Beyond performance - Dancer Transition Resource Centre

2013 KEYNOTE
PANELS & WORKSHOPS
KEYNOTE ADDRESS - MICHAEL CALDWELL
Michael Caldwell is a Toronto-based choreographer/performer. A graduate of The
School of Toronto Dance Theatre, he has interpreted roles for many of Canada’s
esteemed dance creators and companies, including Peggy Baker, Sylvie
Bouchard, Danny Grossman, Guillaume Côté, Maxine Heppner, Sasha Ivanochko, James Kudelka, Tedd Robinson, Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie, Corpus
Dance Projects, Dusk Dances, and Kahawi Dance Theatre, among others, and
has performed across Canada and the United States, in Europe, Asia, and
Australia. Michael was an interpreter at Le Group Dance Lab, studying with
the iconic Peter Boneham. He has also initiated a solo-commissioning project,
performing in the work of established choreographers – Conrad Alexandrowicz,
Danny Grossman, and Karen Jamieson.
Michael is quickly emerging as a skilled, and critically acclaimed choreographer. His recent works include:
Ash Unravel, an acclaimed solo based on his journey to Vietnam, The Horologium, a whimsical group piece
created for Dusk Dances, Boogie Back, a community work for non-dancers in Porch View Dances, and
Mary, a dynamic new solo for Stéphanie Tremblay Abudo. With a bachelor’s degree in film and art history
from Syracuse University, Michael seeks to incorporate cinematic sensibilities in all his work. Upcoming,
Michael will begin creation on a new group choreography, based on loneliness and isolation.
Michael’s teaching experience varies from professional level contemporary technique classes to intensive workshops for youth, the elderly, and the disabled. He has taught at various locations in Toronto, and
across Ontario.
He currently sits on the board of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, is the chair of the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists - Ontario Chapter, and is a Metcalf Foundation Performing Arts Intern for Moonhorse Dance Theatre/Claudia Moore, specifically for Older & Reckless. Photo: Kristy Kennedy.
Panel - DANCE OUTSIDE THE BOX
Where does dance happen? You may be surprised by the
answers these panellists give as they talk about dance work
in projects that bust boundaries.
Hear from three unique artists—JoDee Allen (breakdance), Marie-Josée Chartier (contemporary
dance) and Brandy Leary (aerial dance)—about their experiences creating and performing outside
conventional dance productions. Each of these artists has a story to tell about bringing their dance
training to performance situations that are collaborative and inventive.
This is dance performance—but maybe not like you’ve imagined it.
This panel will be moderated by Michael Trent.
The panel discussion will be followed by a short Q & A.
JoDee Allen (BFA Contemporary Dance, Concordia) is a professional dancer,
choreographer and B-girl. JoDee is also a founding member and co-artistic
director of the dance company, Solid State Breakdance (2000 - present). She
is currently pursuing a Masters degree at Concordia University exploring
Gesture Based Video Games. In her research, JoDee is exploring the
immersive and expressive potential of gesture based digital gaming, and the
potential these games have to draw the participant into a simultaneously
emotional and corporeal experience. She is especially interested in the
shifting regions of social game play, street culture and how these practices
coalesce around perception of self, connection to a group, response to the
environment, and personal expression.
Marie-Josée Chartier is a multi-faceted artist who moves easily between the
worlds of dance, music, opera and multi-media in the roles of choreographer,
performer, director, vocalist or teacher. Her choreographic works are greatly
influenced by contemporary visual art, music and literature in terms of
concept, composition and dynamic structure and have been presented in
Canada, Europe and Latin America. In 2003, Marie-Josée Chartier founded
Chartier Danse in order to support her creative activities. Acclaimed large
scale productions came to life such as Red Brick, Contes pour enfants pas sages,
Screaming Popes and Bas-Reliefs.
Ms. Chartier has received choreographic commissions from solo artists and Canadian
dance companies. She is the recipient of the K.M. Hunter Artist Award, nine Dora Mavor Moore Awards
nominations winning among others a Dora for fifty-one pieces of silver and two Doras for And by the way
Miss and most recently the multi-disciplinary dance artist award from the Young Centre for the performing arts. She choreographs and directs contemporary music, multi-media and opera productions for
companies such as Queen of Puddings Music Theatre, Gryphon Trio and L’Ensemble Contemporain de
Montréal with ongoing national and international touring. She is increasingly active as artistic advisor,
mentor or director for several established and/or upcoming dance artists. She continues to perform on
international and national stages; she is also a regular guest teacher in training centres and universities in
Canada and Latin America in modern dance, voice exploration and improvisation. Photo: Don Dixon.
Panel - DANCE OUTSIDE THE BOX continued...
Brandy Leary creates contemporary performance works from dance based
entry points through cross-genre and poly-cultural perspectives exploring
the intersection of traditional and contemporary performing practices and
potential structures for horizontal collaboration in the artistic process.
Brandy holds a BA Honours in Theatre with a specialization in Direction and
Asian Theatre from York University’s Theatre Program. She has lived between
Canada and India for the past 14 years training, collaborating and creating
in the traditional Indian performing languages of Seraikella and Mayurbhanj
Chhau (dance), Kalarippayattu (martial art) and Rope Mallakhamb (aerial rope).
In Canada she works with western approaches to aerial rope work and the bridge
discipline of Axis Syllabus to support choreographic creations that are interested in site specific/spatial
activation explorations and audience/performance relationships.
She has been the resident choreographer at the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto since 2010 where she is
creating her Precipice Project cycle of site activation choreographies that will span through to 2013 and
she is an Associated Artist with IMPACT (Indian Martial and Performance Art Collective of Toronto) teaching youth Indian dance and martial arts in priority neighborhoods accross the GTA. She founded Anandam Dancetheatre as an umbrella structure for her performance projects and is its Artistic Director.
(www.anandam.ca) Her work has been presented in Toronto, New York, Gatineau, Ottawa, Winnipeg, New
Delhi, Calcutta and Ahemnabad.
Dora-nominated dance artist Michael Trent is the Artistic Director and Resident
Choreographer of Toronto’s Dancemakers and the Centre for Creation, one of
Canada’s leading contemporary dance companies and a centre for research
and development in new dance practices. The organization’s creations, presenting and professional development projects are contemporary, crossdisciplinary and collaborative in nature.
In a career spanning over 25 years, Trent’s body of work has been seen across
Canada at the National Arts Centre, l’Agora de la danse, the Canada Dance Festival and the Dancing on the Edge Festival in Vancouver.
Prior to coming to Dancemakers, Trent was the founding Artistic Director of the empty collective. Since
its inception in 2000, the empty collective produced The Memory Show (2001) and invisible borders (2004),
with works by Trent, Sarah Chase, Laurence Lemieux, Louise Bédard and Doug Varone.
As a performer, Trent has danced for some of Canada’s most respected creators including Louise Bédard,
Martin Bélanger, Sarah Chase, David Earle, Sylvain Émard, Ame Henderson, Christopher House, Sasha Ivanochko, Laurence Lemieux, Antonija Livingstone, Jean-Pierre Perreault, Dominique Porte and Julia Sasso.
He has taught across Canada and in Holland and was the co-recipient of the 2004 K.M. Hunter Artists
Award in dance.
Panel - BEYOND PERFORMANCE
Did you know? Your training can take you to some unusual
places… hear from dance artists who have turned their fine
arts education into unexpected careers.
A dance education offers so much more than just performance skills. It provides you with a
perspective on dance, and a vocabulary to communicate that perspective. These panellists have
careers that go beyond performance, to encompass teaching dance (Tina Nicolaidis), writing about
dance (Lindsay Zier-Vogel), and producing multidisciplinary work (Sky Fairchild-Waller). Find out
how each of these panellists has used their dance training to help build a multi-faceted career.
This panel will be moderated by Kevin Ormsby.
The panel discussion will be followed by a short Q & A.
Tina Nicolaidis is the co-founder and Artistic Director of City Dance Corps, one
of Toronto’s leading dance schools that just celebrated its tenth year of
business. She has been featured in numerous television shows and
magazines including, Much Music, Fashion Magazine, Maclean’s, National
Post, CBC’s “Living in Toronto”, Rogers “Toronto Living”, Elle Magazine, and
CH TV to name a few. She has been a dance judge for international level
Latin dance competitions and American reality TV shows such as Instant
Beauty Pageant. As a dance advocate, she produces and sponsors an
annual charity showcase, “Talent Defined” which features Toronto’s up and
coming dance companies and choreographers.
Tina also gained recognition for training lead actor Jake Simons for his role as the
original “Johnny Castle” in North America’s fastest selling premier stage production of Dirty Dancing. As
a full time choreographer, her most recent accomplishments include choreographing Nelly Furtado’s ‘Mi
Plan’ concert tour for 2011. Currently she is a board member for DanceOntario and contributes to local
columns such as Want To Dance website sponsored by the National Ballet of Canada as a Salsa dance
expert where she brings some thought provoking and educational topics on dance to the forefront.
Lindsay Zier-Vogel is a Toronto-based writer, arts educator and love letterer. She
studied contemporary dance at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, received
her B.A. as an English Specialist at the University of Toronto and hascompleted an M.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Toronto under the
advisorship of award winning novelist, Anne Michaels. Zier-Vogel was the
web writer for four seasons of So You Think You Can Dance Canada, and has
recently been writing text for dance pieces—including Shannon Litzenberger’s HOMEbody and Sylvie Bouchard’s Histoire d’Amour. She has just
finished a novel titled “The Opposite of Drowning.” Lindsay teaches writing
and book making workshops and is the creator of The Love Lettering Project, a community-arts engagement project that was deemed one of the top
50 reasons to love Toronto in Toronto Life magazine. lindsayziervogel.com and
loveletteringproject.com
Panel - BEYOND PERFORMANCE continued...
Koerner Award-winning multidisciplinary artist Sky Fairchild-Waller studied at
the National Ballet School of Canada before completing his formal education
at York University. His video and performance work have been presented
across Canada, the USA, Italy, and Switzerland, and in 2011, the
psychogeographic performance intervention he created with Cara
Spooner was selected to represent North America at the stromereien11
Performance Festival Zürich biennale. He presently serves as Artistic
Associate for Performing Arts at Harbourfront Centre, Canada’s largest
multidisciplinary arts centre.
Select credits also include performing in Death in Venice (Canadian Opera Company), Kiss (Art Gallery of Ontario), and The Ballad of Roy & Silo (BravoFACT); choreographing Of a Monstrous Child (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre) and Bella: The Color of Love (Philadelphia
International Festival of the Arts); as well as artistic producing Dachshund UN (World Stage). His work has
been published in Border Crossings, the Existere Journal of Art & Literature, Giornale dell’Umbria, and
KATALOG, and has received support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Die Schweizerische Post,
Kunststiftung NRW, the Metcalf Foundation, the Vancouver Foundation, and the Royal Bank of Canada.
An Independent Arts Marketing Consultant, dancer / choreographer, movement
coach and teacher, Kevin A. Ormsby is the Artistic Director of KasheDance,
Dance Animateur at the Living Arts Centre, A Consultant for Cultural Pluralism
in the Arts Movement Ontario (CPAMO), in Wind in the Leaves Collective and
was Assistant to the Artistic Director (2007) and Marketing Outreach Coordinator of Ballet Creole. His dance background includes Garth Fagan Dance
(USA), Ballet Creole among others. He has presented and sat on panels in
the USA, Caribbean, Canada, published in “Pluralism in the Arts in Canada: A
Change is Gonna Come” and “Dance through Life” dance photography book. He
has juried, received funding from all levels of the Arts Councils, was the Co-chair
of the Performing Arts Sub- Committee of the Jamaica 50th Celebrations (Toronto)
and is a Board Member of Prologue to the Performing Arts, Nia Centre for the Arts and was on TAC’s Community Arts Programs Committee (2010 – 2012), the Chair of the Dance Companies Standing Committee
for Canada Dance Assembly and is on TAC’s Dance Committee. Photo: Christopher Cushman.
Panel - YOUR FIRST YEAR
So, you’re almost finished school. Then what? How do you
create your own momentum for the first year out of school?
These dynamic young artists are here to provide you with
concrete ways to survive and thrive after graduation.
This panel will be moderated by Sarah Lochhead.
The panel discussion will be followed by a short Q & A.
Lauren Cook is a choreographer, teacher, dancer, and the artistic director of Alias
Dance Project and Pivotal Motion Dance Theatre (Alias Dance Project’s Contemporary Youth Company). She is a graduate of Ryerson University (2005)
with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Performance. Lauren has had the opportunity to perform in works by Julia Sasso, Kathleen Rea, Vicki St. Denys,
David Earle, Darryl Tracy, Heidi Strauss, Meagan O’Shea,Emmanuel Jouthe,
Valerie Calam, Helen Simard and Jodee Allen, Apolonia Velasquez, Ofilio
Portillo, Susie Burpee, Kate Hilliard, Troy Feldman and Allen Kaeja,
Emmanuelle Le Phan and Kate Nankervis. Some of Lauren’s choreographic
credits include Under the Mulberry Bush (2007), The Hidden Truth (2009),
While You Were Sleeping (2010), A How to Guide (2012) and most recently
Restorative Structure (2012), which will be shown as part of Alias Dance Project’s
DanceWorks CoWorks Show, Shifting Edges, in May 2013. Lauren is also a certified Pilates instructor.
Cara Spooner has been involved in various performance projects as a
performer and choreographer. She has presented work at Summerworks,
XPACE Cultural Centre, The Harbourfront Centre, Pleasure Dome, The Art
Gallery of Mississauga, The Festival of New Dance in St. John’s
Newfoundland and Stromereien 11 in Zürich Switzerland. She has worked
with many artists including Diane Borsato, Jess Dobkin, Daniel Cockburn,
Sky Fairchild-Waller and Suburban Beast. Her interest in site-specific work
and the role of witness/audience has led her to create installation-based
performances in various contexts. www.caraspooner.com
Atri Nundy, a certified yoga instructor and Wilfrid Laurier graduate, trained in
Bharatanatyum under Lata Pada at Sampradaya Dance Academy for 18 years.
After completing her arangetram in 2005, she has performed and
choreographed for Sampradaya Dance Creations and has been teaching at
Sampradaya Dance Academy for the past 7 years. In 2008, she took part in
Sampradaya’s UK-India tour, performing Vivarta and Howzaat!. Atri then
participated in a collaboration with Santosh Nair in the debut performance
of Stealth at the 2010 Canada Dance Festival. She was also awarded the
Dancemakers Training Scholarship in both 2011 and 2012. Atri has had the
privilege to work with many renowned choreographers such as Harikrishna
Kalyanasundaram (Bharatanatyum), Mavin Khoo (Bharatanatyum), Shobana
Jeyasingh (Contemporary), Kumudini Lakhia (Kathak) and Navtej Johar (Yoga) to
name a few.
Panel - YOUR FIRST YEAR continued...
Matthew Armet is an extensively trained triple threat performer who started
dancing and singing from a young age at The Dance Connection in North
Battleford, SK. He then went on to graduate from the Canadian College of
Performing Arts, in Victoria, with a specialty in choreography. He has performed along side Kurt Browning in Peter Pan (Elgin Theatre), played “Brad”
in Hairspray: The Musical starring George Wendt (Charlottetown Festival),
and recently just finished his first season at The Stratford Festival in 42nd
Street and Pirates of Penzance. Other Theatre credits include: Miracle on 34th
Street: The Musical (Grand Theatre); Hairspray, How to Succeed… (Drayton);
White Christmas (MTC); High School Musical, Peter Pan (Neptune); Les Feux Follets (Charlottetown Young Company); Princess Cruise Lines; PNE; and Grief: Another
Common Bond which he co-created and starred in with Faye Rauw (Winchester St.
Theatre) Film credits include: Feist’s music videos “1234” and “My Moon, My Man”, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? (CBC). Follow him on Twitter @mattarmet as he starts his second season at Stratford in
Fiddler on the Roof and Tommy.
Sarah Lochhead is a dance artist originally from Windsor, ON, where she performed with HNM Dance Company. She attended York University and was a
member of the York University Dance Ensemble working with choreographers
Julia Aplin, Susan Cash, Andrea Nann, and Holly Small. She also participated in
an academic exchange to University College Chichester’s dance program in
England. She graduated from York in 2005 with a BFA honours specializing in
dance. She has performed with Menaka Thakkar Dance Company, Collective
HEAT and has shown choreography at The Toronto Fringe Festival, Series 8:08,
Casino Rama, Culture Days and a variety of self produced performances. Sarah
holds intermediate level ballet certificates from the Royal Academy of Dance and
in Cecchetti method. She completed a Limón teacher-training course with Donna
Krasnow in Toronto, a teaching contemporary Limón course with the Limón Company in New York and
pedagogy classes in Humphrey technique with master teacher Gail Corbin in Oak Park IL. Sarah has been
nominated across three categories of Barrie Arts Awards, as an Emerging Artist for Community Contribution and for Excellence in the Arts. Her work has been acknowledged through the receipt of grants from
the City of Barrie Cultural Department and the Canada Council for the Arts. She is the founder and Executive Director of Simcoe Contemporary Dancers - a not for profit professional dance ensemble located in
Barrie Ontario. Sarah holds professional memberships with the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists, the
Dancer Transition Resource Centre, Dance Ontario and the Canadian Dance Assembly. Photo: Wendy
Hutchinson.
LEAPING INTO THE UNKNOWN - AMANDA HANCOX
A playful workshop to help you fearlessly navigate change.
Amanda Hancox is a graduate of the Arts Educational School in England. Over her
30 year performance career she worked extensively across Canada as a dancer
and an actress in theatre, film, and television. Amanda has been Executive
Director of the Dancer Transition Resource Centre since 2006.Throughout
her tenure at the DTRC, Amanda has contributed her expertise to a number
of major international and national conferences. Additionally she acts as a
consultant and presents workshops on career transition within and outside
the arts community. She is an Executive member of International Organization for the Transition of Professional Dancers (IOTPD), and a Board member of
the Dance Media Group, and member of the International Network for Cultural
Diversity.
MONEY MATTERS - ROB CORBETT
A workshop on budget basics, guaranteed to save you money!
Rob Corbett is an award winning screenwriter, produced playwright and a
freelance director. He also currently teaches acting at Sheridan and Seneca
Colleges and Music Theory and Production at the Dance Department of
George Brown College. During a hiatus from the Theatre, he worked for
over ten years in investments and financial management at TD Bank and
Transamerica Life Canada.