Maribeth Tabanera
2025-2026 Artist-In-Residence

Residency Dates: March 23 – April 3, 2026

ARIST BIO

Maribeth “Kilusan” Tabanera 
siya/sanda/they/she

Maribeth Manalaysay Tabanera, MEd also known as Kilusan (siya/sanda/they/she) is a Tagalog Akeanon Filipinx queer non-binary multi-disciplinary artist, educator and community organizer.  Their ancestral roots are in Navotas, Manila and Tangalan, Aklan. Kilusan is a chosen Tagalog name that means movement of an individual and/or group. Maribeth is a child of Filipino immigrants, born, raised, and based in Winnipeg on Treaty 1 Territory. Maribeth has been a public school educator and an artist facilitator for over a decade. Kilusan has presented her work as an educator, dancer, and DJ at events all over Turtle Island.

A dancer for over 25 years, Maribeth’s training background includes breaking, hip hop, house, and vogue femme, punking/whacking, and dancehall. Maribeth has danced with Magdaragat Inc. (1996-2003), Define Movement (2006 – 2013),  Project Dance Company (2015), and  B.O.S.S. Dance Team (2015-2020). A pioneer in the Winnipeg Kiki Ballroom scene, Maribeth was crowned Princess of the International House of PinkLady – Winnipeg Chapter in October 2025. Winnipeg’s first Kiki Ballroom House in history. Since 2018, Kilusan has DJed alongside international acts such as Kimmortal, Begonia, Ill Town Sluggaz, Skratch Bastid, Cupcakke, and DJ Maseo of De La Soul.

Some of Maribeth’s most notable projects include presenting ‘Into Our World’ at Art Holm no 8 (2023) in Winnipeg and producing a video essay for CBC Manitoba’s Creators Network “Unlocked” series (2022). In November 2023, Maribeth contributed “Pagpapasok sa sarili ko/Coming Into Myself” to Magdaragat: An Anthology of Filipino-Canadian Writing published by Cormorant Books. In October 2025, Maribeth graduated from the University of Toronto, O.I.S.E. MEd program from the Department of Social Justice Education.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Breathing Between is a collaborative movement and sound research project led by Winnipeg-based artists Maribeth “Kilusan” Tabanera (siya/they/she) and Dammecia Hall (she/her), who first worked together in Define Movement in 2007. After more than a decade apart, they reunite to explore how the body remembers collaboration, how rhythm and silence carry emotion, and how communication itself can become an art form.

Drawing from their shared roots in Hip Hop culture, street and contemporary dance, DJ culture, and community-based practice, the artists will explore how American Sign Language (ASL) and audio description can function as co-creative languages—not as translations or supports, but as expressive tools that shape choreography and sound. Alongside an ASL artist and a visual describer, they will create a multi-sensory dialogue between movement, sign, and sound, where each form listens and responds to the others. The project asks what it means to gain access to one’s voice—and whose voices have been historically silenced in artistic spaces. At its core, Breathing Between blurs the lines between dancer, DJ, interpreter, and describer, creating a space where our expressions become inseparable acts of care, witnessing, and transformation.

Collaborators: 
Dammecia Hall – Dance Collaborator
Jenel Shaw – Arts AccessAbility Network Manitoba
VIEW Manitoba – Live Audio Description
Joanna Hawkins – Artist Consultant
Kilusan Productions

Dammecia Hall (she/her/hers) is an independent contemporary dancer, Hip Hop artist, choreographer, and community leader based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on Treaty 1 Territory. A graduate of the University of Winnipeg’s Bachelor of Arts program in affiliation with the School of Contemporary Dancers, Hall’s practice bridges the worlds of street and concert dance with authenticity, rhythm, and care. 

An alumna of NAfro Dance Company, Hall has also made her name in Toronto, participating in numerous projects with the Nu Dance Performance Institute, the Toronto District School Board, and the Our Streetsville Square Project. These experiences deepened her commitment to connecting movement with education, storytelling, and social change. 

Hall is the founder and artistic director of Define Movement, a dance company and community platform dedicated to “keeping Hip Hop sacred through community.” Through Define Movement, she has produced and choreographed The Cipher Series, For the Love of Dance, and Define Movement’s One Love, initiatives that highlight Winnipeg’s diverse Hip Hop and street dance communities. Her work provides mentorship for emerging artists and fundraises to preserve accessible spaces for creative expression. 

Her choreography has recently been presented through RISE Musical Theatre Company and at Prairie Theatre Exchange’s The REMIX, a showcase highlighting ten of Winnipeg’s top Hip Hop and commercial dance choreographers.

RESIDENCY DATES

Residency:
March 23 – April 3, 2026

Open Studio:
Monday, March 30, 2026
3:00 – 5:00pm
Graffiti Art Gallery – 109 Higgins Avenue
Pay What You Can
TICKETS

Download the Participation Waiver here: YLDE Participation Waiver (PDF)
*The Waiver can be completed in advance or in person.

Accessibility Information:
Physically accessible
Gender-inclusive washrooms
ASL Interpretation Offered

Public Sharing:
Friday, April 3, 2026
7:00–8:30pm
The Forks – 1 Forks Market Road, Room 201
Pay What You Can
TICKETS

Accessibility Information:
Physically accessible
Gender-inclusive washrooms
ASL Interpretation Offered

Facilitator: Mariana Muñoz Gómez
Essayist: Vivi Dabee

Mariana Muñoz Gomez is an artist, writer, and curator. Their art practice is often lens-based, involving a variety of media. Their practice explores place, identity, and language, and how these topics intersect with coloniality, temporality, and relationality. Mariana has been involved with various Winnipeg collectives and is currently a managing co-editor of Carnation Zine. Visit Mariana’s website at www.marianamunoz.ca.

Vivi Dabee is a lover of the arts. Her enthusiasm for literature and theatre led her to the world of academia where she studied theatre and completed her English BA (Honours) at the University of Winnipeg, and her Master’s of English at the University of Manitoba. Vivi is a poet, playwright, and classically trained vocalist. She is passionate about telling stories that interrogate race and racial identity and    creating art that both represents and explores the lived experience of blindness. She is co-host of the podcasts The Lens: Living Diverse and The Blind Truth and is the audio-description consultant for Vocal Image Ensemble Winnipeg (VIEW). Her writing, film, and theatre credits include Passing; Vivi’s Vision; Antigone; Neither Here nor There, and Rebellious Bodies and Radical Acts: Deaf and Disabled Artists Raise the Curtain on Cripping the Stage. In addition to her arts work, Vivi is an advocate who strives to create more accessible spaces in society for people living with sight loss.  Vivi loves meeting people and hearing their stories. When she is not curled up with a good book, Vivi enjoys exploring all that Manitoba has to offer with her family, friends, and guide-dog companion.

This residency is made possible with support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Manitoba Arts Council, and the Winnipeg Arts Council.