/her)TO Love-In is excited to announce as our new Artistic and Administrative Partner. Camille is a multidisciplinary artist and artist-researcher working with film, photography, and contemporary dance. Camille is thrilled to return to the Love-In, to which she brings a wealth of knowledge from her decade of experience in arts administration. She is the recipient of several grants and regularly exhibits her works across Canada. Outside of the Love-In, you can find her at @imagesfestival where she holds the position of Outreach Manager. Visit @camiillerojas to connect with Camille on instagram.

Past Lovers
Amanda Acorn (Co-Founder), Amelia Ehrhardt, Eroca Nicols (Co-Founder), Madeleine Shen, Meryem Alaoui, Katya Kuznetsova, Vanessa Jane Kimmons (vjk), Tina Fushell, Kate Nankervis, Robyn Breen, Ann Trépanier, Oriana Pagnotta, Shelby Wright

Recent Part-Time Lovers 
Christina Oyawale, Steph Raposo, John Murphy, Marie Lambin-Gagnon, Mary-Dora Bloch-Hansen, Dian Marie Bridge, Jessie Garon, Jen Hum, Kiera Shaw, Peter Kelly, Jamee Valin, sarah koekkoek, Francesca Chudnoff, Heddy Vargrate, Gehan Udayanga, Bethany Litner, Jasmyn Fyffe, Gordon Foster, Joey Eddy, Samyuktha Punthambekar, M. Cameron Fearon, Michaela Gerussi, Jolyane Langlois, James Kendal, Nyda Kwasowsky, Angela Xu, Peter Kelly, Valerie Calam 

Graphic Designer
Todd Westendorp

Web Consultant + Honorary Lover
Marki Sveen

Board of Directors
Susie Burpee, Sophie Dow, Miggy Esteban, Mayumi Lashbrook

History

The Toronto Dance Community Love-In was founded in February of 2009 by independent dance artists Amanda Acorn and Eroca Nicols. Modeled after the “5 a 7” organized by the Regroupement Québécois de la Danse in Montreal, the Love-In began presenting monthly meetings with hopes to fill a gap that was missing in the Toronto dance community. In an effort to foster community and provide an informal gathering place for dance artists to network and discover dance events city-wide, the Love-In’s meetings focused on gathering artists from all stages of development for discourse, meeting, greeting and information sharing. It became a meeting place to plug your upcoming show or workshop, inspire, advocate and build bridges. 

Shortly after, the Love-In began to organize contemporary technique workshops for the professional community. Tendus and triplets were not a requirement. 

The Love-In's mandate throughout the years has been in response to the need of the community which inherently has shifted in 10 years.