Community Knowledge Centre - Toronto Community Foundation

About this organization

Mission

Mammalian Diving Reflex is a Toronto-based non-profit charity and performance company. We create community-based events that are free and open to the public in Toronto, in Canada, and around the world. Our interactive performances occur beyond the walls of the theatre; we collaborate with members of the community as participants, with community centres, schools, seniors’ centres, sports clubs, and the media. We work extensively with children and youth with a focus on children’s rights, and with seniors, new immigrant communities and lower income neighbourhoods. It is our mission to challenge power hierarchies and accepted social norms. We bring strangers together in unconventional ways, engage them, challenge them, entertain them, and get them talking, thinking and feeling. Our performances offer personal experiences that invite positive social change and prove the power and generosity of the social sphere.

History of Organization

Mammalian Diving Reflex was founded in 1993, and between 1993-2003 produced the primarily stage-based work of Artistic Director, Darren O'Donnell. In 2003, the company began to diversify and generate work in a multitude of other forms, focusing on public, interventionist, playful, provocative, social-specific and participatory performance called “social acupuncture.” In 2006, Darren published his book, Social Acupuncture, which established a theoretical foundation for this new direction and, propelled by the hit, Haircuts by Children, Mammalian began to work with a wide array of new collaborators including international festivals, art galleries, city administrations, schools and other socially-related institutions. The company has now toured our work in Canada, the United States, Europe, the UK, Australia and Asia.

Accolades and Accomplishments

Mammalian Diving Reflex has received numerous awards for our engaging work with the community, children and youth. Mammalian most recently received Harbourfront Centre’s 2010 Fresh Ground New Works Award to premiere Monster Makers. In 2009, after being shortlisted for three consecutive years, Mammalian was awarded the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Arts for Youth Award, a $15,000 cash prize. In 2007 and 2008 Mammalian was the recipient of the Growing Active Kids award from the Toronto Community Foundation. In 2008 Mammalian also received an award from the Toronto Community Foundation’s Simon Family Fund, and a capital grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. Mammalian has presented our work with children and youth nationally and internationally with great success, motivating presenting festivals to reposition our performances as main stage events, rather than secondary community programs. Nuit Market at Toronto’s Nuit Blanche, 2010 was called “refreshingly incongruous” and a “personal highlight” by Murray Whyte of the Toronto Star and “the best project of the evening” by David Balzer at Eye Magazine; Haircuts by Children was called “the Best of New York City’s Performa” by ArtINFO.

Programs

>Haircuts by Children
>Monster Makers
>The Torontonians

Our artistic vision and all of the work that Mammalian creates involves collaboration with diverse community groups including children, youth, adults, seniors, and with various cultural and economic backgrounds. We create performances in Canada and abroad that engage the audience as active participants, induce encounters between strangers, blur the line between art and life, and both utilize and prove the generosity of the social sphere. Our performances with children and youth include: Haircuts by Children, Ballroom Dancing, The Children’s Choice Awards, Eat the Street, The Torontonians and Monster Makers; each involves collaborating with the kids to create unusual encounters between them, and people of all ages in the neighbourhood, and in atypical public spaces. We have worked for over 5 years with the students at Parkdale Public School, the largest collaborations being Parkdale Public School vs. Queen St. West I  & II. The UCC Horizons Youth Ambassadors Program and 600,000 Years engage with youth participants in a similar way, but with emphasis on involving them in the process as well as realisation of the work. Slow Dance With Teacher, Nuit Market, Diplomatic Immunities and Q&A involve collaborations with adults from various groups; for Nuit Market we worked with the Toronto Weston Flea Market, the Downsview Flea Market and the Thorncliffe Park Women’s Committee. The Best Sex I’ve Ever Had engages adults over the age of 65 who are asked to share intimate details of their personal lives with each other and the public, for the benefit of all. Mammalian Diving Reflex’s performances devise artistic and social methods to bridge gaps between people who may not ordinarily have any reason to form relationships. Seen from some angles, these collaborations may not appear to be art, but rather offer glances at simple power dynamics and, for a moment, a glimpse of other possibilities..

Haircuts by Children

Haircuts by Children is a whimsical relational performance that playfully engages with the enfranchisement of children, with trust in the younger generation, and the thrills and chills of vanity. Haircuts By Children involves students from public schools between the ages of eight and twelve as paid collaborators who offer free haircuts in real hair salons to the public, and willing audience members as a performance event. The performance challenges power hierarchies by creating a unique and intimate social experience between an adult stranger and a child, where the child holds the power in the form of sharp scissor blades. Haircuts by Children invites the consideration of children as creative and competent individuals whose aesthetic choices can be trusted. The idea that kids should be allowed to cut our hair evokes the same leap of faith, courage and understanding required to grant children deeper citizenship rights. For many it is actually less terrifying to contemplate allowing kids to vote!

Funding and Program Partners

Haircuts by Children was initially funded by the Laidlaw Foundation, and its presentation abroad has been supported by Touring and Operating funding received by Mammalian Diving Reflex from Canada Council For the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. This program has been presented in collaboration with twenty-three national and international theatre festivals, art festivals and galleries.

Program Impact

Haircuts by Children premiered in Toronto in 2006, and has since been performed over fifty times in seven countries at art festivals, theatre festivals and galleries around the world. We collaborate with children in all communities in a respectful way, giving opportunity and priority to kids who have limited access to arts programs, are new to the city, are from immigrant families, lower income families and Aboriginal communities. Alternative learning, and social, environments offered by Haircuts by Children have had a significant social and educational impact on the children involved, particularly kids with learning or developmental disabilities, and those struggling with the learning methods or social structures within the conventional classroom setting. Principals and teachers have reported that many of these children have improved confidence and performance at school, as well as better relationships with class-mates during and after participation. As a result, Haircuts by Children has impacted teachers who have noted and recognized the value of arts programming in an educational setting, and as a result have pursued further arts programming and projects.

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

Haircuts by Children addresses the need for free, accessible arts programs for young people from lower income families. The performance involves youth as collaborators and participants both in the school environment, and in a community-based extracurricular activity outside school hours.

“The largest proportion of families, are in the lowest income category and half of all students in the JK-Grade 6 population are from lower income families. Over one-fifth are in the highest income range, and less than one-fifth (18%) are middle income, illustrating the challenge of meeting educational needs in the context of the widening income gap between Toronto’s young learners.”

“More than half of all parents (56%) reported that of their children participate in sports and recreation activities outside school hours. But almost one quarter (23%) of children never participate in such activities. 41% of children regularly participate in extracurricular arts programs; more than one-third (36%) never have that opportunity.”

(Toronto’s Vital Signs®, 2009)

Participant Vignette

"On behalf of the School Councillors, we want to dearly thank both Mammalian Diving Reflex and LIFT [London International Festival of Theatre] for giving us the opportunity of a life-time. it was a pleasure of you to give us the responsibility to cut both adults and children's hair. Thank you very much, your project has given us the confidence to reach for our goals and to make progress in our lives."

Monster Makers

Monster Makers is a hybrid stage-based/street theatre show. The audience is introduced to Monster, a healthy Ice-Cream Swirl-Top that we have found, just this morning, beneath the bed. We turn to the children in the audience to take responsibility for Monster, and guide it through its various stages of development: walking, talking, singing, dancing and dealing with it's emotional baggage. Led by the kids, the audience takes Monster out in the world for a walk, where he tests the limits of the children, who are enlisted to protect him, and the public. Monster Makers addresses issues of social control, societal expectations and paranoia around children while indirectly implicating parents in perpetuating these limiting social structures. The performance asks both children and their parents to take on, and think about failure in an exciting and engaging way.

Funding and Program Partners

Monster Makers was conceived in collaboration with Shobha Murthy’s students at Aarambh, a non-profit charity organization based in the slum colonies of Navi Mumbai, India, created as a support center for the children and women living there.  Development of Monster Makers has been generously supported by the Ontario Arts Council Touring grant program, and was presented with development support at the 2010 Magnetic North Theatre Festival. Development support has also been received from Young People and the Arts Australia, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Streets Alive Youth Festival and the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People. Mammalian Diving Reflex received Harbourfront Centre’s Fresh Ground New Works Award to further research, develop and premiere Monster Makers in 2011.

Program Impact

Monster Makers brings children and their parents face to face with their fears; it questions control, failure, children’s rights and freedoms, and the social restrictions we place on ourselves and others. The performance places children in charge and shows everyone that kids are definitely capable, but also that we all fail at times, that failure is a part of life, and can be embraced.

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

Monster Makers is a performance for children aged 6-12 years old, which addresses the current need for extracurricular activities for children in that age range. Mammalian will premiere Monster Makers in Toronto, at Harbourfront centre, offering arts programming to Toronto children in a family-friendly and accessible location.

“534 full-week after-school programs currently operate in Toronto for 6-12 year olds, accommodating just 9.5% of Toronto’s 192,525 children in that age range.”

“The seven neighbourhoods with the largest number of 6-12 year olds (15% of the total), located in Toronto’s inner suburbs in the northwest and northeast of the City, are the least able to provide after-school programs. Just 5% of the neighbourhood’s children have an after-school program to go to.” 

(Toronto’s Vital Signs® ,2009)

The Torontonians

Five years ago Mammalian Diving Reflex began working with the kids in Parkdale, Toronto, and to celebrate this anniversary we recently introduced The Torontonians, a collective of Toronto youth who we will spend the next twenty years expanding and mentoring as art makers. The final goal: to hand them control of the company in 2030, when they are in their 30's. To support their development, we have established The Torontonians mentorship program to foster their talents, passions and interests and achieve this succession plan.

A key component of The Torontonians is to offer financial support to its members to be used for clearly defined projects that will foster skills and passions, with a particular emphasis on the arts. While demonstrating a need and commitment, The Torontonians must progress through five stages of proposals to continue to receive financial support. Starting first with an initial verbal request, through written proposals, to the complete development of a personal artistic vision, budgets, plans and, miraculously, after a number of proposals, The Torontonians will be adept at writing grants.

The long-term goal of The Torontonians is to cultivate artists, producers, technicians and administrators, and for those youth who choose to follow other career trajectories, positions on arts organizations' boards of directors. The Torontonians is a long-term succession plan, not only for Mammalian Diving Reflex, but for the future of Toronto's arts community.

Program Impact

The Torontonians offers free mentorship, workshops, and artistic activities to Toronto youth; kids will have the opportunity to work with local institutions, industry professionals and artists to learn valuable skills that will help them in their future careers as artists and culture workers, including project development, management and grant-writing.

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

The Torontonians is a program for youth aged 11-19 years old, which addresses the current need for extracurricular activities for children and youth in that age range. The Torontonians offers mentorship and skills-development to help youth secure future gainful employment in the arts field. 

"More than half of all parents (56%) reported that of their children participate in sports and recreation activities outside school hours. But almost one quarter (23%) of children never participate in such activities. 41% of children regularly participate in extracurricular arts programs; more than one-third (36%) never have that opportunity."

"Youth in the Toronto Region have been particularly affected by the contraction in the economy. The unemployment rate in June 2009 for 15-24 year-olds rose to 20.1% from 15.3% in June 2008 (close to the Ontario average rate of 18.9% and a 31.4% increase over the year). The national rate was 16% in June 2009, up from 10.7% the year before."

(Toronto’s Vital Signs® ,2009)

Participant Vignette

"[The Torontonians]... gave some of the best memories of my life. I also enjoy the people I worked with and mostly Darren. It was the funnyest time ever. Torontonians put a smile on my face :)" -Sanjay Ratnan