winter guests

winter guests is an international touring company performing works by Alan Lucien Øyen from Bergen, Norway. They tell stories of the contemporary world with words, video, music and movement. The works are based on real life experiences, including original text, transcribed recordings and improvisations. The company often inserts its own reality into the subject matter of the piece – resulting in rich and eccentric performances in a constantly shifting format. winter guests presents their avant-garde theatre and dance in both independent venues and in the context of opera stages.  

They have won several awards and gained international acclaim while touring over 20 countries for performances and residencies at places such as The Watermill Center, New York Theatre Workshop, Théâtre National de Chaillot, and Banff Center for the Arts and creativity among others. among others. winter guests presents their avant-garde theatre and dance in both independent venues and in the context of opera houses.  

Besides winter guests, Alan directs and creates work for theater and dance companies world wide, including the Paris Opera, Gothenburg Opera’s Dance Company, Det Norske Teatret and The Norwegian National Opera and Ballet where he is currently associated artist.

Alan Lucien Øyen is one of the most exciting artists from Norway today, whose work as writer, director and choreographer has been highly acclaimed in his home country and abroad.

As the son of a dresser, Alan grew up in a small theatre, Den Nationale Scene, established by Ibsen himself, in the town of Bergen, Norway. Here he would watch theatre religiously from the age of 7 – classical productions as well as contemporary masterworks like the very first world premieres from Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse.

At the age of 17 he went on to study Ballet with Hungarian ballet master and Mariinsky Theatre graduate Peter Tornev, whom he studied with for two years before being accepted into the State School of Art in Oslo where he graduated as a dancer in 2001.

Alan spent his first years as a dancer with The Norwegian National Contemporary dance company, Carte Blanche, where he met American choreographer Amanda Miller, he later went on to join her company Pretty Ugly in Köln in 2005.

Alan choreographed his first piece “excerpts of citation without context” in 2004, a solo dealing with the over- exposure of information in modern day society based on Jean Beudrillard’s essay “Ecran Total” (Screened Out).

By 2006 he’d already established his own company winter guests – a multidisciplinary company bringing together actors, dancers, writers, set designers and technicians, touring theatrical works in English for the international stage. Since 2009 his plays for winter guests have been written and developed together with British playwright and director Andrew Wale.

Whether it’s theatre, dance or film, Alan’s works have a highly emotional and dramatic drive. His choreographic language is complex and technically challenging. His works are informed by the world around him which allows him to draw inspiration from a myriad of sources including high art and popular culture as well as personal conversations and experiences – always in pursuit of a sincere and human expression.

Alan has won several awards, both for his choreographic works as well as his theatre productions. His six hour long play “Coelacanth”, (co-written with Andrew Wale), won him the prestigious HEDDA Award, (Norwegian Theatre Awards), for Best Original Play, as well as three other nominations including Best Director and Best Play. 

Besides his work for winter guests, Alan is also commissioned internationally to create work for opera houses, contemporary dance companies, and stage plays for regional theatres. He was one of the first two guest choreographers commissioned to create a full-length piece for the renowned Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, which premiered June 2018 and is currently touring the world.

As associated artist at the Oslo Opera House since 2013, Alan is given the space and freedom for himself, and his company winter guests, to make groundbreaking theatre and dance performances in the stunning new Norwegian Opera House. Alan was awarded the 2018 Wilhelmsens Opera og Ballettpris Award for challenging the traditional opera and ballet context with his original theatre works.

Olivia Ancona

Olivia Ancona was born in the USA and studied at the Juilliard School.  She was a member of the Batsheva ensemble and a founding member of Sharon Eyal’s LEV. After a season at the royal Swedish ballet she returned to Batsheva dance company. Olivia has worked in Sidi Larbi’s Eastman, as a guest with Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Örjan Andersson Dance, and with Sasha Waltz at the Staatsballett Berlin. She joined winter guests for the creation of ‘Story, story, die’ in 2019. Olivia is a certified Gaga teacher and gives workshops internationally.

Scott Jennings

Scott Jennings is a British born dancer, performer and teacher. He studied dance and theatre at The BRIT School, Croydon and then went onto receive a BA (Hons) degree from London Contemporary Dance School. Scott has performed and collaborated with artists such as Lloyd Newson, Robert Wilson, Matthew Bourne, Maxine Doyle, Alexandra Waierstall and Suzy Willson. From 2012 – 2018 he was a member of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, performing seminal roles in works such as Nelken, Café Müller and 1980, amongst others. As a guest dancer for the company, he also created an original role in Dimitris Papaioannou’s Since She. Alongside performing, Scott regularly teaches creative workshops and classes at schools, institutions and festivals throughout Europe.

Yi-Chi Lee

Yi-Chi Lee was born in Changhua, Taiwan. He finished his education at the Taipei National University of the Arts from 2009-2016. In 2018, he joined Dance Company Theater Osnabrück where he danced until joining Staatsballett Berlin (under the direction of Johannes Öhman/Sasha Waltz) as a demi-soloist contemporary dancer in August of 2019. In 2021, he joined Winter Guests for the current creation ’The American Moth’ 2021 and ‘Story, story, die’ tour in 2022. He is now a freelance dancer/performer based in Berlin.

Waldean Nelson

Waldean Nelson, originally from Brooklyn, New York, received his training from the Dance Theater of Harlem, The Ailey School, Bryn Mawr College, Jacob’s Pillow, Philadanco and Springboard Danse Montreal. Waldean received his B.A. in Growth and Structure of Cities (conc. Architecture) and a minor in Dance from Haverford College in 2009.

Waldean has had the pleasure of working with Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, Jose Navas, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, The 605 Collective, & Kate Wallich/The YC.

Waldean joined GöteborgsOperans Danskompani in 2015 under the direction of Adolphe Binder. Since joining he has created many original works and roles with choreographers such as Marina Mascarell, Alan Lucien Oyen, Saburo Teshigawara, Marcos Morau, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui & Yoann Bourgeois.

Outside of his work at the opera, Waldean has also had the opportunity to be featured in various commercial campaigns such as Kronaby and Decent Bangla. He also was a featured dancer in the music video ‘Lakan’ by Newkid.

Jacob Francis Thoman

Jacob Thoman spent his childhood in Cincinnati, Ohio and Manila, Philippines, where he trained and performed with Exhale Dance Tribe, following Missy Lay Zimmer and Andrew Hubbard, and received additional training at The School for Creative and Performing Arts, and at Cincinnati Ballet. Graduating from The Juilliard School in 2019, under the direction of Larry Rhodes and Alicia Graf Mack, they have performed works by Roy Assaf, Crystal Pite, and Stefanie Batten Bland. Jacob has worked with Benoit Swan Pouffer and Alexandra Damiani at Cedar Lake 360 Intensive, as well as with Alexandra Wells at Springboard Danse Montreal. In Summer 2019, Jacob performed in the inaugural production of Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise at The Shed, choreographed by Akram Khan. This season, Jacob has appeared in Alan Lucien Øyen’s Story, story, die, through a multi-faceted artistic alliance between winter guests and Gibney Company. This is Jacob’s third season with Gibney Company.

Tom Weinberger

Born in Israel. Upon graduation Tom joined the Batsheva Ensemble in 2005 and the Batsheva Dance Company in 2008. In 2012 he began freelancing and became a founding member of Sharon Eyal and Guy Behar’s Company, L-E-V. He has danced with the Gothenburg Ballet and was a guest artist with Michael Keegan Dolan’s-Fabulous Beast Dance Theater and with the Forsythe Company. Since 2014 Tom has been choreographing his own work in companies and schools through out North America and Europe. He is a certified Gaga teacher since 2006 and teaches Gaga and a variety of repertoire around the world. In 2019 Tom joined winter guests as part of “Story, story, die.”

Cheng-An Wu

Cheng-An Wu, a contemporary dancer from Taiwan, graduated from Taipei National University of The Art. He has worked extensively in Europe including for Ultima Vez (Belgium) and Gothenburg Opera Dance Company (Sweden). He has danced for Free Steps by Wei-Chia Su, Kodak by Alan Lucien Øyen, Sacre by Roy Assaf, In Spite Of Wishing And Wanting by Wim Vandekeybus, and Long River by Wen-Chung Lin. He also develops his own work including Mayfly (2018) and Schrodinger’s Whale (2017). Being trained in Taiwan, but highly influenced by many European cultures, his work is layered with multi-cultural qualities. Cheng-An joined winter guests in 2019 as part of “Story, story die.”

Martin Flack – Set Design

Martin works as both managing director and technical director of winter guests. He has a background as light designer, sound technician, light technician, stage manager and production manager. Martin has worked together with Alan Lucien Øyen since 2004 and with winter guests since it was founded in 2006. Besides his work with Alan, Martin has also worked at Festspillene I Bergen, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Grieghallen, Assembly Theatre, Carte Blanche, Oktoberdans Festival, BIT Teatergarashjen, and Borealis Festival among others.

Daniel Hones – Technical Director

Danny Hones is a Theatre Technician with over 40 years’ experience. After formative years in the UK at the Arts Theatre, Cambridge, The National Theatre, and Glyndebourne Opera he started working as a freelance technician and as such has since worked for theatre, dance and opera companies in 41 countries on six continents. He has worked directly for many arts festivals including 33 years for the Edinburgh International Festival. He is now resident in New Zealand where he was Technical Operations Manager for the New Zealand Festival and is Technical Manager for the Festival of Colour in Wanaka. He has been involved with a number of winter guests shows over the last few years both in Norway and on tour.

Ana Maria Lucaciu – Rehearsal Director

Ana Maria Lucaciu is a freelance choreographer and performing artist based in New York City.

Born in Bucharest, Romania, Ana Maria graduated from the National Ballet School of Canada and joined Canada’s National Ballet immediately after. She went on to dance with the Royal Danish Ballet, Augsburg Ballet (Germany), The Portuguese Contemporary Dance Company (Lisbon) and Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet (New York), where she danced for seven years.

Ana Maria has performed and created works with contemporary dance’s foremost choreographers, including Ohad Naharin, Crystal Pite, Hofesh Shechter, Jiří Kylián, Jo Stromgren, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and many others. As a freelance performer she has collaborated with New Dialect, Zoe/Juniper, Bryan Arias and Aszure Barton & Artists. She assisted Crystal Pite on her Polaris project at New York City Center, and regularly assists Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman with new creations and stages his work around the world. 

Ana Maria is a choreographer in her own right and her work has been presented by the Norwegian National Ballet, New Dialect, SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance, OZ Arts Nashville/ Becca Hoback solo show, Terminus Modern Ballet Theater, Ballet Finland, Battery Dance Company. In 2020 she was commissioned to create a short solo work by Swedish TV. She also created a full-evening duet with Nathan Griswold that has toured the US and Europe. Her work will be presented by Philadelphia Ballet and Dance Aspen in the spring of 2022.

Ana Maria joined London’s Rambert 2 company as a rehearsal director for the spring of 2021. She will be joining Alan Lucien Øyen’s Winter Guests as rehearsal director for their 2022 tour. 

The holder of a BFA in dance from Empire State College, Ana Maria teaches ballet, contemporary, and improvisation workshops at professional programs and dance companies across the US, Europe and Asia. She is a 2018 TedX Bucharest speaker.

Gail Johnson

Gail Johnson is a Vancouver journalist who first started covering dance in 1996. She is co-founder and co-editorial director of Stir.

Janet Smith

Janet Smith is a cofounder and editor at Stir, a digital site devoted to arts journalism in Vancouver. She’s been writing about this city’s thriving dance scenes for close to three decades, across local and national publications.

Nordic Bridges is a year-long initiative led by Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre fostering cultural exchange between the Nordic Region and Canada. Working with partners across Canada, Nordic Bridges will present multidisciplinary contemporary art, culture, and ideas throughout 2022.

Built on shared values of creativity, innovation, inclusivity, resilience and sustainability, Nordic Bridges will serve to connect the Nordic Region – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland – and Canada through collaborations between artists, innovators and thinkers.

From January to December 2022, this national initiative will highlight contemporary Nordic art and culture in a range of disciplines, including performing arts (dance, theatre, circus and music), visual and digital arts, craft and design, literature, film, and culinary arts.

As one of Canada’s leading contemporary, multidisciplinary arts and culture institutions, Harbourfront Centre will lead the programming of Nordic Bridges, working with cultural organizations across Canada. The initiative will spark dialogue between Canadian audiences and artists while highlighting Nordic innovation.

This exciting initiative is seeded by a grant from the Nordic Council of Ministers, an intergovernmental organization dedicated to Nordic collaboration.

As the Norwegian Ambassador to Canada, it is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to tonight’s performance, Story story die, by winter guests and the acclaimed choreographer and director Alan Lucien Øyen. The production is presented by DanceHouse in partnership with Nordic Bridges – a yearlong cultural collaboration between the Nordic region and Canada, taking place from coast to coast to coast throughout 2022. —Jon Elvedal Fredriksen, Ambassador of Norway

BODYTRAFFIC

BODYTRAFFIC bursts with “invention, attitude and urban edge” (The Boston Globe) and “sheer animal magnetism” (San Francisco Weekly). Founded in 2007 by Lillian Rose Barbeito and Tina Finkelman Berkett, BODYTRAFFIC has surged to the forefront of the concert dance world, recruiting great talent from around the globe to create world-class contemporary dance by distinctive choreographic voices.

The company was named “the company of the future” by The New York Times, and “one of the most talked-about young companies, not just in L.A but nationwide“ by the Los Angeles Times. BODYTRAFFIC’s growing repertory includes master works by international choreographic superstars. The company is known for its emotionally charged and technically virtuosic dancers, who aim to touch, inspire and entertain audiences throughout the world.

Through performance, education, and outreach, BODYTRAFFIC has shared its love of dance throughout the world.  In 2015, BODYTRAFFIC was selected by the Obama Administration to be cultural ambassadors for the United States via DanceMotion USA℠, a dynamic cultural diplomacy program that supports United States foreign policy goals by engaging international audiences through educational opportunities, cultural exchange, and performance. BODYTRAFFIC has since served as cultural ambassadors for the United States in South Korea (2016) and Algeria (2017, 2018).

The Company

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Tina Finkelman Berkett

ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Guzmán Rosado

COMPANY MEMBERS
Katie Garcia, Pedro Garcia, Alana Jones, Tiare Keeno, Ty Morrison, Joan Rodriguez, Jordyn Santiago, Whitney Schmanski 

GENERAL MANAGER
Callen Gosselin

DANCE CAPTAIN
Tiare Keeno

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
Michael Jarett

REPRESENTATION
Margaret Selby
President, Selby/Artists Mgmt
212.382.3260   mselby@selbyartistsmgmt.com

Tina Finkelman Berkett, Artistic Director

Tina Finkelman Berkett, Artistic Director and a Founder of BODYTRAFFIC, is an influential dance leader and community builder, producing original, compelling repertoire and sharing a new vision of dance across the U.S. and around the world. Tina grew up in New York City attending Stuyvesant High School of Math and Science and graduating summa cum laude from Barnard College, Columbia University with a double major in Mathematics and Economics.  Her love of dance was ignited by her teacher and mentor, Michele Cuccaro Cain.

Tina’s professional dance career began at Aszure Barton & Artists, a distinguished contemporary dance company where she quickly became a featured dancer and then Barton’s assistant, teaching both in the U.S. and abroad. A true highlight of Tina’s career was being a founding member of Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Hell’s Kitchen Dance and touring internationally alongside Mr. Baryshnikov himself.  Tina began her interest in arts administration when she served as the company’s dancer liaison.

In 2007, Tina relocated to Los Angeles and launched BODYTRAFFIC with Lillian Barbeito. Now serving as the company’s sole Artistic Director, Tina is focusing on re-envisioning and revitalizing BODYTRAFFIC.  With her deep commitment to taking the company to new heights, she is curating and discovering exciting choreographers and programming challenging programs that audiences enjoy, seeing incredible dancers doing their best work. “BODYTRAFFIC is a home for dancers, choreographers, and dance-lovers of all ages.  We’re excited about the future and touring again!”

Guzmán Rosado, Associate Artistic Director

Guzmán Rosado started dancing at the International School of Dance of Carmen Roche Scaena in Madrid on a scholarship sponsored by the Ministerio de Cultura de Madrid. Guzmán danced with Ballet Joven de Carmen Roche until 1999, when he was offered a scholarship to attend the School of American Ballet (SAB). After his time at SAB, Edward Villella invited him to dance with Miami City Ballet. From 2002 to 2007, Guzmán danced with Companhia Portuguesa de Bailado Contemporaneo. In 2007, with André Mesquita and Teresa Alves da Silva, Guzmán co-founded Tok’Art, a cultural platform.  He has performed extensively as a guest artist throughout Europe.  He teaches ballet, yoga, and movement workshops. Guzmán is also currently BODYTRAFFIC’s resident filmmaker and has won awards for his film work. Guzmán joined BODYTRAFFIC in 2012.

Baye & Asa, Choregraphers of The One to Stay With

Baye & Asa is a company creating movement art projects directed by Amadi ‘Baye’ Washington & Sam ‘Asa’ Pratt.  Individually we have performed with Akram Khan Company, Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More, Abraham in Motion, David Dorfman Dance, Gallim, Kate Weare Company, and The Francesca Harper Project.  We’ve presented our stage and film work internationally and we are one of Dance Magazine’s 25 to Watch for 2022. We are currently artists in residence at the 92nd Street Y, and working on commissions for Pioneer Works and The Martha Graham Dance Company.

CHOREOGRAPHER’S NOTE:

The One to Stay With was created in response to Patrick Radden Keefe’s “Empire of Pain.” His book chronicles the Sackler family’s rise to power and their central role in the opioid crisis.

The Company is incentivized towards perpetual growth.

The Company develops relationships with politicians and regulatory agencies, lobbying for legislative language that protects their constant growth.

The Company language is parroted until fabrication becomes fact.

The Company’s profit margins are built on theft: of natural resources, human labor, and life.

 You don’t make a billion dollars, you steal a billion dollars.

Alejandro Cerrudo, Choreographer of PACOPEPEPLUTO

Alejandro Cerrudo is a Chicago based choreographer born in Madrid, Spain. His professional career includes work with Victor Ullate Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater 2 and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC). Cerrudo became HSDCʼs first-ever Resident Choreographer in 2008 and held that position until 2018.

Cerrudo’s body of work has been performed by over 20 professional dance companies around the world. In March 2012, Pacific Northwest Ballet invited Cerrudo to choreograph, upon receiving the Joyce Theater Foundationʼs second Rudolf Nureyev Prize for New Dance, his first work for the company, ” Memory Glow”. Additional honors include an award from the Boomerang Fund for Artists (2011) and the Prince Prize for Commissioning Original Work from the Prince Charitable Trusts (2012) for his acclaimed, first evening-length work, “One Thousand Pieces”. In 2014 he was awarded the USA Donnelley Fellowship by United States Artists. Also, Mr. Cerrudo was one of four choreographers invited by New York City Balletʼs Wendy Whelan to create and perform original duets for “Restless Creature. In 2017 Cerrudo was invited by Daniil Simkin to choreograph a site- specific performance for the Guggenheim Rotunda, a Works & Process Rotunda Project commission, featuring Daniil Simkin and original costumes by Dior. Cerrudoʼs “Sleeping Beauty”, created with Ballet Theater Basel in 2016, was nominated as “Production of the Year” in Switzerland in the “Tanz, Jahrbuch 2016” by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

In 2020 Cerrudo was appointed Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Resident Choreographer, with that, he became the first artist in the company’s history to have the honor of holding that title.

Matthew Neenan, Choreographer of A Million Voices

Matthew Neenan began his dance training at the Boston Ballet School. He later attended the LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts and the School of American Ballet in New York. From 1994-2007, Matthew danced with the Pennsylvania Ballet where he was also named Choreographer in Residence. Matthew’s choreography has been featured and performed by the Pennsylvania Ballet, BalletX, The Washington Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Ballet West, Ballet Memphis, Milwaukee Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Tulsa Ballet, Ballet Met, Oklahoma City Ballet, Juilliard Dance, New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute, Sacramento Ballet, Nevada Ballet Theatre, Indiana University, Opera Philadelphia, and LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts (NYC), among others. He has received numerous awards and grants for his choreography from the National Endowment of the Arts, Dance Advance funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Choo San Goh Foundation, and the Independence Foundation. Matthew has been honored to receive the New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute’s Fellowship Initiative Award and fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. In 2005, Matthew co-founded BalletX with fellow dancer Christine Cox and is now the resident dance company at the prestigious Wilma Theatre.

CHOREOGRAPHER’S NOTE:

A Million Voices is inspired by the great music of Peggy Lee. Lee’s music, in response to the political climate of her time, reminds us that even during dark times, life is worth enjoying.

Micaela Taylor, Choreographer of SNAP, BODYTRAFFIC Artist in Residence

Micaela Taylor is a dancer, choreographer, and the Artistic Director, Founder, and Choreographer of the TL Collective. Trained in hip-hop and ballet, she has created her own dance genre called Expand Practice, exuding emotion from the core, and creating varied physical shapes and textures as expressions of one’s authentic self. Her quirky style of exaggerated facial expressions, gesture, and athletic theatricality sets her work apart. Taylor created her own technique and is building The TL Collective all from the ground up. She received the Inaugural Springboard EMERGE Choreographic Award, was named in Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2019 and graced the cover of Dance Magazine in April 2020. A millennial herself, Taylor is a role model and influencer to aspiring BIPOC artists and is creating groundbreaking work that introduces commercial styles to concert dance. Taylor’s work has been presented at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, The Broad Stage, Ford Amphitheatre, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, and more. Alongside the launch of her company, Taylor has been commissioned to choreograph and teach by Rambert Dance Company, The Getty Museum, BODYTRAFFIC, Springboard Danse Montreal/Gibney Dance Company, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, B12 Festival Berlin, Carlos Acosta’s Acosta Danza, and more. Upcoming commissions include Martha Graham Dance Company and a co-commission by Jacob’s Pillow and American Dance Festival.

CHOREOGRAPHER’S NOTE:

SNAP is inspired by the ethnically diverse, yet isolating crowds of Los Angeles. It urges audiences to “snap out of” social pressures to conform, and to connect with their individuality as well as with people around them.

Katie Garcia, Dancer

Katie Garcia originally from Miami, Florida, graduated from The Juilliard School in 2017. She also trained at New World School of the Arts, Dance Town Studios Miami, San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, and Springboard Danse Montréal. After graduation from Juilliard, she was a member of Parsons Dance for two and a half years and performed in her own collaborative works.  Katie has taught master classes at such institutions as Yale University, New York University, Akron University, Florida State University, and Hunter College. In pursuing her passion for community outreach, she participated in GLUCK and TAP for Life, programs allowing her to perform in NYC and Miami hospitals and wellness centers. In 2016, she orchestrated a project in Botswana, where she taught dance and special education movement therapy classes for children. She has also presented her co-produced dance films with Joan Rodriguez at the Blacktinx Dance Festival, Solo Due Dance Festival, Dumbo Dance Festival, and at a NYC art gallery with mixed media artist, Anna Khachatryan.

Pedro Garcia, Dancer

Pedro Garcia began his studies at the National Conservatory of Lisbon, working with teachers including Mikahall Zavialova, Irina Zavialova, Catarina Moreira, and José Luís Vieira, among others.  In 2014, he won the 3° prize at Tanzolymp Competition in Berlin.  He received his diploma in 2015 and continued on to earn a degree from School Superieure de Danse de Cannes Rosella Hightower.  Pedro joined the junior ballet Rosella Hightower DNSP3 for one year and then went on to join the Ballet Nacional de Marseille, where he worked with Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten until 2018. In 2019, he joined Companhia Portuguesa de Bailado Contemporaneo, under the direction of Vasco Wellenkamp. Most recently, Pedro has worked with choreographers Nelia Pinheiro and André Mesquita, and joined Quórum Ballet for one season where he worked with Daniel Cardoso and Lior Tavori.

Alana Jones, Dancer

Alana Jones is a Houston native. She is a founding member of Vitacca Dance Project under the direction of Kelly Ann Vitacca and trained under Ballet Master Phillip Broomhead while attending the High School of Performing and Visual Arts. In 2014, Alana was accepted on scholarship and trained with American Ballet Theatre and Dance Theatre of Harlem. Thereafter, Alana was accepted on scholarship to SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance, where she received her BFA. While at Purchase, she was invited into the ballet concentration where she performed and studied works by George Balanchine, Norbert De la Cruz, Michelle Ulerich, and Colby Damon. She has also trained with Ballet X, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance, and Arts Umbrella.  Alana earned her BFA and began her professional career with Visceral Dance Chicago.

Tiare Keeno, Dance Captain, Dancer

Tiare Keeno received her BFA from The Juilliard School in 2016.  While at Juilliard, she worked with choreographers Camille A. Brown, Kyle Abraham, Kate Weare, and Brian Brooks. She also performed repertoire by Jíri Kylián and Twyla Tharp, as well as lead roles in Martha Graham’s Dark Meadow and José Limón’s Missa Brevis. After graduation, Tiare was a company member of Nevada Ballet Theatre and worked in collaboration with Cirque du Soleil. She attended Springboard Danse Montreal, where she performed works by Aszure Barton, Spenser Theberge, RUBBERBAND Dance Group, and Kidd Pivot. She has been a faculty member of FRESH Dance Intensive in Canada and is currently a member of Share the Movement, an organization aiming to increase diversity in the professional dance community through educational and financial support to young BIPOC artists. In 2017, Tiare moved to Macau, China to appear in a cirque show with MGM’s ScenoPlus Productions. Upon returning to the US, she performed in Al Blackstone’s Freddie Falls in Love at The Joyce Theater. Tiare joined BODYTRAFFIC in 2019.

Ty Morrison, Dancer

Ty Morrison from the greater Boston area, dedicated 13 years of his life to versatile dance training at The Gold School Dance Art under the direction of Rennie Gold. Ty received a BFA in Contemporary Dance from The Boston Conservatory at Berklee on full scholarship. During his time at The Boston Conservatory, he worked with and performed works by such acclaimed choreographers as Darrell Moultrie, Catherine Coury, Bradley Shelver, Adrianne Hawkins, and Martha Nichols. Immediately after graduation, he was featured in on-site dance film productions with choreographers Roderick George, Ashley Lindsay, and Antonio Brown. He has had the honor of being a guest artist with The Limón Dance Company and an active artist with a little house dance company.

Joan Rodriguez, Dancer

Joan Rodrigues was born in La Habana, Cuba where he graduated from the Escuela Nacional de Arte with the “Best Graduate of the Year” award. His professional career began with DanzAbierta, and he went on to join Malpaso Dance Company. He became a political refugee in 2017 and relocated to Arizona, where he focused on creating, teaching, and producing multimedia projects. He has also served as a Guest Artist in Residency for universities and arts centers throughout the U.S. and has received awards in several dance competitions. In 2019, he joined Parsons Dance and choreographed an original work for the company as part of the 2019 GenerationNow fellowship program. Throughout 2020 and 2021, Joan has focused on freelancing in dance, teaching and videography.  Joan has also showcased his own collaborative works at the Blacktinx Dance Festival, the Solo/Duo Dance Festival, and at NYC art galleries as part of mixed media performances.  He has taught guest classes at The Juilliard School, New York University, Gibney Dance, Yale University, Hunter College, Akron University, and RWU. He was recently commissioned as a choreographer by Connecticut Ballet for their “Ballet Under the Stars” 2021 summer program.

Jordyn Santiago, Dancer

Jordyn Santiago is from North Carolina and is a Los Angeles-based dancer and choreographer who studied at The Dance Theatre of Jacksonville before continuing to train throughout the U.S and in Israel and Europe.  She has danced for Ate9, Freemove Dance, tedted Performance Group and Mg+artists.  In 2021, Jordyn performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in a production of the opera Prism, under the direction of Beth Morrison Projects.  She has toured as a backup dancer with the Los Angeles band Half Alive in a piece choreographed by The JA Collective and has created new works with Bryan Arias for the Arias Company.  Along with choreographers Dana Wilson, Ebony Williams, and Christopher Scott, she appeared in the recent film production of In The Heights.  Jordyn has taught at highly respected institutions and collectives like Peridance Capezio Center, Brickhouse, and The University of the Arts.  Most recently, she was a guest artist with Ate9 in its premiere of Joy at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.

Whitney Schmanski, Dancer

Whitney Schmanski received a BFA from The Juilliard School in 2016 and is currently an MFA candidate at UC Irvine. A performer, choreographer, and movement educator, she has performed works by such revered contemporary choreographers as Merce Cunningham, Jirí Kylián, Kyle Abraham, Camille A. Brown, Peter Chu, Kate Weare, Eliot Feld, and Bobbi Jene Smith.  She danced with Brian Brooks Moving Company in performances at the 2015 Chicago Dancing Festival and the Hudson Valley Dance Festival and has appeared with MOMIX.  Whitney is enthusiastic about exploring the profound connections between the mind and body, especially within the realms of science, somatic practices, and storytelling.

Pia Lo

Pia’s critiques, interviews and essays have been published in Dance International, The Dance Current and Bachtrack magazines, and on her website, GlobeDancer.com. She has had the privilege of visiting dance companies including the American Ballet Theater, National Ballet of China, Bolshoi Ballet, Mariinsky Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, and others, to watch rehearsals, spend time with dancers and take the occasional company class. These days you can see her moderating dance talks for performances in the city including those presented by DanceHouse and Ballet BC. She is interested in telling stories from the perspective of the artists, and enjoys learning a variety of dance to understand how dance expresses different voices and cultures.  

Kidd Pivot

Integrating movement, original music, text, and rich visual design, Kidd Pivot’s performance work is assembled with recklessness and rigour, balancing sharp exactitude with irreverence and risk. Under the direction of internationally renowned Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite, the company’s distinct choreographic language — a breadth of movement fusing classical elements and the complexity and freedom of structured improvisation — is marked by a strong theatrical sensibility and a keen sense of wit and invention.

Kidd Pivot tours extensively around the world with productions such as Betroffenheit (2015), The Tempest Replica (2011), The You Show (2010), Dark Matters (2009), and Lost Action (2006).

Since 2015, Kidd Pivot has measured its touring carbon footprint and offset over 400 tonnes of CO₂e (carbon dioxide equivalent), enabling Kidd Pivot to be one of the first dance companies to tour carbon neutral.

Crystal Pite

Co-creator, Choreographer, Director

Crystal Pite is a former company member of Ballet British Columbia and William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt. She has created over 50 works for companies including The Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater I, Ballett Frankfurt, National Ballet of Canada, and Ballet British Columbia. The recipient of numerous awards for artistic excellence, including three Olivier Awards and, most recently, the 2018 Grand Prix de la danse de Montréal, Pite is an Associate Choreographer of Nederlands Dans Theater, Associate Dance Artist of Canada’s National Arts Centre, and Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells, London. She holds an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University. In 2002, she formed Kidd Pivot in Vancouver.

Jonathon Young

Co-creator, Writer, Voice Actor

Canadian theatre maker Jonathon Young is Playwright-in-Residence at Kidd Pivot and a co-founder of Electric Company Theatre, where he has created and performed in over 20 original productions: Tear the Curtain! (Arts Club Theatre, Canadian Stage), No Exit (American Conservatory Theatre), Betroffenheit (international tour). He has worked across Canada as a freelance actor on multiple projects: All But Gone (Necessary Angel, Toronto) The Waiting Room (Arts Club Theatre, Vancouver), The Great Gatsby (Theatre Calgary), Hamlet (Bard on the Beach, Vancouver), and wrote text for Crystal Pite on two productions for Nederlands Dans Theater (Parade and The Statement). Jonathon is the recipient of an Olivier Award, the UK National Dance Award and several Jessie Richardson Awards for writing and performance.

Owen Belton – Composer, Sound Designer

Owen graduated with a degree in Fine and Performing Arts and studied acoustic and computer music composition. Since 1994, he has created scores for dance companies including Kidd Pivot, National Ballet of Canada, Nederlands Dans Theater, Ballet Jorgen, Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm, Ballet Nuremberg, Oregon Ballet Theatre and 420 People in Prague.

Alessandro Juliani – Composer, Sound Designer, Voice Actor

AJ is a Canadian artist who has been working in the disciplines of music, sound, theatre, and film for the past 30 years. He is frequently executed, maimed, disemboweled, dismembered, immolated, crucified and/or air-locked on your favourite locally-shot television programs and films. He often lends his voice to the animated programs which your kids/grand-kids/great-grand-kids/socially-awkward uncles currently binge. As a composer and sound designer, his creative energies have contributed to/detracted from numerous productions and films. People have occasionally given him trophies for his work. Some of them are transparent, and others more opaque. He makes his home in Vancouver with his partner and frequent collaborator, Meg Roe, and their three children.

Meg Roe – Composer, Sound Designer, Voice Director, Voice Actor

Meg is a multidisciplinary artist whose work has been seen and heard across Canada and internationally with: Crows Theatre, Shaw Festival, Theatre Calgary, Canadian Stage, Factory Theatre, PuSh Festival, Alberta Theatre Projects, Bard on the Beach, Theatre Junction, Citadel Theatre, Ruby Slippers Theatre, Electric Company Theatre, Blackbird Theatre, Theatre Aquarius, Arts Club, Belfry, Theatre SKAM, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Catalyst Theatre, RealWheels, Intrepid Theatre, Elbow Theatre, Vancouver Playhouse, Western Canada Theatre, National Arts Centre, Centaur Theatre, The Banff Centre, Yukon Arts Centre, Why Not Theatre, Savage Society, vAct, Theatre Replacement, Rumble Theatre, The Cultch, the American Conservatory Theatre (San Francisco), Center Theater Group (Los Angeles), and as a collaborator with Crystal Pite and Kidd Pivot.

Jay Gower Taylor – Scenic and Reflective Light Concept Designer

Jay Gower Taylor started out in theatre as a professional dancer where he enjoyed an international career spanning more than twenty years. As a scenic designer he has collaborated with Crystal Pite over the last decade, creating onstage environments for works such as Plot Point, Frontier, Solo Echo, Parade, In the Event, Partita for 8 Dancers, and The Statement for Nederlands Dans Theater; Emergence and Angels’ Atlas ( co-production with Zurich Ballet) for the National Ballet of Canada; Polaris for Sadler’s Wells; The Seasons’ Canon and Body and Soul for The Paris Opera Ballet; and Flight Pattern for The Royal Ballet. For Pite’s own company, Kidd Pivot, he designed Dark Matters, The Tempest Replica, Betroffenheit, and most recently, Revisor.

Nancy Bryant – Costume Designer

Nancy Bryant works widely as a designer in dance, theatre, opera and film. Her home is on the west coast of Canada in Vancouver. Previous collaborations with Pite include Body and Soul and The Seasons’ Canon (Paris Opera), Flight Pattern (Royal Ballet), Partita, Parade and Plot Point (Netherlands Dance Theater), Revisor, The Tempest Replica (Kidd Pivot) and Betroffenheit (Kidd Pivot/Electric Co.); and most recently, Angels’ Atlas (National Ballet of Canada / Zurich Opera House). Bryant’s work has brought her together with various teams of fellow designers, directors, writers and choreographers to theatres and production workshops across Canada, the USA, the UK and to Europe. Her approach to costume design has been influenced by her visual arts background and many years of exceptional collaborations with some of Canada’s most innovative and groundbreaking theatre artists.

Tom Visser – Lighting Designer

Tom Visser grew up in the countryside of west Ireland. At the age of 18 he started working in music theatre through his theatrical family and in dance through the Nederlands Dans Theater. Since 2005 he has created original designs for choreographers including Crystal Pite, Alexander Ekman, Johan Inger, Stijn Celis, Lukas Timulak, Sharon Eyal, Hofesh Shechter, and more.

Eric Beauchesne – Associate Artistic Director

Born in Québec, Eric has been on stage with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe and Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, as well as with Canadian contemporary dance icons such as La Fondation Jean-Pierre Perrault, Paul-André Fortier, Louise Lecavalier and Crystal Pite. Company member since 2004, Eric now collaborates with Kidd Pivot as associate artistic director, and stages Pite’s work on companies worldwide. Eric has served as guest teacher for several organizations as well as rehearsal director for Nederlands Dans Theater. He currently resides in Holland and devotes his spare time advocating for climate action in the dance world.

Brandon Alley – Dancer

Brandon Lee Alley began his professional career with Hubbard Street 2 followed by one year with BODYTRAFFIC in LA. In 2015, he joined Ballet BC where he had the privilege of dancing many leading roles for 5 seasons. Brandon is also the Co-founder and Artistic Director of Dance//Novella collective based in Vancouver, Canada. In addition to creating dance, Brandon has a passion for sound design. He has made several original scores for dance and is excited to be formalizing his training with an audio engineering diploma from the SAE institute in North Vancouver.

Jennifer Florentino – Dancer

Jennifer Florentino, born in Paterson, NJ, is a storyteller with a career that reflects her work in theater, film and dance. She received her BFA in Dance from Point Park University. Upon graduating she had the privilege to perform across the country. Musical Theater: On Your Feet (1st National), Moulin Rouge The Musical (Boston), Evita (Encores). Television/Film: Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, Modern Love, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Isn’t It Romantic, Kennedy Center Honors (Gloria Estefan), SNL. Dance: Deeply Rooted Dance Theater,  Sonya Tayeh’s You’ll Still Call Me By Name and recently worked with Aszure Barton at the LA Opera. Jennifer feels extremely delighted to join the Kidd Pivot family. @jenniferflorentino

Rakeem Hardy – Dancer

Rakeem Hardy, originally from Toronto, Canada, received their BFA and the Thayer Fellowship Award from the State University of New York at Purchase College. Through their time at Purchase, they performed works by Ohad Naharin, Doug Varone, Sidra Bell, Norbert De La Cruz III, and Roderick George. They received additional training at the Taipei National University of the Arts, as well at Springboard Danse Montreal where they performed pieces by Crystal Pite, Alejandro Cerrudo, and Aszure Barton. Rakeem has collaborated and performed with A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, Loni Landon Dance Projects, Collectif LA TRESSE, and Gallim Dance.

Doug Letheren – Dancer

Doug is a Juilliard graduate and has danced with the Batsheva Dance Company, Sharon Eyal’s L-E-V, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Alan Lucien Øyen’s Winterguests, Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Hell’s Kitchen Dance, Adam Linder, and Kidd Pivot. He is a recipient of the 2007 Movado Future Legends Award, and a 2019 Der Faust German Theater Prize nominee.

Gregory Lau – Dancer

Gregory Lau was born in Honolulu, Hawaii where he began his training at Mid-Pacific Institute School of the Arts. After attending The Juilliard School, Gregory joined Nederlands Dans Theater 2 in 2013 and went on to join Nederlands Dans Theater 1 in 2016. In 2019 he joined Kidd Pivot for the production of Revisor. He has been a recipient of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts 1st Award in Modern Dance and Ballet. He has worked with choreographers such as Jiri Kylian, Crystal Pite, Ohad Naharin, Sharon Eyal, Marco Goecke, Paul Lightfoot & Sol Leon, Hans Van Manen, Johan Inger, Edward Clug, Medhi Walerski, Alexander Ekman, Camille A.Brown and more. Gregory was recently featured in Doja Cat’s 2021 VMAS Performance.

Rena Narumi – Dancer

Rena was born in Tokyo, Japan. She trained at Centre d’artchoregraphique Franco-Japonais in Paris, France and Arts Umbrella dance graduate program in Vancouver BC,CANADA. She has performed with Kidd Pivot, Hessischen Staatstheaters Wiesbaden, Royal Swedish Ballet (RSB), Nederlands Dans Theater 1 (NDT1). With RSB, she performed the main role of Juliet in “Juliet and Romeo” by Mats Ek. With NDT1, she traveled all over the world to perform.

Ella Rothschild – Dancer

Ella Rothschild was born in Israel and is a choreographer, multidisciplinary artist and dancer. Rothschild received the Rosenblum Performing-Arts Award by the city of Tel-Aviv for promising creator of 2016, as well as the ministry of cultural award. In 2017 she received the Israeli Ministry of Culture Award for the best solo performer. Between 2013 to 2022, Ella created and performed eleven of her works in Israel, Europe, Japan, and the US. In 2020 Ella received a residency at Baryshnikov art center (NYC) and was named an artist in residence in the Suzanne Dellal Centre’s inaugural residency program where she created her work Pigulim. In the same year Ella collaborated with the director Kenichi Tani in a new Japanese production The History Of Humankind for the Kanagawa Arts Theatre. In 2021 Ella created Summer snow, on the edge of nowhere, and A Year Without Summer—a trilogy of artworks for the Batsheva Dance Company.

Vivian Ruiz – Dancer

Vivian Ruiz was born in Miami, Florida where she began her dance training at the age of 7 and later moved to Vancouver BC in 2019 to attend the Arts Umbrella post-Secondary Program under the direction of Artemis Gordon. While at Arts Umbrella Vivian got to study works by Crystal Pite, Marco Goecke, Medhi Walerski, Nacho Dureto, Victor Quijada, David Raymond, Lesley Telford, Lukas Timulak, Sharon Eyal. This past year Vivian had the opportunity of being a part of the research process for Crystal Pite’s “Animation”.

Renee Sigouin – Dancer

Renée was born in Saskatchewan and moved to Vancouver in 2008. Since graduating from Modus Operandi contemporary dance program in 2012, she has performed in several works with Out Innerspace Dance Theatre, Joshua Beamish/MOVETHECOMPANY, Company 605, Wen Wei Dance, Mascall Dance, Kinesis Somatheatro & EDAM.  She joined Kidd Pivot in 2018.

Jermaine Spivey – Dancer

Jermaine Maurice Spivey was born in Baltimore, Maryland USA and is a graduate of Baltimore School for the Arts and The Juilliard School. He has performed with Ballet Gulbenkian, Cullberg Ballet, Hofesh Shechter Company, Robyn Live 2016 and The Forsythe Company. Since 2008, Jermaine has been a member of Kidd Pivot. He has staged Crystal Pite’s work for companies such as Cedar Lake Ballet, Carte Blanche, Hessisches StaatsBallett Wiesbaden, Netherlands Dance Theater and Paris Opera Ballet. Jermaine is a 2001 Princess Grace Awardee. He instructs dance for companies, schools and training programs internationally, creates and performs works with partner Spenser Theberge and most recently choreographed a new work(The Seen) for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.

Scott McNeil – Voice Actor

Scott McNeil is an Australian-born Canadian actor and voice actor. He currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. One of the most well-known Canadian voice actors of all time, McNeil has provided voices to many characters in animated shows, most notably The Wacky World of Tex Avery, ReBoot, Beast Wars: Transformers, Storm Hawks, Dragon Ball Z, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, InuYasha, Ranma ½, Fullmetal Alchemist, X-Men: Evolution, League of Super Evil and Mega Man. He has done live action work as well.

Kathleen Barr – Voice Actor

Kathleen is one of the voice-over industry’s busiest actors, and has voiced anything and everything from raging zombies to nutty pieces of rebellious fruit. Favourite roles include; Dot (Reboot), Wheezie (Dragon Tales), Trixie (My Little Pony), Kat and Millie (Kid vs Kat), Glorb (Super Monsters), Mom (Johnny Test), Kevin and Marie Kanker (Ed,Edd and Eddy), Misako (Ninjago), Tina, Mavis and Dora (Corner Gas), Maetel (Galaxy Express 999), Laura and tons of characters on Dinosaur Train and Chip and Potato, Yufon and Olin (Supernatural Academy), and a host of Evil Queens in the Barbie movies. Kathleen is thrilled to be a part of the amazing cast and crew of Revisor!

Gerard Plunkett – Voice Actor

Gerard Plunkett’s first role with Kidd Pivot was in The Statement in 2015. He is delighted to voice Dr. Harlow in Revisor. Gerard is a Jessie Richardson and Leo award winner. His theatre work includes Saint Joan, Glengarry Glen Ross, Helen Lawrence and Tear the Curtain!. Among his extensive movie/TV credits are Travelers, Legends of tomorrow, Eight Below, 2012, Sucker Punch, Intelligence, DaVinci’s Inquest, Nightwatching, Snakes on a Plane and Seventh Son.

Ryan Beil – Voice Actor

Ryan Beil is an Actor, Comedian and Writer based out of Vancouver, BC. He holds a BFA in Acting from the University of British Columbia. You can catch him every Sunday performing Improv with the legendary troupe The Sunday Service, which he founded. He is also on TV from time to time when the powers that be allow it. He is incredibly proud to have played a small role in the creation of Revisor and is jealous of all of the dancers’ incredible abilities.

Nicola Lipman – Voice Actor

Selected theatre credits: Humans, Matchmaker, Les Miserables, Driving Miss Daisy (Arts Club), Corleone (Classic Chic), Grey Gardens (Acting Up), Other Desert Cities (Citadel Theatre), King Arthur’s Night (Neworld Theatre), Scorched, Humble Boy, simpl (Tarragon Theatre), All the Way Home (Electric Company), Death of a Salesman (Theatre Calgary), and various film and TV. Nicola is a graduate of the National Theatre School and UBC, and has received four Jessie Awards and the 2012 Queens’ Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Amy Rutherford – Voice Actor

Amy was classically trained at The National Theatre School of Canada and Birmingham Conservatory. For over 20 years, she has worked in TV, film and theatre with many of Canada’s leading directors and writers. In 2020, she received a Toronto Theatre Critics Award for her portrayal of Blanche Dubois in Soulpepper Theatre’s production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Amy is also an award-winning writer. Her play, Mortified, was recently published by Playwrights Canada Press.

Artemis Gordon

An artistic and pedagogical authority in Dance, Artemis Gordon was named Artistic Director of the Arts Umbrella Dance program in 1992 after graduating from the National Ballet School’s Teacher Training Program. Since then, Artemis has developed the program to be internationally recognized for producing graduates who are dancing in companies around the world such as Ballet BC, Nederlands Dans Theatre I & II, Batsheva Dance Company, and many others. Artemis has toured the Arts Umbrella Dance Company to Holland, Italy, Japan, New York, and Montreal and fostered collaborations with Nederlands Dans Theatre, Yokohama Ballet, Spellbound Contemporary Dance, Joffrey Ballet School, and L’Ecole supérieure de ballet du Québec. In 2015, Artemis secured the affiliation between Ballet BC and Arts Umbrella, extending the impact of international choreographers in Vancouver and increasing opportunities for young dancers in Vancouver. Artemis won the 2016 YWCA Women of Distinction award in the Arts, Culture, and Design category. Her vision extends beyond dance, preparing students with skills to navigate their lives with discipline, rigour, and innovation.

Mirna Zagar

Originally from Zagreb, Croatia, Mirna Zagar founded Dance Week Festival and the Institute for Movement and Dance, and the pan-European program: Moving Academy for Performing Arts (NL). As the Executive Director of The Dance Centre since 1998, she contributed to the development of Scotiabank Dance Centre, Vancouver’s home for dance.  The Governor General of Canada presented Mirna with the commemorative medallion for her contributions to cultural relations between Canada and Croatia (2009). Mirna has served on the Board of the Canadian Dance Alliance and the BC Arts Alliance. Mirna continues to engage with international dance as curator, mentor, and adjudicator.

All Bodies Dance Project (ABDP) is an inclusive dance company located on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. In our work, differences are regarded as creative strengths as we explore the choreographic possibilities of diverse ways of moving and perceiving. Our work straddles between labels of community-engaged and professional practice. We aim to dismantle assumptions, biases and default notions around contemporary dance, the theatre and the dancing body. We offer accessible and inclusive dance classes for people of all abilities, genders and backgrounds.

romham pàdraig gallacher is an interdisciplinary artist who’s been dancing/performing/scheming/creating with the ABDP since 2014. For romham, ABDP is an ongoing process of exploring the peripheries of their ever-changing body; learning what new/ awkward/beautiful creations and connections we can make with our tangled/disagreeable/inconvenient dancing bodies.

Lance Lim is a disabled interdisciplinary artist, who grew up in Strathcona district and his original movement background came from studying martial arts and Wu Shu. Lance joined All Bodies Dance in 2016 and performed in TRACE. He continues to be an active member of his local community and is passionate about dance, movement for everyone and creating community dance.

http://allbodiesdance.ca/

Shion Skye Carter is a dance artist originally from Tajimi, Japan, and based in Vancouver, Canada on the unceded, traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.

Through choreography hybridized with calligraphy, video, and sculptural objects, her work celebrates the intersection of her ethnographic and queer identities, in connection with her heritage. As co-founder of olive theory, an interdisciplinary duo with musician Stefan Nazarevich, she collaborates to experiment at the intersection between embodied performance, installation art, and live sound.

In both her independent work and as olive theory, Shion has performed across Canada, and worked as artist-in-residence at What Lab and Left of Main in Vancouver, as well as LEÑA Artist Residency on Galiano Island, BC. Her recently produced short films have been screened at festivals globally, including Dancing on the Edge Festival (Canada), Festival of Recorded Movement (Canada), Dance Days Chania (Greece), and Moving Images Dance Festival (Cyprus).

As a performer, she has interpreted the works of artists such as Anya Saugstad, Vanessa Goodman (Action at a Distance), Ziyian Kwan (Dumb Instrument Dance), and Wen Wei Dance. She holds a BFA in Dance and Kinesiology from Simon Fraser University, and is the 2021 recipient of the Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award.

http://shionskyecarter.com/

Ralph Escamillan is a queer, Canadian-Filipinx performance artist, choreographer and teacher based on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh Nations.

He has trained in a breadth of dance styles such as Street, Commercial, and Contemporary – and has worked and toured with Company 605, Co. Erasga Dance, Kinesis Dance Somatheatro and Out Innerspace Theatre, apprenticed with Kidd Pivot (2014) and been a guest dancer for Ballet BC (2020). He currently works with Wen Wei Dance, Mascall Dance.

His second full length work, ‘whip’ premiered at MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) in early November 2021, and is in the process of developing a new work ‘Piña’ that draws inspiration from the traditional Philippine textile it is named after and the cultural significance surrounding it.

http://www.ralphescamillan.com/

Zahra Shahab is an independent dance artist living on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish people. She is a graduate of the University of Calgary School of Creative and Performing Arts as well as Modus Operandi Contemporary Dance Training Program (Vancouver). Her choreographic practice takes root in the fantastical and the prophetic power of coaxing our imaginations beyond the confines of white supremacy. She has presented choreographic work and experimental films in Calgary at the Fluid Festival, Calgary Underground Film Festival, University of Calgary and Alberta Dance Festival, in Vancouver at Dance in Vancouver, Shooting Gallery Performance, Festival of Recorded Movement, PushOFF, and New Works Performance, in Toronto at the Toronto Dance Theatre’s Emerging Voices Program, and Mexico City’s Movimiento en Movimiento.

http://zahrashahab.ca/

Flemish-Moroccan choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui began his career in 1999 with Andrew Wale’s Anonymous Society. Since then he has made more than 50 pieces and received two Olivier Awards, three Ballet Tanz awards, and the Kairos Prize for his artistic vision and his quest for intercultural dialogue. Among his many significant early works are pieces made for les ballets C de la B; Sutra, which premiered at Sadler’s Wells in 2008 and continues touring to this day; and Myth (2007) and Origine (2008), produced during his four-year residency at Toneelhuis in Antwerp.

In 2015, Cherkaoui directed his first full-length theatre production in Tokyo, bringing the beloved manga character Astro Boy to life on stage, and was movement director for Lyndsey Turner’s Hamlet starring Benedict Cumberbatch at the Barbican Centre in London. He also choreographed a new Firebird for Stuttgart Ballet. Since 2015, Cherkaoui has been Artistic Director at the Royal Ballet Flanders, where he created Fall (2015), Exhibition (2016) and Requiem (2017). He combines this work with his artistic direction of Eastman, his own company, for whose ensemble he has created Fraktus V (2015), Icon (2016), and Stoic (2018). Some of his most recent ballet commissions include Medusa (2019) for The Royal Ballet in London and Exposure (2020) for the Paris Opera Ballet. Between 2017 and 2021 he choreographed several feature films, including Lukas Dhont’s Girl and Marjane Satrapi’s Radioactive.

In 2019, Cherkaoui made his Broadway debut as choreographer for the Alanis Morissette musical Jagged Little Pill, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Choreography. Beginning in 2022, he will direct the Ballet of the Grand Théâtre de Genève. He is also an associate artist at Sadler’s Wells (London) and Théâtre National de Bretagne (Rennes). 

Damien Jalet is an independent Belgian and French choreographer and dancer whose work has been presented all over the world. Interested in dance’s intersection with other media such as visual art, music, cinema, theatre and fashion, his works are often collaborative.

His film The Ferryman highlights the relation between his works and existing rituals practiced in Bali and Japan. Presented at the Venice Biennale in 2017, it featured collaboration with artist Marina Abramović and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. He was the 2017 artistic director of the UK National Youth Dance Company, and since 2017, he has been a resident artist at the Théâtre National de Bretagne (TNB). That same year, he directed Skid for GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, featuring 17 dancers and performed entirely on a 10 square meter platform inclined at 34 degrees.

In February 2018, he directed his first opera Pelléas et Mélissande alongside Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui with a set by Marina Abramović at the Antwerp Opera. In 2019, he became artist in residence at Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris. He choreographed the entirely danced film Anima directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, which was nominated for Best Musical Film at the 2019 GRAMMY Awards, and won the Best Choreography Award at the UK Music Video Awards. The same year, he created four numbers with Madonna. His next projects include the creation Mist for Dutch company NDT1 and Planet [wanderer] that premiered in Théâtre de Chaillot in May 2021. As a teacher, Jalet has also taught his technique using centrifugal force in many companies and institutions including Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, ImPulsTanz Vienna, Atelier de Paris, and Architanz Tokyo.

Damien Jalet was named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 2013. 

Having briefly studied contemporary dance at Cambridge as an extra-curricular activity, Antony Gormley has taken inspiration from pure dance, with the body released as an expressive subject in its own right, detached from concerns with narrative, for 30 years. He is particularly interested in contemporary dance, and considers the dancer’s life the most generous and demanding of any profession using life itself as the primary medium of communication. He is widely acclaimed for his sculptures, installations and public artworks that investigate the relationship of the human body to space in a way that confronts fundamental questions of where human beings stand in relation to nature and the cosmos.

Gormley’s work has been widely exhibited throughout the UK and internationally with exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery, London (2016); Forte di Belvedere, Florence (2015); Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern (2014); Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia (2012); Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2012); The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (2011); Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2010); Hayward Gallery, London (2007); Malmö Konsthall, Sweden (1993); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and Humlebæk, Denmark (1989). Permanent public works include the Angel of the North (Gateshead, England), Another Place (Crosby Beach, England), Inside Australia (Lake Ballard, Western Australia), Exposure (Lelystad, The Netherlands) and Chord (MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

Gormley’s work in dance includes the critically acclaimed collaborations with Akram Khan, Hofesh Shechter, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and Nitin Sawhney on zero degrees (2005, Sadler’s Wells) and again with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui on Sutra (2008, Sadler’s Wells); Noetic (2014, Göteborg Opera); and Icon (2016, Göteborg Opera). 

Founded in January 2010, Eastman was set up to produce and promote the work of its artistic director Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Cherkaoui’s non-hierarchical thinking on movement, body language and culture is the basis of his artistic approach. His work offers the audience a vast array of projects and collaborations across many forms of performance including contemporary dance, theatre, ballet, opera and music. Set in his native harbor city of Antwerp (Belgium) and resident at DE SINGEL International Arts Centre (Antwerp), Eastman forms the central point for all of Cherkaoui’s work.Cherkaoui created amongst others Babel(words), Play, TeZukA, Puz/zle, 4D, Fractus V, Session and 3S under Eastman’s wing. Eastman’s international partners include La Monnaie / De Munt (Brussels), Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Grande Halle de La Villette (Paris), DE SINGEL International Arts Centre (Antwerp) and Sadler’s Wells (London). Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Eastman are supported by the Flemish Government and the BNP Paribas Foundation. Eastman was European Cultural Ambassador 2013. 

Companhia de Dança Deborah Colker

The Companhia de Dança Deborah Colker was founded in 1994 and went on stage for the first time with Vulcão (Volcano). Although a beginner, the Company was invited to open the “O Globo em Movimento” Festival in Rio’s Municipal Theater, one of the most important theaters in Brazil. The explosion happened the following year with Velox. The show, famous for its scene on a climbing wall, became a pop phenomenon.

In 1996, the company had its first world premiere outside of Brazil. Staged especially for the prestigious Lyon Dance Biennial, Mix (a mix of Vulcão and Velox) launched the Company internationally, and five years later the show received the stamp of excellence by the Society of London Theatre, receiving the 2001 Laurence Olivier Award, in the category “Outstanding Achievement in Dance”, an honor never before granted to a Brazilian artist or group.

Since then, the Cia de Dança Deborah Colker has toured the four continents, performing on some of the most important stages in the world, such as the John F. Kennedy Center (Washington, EUA), Joyce Theatre and New York City Center, Harbourfront Centre (Toronto, Canada), Barbican Centre (London, England) Birmingham Hippodrome (England), The Play House and Festival Theatre (Edinburgh), Maison de La Dance (Lyon, France), Centro Cultural de Belem (Lisbon, Portugal), Admiral Spalatz (Berlin), Stopera Muziektheater (Amsterdam), Esplanade Theatre (Singapore), Hong Kong Cultural Grand Theatre, Macau Cultural Centre (China), Kanagawa Arts Centre (Tokyo, Japan), Tel Aviv Opera House, Royal Opera House Muscat (Oman), Westpactrust St James Theatre (Wellington, New Zealand), Teatro Nacional Cervantes e Opera Allianz (Buenos Aires, Argentina), among many others.

Research on the relationship of body and space resulted in Rota (Route) (1997), Casa (House) (1999) and 4 por 4 (4 by 4) (2002). Parts of Velox and Rota were joined in 2016 to make Vero, a production that became the key-piece of the repertoire.

With Nó (Knot) (2005) and Cruel (2008), Deborah entered a phase she considers more existential, touching on themes such as love and desire. Between the two she created Dínamo, which was still called Maracanã when it was included in the programming for the 2006 World Cup, in Germany.

Approaching literature became the next challenge. Tatyana (2011) was based on the novel in verse Evguêni Oniéguin, by Russian Alexsandr Púchkin. And Belle (2014) was freely inspired by Belle de jour, by the Franco-Argentine writer Joseph Kessel – and transformed into film by Luis Buñuel.

With Cão Sem Plumas (Dog without feathers), in 2017, the company sets out for another relationship with words, now the poetry of João Cabral de Melo Neto, confirming continual transformation.

Cão Sem Plumas was granted with the Benois de la Danse Award 2018 at Moscow for its choreography.

Daughter of a violinist and conductor, Deborah Colker was born in 1961 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She played the piano for 12 years, studied psychology and was a professional volleyball player before beginning her professional dance career.

Between 1980 and 1988, she became a performer with Coringa, directed by the Uruguayan Graciela Figueiroa, an important dance company in Rio de Janeiro in the 1980s. In 1984, she was invited by the renowned Brazilian actress Dina Sfat to choreograph the movement scenes of a play. This was the beginning of what would be her professional career for the next 10 years: “Movement Director”. She continued to collaborate with the most important directors and actors in Brazil in more than 30 plays.

She founded her own company in 1994 and has created a dozen shows since then. Her works Vulcão, Velox, Mix, Rota, Casa and 4 por 4 are celebrated by the public and critics.

In addition to dance performances, she also choreographs music and video shows, and works for film, circus and fashion. She collaborated several times in the famous parade of the samba schools, a major event of the Rio carnival. During the 2006 Soccer World Cup in Germany she created the only dance piece to be included in the cultural activities program, Maracanã, which was later integrated into the repertoire of Cia Deborah Colker under the title Dínamo. In 2009 Colker became the first woman to direct and choreograph a Cirque du Soleil show, OVO. Another highlight of her career has been the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics which she choreographed for 6,000 dancers.

In 2001, Deborah Colker was the first Brazilian artist to win the Laurence Olivier Award (UK), for her show Mix. 

O.Dela Arts supports the research, creation, production, and touring of creative activities, choreography, and installations and provides the platform for educational and community projects offered by Artistic Director, Olivia C. Davies. O.Dela Arts values generosity, integrity, and an openness to learn. The mandate of O.Dela Arts Society is to support Canadian Indigenous choreographer, Olivia C. Davies, (Anishinaabe) in the creation and production of choreography, community-engaged projects, creative collaboration projects and commissions. Since its inception in 2018, O.Dela Arts’ programming seeks to develop audiences for Contemporary Indigenous dance and multidisciplinary arts. The organization has built a solid foundation of peer exchange, professional development opportunities and performance series. In celebration of Indigenous women dancing stories of transformation and coinciding with National Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we curated the first Matriarchs Uprising Festival in June 2019 to showcase works by Indigenous choreographers from Australia, Canada, and the US. The events solidified our goals of becoming an organization that supports multiple voices and visions through our artistic curation.

In this virtual circle conversation setting, we invite listeners to sit in circle and hold space for women to speak our truth about the ways our creative acts connect us to our communities, help define our worldview, and communicate our dreams for the future. Talking Truths: Circle Conversation extends new ways of viewing Indigenous and Community art as an act of healing, political assertion, and cultural continuation. These events are curated by O.Dela Arts, Artistic Director, Olivia C. Davies to engage audiences in new learning about the nuances of Contemporary creative performance, storytelling, dance and song.

Olivia C. Davies is a dance artist, choreographer, community-arts facilitator and emerging writer of Anishinaabe, French-Canadian, Finnish and Welsh heritage. Davies’ works often explore the emotional and political relationships between people and places. Her recent choreographic explorations are driven by a desire to explore neo-traditional aspects of her Indigeneity, story-weaving, and collaborative projects that bring about new awareness of the world around us.

Davies formally trained at York University and was an apprentice with Body Narratives Collective, Raven Spirit Dance and Starrwind Dance Projects and collaborated with Diane Roberts (Arrivals Legacy Project) in developing community-engagement facilitation skills. She is a founding member of the MataDanze Collective (2005), Circadia Indigena Aboriginal Arts Collective (2016), and Crow’s Nest Collective (2016). Davies was artist in residence at The Dance Centre  for the 2018-2019 season where she curated the inaugural CoexisDance Western Edition and Matriarchs Uprising festival. The festival was co-presented in 2020 with Talking Stick Festival and continues to provide new context for Contemporary Indigenous dance with online presentations and showcases.

Davies’ choreography transmits narrative. She has collaborated with Canadian spoken word artists Julie Peters (I Want, 2018) and Melissa Frost (Gidaashi, 2019, Wishing Well, 2020), and with award-winning author Carmen Aguirre to adapt the short story Open Fire (2015). Davies combined forces with celebrated Coast Salish storyteller Rosemary Georgeson to create Crow’s Nest and Other Places She’s Gone (2017) exploring the shifting landscapes of refuge and dispossession experienced by Indigenous women. Directions (2018) activated the garden stage of a private residence in East Vancouver, while Kichissipi Love (2019) activated the banks of the Ottawa River; each work building on a solid foundation of site-specific performances that subvert the audience gaze to revel in the world of land-based dance and ritual.

Davies’ community-engagement practice includes facilitation of Home: Our Way dance and story-weaving workshops, Healthy Aging Through The Arts, and collective creation labs. Davies facilitates spaces for movers to find their unique expression of personal legacy. Her work has been presented across Canada since 2004. She has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, British Columbia Arts Council, and the First Peoples Cultural Council. To learn more about her company, collaborations and projects, please visit www.oliviacdavies.ca

Maura García (non-enrolled Cherokee/Mattamuskeet) is a dancer, choreographer and erotic artist. Her vibrant creations channel the sensual rhythms of the natural world and inspire people to liberate themselves. She makes original work and collaborates with other creatives and clients to produce: new dance works, music videos, theatre productions, fashion shows, sex shows, live music shows, private performances and erotic print art. At the root, Maura’s luscious work is powered by a desire to bring ancestral wisdom to life, to respect the living earth and to bring happiness to people. To learn more please visit her website.

Winnipeg-born Sophie Dow is a multidisciplinary creative, inspired by dance, music, collaboration and Métis-Assiniboine + settler roots. An avid adventurer, Sophie has a passion for busking, yoga and traveling on top of holding a degree in Dance Performance and Choreography. With a unique list of credits deeply impacting personal process and vocabulary, Sophie has experienced the bounties of working with some of Turtle Island’s wonderful dance innovators, including Chimera Dance Theatre, Kaeja d’Dance & O.Dela Arts. In 2021/22, Sophie fulfills roles as: a creative director of FLIGHT: PEC’s Festival of Contemporary Dance, residency artist with NuSqool/KindePay, Dance West Network & Dance Victoria, musician with The Honeycomb Flyers and a licensed practitioner of Traditional Thai Massage.

Christine Friday is based in her home territory Bear Island, Lake Temagami creating dreams into reality as a proficient resilient Indigenous storyteller. She began her career with In the Land of Spirits in 1992 and has maintained a professional dance career for 30 years. She is deeply connected to the cultural wellness of her Anishinaabe people, specifically Temagami First Nation  Her company, Friday Creeations, a film and stage Production Company, has allowed her to transition her skills as a Dance artist and Director into filmmaking to broaden her audience while fulfilling her potential. Christine is the recipient of the 2018 K.M. Hunter Award for Dance through the Ontario Arts Council. She is currently in the development of activating Cultural Creation spaces in her community.

Jeanette Kotowich is a multi-disciplinary iskwêw, independent dance artist, creator, choreographer and professional Auntie of Nêhiyaw Métis and mixed settler ancestry. Originally from Treaty 4 territory Saskatchewan, she creates work that reflects Nêhiyaw/Métis cosmology within the context of contemporary dance, Indigenous performance, and Indigenous futurism. Fusing interdisciplinary collaboration, de-colonial practices and embodied research methodologies; Jeanette’s work references protocol, ritual, relationship to the natural/spirit world and Ancestral knowledge. Her practice is intergenerational and vocational; it’s a living and lived experience. Jeanette resides as a guest on the Ancestral and unceded Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) əl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ/ (Tsleil-Waututh) and Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) territories, colonially known as Vancouver. To learn more please visit her website.

Red Sky Performance

Red Sky Performance is a leading company of contemporary Indigenous performance in Canada and worldwide.

Their mission is to create inspiring experiences of contemporary Indigenous arts and culture that meaningfully transforms society.

Now in our 20th year of performance (dance, theatre, music and media), Red Sky’s work highlights the originality and power of contemporary performance, enabling new creations to expand the breadth and scope of Indigenous-made work in Canada.

The vision of Red Sky Performance derives from its creator Sandra Laronde (Misko Kizhigoo Migizii Kwe) which means “Red Sky Eagle Woman” in Anishinaabemowin (Ojibway) language from the Teme-Augama Anishinaabe (People of the Deep Water). Her vision is dedicated to expanding and elevating the ecology of contemporary performance informed by Indigenous worldview and culture.

Laronde’s concept of performance explores the relationship between movement, live music, theatricality, image, and culture. Her engagement in these disciplines involves collaborations with dancers, musicians, composers, choreographers, visual artists, actors, writers, designers, researchers, and culture keepers who are integral to Red Sky Performance’s distinct productions.

Touring since 2003, Red Sky has delivered over 2,755 performances across Canada including international performances in 17 countries on four continents, including two Cultural Olympiads (Beijing and Vancouver), World Expo in Shanghai, Venice Biennale, and Jacob’s Pillow, among others. At the same time, they remain deeply rooted and invested on a grassroots level and regularly perform in urban, rural, and reserve communities across Turtle Island.

They are the recipient of 16 Dora Mavor Moore awards and nominations, two Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, three International Youth Drama Awards from Shenzhen, China, and the Smithsonian Expressive Award, among other recognitions.

Trace is a highly kinetic contemporary dance and music work inspired by Indigenous (Anishinaabe) sky and star stories, offering a glimpse into our origin as well as our future evolution. 

We are traceable to the beginnings of the universe, our ancestral origins stretching across the Milky Way to the atoms burning inside of us in the here and now. 

Trace is a sumptuous creation that looks at all things traceable and what we leave behind as humans, as a culture, as a nation, and as an individual. 

Trace leads us right back to source, to origin, so the question becomes what is our origin as Indigenous peoples? As Anishinaabe? The search for origin takes us to the beginning of time where we originated in the core of a star a long time ago. As Anishinaabe, we are known as the star people.

We deeply thank all of our relations and the Indigenous people of this land.

SANDRA LARONDE
Founder & Artistic Director of Red Sky Performance

Eliot Britton – Composer & Sound Designer
Eliot Britton integrates electronic and instrumental music through an energetic and colorful personal language. His creative output expresses an eclectic musical experience from gramophones to video games, drum machines, orchestra to electronic chamber music. A proud member of the Manitoba Métis Federation, Eliot recently completed his PhD at Schulich School of Music at McGill University. He is the recipient of numerous prizes, including the SSHRC Bombardier Scholarship, Louis Riel Scholarship, and the Hugh Le Caine and Serge Garant SOCAN awards. Eliot is the composer of Adizokan, a TSO Commission in partnership with Red Sky Performance, and is currently an assistant professor of composition at the University of Toronto and co-director of the Cluster New Music and Integrated Arts Festival. Eliot won a 2019 Dora Mavor Moore for Outstanding Sound Design & Composition for Trace (Red Sky) and a 2020 Dora Mavor Moore for AF (Red Sky).

Alexis Bowles – Lighting Designer
Born in Montreal, Alexis Bowles has mastered both lighting design and music production, a symbiosis of ambiance, texture, rhythm, and timing. Always in search of new media and technologies, his range of production is vast. He has worked with Daniele Finzi Pasca since 2003 as Lighting Director for Rain, Nebbia, Donka and Icaro. He was the lighting designer with Daniele Finzi Pasca on many Operas, including L’Amour de loin, Pagliacci, Verdi’s Aïda and Requiem. Alexis was nominated for a 2019 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for Trace.

Chris Malkowski – Lighting Director
Chris Malkowski is a professional lighting designer and director based in Toronto. He designs lighting for dance, drama, opera, musical theatre and live events across Canada and around the world. Selected credits include: The Black Drum (Lighting Designer, Soulpepper/Deaf Culture Centre 2019), Backbone European Tour (Lighting Director, Red Sky Performance 2019) AF (Lighting Designer, Red Sky Performance), AMAL, Last 15 Seconds (Associate Design, Tunisia/Egypt Tour 2019), Middletown (Associate Design, Crows Theatre 2018), Master Harold and the Boys International Tour (Associate Design, Shaw Festival), In The Continuum (Black Ink Collective 2017), ANTIGONE, Pantalone’s Palace (Brock U), Come Down From Up River (TNB, Foster Festival 2018), Director’s Project (Shaw Festival), Far Away (Best of Fringe 2016). Chris is a graduate of Ryerson University’s Performance Production Program and is an associate member of the Associated Designers of Canada.

Marcella Grimaux – Creative Video Director/Screen Manager
Marcella Grimaux, originally from Montreal, grew up in New York City and attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles where she majored in Theatre. In 2009, she assisted Dominic Champagne (Cirque du Soleil’s Love) in Las Vegas on his multimedia theatrical presentation of Paradis Perdu. She has worked for international artists Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Katy Perry, The Backstreet Boys, One Direction and Pink, among others. In 2016, she became an Associate Content Producer for the Montreal studio 4U2C and was responsible for screen producing the creative video content for the Kevin Hart: What Now show. She co-directed and oversaw the artistic direction of the video scenography for Jean Leloup’s Le Fantôme de Paradis City, which won awards for Best Show and Best Lighting Design at that year’s ADISQ awards.  

Daniel Faubert – Head Motion Designer
Born in Outaouais, Quebec, Daniel Faubert lives and works in Montreal. He has a Bachelor of Arts and Design from the University of Quebec. He directed his first animated short “Scène Primitive” which has won numerous prizes in festivals. Video designer, director and animator, he joined the Geodezik team as a senior motion designer in 2013. Since then, Daniel has collaborated with numerous teams on large scale productions including Cirque du Soleil shows and tours for Pink, Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, and Cher to name a few. 

Alexandre Barette – Technical Designer
Alex Barette launched a successful career in information technology by leveraging his capacity to teach himself and problem solve with an insatiable appetite for knowledge. During his stint as a technical lead with VYV, Alex contributed to the development of a number of projects including Alicia Keys’ As I Am tour, Britney Spears’ Circus, Franco Dragone’s House of Dancing Water, Cirque du Soleil’s Totem, Iris, and Zarkana, and Michael Jackson’s One. He later became a freelancer video technical designer, director and integrator for shows such as Justin Timberlake’s 20/20 Experience, Celine Dion’s Vegas residency, Prince’s Hit and Run tour, Abu Dhabi’s 44th National Day, and Cirque du Soleil’s Love revamp. Alex joined the ranks of 4U2C to lend a hand in Beyonce’s Grammy performance, Intel’s 2018 CES keynote and Justin Timberlake’s Man of the Woods tour.

Kinoo Arcentales – Costume Designer
Kinoo Arcentales is of South American Indigenous (Kichwa) and Mestizo heritage. Born into a family of artists, Kinoo was exposed to arts from an early age. His main role models are his grandmothers on both sides of his family- one being a hotel business owner and the other a retired fashion designer. Living a semi-nomadic lifestyle for most of his life, he has travelled throughout Canada and Ecuador which has inspired most of his work. Kinoo has worked with Red Sky Performance as the costume designer for Trace and as associate costume designer for Miigis.

Sarah Miller – Production Stage Manager
Sarah Miller is a freelance stage, event and production manager based out of Toronto, Ontario. She has worked with performing arts organizations across Canada including: 6th Man Collective, Art of Time Ensemble, Canadian Opera Company, Carousel Players, City of Toronto Arts and Culture Services, Crow’s Theatre, Factory Theatre, Manitoba Theatre for Young People, Project Humanity, Shaw Festival, Soulpepper Theatre, Stratford Festival, Tarragon Theatre, Theatre Aquarius, Theatre New Brunswick, Theatre Passe Muraille, Thousand Islands Playhouse and the Toronto International Film Festival. Sarah is also an instructor and mentor of emerging theatre professionals. Most recently, she worked as a Production Manager on the web series CHILD-ISH and as a COVID Health and Safety Monitor on the television series Y: The Last Man.

Sarah Di Iorio – Dancer
Sarah Di Iorio received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2018 from Ryerson University’s Performance Dance Program. Sarah was chosen to create two ten- minute pieces that were showcased at Ryerson’s first ever Springworks show. In her final year, she was the recipient of the Nadia Potts Heart and Soul Scholarship Award. Sarah recently had the opportunity to showcase her choreography in the Fall for Dance North 2018 Festival, Cawthra Parks 2019 Springfest show, Ryerson University’s performance of The Penelopiad, and at the premiere of Impromptu at the 2019 Parodos Festival. As a dancer, Sarah has performed in work created by well-known choreographers in Toronto as well as on the Greek islands. She is one of three principal dancers in a film that will premiere in Toronto’s 2020 Luminato Festival. Sarah had the privilege of performing with Red Sky at the Canadian Museum of History and is now grateful to also take part in the company’s performance of Trace.

Miyeko Ferguson – Dancer
Miyeko Ferguson is a Tkaronto (Toronto) based dance artist. In 2016, she received her BFA degree in Performance Dance from Ryerson University. Since graduation, Miyeko has had the pleasure of working with choreographers such as Naishi Wang, Jera Wolfe, Kate Hilliard and Allen Kaeja. She has also attended professional training programs with Springboard Danse Montréal, Adelheid and Peggy Baker Dance Projects where she performed the works of Ohad Naharin and Chuck Wilt, and worked closely with Jessie Garon and Peggy Baker. Miyeko is an active member of Nostos Collectives. She has performed in Canada and the United States with Red Sky Performance and in early 2020, she was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for her performance in Red Sky’s production, AF, a part of Canadian Stage’s 2019-2020 season.

Lindsay Harpham – Dancer
Lindsay Harpham began training in Saskatchewan where she was inspired to further her development at Harbour Dance Centre’s Intensive Training Program in British Columbia. Lindsay completed The Conteur Academy’s two-year training program in Toronto where she worked with distinguished artists Eryn Waltman, Shoena Bell, Kelly Shaw and Ryan Lee. She joined Red Sky Performance for the world premiere of Backbone at Canadian Stage in Toronto and then toured with the company to the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, and Poland and at the Danse Danse Festival in Montreal. Lindsay performed in Gadfly’s production of UNBXBL 2 and represented Canada alongside Saskatchewan Dance Projects dancers at the International Dance Congress in Adelaide, Australia. She is currently training alongside Larchaud Dance artists as an apprentice and is very grateful to be a part of Red Sky Performance for Trace.

Tyler Layton-Olson – Dancer
Tyler Layton-Olson was born in Nipawin, Saskatchewan and is currently based in Vancouver, BC. He trained in various styles growing up and moved to Vancouver to train with Arts Umbrella’s pre-professional program and then with Modus Operandi: School of Contemporary Dance. He has had the honour of performing and touring with Shay Kubler: Radical System Art, 605 Collective, Wen Wei Dance, and other dance companies. Tyler loves creation and expression in other art forms including acting, acrylic/mixed media painting, and music production.

Jessica Mak – Dancer
Jessica Mak holds a BFA from Ryerson University’s School of Performance. She is a company member with Red Sky Performance and is excited to be touring the company’s performance of Trace on this North American tour. Through her continuous search for chances to learn, grow and develop, she has had the opportunity to participate in intensives such as Springboard Danse Montreal, B12 Festival, Domaine Forget, San Francisco Conservatory of Dance Summer Intensive and more. She is humbled by the opportunities she has been given to work with renown artists who generously share their knowledge, greatly influencing her progression and life as a dancer. Jessica is currently interested in exploring movement-based concepts to research the human experience.

Connor Mitton – Dancer
Connor Mitton is a graduate of Ryerson University’s Performance Dance Program and a 2018 Dora Mavor Moore Award Nominee for Outstanding Performance, Ensemble, for Jusqu’à Vimy (choreographed by Laurence Lemieux). Originally from Ottawa, Ontario, Connor has toured with ProArteDanza, Citadel & Compangnie, Human body expressions and has performed in James Kudelka’s Fifteen Heterosexual Duets, Elvis and the Man in Black and Romeo and Juliet before Parting. Recognized by Now Magazine as one of 2017’s breakthrough Toronto stage artists, Connor has had the privilege of working with renowned choreographers and artists William Yong, Hanna Kiel, Kate Hilliard, Heidi Strauss, Apolonia Valesquez and Ofilio Portillo, Robert Glumbek, Roberto Campanella, Release Dance Project, ACE Dance Theatre, Zata Omm Dance Projects, Avinoam Silverman and Allan Kaeja. Connor’s passion for dance has taken him to SpringBoard Danse Montreal where he had the opportunity to work with Victor Quijada and members of RUBBERBAND. 

Rick Sacks – Collaborator, Musician
After receiving a Master’s degree in Music from SUNY Stony Brook Rick Sacks performed at Carnegie Recital Hall, NY Shakespeare Theatre and Alice Tully Hall. He regularly performs in Toronto and tours worldwide (Vancouver and Beijing Olympics, Shanghai Expo, Mongolia, Europe). His Water Music (Victoria Symphony) utilized remote controlled flying fish and a deep- sea diver costume. With Red Sky Performance, Rick received a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Tono and again with Eliot Britton (2020) for AF (Red Sky). From 2011 to 2016 he was Artistic Director of Arraymusic. Rick freelances as a conductor, percussionist, sound designer and composer and broadcasts weekly as Soundpilot.

Ian De Souza – Musician
Born in Kampala, Uganda into a musical family, Ian De Souza has had music as a constant companion his entire life. He has been a professional musician  or 35+ years and has traveled the world as a touring musician, having performed venues and festivals on almost every continent in as many idioms. He has composed, arranged and produced music for and with, amongst others, Toronto-based instrumental band Sisters Euclid (with whom he won a Juno and National Jazz Award) and electronica duo, LAL. Ian has composed music for film and produced music for theatre which earned him a Dora Mavor Moore nomination. Ian has also composed music for dance, contributing several works for his wife, dancer, Joanna de Souza’s Chhandam Dance Company.

Nadene Pita – Musician
Nadene Pita is an acclaimed experimental multi-instrumentalist using vocals, viola, orchestral strings and traditional indigenous instruments to make creative music. Nadene is of Māori and Irish descent, with a splash of Portuguese on her father’s side. Born in Aotearoa (New Zealand), her iwi is Ngātiwai from Northland. She grew up in Australia and is now based in Los Angeles.

Ora Barlow-Tukaki – Collaborator, Vocalist and Musician (recorded)
Ora Barlow-Tukaki has toured professionally for 15 years and is a highly skilled musician, singer, workshop facilitator, and storyteller. She co-founded and toured the world with three successful collaborative music projects – Manuhiri, Planet Woman, and Pacific Curls. She has co-created with many international artists and projects. Maori Television produced a documentary about her political activism against oil exploitation in her tribal lands in the series called I know a sheila like that. Ora was a vocalist and musician in two world premieres of Red Sky’s works including The Great Lakes (2018) and Trace (2018). Ora lives in Te Kaha and is of Te Whanau-a-Apanui and English Descent.

Nelson Tagoona – Vocalist (recorded)
Nelson Tagoona improvises with traditional throat singing and beat-boxing, developing a technique he has termed “throat boxing”. This unique performance style has garnered high praise throughout Canada where he has been awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and named one of the “Top 10 Canadian Artists under 20” by CBC Music. Nelson performed during the opening of the Northern Scene Festival at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, at the Pan Am Games in Toronto, and was the featured vocalist in Red Sky Performance’s Adizokan.

RUBBERBAND

Founded in 2002 by Victor Quijada, RUBBERBAND immediately imposed itself in Canada and abroad as an explosive one-of-a-kind troupe. In its very first year of activity, RUBBERBAND brought well-honed forms that deconstructed several principles of urban dance to the stage of Tangente. The company’s work quickly won over audiences and critics: in its end-of-season review, the Montreal daily Le Devoir included both Tender Loving Care and Hasta La Próxima in its pick of the five best dance productions of the year. A second creation cycle followed in 2003 when the company presented Reflections on Movement Particles with the support of Théâtre de L’L in Brussels and the MAI in Montreal.

The same year, RUBBERBAND presented Elastic Perspective, a grouping of pieces which highlighted the choreographer’s ability to exploit the rebellious aspect of Hip Hop and the richness of narrative movement. This work toured for six years and was performed more than a hundred times.

In 2004, Usine C hosted Quijada and his dancers in a residency which resulted in Slicing Static, a work that was named best dance production of the year by the Montreal cultural weekly, Hour (now Cult MTL). The following year, Anne Plamondon joined Quijada as artistic co-director and occupied this position until 2015. Also in 2005, the company performed in Japan, representing Canada at Expo 2005. RBDG’s renown continued to increase after that and touring opportunities multiplied, with as many performances in the United States as in Canada, along with frequent tours to Holland, Belgium, and England, where, among other works, sHip sHop Shape Shifting (2005) was presented.

From 2007 to 2011, the Cinquième Salle of Place des Arts hosted RUBBERBAND in a residency. Four new works were created during that period: Punto Ciego (2008), AV Input/Output (2008), Loan Sharking (2009), and Gravity of Center (2011). During this period, the company gave an average of 40 performances annually. Lecture-demonstrations were developed and instituted as cultural mediation activities following the presentation of each new work. The sessions have been highly successful among presenters who take advantage of this tool to develop their audiences. In parallel, the company supports the emerging generation of dancers by mentoring and through initiatives such as the Post-Hip-Hop Project, which, in its three successive editions, gave some twenty young artists from the hip-hop scene a first experience of creation and dissemination in a professional framework.

In 2013, RUBBERBAND presented Empirical Quotient, giving six dancers the opportunity to prove themselves in a complex, very physically demanding choreography — a demonstrable culmination of the RUBBERBAND Method. In 2016, the company brought Vic’s Mix to the stage, a work composed of highlights from its repertoire, a kind of “best-of” encapsulating the organization’s sizzling trajectory from its beginnings.

Along with its many short pieces and special projects, RUBBERBAND has staged 14 full-length productions, tours intensively in Quebec and the rest of Canada, and presents its works on a regular basis in several European countries, Mexico, and the U.S.A. Since 2017, the troupe has comprised 10 dancers from diverse backgrounds. Currently, RUBBERBAND is touring locally and internationally with Vic’s Mix and is adapting City Threads, its outdoor ambulatory piece for 40 dancers, for presentation in a number of cities. Since 2018, the company is also touring Ever So Slightly, its first production for a vast performance space, with a battalion of ten dancers and 2 live musicians.

Since 2002, Victor Quijada and RUBBERBAND have not only redefined break dance codes within an institutional context and enlivened the Quebec dance scene, but have opened the way for new creators fascinated by this dance form. Armed with a technique he conceived for dancers, the RUBBERBAND Method – an electrifying vocabulary combining the energy of Hip Hop, the refinement of classical ballet, and the angular quality of contemporary dance – and some 40 creations and collaborations in Canada and abroad behind him, Victor Quijada has always continued to evolve and innovate throughout his prolific career.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, the child of Mexican parents, Victor first danced in the b-boying circles and hip-hop clubs of his native city. He performed with Rudy Perez from 1994 to 1996, then moved to New York City to join THARP! After spending three years with that company and following a stint with Ballets Tech, in 2000 he came to Montreal to join Les Grands Ballets canadiens. In 2002, he founded RUBBERBAND, throwing himself into deconstructing the choreographic principles he had learned by blending them with the raw ideology of his street dance origins. His creations – numerous short works and 14 full-length productions – are distinguished by a powerful theatricality, the energy of improvisation, and certain codes of film language, the whole sculpted with an incomparable precision of movement.

For several years now, Victor has taught the RUBBERBAND Method throughout the world in workshops and internships for many dance companies, dance schools, and universities, as well as on a yearly basis in RBDG’s workshop for professional dancers; at the Académie du Domaine Forget in Charlevoix every summer; and in his classes at the Glorya Kaufman School of Dance at the University of Southern California (USC). As guest choreographer, he has created new works for dance and circus companies; notably in return commissions for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Scottish Dance Theatre.

Besides his stage productions, Victor has been involved in almost a dozen dance films, as director, choreographer, or dramaturge. His short film, Hasta La Próxima, was a finalist at the American Choreography Awards in 2004. He also choreographed the music videos Man I Used to Be by k-os, La garde by Alexandre Désilets, and Elton John’s Blue Wonderful. His Gravity of Center – The Movie won Best Experimental Short at the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival of 2012, among other awards, and was shown at several exhibitions and national and international festivals.

Victor Quijada was artist-in-residence at Usine C (2004 and 2006) and at Place des Arts (2007-2011), and has won many awards, including Britain’s National Dance Award for Outstanding Modern Repertory (2003), the Bonnie Bird North American Award (2003, U.K.), the Peter Darrell Choreography Award (2003, U.K.), the International Touring Award of the Canadian Dance Alliance (2012), and two awards from the Princess Grace Foundation-USA (Choreography Fellowship, 2010; Work in Progress Residency, 2016).

In December 2017, Victor Quijada received the award for cultural diversity at the Prix de la danse de Montréal and was, in 2019, one of the finalists for the 34th Grand Prix du Conseil des arts de Montréal as well as among the four finalists for the 2019 Charles-Biddle Prize, instigated by Culture pour tous and the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation and Inclusion (MIFI).

Yan Lee Chan – Lighting Design
Yan Lee Chan began studying lighting design and subsequently earned a degree in stage management and technical direction in the theatre arts program at Cégep de Saint-Hyacinthe. He worked in Europe, assisting Olivier Duplessis and other dance artists before settling in Montreal, where he has worked in the performing arts for over a decade. Starting in his early teens, Yan performed as a sleight-of-hand magician and he has brilliantly applied these skills to lighting concepts that create stage illusions. He has collaborated with many Canadian choreographers and performing arts companies, including Sonya Biernath, Lin Snelling, Bill Coleman, Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood, Nicole Mion, Stéphan Gladyszewsky, Jenn Goodwin, Pamela Newell, Hélène Langevin, Momentum, Théâtre du Grand Jour, Théâtre du Rideau Vert, Ondinnok, and Pigeons International. He began his relationship with RBDG as a lighting designer in 2003, becoming the company’s technical director in 2009. This close collaboration has led Yan to accompany Victor Quijada in various commissions, notably with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Scottish Dance Theatre.

Jasper Gahunia (aka DJ Lil’ Jaz) – Musical Director & Original Music
Jasper Gahunia is a DJ, producer, songwriter, musician, and teacher. He began his career in the mid-nineties as a specialized DJ (turntablist), winning the Toronto DMC DJ competition title three times and becoming the Canadian DMC Champion in 1998. During this period, he also shared the International Turntablist Federation (ITF) Western Hemisphere Team title with his crew, Turnstylez; he became ITF World Beat Juggling Champ a year later. Jaz has graced stages worldwide as a DJ and keyboardist with Nelly Furtado and K-OS. At Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music, where he graduated in piano, Jaz currently teaches the first-ever Scratch from Scratch: DJ Fundamentals course. He has also collaborated with the Canadian Opera Company in the production of a series of mini-operas fused with hip-hop beats and scratching, and created the musical score for many of RBDG’s stage productions and commissions carried out by Victor Quijada.

Mathieu Leroux – Dramaturgy
Mathieu Leroux is a graduate of the performance and creation program of L’École Supérieure de théâtre of UQÀM. Co-founder and artistic director of the theatre collective Les Néos, he wrote, directed, and performed some 100 short plays over a five-year period. A solo work, La naissance de Superman, was presented in 2009, and his play, Scrap, ended the season at Espace Libre in 2012. Mathieu was co-adaptor, with director Louis-Karl Tremblay, of the classical Greek theatre cycle, Les Atrides, presented in Montreal in spring 2013; he also acted in this six-part saga. Recently, he collaborated in the writing and dramaturgy of Ludi Magni, presented by the Nouveau Théâtre Expérimental in spring 2015. He has danced for choreographer Helen Simard, performed with DJ Champion, and was rehearsal director for three productions by Solid State. Mathieu also founded and directed theatre company Putto Machine from 2004 to 2011, was part of the touring troupe of Théâtre Sans Fil – marionnettes géantes for eight years, and obtained his M.A. in French literature at U. de M. in 2011. His debut novel, Dans la cage, was published by Héliotrope in 2013, and his critical essay, Quelque chose en moi choisit le coup de poing, was published by La Mèche in 2016. Other publishing houses and magazines have also featured his writing, notably, L’Instant même and Flaneur Berlin. Besides his work with RBDG, Mathieu is collaborating anew with Helen Simard as dramaturge on the second and third instalments of a trilogy on American musician Iggy Pop.

Cloé Alain-Gendreau – Costume Design
Cloé Alain-Gendreau has worked in the performance arts since graduating from the theatre program at Cégep de Saint-Hyacinthe in 2009. Applying her talents to a wide spectrum of projects, she has been costume designer, stylist, scenographer, and props person in theatre, the circus arts, and dance. Her passion is the contemporary scene. Cloé’s experience includes work at Théâtre La Chapelle with Clap Clap (2012), Moi et une Love Letter (2013), and Cube blanc (2013); at Espace Libre with Tranche-cul (2014) and La singularité est proche (2017); at the Tohu with Psy (2010), Me, myself and us (2013), Cuisine et confessions (2014), Triptyque (2015), and Reversible (2016), as well as the open-air productions Grand coup de mauvais coups (2011) and Plyball (2016). After collaborating with RUBBERBAND in City Thread (2017), Cloé is excited by the prospect of following this up with  Ever So Slightly (2018).

Jean Bui
Jean Bui studied visual art and urbanism before deciding to explore the artistic and athletic potential of the human body through parkour and the circus arts. After general training for the circus in 2011, he completed the contemporary dance program at UQAM. He has worked with George Stamos, Manuel Roque, Katya Montaignac, and Maud Saint-Germain, and has appeared in music and promotional videos, television series, and feature films. He joined RUBBERBAND in 2015.

Daniela Jezerinac
Daniela Jezerinac grew up in Mississauga, Ontario, where she began dancing at a local studio. At the age of 15, she became a company member of Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, where she stayed for three years. Upon her training there, she performed works by José Limón, Colin Connor, Kevin Wynn, Robert Glumbek, and Ofillio Sindadhino. She is currently finishing her studies at the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase College in New York. Jezerinac joined RUBBERBAND in 2018.

Emma-Lynn Mackay-Ronacher
Emma-Lynn Mackay-Ronacher resides from small town Kemptville, Ontario, where she started dancing at a local studio before moving to Montreal at the age of 14, to continue her training at L’École supérieure de ballet du Québec. After five years in the professional program, where she trained in classical and contemporary dance, she graduated at the age of 19. Upon graduation Emma began freelancing for renowned choreographers and companies, such as Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, Anne Plamondon Productions, Gioconda Barbuto and Veronique Giasson, among others. Emma-Lynn joined RUBBERBAND in 2021.

Jessica Muszynski
Jessica Joy Muszynski is a Canadian choreographer and dancer born in Burnaby, BC, where she began training in ballet at the Richmond Academy of Dance, before moving to Calgary, AB in 2012. A growing curiosity in dance led her to become self-taught in Hip Hop and Contemporary by mimicking YouTube videos. In May 2019 she graduated from University of Southern California with a BFA in Dance. During her time at school she had the opportunity to dance in excerpts of works by William Forsythe, Crystal Pite and Victor Quijada. Post-graduation you can find Jessica in a music video for a popular band called half•alive and in Germany performing with Aszure Barton & Artists. She joined RUBBERBAND in September 2019.

Jovick Pavajeau-Orostegui
Jovick Pavajeau-Orostegui was born in Miami, Florida, and began his formal dance training in Bogotá, Colombia at the age of 15 under the direction of Jaime Otálora. Later, he attended George Mason University where he received the Kidd/Stearns Dance Talent Scholarship and graduated with a BFA in Dance in 2020. He has attended workshops with RUBBERBAND, VIM VIGOR, David Dorfman Dance and Springboard Danse Montreal under the direction of Alexandra Wells – where he performed work by Lior Lazarof and Johannes Wieland. After graduating in 2020, Jovick moved to New York City where he was an apprentice with David Dorfman Dance. In his time in NYC, he also performed with VIM VIGOR and collaborated with other New York based artists such as Jordan Demetrius Lloyd, Robert Rubama, and Cameron McKinney of Kizuna Dance. Jovick relocated to Montreal in 2021 to join RUBBERBAND.

Brontë Poiré-Prest
Brontë Poiré-Prest hails from Montreal, Quebec. She fell in love with the art of movement at Ballet Divertimento, where she started her classical dance training in 2010. She then continued her studies at L’École de danse contemporaine de Montréal, where she had the fortune to work and collaborate with renowned choreographers such as Angélique Willkie, Hélène Blackburn and Alan Lake. Upon leaving school, she was invited to work with several well-established companies from Montreal such as Van Grimde Corps Secrets, Le Carré des Lombes and as a freelancer for Compagnie Marie Chouinard. Poiré-Prest joined RUBBERBAND in 2018.

Jerimy Rivera
Jerimy Rivera, a native of New York City, practiced gymnastics from an early age, but after several experiences with New York City Ballet, he decided to dedicate himself exclusively to dance. After training with Steps on Broadway, he broadened his stylistic reach to contemporary dance, Hip Hop, jazz ballet, and musical theatre dance. While an adolescent, he studied for two years at the JKO School at American Ballet Theatre under Franco Devita and Raymond Lukens before joining Manhattan Youth Ballet. Rivera continued his training at The French Academie of Ballet under François Perron and Nadège Hottier; in 2012, he toured with West Side Story – The Musical. In 2013, he moved to Montreal, where he danced with Les Grands Ballets canadiens for four years. Rivera joined RUBBERBAND in 2017.

Adèle Ross
Adèle Ross is a Montreal-native multidisciplinary artist who started her training by exploring contemporary dance, hip-hop and jazz. Through hip-hop, she developed a passion that lead her to chose the professional path. She then furthered her training at Ballet Divertimento where she worked with choreographers such as Amélie Rajotte, Christopher Rudd and Owen Montegue. In the spring of 2021, she graduated from The School of Toronto Dance Theatre where she collaborated with many choreographers including Pulga Muchochoma, Alanna Kraaijveld, Michael Caldwell, Roberto Campanella and Peggy Baker. To continue developing herself, Ross took part in different intensives with RUBBERBAND, Gaga People, Kylie Thompson Dance, VIAS, Domaine Forget and the Conexión festival. With Lou Amsellem, she is the co-founder of the collective Horizons which aims to explore contact, environment and sharing. She joined RUBBERBAND in 2021.

Ryan Taylor
Ryan Taylor, originally from Colchester, England, was introduced to dance via Hip Hop and breakdancing, joining Battalions Crew and participating frequently in European competitions. Training under Akram Kahn at the National Youth Dance Company inspired him to continue his dance studies at the London Contemporary Dance School where he was taught by Hofesh Shechter, Dane Hurst, and Sasha Roubicek, among other artists. In 2017, dancing in Rosalind by James Cousins Company at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, he won the award for Best Moment of the Festival. Taylor joined RUBBERBAND in 2017.

Paco Ziel
Paco Ziel began studying music and art at age 12 at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico, his country of origin. He won a scholarship to attend Estudio Profesional de Danza Ema Pulido, where he honed his technique and performance skills. He came to Montreal in 2011 to continue training in classical ballet at l’École supérieure de ballet du Québec. His choreography, Huapango, won first prize at the 2011 Bravissimo competition, and another work, Mexica, garnered positive reviews from Mexican critics. Ziel is a co-founder of the Montreal-based dance collective, Quantum. He joined RUBBERBAND in 2015.

Kaija Pepper’s latest book, Falling into Flight: A Memoir of Life and Dance (Signature Editions), was recently reviewed by the Vancouver Sun. She has written three books on Canadian dance, including The Man Next Door Dances: The Art of Peter Bingham (Finalist for the 2008 City of Vancouver Book Award, Dance Collection Danse Press) and, with Allana Lindgren, was co-editor of the anthology Renegade Bodies: Canadian Dance in the 1970s. Kaija has contributed to national and international magazines, anthologies, journals and theatre programs, and has been a regular contributor to the Globe and Mail. She is the editor of Dance International magazine, which moved online in January 2020.