CinnaMoon Collective is founded by Irma Villafuerte and Nickeshia Garrick, a Central American and Afro-Caribbean contemporary dance duo that is dedicated to reclaiming and honouring ancestral stories from a decolonial perspective, with the mission to ignite collective healing and recontextualize identity through the lens of black, indigenous and racialized femme presenting queer bodies. We are committed to forming part of the movement that is dedicated to magnifying the voices that have been silenced and erased. We aim to share works that reach our audiences and communities on a human level. Nickeshia and Irma have been collaborating as dance artists for over 7 years through companies such as Victoria Mata Productions, Jaberi Dance Theatre and Kaeja d’Dance, to name a few. Most recently in the play Pluto, written and directed by Shaunga Tagore. Irma and Nickeshia are mid-career dance artists and educators interested and passionate in reclaiming joys, cultural memory and reconnecting to homeland. As individual artists they award nominated and winning dance artists, who have extensive training in dance, theatre, and voice work. 

CinnaMoon Collective has nurtured their creative beginnings through residencies in El Salvador at the Centro de Arte para la Paz in Suchitoto(Arts Centre for Peace), thorugh through Aluna Theatre which led to a work in progress presentation at Caminos Festival in fall 2023, and will be presenting the same work in progress at Aeris Korper’s Prospects Evening of Dance and Discussion. The collective will be premiering their first collaborative full length immersive dance-theatre work “Surrendered Spirits” in May 2024, which is co-presented and co-curated by dance Immersion and Kaeja d’Dance.