Maribeth Tabanera
2025-2026 Artist-In-Residence
ARIST BIO
Maribeth Manalaysay Tabanera, MEd aka Kilusan (siya/sanda/they/she) is a Tagalog Bisaya
Filipinx queer non-binary multi-disciplinary artist, educator, and community organizer.
Kilusan is a chosen Tagalog name that means movement of an individual and/or group. A
child of Filipino immigrants, born, raised, and based in Winnipeg on Treaty 1 Territory.
Maribeth has been a full-time public school educator and artist facilitator for over a decade.
They have presented their 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, voguing, waacking, dancehall and afro beats. Maribeth has danced with Magdaragat
Inc (1996-2001), Define Movement (2006-2013), Project Dance Company (2015), and
B.O.S.S. Dance Team (2016-2020). Since 2018, Kilusan has DJed alongside artists such as
Cupcakke, Kimmortal, Begonia, Skratch Bastid, and DJ Maseo of De La Soul.
In 2022, Maribeth was chosen as Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists/West Chapter – BIPOC
Dance Resident, and was a recipient of the Manitoba Arts Council Support Arts Leaders
Grant. Some of Maribeth’s most notable projects include presenting ‘Into Our World’ at Art
Holm no 8 (2023) in Winnipeg and producing a video for CBC Manitoba’s Creators Network
“Unlocked” series. In November 2023, Maribeth became a published author, contributing
“Pagpapasok sa sarili ko/Coming Into Myself” to Magdaragat: An Anthology of
Filipino-Canadian Writing published by Cormorant Books.
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.
Collaborator:
Maribeth is collaborating with Dammecia Hall for their residency project.
RESIDENCY DATES
Residency:
March 23 – April 3, 2026
Open Studio:
Monday, March 30, 2026
Time: To Be Announced
Space to Create – 2B-468 Main Street
Pay What You Can
Public Sharing:
Friday, April 3, 2026
7:00–8:30pm
Location: To Be Announced
Pay What You Can
Essayist: Viv
Facilitator: Mariana
This residency is made possible with support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Manitoba Arts Council, and the Winnipeg Arts Council.