Tamar Carter-King is a mother, business owner, educator, and community organizer whose influence spans far beyond the Ballroom floor. A force in Canadian Ballroom for over 14 years, Tamar is one of only two recognized mainstream Legends in the country, internationally celebrated for her precision, presence, and enduring excellence in the Realness category.
As the Legendary Canadian Mother of the International Iconic House of Miyake-Mugler, Tamar has raised the standard of excellence within Canadian Ballroom, helping shape a new generation of top-tier talent. Her leadership is rooted in a sharp eye for detail, old-school Ballroom fundamentals, and a deep commitment to legacy.
Tamar is the revered Matriarch of the Carter family, known for being a “stern set” who leads with integrity, accountability, and unwavering love. Her influence pushes her children to realize their full potential, not only in Ballroom, but in their everyday lives.
A curatorial project by Jess Dobkin Presented by FADO Performance Art Centre
With collaboration and support from Hemispheric Encounters: Developing Transborder Research-Creation Practices, York University, and the Queer and Trans Research Lab, Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, University of Toronto and OCADU University.
ARTISTS Germaine Liu (Toronto, CA) Juma Pariri (Abya Yala/São Paulo, Brazil) Juru (Fortaleza, Brazil) Karen Finley (New York, USA) Leslie Ting (Toronto, CA) María de Lourdes Santana Arcos (Havana, Cuba) n:u (melissandre varin) (Benin/Birmingham, UK) Sara Baron-Goodman (Toronto, CA) Tamar Carter-King (Toronto, CA) Twysted Miyake-Mugler (Toronto, CA)
Curatorial Impulse
I’m thinking about our bodies: singular, plural, collective, communal, human, and other-worldly; with abandon and abandoned, in power and empowered, possessed and self-possessed, exalting and exalted. Political, primal, passionate. This program of artists reaches into and beyond conversations of trauma carried in the body to explore embodied scores that run parallel and perpendicular to wounding, and to perform the archives of our physical, personal, political, and transcendental bodies. Bodies on the line, bodies transgressing boundaries, bodies keeping scores.
It is also an opportunity for local and international artists to meet, to encounter each other’s work, and to meet Toronto audiences. You are warmly invited to join us in spaces of gathering, sharing, and experimentation with artists, curators, activists, musicians, dancers, scholars, students, and seekers. Together, in our vessels and vibrations, we take shape and shapes.
I look forward to welcoming you.
Jess Dobkin
PROGRAM
Thursday, November 5 Enoch Turner Schoolhouse, 106 Trinity Street (map) FREE | Wheelchair accessible | ASL interpretation
Doors 6:30PM | Performances 7:00PM
Performances: Juma Pariri, María de Lourdes Santana Arcos, n:u (melissandre varin) Food Activation: Sara Baron-Goodman Music-Composition: Germaine Liu
Friday, November 6 OCADU University, Room 190, 100 McCaul Street (map) FREE | Wheelchair accessible
Performance: 7:30PM Followed by talkback with Karen Finley & Jess Dobkin
Performance: Believe by Karen Finley Music-Composition: Leslie Ting Food Activation: Sara Baron-Goodman
Finley’s creates a series of artworks illustrating mentors and artists who “believed” in Finley and gave support. These supportive individuals had encounters with Finley–professionally, as friends, as teachers, worked with, met, taught, or collaborated with Finley. There are over a hundred drawings illustrating her story that are projected onto a screen cinematically.
On stage, Finley sits at a table handling the artwork she created that tells the narrative while a live camera with a bird’s eye view projects Finley’s hands and artwork onto the screen simultaneously in real time. While the images are projected, Finley tells the story of each “believe” encounter. The artworks act as a storyboard creating intimacy, the private made public of supportive relationships. The artwork is projected onto the screen. Some of the artists: Louise Bourgeois, Kathy Acker, Danitra Vance, bell hooks, Sinead O’Connor, Linda Montano, Joan Rivers, David Wojnarowicz, amongst others.
Finley will end the performance with a dramatic reading.
Saturday, November 7 The Commons @ 401, 4th floor, 401 Richmond Street West (map) FREE | Wheelchair accessible
12:30PM Screening: This is Ballroom by Juru and Vitã Followed by conversation with Juru, Twysted Miyake-Mugler, Mother Tamar Miyake-Mugler Limited capacity | RSVP required
4:00PM Creatives Anonymous with Karen Finley Creatives Anonymous is a 13-step program that is part sardonic yet serious that is influenced by 12-step programs except that we are not approved or part of a traditional self help group. Join us and share your creative issues!
Sunday, November 8 The Commons @ 401, 4th floor, 401 Richmond Street West FREE | Wheelchair accessible
This Is Ballroom (Salão De Baile) Directed by Juru and Vitã Brazil / 2024 / 92’ / Portuguese, English
Screening of This is Ballroom is followed by conversation with Juru, Twysted Miyake-Mugler and Mother Tamar Miyake-Mugler.
In Rio de Janeiro City and its outskirts, LGBTQ+ youth of colour recreate Ballroom culture on their own terms. A portrait of the dramas, the voguing performances, and the art of shade, 50 years after its inception in New York. Rio is burning!
ABOUT THE DIRECTORS
Vitã is a filmmaker and screenwriter. Director of the short film, The day I remembered the trip to Bicuda (2015) and producer of the feature documentary It’s Not the First Time We Fight For Our Love (2022). Curator of Brazilian Comedy FF and of showcases on Hong Sangsoo films in four cities in Brazil. Master’s degree in Audiovisual at UFF (Brazil). In the ballroom scene, they participate as an independent photographer and are a member of the Legendary House of Lauren Intl.
Juru is a researcher, dramaturgist and performing arts critic. Casting coach for the feature film Com O Terceiro Olho na Terra da Profanação, by Catu Rizo (2017) and the short film Sunset, by Bruno Roger (2014). Dramaturgist in the performance Repertory n. 1, by Davi Pontes and Wallace Ferreira. Master in Contemporary Arts Studies at UFF and PhD student in Arts at UERJ.
DIRECTORS’ STATEMENT
This is Ballroom is an insider gaze at the universe of Ballroom culture in Rio de Janeiro and its outskirts. We portray our community as a place of gathering and celebration but also a space where conflicts can be dealt with.
We filmed a ball specially held for this project, then followed the daily lives of some houses that attended the event. Structured as a multiplot narrative, the film features exclusive performances in outdoor locations and strong testimonies. To tell stories from the past, we used archival images and reenactments of foundational events of ball culture in the USA, with our cast role-playing historical characters.
Among the conflicts emerged during the shootings, there are rivalries related to racial issues and gender categories. We also discuss the complexities of translating a US-American culture to Brazilian reality, and innovations created here, like the Batekoo dance – born within the favela’s funk balls.
How artists speak about themselves publicly lives somewhere between fantasy, biography, and history. This fragrance is showy yet vulnerable; a new light illuminates the artist and their work. You get to decide what is fantasy, biography, or history.
