The Room Upstairs: With Natasha Powell
Live on CIUT 89.5 FM
Airing Date: June 20, 2026
Host: Nicole Inica Hamilton
Production Editor: S-Quire Johnson
Featured Guest(s): Natasha Powell
This week on TUЯИOUT Radio, featured guest Natasha Powell (Artistic Director of Holla Jazz) joins the program. Tune in for the episode as Powell reflects upon The Room Upstairs. The 2026 Dora Mavor Moore award nominated work is inspired by, and set to the music of John Coltrane. The ensemble work is accompanied by live music that uses the dancing language of jazz, lindy hop, and black vernacular dances. The Room Upstairs is a world that holds space for devotion, camaraderie, and grief.
About Natasha Powell
Natasha Powell is a Toronto native who has been working in the dance industry for 20 years. Her soulful approach to movement that transcends genre can be seen and felt in her dancing, choreography, and teachings.
In 2016 she founded the award-winning company, Holla Jazz, a home and a meeting place for practitioners in jazz and street dance forms to create works in collaboration with designers and musicians. Her choreographic language has led her to collaborate with the National Ballet of Canada, and on theatre projects with Canadian Stage and Tarragon Theatre. Natasha is a 2023 recipient of the Johanna Metcalf Prize in the Performing Arts, presented by the Metcalf Foundation.
