Ishtar Dance Collective

10 days of yeehaw > yallah 🤠 Calgary Stampede

It’s Calgary Stampede Season! And we’re serving prairie goddess energy 🌻 🤠

What’s your favourite Stampede combo?

Community nights like this are such an important reminder of why the arts matter ✨

Ishtar Dance Society would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Eastern Dance Studio and Galina Busova for bringing together such a beautiful evening of dance, creativity, and connection. The atmosphere was filled with support, inspiration, and genuine love for the art form.

Lyla and Sakinah of Diamonds of Ishtar were honoured to perform among so many gifted artists and to share in an evening that celebrated both individuality and community through movement and music.

Thank you to everyone who attended, performed, and helped create such a memorable experience. We are so grateful to be part of this vibrant dance community 💙🌊

Exciting announcement coming soon! ✨

Save the date!

Greetings dance community!

We’d love for you to join us this Sunday from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM (MDT) for our online Community Listening Session.

As part of the session, we’ll be sharing high-level insights from our recent anonymous survey, with aggregated data that honours anonymity while supporting transparency and shared understanding.

This is a meaningful opportunity to show up for one another and help shape the future of our community. Your presence and perspective are genuinely valued, and we hope you can be there - even if just for a portion.

Please register if you haven’t already and meet the facilitators below. Even if you’re unable to attend, we encourage you to register so we can make sure you receive the meeting notes directly.

Registration link in comments. 🔗👇





💫 Meet Parker-

We’re excited to introduce one of our facilitators, Parker Chapple (they/them), a valued board member and passionate arts advocate in our community.

Parker is the creative force behind BadAss Creative, where they support entrepreneurs, artists, and nonprofits in bringing bold ideas to life. Their work blends strategy with artistry - helping organizations move from vision to ex*****on with clarity, structure, and momentum.

With a background in project management, fund development, and operations, Parker has a talent for transforming complex ideas into tangible, successful outcomes. Their impact spans major arts and community initiatives, including leadership roles with Beakerhead and Calgary Pride, where they significantly expanded participation, engagement, and funding.

Beyond the numbers, Parker is known for creating meaningful, well-crafted experiences and for helping teams cut through overwhelm so they can focus on what truly matters.

As a facilitator, Parker brings a thoughtful, solutions-oriented approach grounded in collaboration, creativity, and care.

We’re grateful to have their voice helping guide this conversation.

💫 Meet Serena-

We’re honoured to introduce one of our facilitators, Serena Kerbes (she/her), a longtime member of our community and dedicated advocate for the SWANA dance arts.

A former performer with the Ishtar Dance Collective, Serena continues to support the dance community from behind the scenes, where she finds joy in choreography, mentorship, and helping creative work come to life. She is a former director of The Little Fish Dance Co., and remains deeply committed to fostering connection, growth, and integrity within the community.

Serena holds a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from the University of Calgary and brings a strong foundation in both artistic practice and professional development. In her work beyond the arts, she is a Professional Development Associate in Corporate Learning with the Chartered Professional Accountants (CPA), where she supports education and growth in a different, but complementary, capacity.

As a proud board member and treasurer of the Ishtar Society, Serena plays an important role in sustaining and strengthening the organization.

She is a thoughtful advocate for maintaining the dignity and professionalism of Raqs Sharqi and SWANA dance forms, and brings a grounded, values-driven perspective to her work as a facilitator.

We’re grateful to have her guiding this conversation with care, experience, and deep respect for the art form.





Thank you for being part of this community, we look forward to being in conversation with you.🧿💛