May 29-31, 2026

Shaping Reciprocity is a multi‑day celebration of contemporary dance, harp, and ecological imagination, bringing together artists, composers, and community members to explore how humans live in relationship with the more‑than‑human world. Through performances, workshops, and collaborative creation, the festival invites audiences to listen differently, move differently, and imagine futures shaped by care, responsibility, and interdependence.

The festival features two programs of performance, including the premiere of new works created through the inaugural HarpSparks: Composer Lab, where emerging composers learn to write for the harp and collaborate directly with members of the Voices Dance Project. These works—ranging from playful improvisational ecosystems to meditations on birdsong, trees, light pollution, and human–nature relationships—offer diverse, imaginative perspectives on reciprocity across species and environments.

Alongside the performances, Shaping Reciprocity offers three workshops and conversations with the artists that deepen the festival’s themes through practice and dialogue, in partnership with Sectoral Climate Arts Leadership for the Emergency (SCALE), Ecology Ottawa, and Civic Imagination Lab.

Together, these performances and workshops form a festival that is both artistic and ecological—a space for learning, imagining, and practicing reciprocity in community. We hope you will leave this weekend feeling more connected to our local community and inspired to take action for the causes that are close to your heart.

Co-produced by HarpSparks and the Voices Dance Project, with composer Jack Hui Litster and guest choreographer Autumn Eckman. Original artwork for Shaping Reciprocity created by Meredith Luce.