Collette Murray is a dance educator and cultural arts programmer with a performance background ranged in Caribbean Folk, traditional West African, and other diasporic dance styles with Toronto-based companies. Murray holds a Master of Education and Specialized Honours BA in Race, Ethnicity and Indigeneity from York University, and a Sociology BA from University of Toronto.

Her graduate research centered on perspectives of Black arts educators’ experiences using culturally responsive teaching in Ontario, Canada.

Her artistry includes teaching, arts education, mentorship, research, and community arts engagement. This award-winning artist is recognized as one of 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women honorees in 2020, 2019 recipient of the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Community Arts Award, and Canadian Dance Assembly’s 2013 recipient of the “I love Community” Award.

Along with Miss Coco Murray, her mobile, dance education business, Murray also is the Artistic Director of Coco Collective offering culturally-responsive projects connecting participants, organizations, and schools to African and Caribbean arts. Murray is a contributing writer published in dance media.

Her advocacy includes serving on the National Council for Canadian Dance Assembly, the Board of Directors for Arts Etobicoke, and Dance Umbrella of Ontario (DUO) to bring an equity, education, and inclusion lens to their organizations. Murray pursues a PhD in Dance Studies at York University with focus on dance education pedagogies and mentorship that can impact the Canadian African diasporic dance sector.

Research keywords: Africanist dances in diaspora; culturally responsive teaching; dance; dance education pedagogies; diasporas; education