Meet the team

ROBERT SAUVEY
Executive Director
robert[@]danceumbrella.net

  • Robert Sauvey (he/him) has an extensive background in arts and cultural leadership positions and is currently the Executive Director of the Dance Umbrella of Ontario. Before joining DUO he was the Executive Director of Dancemakers, the second oldest contemporary dance company in Ontario, recently celebrating their 40th anniversary. At Dancemakers Robert successfully developed and implemented a new curator led operating model to position the organization for the future. His experience in dance also includes over five years as the Director of Touring and Artistic Administration for Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

    His diverse cultural background includes leadership positions at Groundswell, Manitoba’s longest running new music series, The National Screen Institute, where he managed creative film and television training initiatives and working as the Head of Distribution for Video Pool Media Arts Centre, a non-profit, artist-run centre dedicated to the creation, exhibition and promotion of independent media art. He has curated exhibitions for galleries, sat on National arts juries and has been a board member for arts organizations.

    His background also includes considerable experience in film and television working as the Manager of Development for a well established film and television company, and running his own independent company developing and producing projects and winning a Canadian Screen award for best-produced documentary.

IFEYINWA OGUCHI
Finance & Bookkeeping Manager
bookkeeper[@]danceumbrella.net

  • Ifeyinwa Oguchi (she/her) is an Accountant with over five years experience in full cycle Bookkeeping, Accounting and Financial reporting. In her last role as the Finance Officer at Pointek, she forestalled huge financial losses through adequate internal control implementation, exceptional bookkeeping and process engineering. Prior to that, as a Senior Accountant, she diligently maintained all clients’ transactions, prepared monthly financial reports and rendered other finance related duties.

    Ifeyinwa acquired her Master of Science degree in Forensic Accounting from De Montfort University Leicester, the United Kingdom, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Igbinedion University, Edo State, Nigeria. She was awarded the overall performing student in Forensic Accounting by Leicester Business School. She was also awarded the best graduating student for three years by the college of Business and Management Studies, Igbinedion University. She has a CFE designation, and presently studying toward acquiring her Canadian Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA).

    She enjoys rendering volunteering services to communities and non-profit organizations. She loves playing table tennis too!

DEVANSHI MISHRA 
Marketing and Communications Manager 
communications[@]danceumbrella.net

  • Devanshi Mishra (she/her) is an experienced arts administrator, artist & educator with a passion for development, collaboration and accessibility in the arts. Her experience in arts administration focuses on marketing, communications, management and outreach.

    Devanshi comes to DUO with over three years of experience as the Manager at Kingston School of Dance. Devanshi ran her own dance company,

    Oorja Danceworks, from 2016 to the present, where she built the company’s brand and social media presence over various platforms. Devanshi recently worked with the CanDance Network as the Program and Communications Coordinator and for Ontario Presents as the Project Coordinator for the Slow Touring Project.

    Devanshi’s educational background includes a Post-Graduate Diploma from York University in Business Administration a BA in Dance from the University of Iowa and a certificate in Entrepreneurship in Performing Arts.

    Some of her awards include a National Scholarship for Dance from the Government of India and the

    Governor’s Award for Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Dance, Chandigarh. Additionally,

    Devanshi sat on the Arts Advisory Committee for the City of Kingston (2023) and received an Arts Residency from the City of Kingston.

RUNQIANG XIAO
Administrator (Contract) 
producer[@]danceumbrella.net

  • Runqiang Xiao (she/her) is a Bachelor of Arts student in Arts Management at the University of Toronto Scarborough, with experience in event coordination, fundraising, and data management.

    She has supported large-scale arts and cultural programs and community engagement initiatives, helping to plan and deliver events for audiences of over 500 participants. Runqiang has organized donation campaigns to promote emerging artists and cultural events and developed strong skills in planning, information management, and stakeholder collaboration.

    She brings her passion for supporting artists and fostering inclusive, community-centered cultural initiatives to her role as Arts Administrator at Dance Umbrella of Ontario.

REVAN ZURUB
Finance Consultant (Contract)
finance[@]danceumbrella.net

  • Meet Revan, a Financial Manager with a flair for numbers, a sharp sense of humor, and 20 years of experience making finance anything but boring. By day, he’s a master of ledgers, balance sheets, and tax strategies; by night, he dreams in spreadsheets and wakes up with innovative financial solutions.

    Currently, Revan is the Finance Manager at one of the largest charities in the arts sector while also running his own business. He previously worked for DUO from 2020 to 2022 and rejoined in 2024 as a part- time self-employed professional.

    Armed with a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and a master’s in Business Management, Revan has built an international career spanning Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, Egypt, and Canada. His expertise blends global experience with strategic insight, helping businesses navigate complex financial landscapes with confidence and creativity.

  • Chair Collette ‘Coco’ Murray is an award-winning, multifaceted dance artist-scholar, cultural arts programmer, educator, and arts consultant with an extensive academic background. With 25 years of experience in the Canadian arts sector, she specializes in Afro-diasporic dance forms across the West African region, Caribbean folk, carnival arts, and stilt-walking as Coco Moko Jumbie. An advocate for equity in the arts, her diverse artistry spans performance, teaching, guest lectures, community-engaged arts, mentorship, and publications. Miss Coco Murray’s doctoral research and work are dedicated to advancing cultural dance education, promoting anti-racism in dance, and integrating African diasporic arts into Canadian public education. As the artistic director of Coco Collective, Collette curates and leads culturally relevant and responsive programming, and with her collaborators, she draws on African and Caribbean artistic practices.

  • Anjali Patil is a Canadian-born Kathak dancer, choreographer, and cultural leader who has trained under some of India’s most renowned classical dance masters. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Aroha Fine Arts, a leading organization dedicated to the creation and presentation of professional Kathak dance in Canada and internationally.

    Her work has been presented at major festivals and events including the Canada Dance Festival, Delhi International Arts Festival, the JUNO Awards, and the International Film Festival of India. An in-demand educator, she teaches in Ottawa, Toronto, India, and the Middle East.


    Anjali holds a Master’s in Public Administration from Carleton University and a B.Comm. from the University of Ottawa. She brings over two decades of experience in the public sector, cultural policy, and nonprofit governance. She previously served on the board of the Indo-Canada Ottawa Business Chamber (ICOBC), where she supported initiatives bridging arts, culture, and entrepreneurship within Ottawa’s South Asian community.


    A passionate advocate for cultural equity and artistic excellence, Anjali launched ArohaFest—Canada’s first bilingual festival celebrating the arts of India. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Chalmers Performing Arts Award, the Corel Endowment for the Arts Award, and the Shastri Indo-Canadian Senior Arts Fellowship.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

  • Vice-Chair and Secretary DUO Board

    Monica del Rio Pain has 25 years of experience in the Ontario dance community as a performer, instructor, arts administrator, dance presenter, outreach and community engagement coordinator and Director of Programming. She attended York University’s Bachelor of Fine Arts program, specializing in Dance and also received her Performing Arts Diploma at

    Randolph College for the Performing Arts (formerly Randolph School of the Arts). She is a certified Teacher with the B.A.T.D. in Tap, Ballet & Jazz.

    In her professional dance career, she toured with various dance companies, primarily with the

    Afro-Caribbean contemporary dance company Ballet Creole and performed in theatres and schools across Canada and the United States educating through dance. Monica transitioned to an arts administrator role with her company Monstar Productions Inc., specializing in the support of under-served and racialized dance organizations. These include Lua Shayenne Dance Company, Ballet Creole, Little Pear Garden Dance Company, Newton Moraes Dance Theatre, Kaeja D’dance, and Danza Corpus to name a few.

    She has also held various leadership roles in the Arts, Culture and Tourism sector, including the Ontario Dances Presenter & Animator at Flato Markham Theatre, the Director of Programming and Operations at York Region Arts Council and is currently the Manager, Destination Development and Events for Destination Markham.

    She is honoured to support the impactful work of DUO as the Vice-Chair and Secretary and looks forward to its continued success!

  • Robyn Grant-Moran (Métis) theatre arts writer and critic, beadwork artist with a background classical singing. Personally and professionally, Robyn is interested in stories, and who tells them, whose voices get amplified and why. Working as a freelance writer, Robyn’s work has been published in the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, and the Dance Current. Presently, Robyn is the theatre critic for The Grind Magazine.

  • Founder | Financial Leadership for Artists & Rising Entrepreneurs Professional Corporation

    Nissrine Shuman (she/her) is a global finance and operations leader with over 15 years of experience supporting entrepreneurs across Canada, the US, and the UK. As the Founder and CFO of FLARE, she specializes in helping founders and creative businesses build sustainable income and scale effectively through tailored financial and operational strategies.

     

    Drawing from her leadership roles in both corporate and creative industries—from London’s agency landscape to North American media firms—Niss brings a unique ability to translate complex financial systems into clear, actionable strategies. Her work empowers entrepreneurs to take control of their business growth with clarity, confidence, and long-term vision.

  • Jessie is a corporate lawyer, entrepreneur and advocate for the arts and community development. As the founder of Castle Law, she brings a dynamic and business-minded approach to legal practice and understands the unique challenges faced by start-ups and creative ventures.

    Jessie is passionate about bridging business, law, and the arts to foster vibrant, sustainable communities. She sits on the boards of Dance Umbrella of Ontario and the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto, where she brings valuable governance experience and a strategic mindset to advance each organization’s mission and impact.

    In her spare time, Jessie enjoys rowing, paddling, cross-country skiing, and of course, dancing!

    Best,

  • Arpita Bajpeyi is an arts worker and dance scholar based in Tkaronto. She has choreographed and performed in kathak and dance-theatre works presented in Ottawa, Toronto, and Bangalore including two research-creation works. Her creative work explores themes of identity, belonging and borders, race, caste, gender, community, and privilege through dance. Her ongoing PhD at York University explores how kathak and hindustani repertoires are haunted by the erasures and appropriations that have reshaped both art forms over the last century. Alongside Meera Kanageswaran and Vridhhi Chaudhry, Arpita runs Gardeners of Stories, a not-for-profit collective committed to building spaces for South Asian dance artists who imaginatively push against exclusionary practices in our classical forms through their creative work. You can read her work in Art India Magazine, Intermission, The Dance Current, Rungh, and Seminar.

  • Emilie “Zila” Jabouin, PhD, is a dance artist, choreographer, researcher, public speaker, and communications scholar whose work is about reconnecting to the self through liberation and collective healing. In 2020, Emilie started an apprenticeship with Peniel Guerrier (NYC) in Haitian folklore (drum, song, dance), enabling her to craft a unique neo-traditional voice in dance. This led her to perform in Canada, the United States, Haiti, and Barbados. Merging decades of experience in movement and writing, Emilie offers 10+ years of grant writing, community relations and non-profit experience. Emilie writes for magazines and journals about social and historical topics, including her peer-reviewed article on the importance of dance in jazz culture and the impacts of commercialization, "“Black Women Dancers, Jazz Culture and ‘Show Biz'" published in the Journal of History. Emilie works as the Financial Advancement Officer for dance Immersion and is the founder of DO GWE [Dow Gway] dance & research (2020), a performance, research, and consulting company, through which she merges her dance and research practices to make under-represented stories and the archives more accessible to the public, www.emiliejabouin.ca.