Our Purpose

Our Mission

To build community through the practice of jazz & blues dances by offering classes and events that are accessible to all Montrealers regardless of age, income or identity. Together we connect, learn, play, improvise and deepen our collective understanding of jazz & blues dance and music, including the Black culture and community from which they stem.

Our Vision

Groupe de personnes dansant et s'amusant lors d'une fête, avec des lumières colorées en arrière-plan.

We want anyone entering our space to feel seen and at home, most significantly those who are tradition bearers.

We envision a community that honors 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 don't shy away from hard and honest conversations.

We seek to develop and sustain an inclusive and accessible dance community space, from financial, physical and cultural perspectives.

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 an Non Profit 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 was reinvested in the development of the school, its program and its community.

By becoming an NPO, we wish that the governance of Cat's Corner will also be in the hands of the community, to open 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 community that will never cease to evolve with its people.