Over 60 people stopped by Sharon Gashgarian’s 2025 Culture Days event, titled “A World of Dance: a tapestry of movement celebrating the power of connection” at the Doug Snooks Eagle Place Community Centre on Sunday, September 28, 2025.
The free four-hour showcase featured five sets of performances throughout the afternoon, highlighting both professional and community dancers who shared their personal experiences through storytelling and movement.
Gashgarian, who previously put on two other Culture Days events back in 2023, said this year’s programming was inspired by the Brantford International Villages Festival.
“When I came up with the idea of A World of Dance, it was sort of jumping off of the success that Brantford has had with the International Villages,” said Gashgarian. “The thought of, ‘what if I could get a bunch of dancers together to do their cultural dances for an afternoon’ kind of popped into my head, and I sort of just went from there and began reaching out to people.”
Following a brief introduction and land acknowledgment from Gashgarian, Heidi Pinand and Alicia-Lynn Morin of the Gihekdagye Friendship Centre (BRISC) officially kicked off the event with a welcome song and an oral presentation explaining the meaning behind certain Indigenous dances.
After a short ten minute break, four young dancers from a local youth group performed two different dance styles from India including Bhangra, a type of traditional folk dance that originated from the Punjab region, and Kathak, a story-telling-based classical dance form from North India.
Starting off the third set of the day was Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, a local Ukrainian-Canadian children’s author, who spoke about her newest trilogy of books titled “Kidnapped from Ukraine.” After her talk, dancers from Brantford’s Village Ukraina then performed two different routines, changing costumes in between.
“We had the pipers play out back and opened up the door, and because it was such a beautiful day weather wise, it really felt like this magical experience,” said Gashgarian. “People were coming from out of their backyard to come find out what was going on so it was just a really neat experience.”
During intermission, attendees had the chance to grab a few light snacks, converse with the different vendors and community partners, and listen to live music from Justin Hackert. Members of Brantford Pipes and Drums also performed just outside of the venue, setting the stage for the next performance.
Kicking off the second half of the event was River LaCroix, who piped in a group of local Highland dancers from the Angus Academy of Highland Dance. During the set, both junior and senior students had the chance to show off their talents.
And lastly, to end the day, Sumedha Mongia performed Odissi, a classical Indian dance form from Odisha, east India.
“She did a really beautiful presentation where she had the audience members participating in dance moves, and it was just such a wonderful way to end the day,” said Gashgarian. “She’s so engaging and so friendly, and she does a really wonderful job at sharing what she knows so it was really a great way to end the day.”
Before sending audience members on their way back home, Pinand and Morin ended out the event with a departure song, wishing everyone safe travels along the way.
After the event, Gashgarian said that even though there were a few changes to the programming along the way, she was happy with how the event turned out, saying that it was still exactly what she had hoped for.
“Our two dancers who were going to start off the event with a traditional Haudenosaunee dance, unfortunately couldn’t make it due to conflicting schedules, but because Heidi and Alicia-Lynn were already there as community partners, they stepped in with their songs,” said the organizer. “It was very impromptu but that’s the beauty of doing something like this, right? It can be as fluid or as structured as you want it to be and I thought it was just a beautiful experience that really complimented everything else.”
Given that event was presented by the Brantford Station Neighbourhood Association and the Eagle Place Community Association, in partnership with Shellard Neighbourhood Association and the City of Brantford, Gashgarian added that she was happy to have had such great community partners involved.
“It’s just great to find these community partners who, until you are actually planning an event, you might not know that they’re out there,” she said. “Even when I was reaching out to various community partners and businesses, I would hear a common refrain of, ‘we’d like to help and we can offer you this,’ and I just found myself so grateful for them. It just goes to show you what happens when you can get together and collaborate on something for the community.”
“And that was really the objective, to get the community out, and to show people in the community that anyone could put on a Culture Days event,” added Gashgarian. “We can share in this endeavor and bring the community together. The tagline for a world of dance was ‘a tapestry of movement, celebrating the power of connection,’ and that’s what I wanted to do, was to have people see that the energy that we put out there through our connections is a magical thing.”
Overall, the organizer was happy with how the event turned out, and is looking forward to next year’s Culture Days.
“I’m thrilled with the amount of attention the event got,” said Gashgarian. “This was something that we’ve been planning for almost three years, and so to bring it to fruition was great and now we’re thinking, ‘okay, what’s next?’”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
