Nailah Renuka
Creative Values + Experience
Nailah (she/they) is a Canada-based movement artist, known for her dynamic athleticism, inquisitive and daring mindset, and engaging performance quality. Influenced by her early training in opera, musical theatre, and gymnastics, she has cultivated a distinct movement style that merges high-level physicality with refined musicality. After retiring from gymnastics, Nailah pursued a successful career as a contemporary, jazz, and modern dancer, earning her BFA in Contemporary Dance Forms from York University before moving to New York City, where she worked with companies including VIM VIGOR, Ailey Il, and Buglisi Dance Theater.
Nailah is passionate about fostering a sustainable approach to movement, encouraging artistic exploration, and cultivating a supportive community for her students and community.
Nailah often uses her work to investigate the complexities of identity as a disabled, marginalized, and queer individual, prioritizing interdisciplinary collaboration between juxtaposing visual, musical, and movement-based art forms to create a three-dimensional language that infuses the extremes of human physicality and perception with complex visual and verbal patterning and imagery.
As a dancer, she has been granted the honour of featured artist for multiple creative residencies and performances in Canada for companies including Theatre Oculus (Reverb); Expect Theatre (Babble); The And, Stage Company (The Stages, De-Centred); and VIBE Arts (NExT III; Converge).
In 2021, Nailah transitioned into pole and circus arts, first specializing in contortion before adding dance pole, hand-balancing, aerial hoop, dance trapeze, and aerial spiral to her roster. Since winning her first pole competition in 2022, she has performed with many renowned companies, including Second Sky Circus, Hercinia Arts Collective, and Les 7 Doigts de la Main.
She is the recipient of several national, provincial, and local artistic and professional development grants, including the Chalmers Professional Development Award.
Her training and performances have taken her across the US, Canada, and Europe, where she continues to hone her craft and develop her artistic voice.
performances
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An Eclipsed Harmony
Melanin Mosaic Performance Ensemble
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All That We Are
Les 7 Doigts de la Main for Virgin Voyages
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Soulful Serenade (Melanin's Anthem)
Melanin Mosaic Performance Ensemble
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Chaos Theory: Part II
Hercinia Arts Collective presents Chaos Theory: Part II (Corporate Chaos)
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The Rest is Rust and Stardust
PSO Canada East 2022 Gold Medalist (Championship Level 3)
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Lifting Belly
Multi-Apparatus Contemporary Circus Piece
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mettle demonstrated (the uncommon woman)
NExT: The Future of Art Exhibition 2.0 | VIBE Arts + TO Live
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echoes of embodiment
REVERB Creation Residency | The Stages: De-centered
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Babble.
Expect Theatre | Beats + Intentions Emerging Artist Unit
Education + Experience
Nailah began artistic gymnastics as a young child and remained dedicated to it until her medical retirement from the sport at age 14, following 5+ years of national-level competitions and countless medals on balance beam and uneven bars. Despite the demands of her sport, Nailah also found the time to train as a classical singer and actor with the Canadian Children’s Opera Company, appearing as a featured performer in albums and shows across the country, including The Four Tenors, Toronto Symphony Orchestra (Christmas Pops; Back in the Day; Canadian Specials), and Canadian Opera Company (Carmen; Madame Butterfly; La Bohème), as well as touring with the company across North America and to Europe.
Nailah has honed her skills internationally since beginning her formal dance training while attending Etobicoke School for the Arts. Between summers at The Ailey School and the completion of her Honours BFA in Dance from York University, Nailah’s formal movement vocabulary has been highly influenced by Theatre Jazz, contemporary floor and partner work, Graham Technique, Precision Jazz, Dunham Technique, contemporary ballet, Limón Technique, and Horton Technique.
Immediately following her graduation from YorkU, Nailah moved to New York City to pursue a performance career where she had the honour of training and performing with companies and choreographers including VIM VIGOR, Ailey II, Helen Simoneau, Ronald K Brown/EVIDENCE, Ross Daniels, Jennifer Muller, and Buglisi Dance Theater while studying as an Ailey School Scholarship Student.
Since returning to Toronto, Nailah has rediscovered her acrobatic roots, making the career transition from dance to circus. She began training with contortion, hand-balancing, and acrobatics with Alixa Slobodyan (Alixa Flexibility), Serchmaa Byamba (Circus Center), Samantha Halas (Frostbite Circus) and Maleke Duncan-Reid, before adding Lyra (Keely Whitelaw and Leeann Ball), pole (Elspeth Cudmore), and now Cyr Wheel (Christa Wilson and Francis Caron) to her ever-growing repertoire. In 2022, she achieved first place in the Championship division at Pole Sport Organization's Canada East competition and, since then, has had the opportunity to work as a featured artist for many notable circus companies, including Cirque Revolution, Hercinia Arts Collective, and Les 7 Doigts de la Main.
Nailah has received several grants to further her technical skillset, including the Chalmers Professional Development Award and a Canada Council for the Arts Research + Create Grant.
Circus Reel
Dance Reel
