Fall for Dance North’s artist-in-residence, Esie Mensah, leads a transformative season that celebrates the emotional depth and cultural power of Afrofusion. Her latest works embody the movement of healing, unity, and self-discovery.
This fall, Toronto’s Fall for Dance North (FFDN) festival has become the stage for an extraordinary artistic journey led by choreographer and storyteller Esie Mensah, the festival’s 2025 Artist-in-Residence. While her AFROFUSION: Signature Programme 1 has already left audiences inspired, the festival continues until October 26, culminating in her upcoming installation-style performance Up Next on October 25 and 26 at OCAD University.
For Mensah, this moment is more than a professional milestone—it’s the embodiment of years spent cultivating her distinctive Afrofusion movement language, which merges traditional West African dance with contemporary forms. “It’s exciting to have all eyes turn on me and the work that I am doing,” she said. “This is exactly the type of opportunity I’ve been seeking—to spread my wings and show that you can level up while staying true to the art form you love.”
The weight and water of grief
Mensah’s new large-scale commission ESHI—which premiered during the AFROFUSION program—represents a deeply personal meditation on grief, inspired by her own experiences of loss. “Eshi means ‘water’ in Ewe, my tribe’s language from Ghana,” she explained. “I wanted to explore how grief moves through us—sometimes calm as a ripple, sometimes overwhelming as a wave.”
The piece, performed by 19 dancers from Esie Mensah Creations and students from Canada’s National Ballet School, captures the emotional fluidity of mourning and resilience. “To have this many bodies on stage moving as one collective community was powerful,” she reflected. “It’s about learning to hold grief, to ask for help, and to find healing through connection.”
Building bridges between traditions
Mensah’s collaboration with the National Ballet School marked a turning point in expanding the boundaries of ballet education. She helped students trained in classical technique embrace new rhythms and movement vocabularies. “We’re no longer in a time where ballet is the only thing you can do,” she said. “Dancers today must be versatile—able to move between ballet, contemporary, and African forms.”
This partnership evolved from an earlier collaboration with Fall for Dance North’s Artistic Director, Robert Binet, who co-created a piece that blended ballet and Afrofusion. For Mensah, the exchange is reciprocal: “I’ve grown so much as an artist through this work. The students gain cultural and physical versatility, and my team gains from the space and opportunity to create.”
Toronto’s dance scene in motion
This year marks a new era for Fall for Dance North under Binet’s artistic leadership and Festival Director Lily Sutherland. Mensah believes their shared vision positions Toronto as a global hub for dance innovation. “The tagline is Feel the World Move, and I think you can feel that right here in Toronto,” she said. “Our diversity is our strength. When you look at who’s in the audience at concerts, at Harbourfront festivals, or Lula Lounge, you see the world reflected back.”
Binet’s curatorial approach—pairing Canadian and international artists—echoes the city’s own rhythm: a constant dialogue between cultures. “Toronto needed leadership that understood both the artistic and community dimensions of dance,” Mensah added. “I think this festival marks the beginning of that transformation.”
The language of Afrofusion
Mensah’s Afrofusion has become both a movement practice and a philosophy. Over the course of two decades, she has refined it into a multidisciplinary form that blends dance, theatre, spirituality, and storytelling. “When I started, the African presence in commercial dance was almost invisible,” she said. “I wanted to create space for dancers to embrace and celebrate their African identity.”
Her AFROFUSION: Signature Programme 1 brought together three artists whose work embodies that intersection of styles and cultures:
- Dickson Mbi (UK/Cameroon) with Duende, combining street and contemporary dance.
- Esie Mensah Creations with ESHI, a world premiere exploring grief through Afrofusion.
- Sekou McMiller (USA) with Afro Latin Soul, blending Afro-Latin jazz and dance.
Each piece reflected the festival’s theme of interconnectedness. “What I love about how we structured the program,” Mensah said, “is that it starts and ends in community—just as African traditions do.”
Movement as modern ritual
Mensah views her choreography as a continuation of ancestral practice. “When something was wrong in the community, people would gather, the drummers would drum, the dancers would dance, and messages would come through,” she said. “What I do today feels like a modern version of that.”
Her creative process is rooted in spirituality and collective healing. “Every dancer who comes into my space knows that this work will change them,” she explained. “Spirit requires that transformation. We go through it so we can change others.”
From Shades of Blackness to A Seat at the Table and now ESHI, Mensah’s work uses movement as a vessel for conversation, introspection, and empowerment. “Movement as storytelling is life,” she said. “It’s how I understand who I am as an artist and as a person.”
Mentorship and the future of dance
As FFDN’s artist-in-residence, Mensah also mentors emerging artists through workshops and mentorship initiatives. Her aim is to show the next generation what’s possible. “Much of what I do, I never saw growing up,” she said. “I had to figure it out on my own. Now I want to make sure young dancers know they can dream big, that African movement can exist on major stages with artistic excellence.”
Mensah’s influence extends beyond dance studios to theatre and opera stages, including recent collaborations with Stratford Festival and Chicago Opera Theater. “I love working across mediums,” she said. “It all comes back to storytelling—the core of who we are as artists.”
Looking ahead: Up Next and Zio
Her journey with FFDN continues later this month with Up Next (October 25–26 at OCAD University), a free-flowing performance installation that invites audiences to move through space and witness dance in intimate proximity. Mensah will perform a new solo accompanied by immersive, descriptive audio by Devon Healey, alongside pieces by Sekou McMiller, Azzam Mohamed (Shazam), and Jingle Dress champion dancers from Tkaronto Open III.
Beyond the festival, Mensah is preparing for her next major production, Zio, debuting in January 2026 at the Meridian Arts Centre. “It’s the story of a dancer’s spiritual awakening—a calling from the ancestors to embrace purpose,” she shared. “It’s Afrofusion at its finest—movement, music, and soul in conversation.”
Closing reflections: The pulse of a new era
For Esie Mensah, this season of creation marks both a personal and communal evolution. Through ESHI, Up Next, and her ongoing mentorship, she is expanding the meaning of dance—spiritually, emotionally, and culturally.
Her artistry reminds us that movement is memory, that community is strength, and that the stories carried through our bodies are as vital as those told in words. As the Fall for Dance North festival continues to unfold, Toronto’s audiences are not just watching dance—they’re witnessing a cultural renaissance in motion.
Up Next
October 25 (Entry Times: 5 pm, 6 pm, 7 pm) & October 26 (Entry Times: 2 pm, 3 pm, 4 pm) at OCAD U’s The Great Hall (100 McCaul Street, 2nd floor)
Featuring a rotation of works from artists at the forefront of dance, Up Next is designed to allow guests to control their own experience, with freedom to move through the space as desired. Performances include:
- A solo by Esie Mensah, accompanied by Immersive Descriptive Audio by Devon Healey
- A new Afro Latin Jazz ensemble work for dance students at The Creative School of Toronto Metropolitan University, choreographed by Sekou McMiller
- Jingle Dress champion dancers from Tkaronto Open III (taking place on Sept. 27)
- GLAD by Sydney-based street and club dance choreographer and performer Azzam Mohamed, also known as Shazam (co-presented by Luminato)
