Our Purpose
Our Mission
To build an inclusive community through Afro-American jazz and blues dances and music. To make this culture accessible to everyone, regardless of their identity or means. To support artistic creation, practice, and the sharing of this cultural heritage while respecting and honouring its origins.
Our Vision
We want anyone entering our space to feel seen and at home, most significantly those who are tradition bearers.
We envision a community that honours the teaching of the dance Elders in a radical way: by being authentic to ourselves, by welcoming the stranger, by supporting one another with empathy, and by sustaining a space where we do not shy away from hard and honest conversations.
We seek to develop and sustain an inclusive and accessible dance community space: financially, physically and culturally.
Cat’s Corner is a social enterprise
At the end of 2022, we decided to align Cat's Corner with its mission and vision and to officially become a nonprofit organization (NPO). Jazz is Ubuntu, collective and cooperative by nature. It is negotiated democratically by many. We cannot own it.
Cat's Corner has never been a "for-profit" organization. From the very first day Fred Ngo founded the school, every penny has been reinvested in the development of the school, its program and its community. By becoming an NPO, we hope that the governance of Cat's Corner will also be in the hands of the community, opening up the possibility that one day our vision may be realized.
Work remains to be done to ensure that collective decisions continue to steer the local dance community towards greater recognition, practice and sharing of jazz as an Afro-descendant culture. Cat's Corner remains a place where our contribution to jazz culture is lived and negotiated. It retains its original purpose: to be a space and a community that never stops evolving with its members.
Our Organization
We rely on various action plans to bring our mission to life and bring our vision closer to reality:
Partnerships
100lux
Holla Jazz
Afrodojo
Street Show
CRIC Centre-Sud
Oxy-Jeunes
Guest artists from the global lindy hop, blues, jazz, street dance, and tap community
Space rentals to Black social dance events (i.e: JOAT, Tap Water Jam, All About The Funk, …)
Education
Culturally informed pedagogy
Oral history
Accessibility to resources
Continuing education
Documentary viewing
Discussion panels
Local historical tours
Exchanges
Workshops
Cultural exchanges
Practice sessions
Exhibition battles
Shows
Training
Black dance foundations
Elective Black dance classes such as Azonto, House, Waacking / Whacking, etc.
Music-focused classes with musicians
Events
Vernacular Spectacular centreing Black cultural epistemology and situating Jazz within its cultural continuum
Footnotes highlighting the heritage of Lindy Hop and Tap Elders
CCX as a celebration of jazz and blues music to connect people
