Co-created by playwright Suvendrini Lena and choreographer Nova Bhattacharya, Tandava draws on verses of 6th century Tamil poet Karaikkal Ammaiyar. Set against events that occurred in the North and East of Sri Lanka during the civil war, including the burning of a library, and disappearing of Tamil civilians, Tandava asks: where is justice for the disappeared, and how do we honour their memories through a performance experience that offers a space for collective healing? Through dance, text, and sound, Tandava connects events across time, illuminating cultural history while acknowledging the injustices that continue to shape our world today. 

“Over the next two years we will continue developing Tandava, an interdisciplinary performance work that brings together dance, poetry, and sound. The collaboration began from a shared belief in the potential for dance to communicate complex emotions in a metaphoric and cathartic manner. We are asking how bodies remember what history attempts to erase, and how artistic practice can hold space for remembrance while opening possibilities for collective healing. Through workshops, dialogue, and evolving performances, we are exploring how movement and language can give form to disappearance, resistance, grief, and resilience. We will explore the metaphor of the cremation ground, as a place where what is buried may speak, and as a place where tandava, a form binding destruction and creation, is danced. 

“As artists living and working on Turtle Island, we are mindful that we create on lands marked by colonial violence and genocide, while the events of the world today continue to remind us how urgently these questions resonate. Tandava grows from this awareness, offering a space for witnessing, remembrance, and the possibility of healing. Our hope is to create a work that moves between ritual and performance, connecting histories across time while asking how art might help us bear witness to the past and imagine more compassionate futures.”

The Switch Collective is an interdisciplinary performance troupe in Tk’aronto (canada) that has been co-producing new research-creation methodologies and roving political performance works for the public sphere since 2018. Switch centers the unique knowledge systems, activism and artistic expressions of Two Spirit, Queer & Trans folks (2SQT), Black, Indigenous & Peoples of Color (BIPOC), and the lived wisdoms of intersectionality marginalized folks who varyingly experience the world as fat, mad, disabled, working class and/or criminalized. Switch devises work through a decolonial and transformative justice framework of inqueery that leverages rigorous archival research, deep site based learning, interdisciplinary collaboration and “switchy improv” to create new works in perpetual movement.

Core Collective Members: Naty Tremblay, Sedina Fiati, Alexandra Sproule, Faith-Ann Mendez, and Mojo Noble

“We are so thankful for our multi-year relationship with SummerWorks. They have supported us since 2019 and have given us so much space to experiment and play. In 2026, we will be bringing together an amazing group of 2SLGBTQIA+ artists and Regent Park community members to create and jam. We will share the results from these generative sessions in a participatory street activation in our signature Switch-y style. Expect the unexpected – music, movement, projection and more! This summer’s explorations will inform a fuller activation in 2027.”

Led by Sammy and Caroline Chien-MacCaull, Chimerik 似不像 is a multi-award-winning interdisciplinary nonprofit arts organization consisting of artists from underrepresented groups (people of colour, LGBTQ2S+, Immigrants, Women in technology, Linguistic/Language minorities, neurodiversities, Youth and next generation) from various age groups, backgrounds, levels of experience, and disciplines including: contemporary dance, performance art, Interactive technology/installations, film/video, new media, XR, projection & lighting design, experimental music, sound art, visual arts. Through arts, technology, and ritual practices, each individual is capable of expanding our human potentials (such as neuroplasticity) to collectively have an energetic ripple effect to the sociopolitical, artistic and spiritual impact to humanity at large.

This experimental performance by Chimerik 似不像 weaves together movement, ritual, sound, and interactive media to explore the shifting boundaries between perception, spirituality, and human experience. Rooted in lived experience and embodied practice, the work moves between vulnerability and transcendence, tracing how internal states ripple outward into shared space. Through an all-encompassing environment of responsive visuals and spatialized sound, including deep low-frequency vibrations that can be felt physically in the body, the artists shape and alter the density of the atmosphere itself. Sound, lights, presence, and mediumistic practices are used as compositional tools, heightening emotional intensity, relational tension, and subtle fields of connection between bodies. As the space transforms, the line between the seen and unseen, the physical and the intangible, begins to blur. Engaging themes of mental health, identity, and collective care, the work asks how we might hold one another through complex inner worlds, and whether altered or heightened states of perception might also carry insight and potential for healing.

“We are excited to move into our second year as Associate Artists with SummerWorks in 2026. Last year, we were deeply inspired by the bold work we experienced during the Festival’s 35th season and by the connections we built with Tkaronto’s vibrant artistic community. We focused on mentorship and archival projects to celebrate the monumental 35th anniversary. In the coming year, we look forward to expanding those relationships and engaging more fully with the industry focus offerings. We are also very excited to tour our work as part of this next phase, continuing to grow our exchange through dialogue and new contexts, while bringing together diverse communities across dance, performance art, and even the experimental noise music scene.“