Shannon Litzenberger

CONCEPT, CHOREOGRAPHY AND DIRECTION

A choreographer, dancer, producer, director and embodiment facilitator, Shannon Litzenberger is known for creating live performance experiences at the intersection of forms. Rooted in dance, Litzenberger’s innovative collaborations come to life in conversation with theatre, literary and visual arts. Her perspective is decidedly feminist, philosophical and socially conscious. Her roots in Canada’s rural prairies inspire recurring themes of connection to land, environment, belonging, identity and place. Her work has been presented across Canada and the US, in collaboration with some of Canada’s leading artists including Marie-Josée Chartier, Lorna Crozier, Christopher Dewdney, Renelta Arluk, David Earle, Ravi Jain, Don McKay, and Michael Greyeyes, among others. She has been an invited resident artist at Soulpepper Theatre, Toronto Dance Theatre, Harbourfront Centre, Atlantic Ballet Theatre, Banff Centre, Saskatoon’s Remai Modern and Memorial University. She is the co-founder of the interdisciplinary Looking Glass Ensemble, and a member of the Wild Soma embodied research collective. She was the first ever Arts Innovation Fellow at the Metcalf Foundation and is currently a Public Imagination Fellow at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities. She is the recipient of the Jack McAllister award for accomplishment in dance, a 2019 Chalmers Fellow, a 2021 Arne Bengt Johansson Fellow, a 2023 Johanna Metcalf Prize nominee, a 2024 Gina Wilkinson Prize nominee, and a twice-shortlisted finalist for the prestigious KM Hunter award.

www.shannonlitzenberger.com 

Nathan Bruce

ASSOCIATE LIGHTING DESIGN

Nathan Bruce is a Toronto-based lighting, projection, and New Media designer. He has recently completed his first season at the Shaw Festival as an assistant lighting and projection designer. Design credits include various companies in the GTA including The Theatre Centre, Soulpepper, The Royal Conservatory, and UofT Opera. He has also worked in projection mapping for a handful of public art and installation companies such as the Mimico BIA, Nuit Blanche, and Charles Street Video. Nathan’s explorations in New Media art and installation revolve around interactive technologies. From 2020 to 2022, Nathan was the inaugural candidate in the Design Incubator Pilot Project developed and led by Lightning Designer Lesley Wilkinson.

Guillermo Verdecchia

WRITER / DRAMATURG

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and educated in Ontario. RESIDENT ARTIST, SOULPEPPER 2017: Animal Farm; Of Human Bondage (Toronto, New York). FOR SOULPEPPER: Blood Wedding (translator, 2016); Fronteras Americanas (2011); The Barber of Seville (dramaturge, 2013); Of Human Bondage (dramaturge, 2014). OTHER THEATRE: Line in the Sand (Factory Theatre); The Art of Building a Bunker (Revolver Fest, Vancouver). OTHER: Soulpepper Academy Head of Playwriting; Curator for Summerworks Festival 2016.

Alexandra Lord

COSTUME DESIGN

Alexandra Lord trained in the bilingual set and costume design program at The National Theatre School of Canada and was mentored by designer Lorenzo Savoini in the Soulpepper Theatre Company Academy.  She most recently designed costumes for the new musical Rose at Soulpepper, music and book by Mike Ross, book by Sarah Wilson and directed by Gregory Prest. Check out other past projects at www.alexandralord.com.  Alexandra strives to create from a place that takes into consideration human relationships with ourselves and others within diverse environments. She is particularly drawn to collaborative projects that demand a discourse that transcends difference, engaging in the liminal space of gender, race, and socio-economic definitions.  Alexandra is establishing Triga Creative with Shannon Lea Doyle and Michelle Tracey and working collectively to innovate sustainable approaches to design.  She has most recently worked with Triga to design costumes for Paradigm Productions’ The Philosopher’s Wife, written by Susanna Fournier and directed by Leora Morris. 

Follow along @trigacreative.

Gerald Trentham

OUTSIDE EYE / CREATIVE ADVISOR

Gerry Trentham, is Artistic Director of lbs/sq" performance now in its 27th year. He has written, choreographed and directed over 40 works for the stage including the Dora nominated Four Mad Humours (2011) with live feed performances between Chicago, Buffalo, Toronto and Montreal, the game changing CAN/US bi-national co-creation installations Art of Peace: Invitation & Arrival (2016/2021) and The Apology Project (2017) and Trees (2018). Recent film awards included international acclaim for his work Monument (2021).  Over three decades he has been internationally acclaimed with rave reviews from NYC to Berlin, L.A., Cannes, Linz and in Toronto has received eight Dora Mavor Moore nominations or awards most recently as a cast and voice director of Denise Fujiwara's hit EUNOIA.  With an M.F.A. in Theatre and a Graduate Voice Teaching Diploma from York University, he has taught, choreographed, dialect/ speech coached, directed internationally and mentored/coached many dance and theatre professionals in the creation of new works.  He has, over the past 25 years researched performance as core faculty at Canada’s National Voice Intensive now the Moving Voice Institute.

Louis Laberge-Côté

PERFORMER and CREATIVE COLLABORATOR

Louis Laberge-Côté is an Associate Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, School of Performance and is an active Toronto-based dancer, choreographer, teacher, and rehearsal director. An acclaimed performer, he has danced nationally and internationally with over thirty companies and has been a full-time member of Toronto Dance Theatre (1999-2007) and the Kevin O’Day Ballett Nationaltheater Mannheim (2009-2011). He has created over eighty choreographic works, which have been presented and commissioned in Canada and abroad. His work has garnered him a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Choreography and ten other individual and ensemble nominations for Performance or Choreography. He is a triple KM Hunter Award nominee and has received several grants from all three levels of government, the Chalmers Foundation, the Metcalf Foundation, the Laidlaw Foundation, and the Dancer Transition Resource Centre. He holds an MFA in Creative Practice from the University of Plymouth (UK) and the Transart Institute (USA). His research is centred on contemporary dance and somatic training. He continues to be a sought-after interpreter and investigator of new dance creations.

Kathia Wittenborn

PERFORMER

Kathia Wittenborn (she/her) is an award-winning contemporary dance artist and movement educator. Over the past decade, she has trained, created and performed throughout North America, Europe and India. As a dancer and creative collaborator, she has worked with a number of critically acclaimed artists and companies including Amanda Acorn, Kristen Carcone, Sylvain Émard, Aria Evans, Marie Lambin Gagnon, Shannon Litzenberger, Jane Alison Mckinney, Sharon B. Moore, JD Dance, Toes for Dance, Tiger Princess Dance Projects, Tribal Crackling Wind (Peter Chin), Sashar Zarif Dance Theatre, among others. Her work in Chin’s Woven received a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Performance (ensemble). Kathia is a graduate of Montreal’s Ballet Divertimento and The School of Toronto Dance Theatre.

Dan Wild

CREATIVE CONTRIBUTOR and NARRATOR

Dan Wild (1965-2020) worked professionally for the stage for over 25 years. His company credits include his 23-year history with the Caravan Stage Company, nine seasons with Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers under the artistic direction of Tom Stroud, and eight seasons with Dancemakers under the artistic direction of Serge Bennathan. As a freelance dance artist, he worked with some of Canada’s finest creators and performers including Susie Burpee, Marie Josée Chartier, Fides Krucker, Tedd Robinson, Ginette Laurin, Guillaume Bernardi. Claudia Moore, James Kudelka and Susanna Hood. He was nominated for a Dora award for outstanding performance. His most recent choreographic credits include A SIMPLE STATEMENT FOR THIS MOSAIC, a solo for Marie Josée Chartier, TABLE and SKY two works created for 2013 Nuit Blanche EVERYDAY MARVELS with dance artist Shannon Litzenberger. Dan was also a teacher of contemporary dance and facilitated classes and workshops in Movement Expression and Presence in Performance for artists of all disciplines. Das also worked in the roles of Artistic Facilitation, Rehearsal Direction and Performance Coaching for Dance Artists. Dan passed away in March 2020. He is dearly missed.

A.J. Morra

STAGE MANAGER

AJ Morra Based in Toronto, A.J. is a graduate of the Technical Theatre Program at Toronto Metropolitan University, and has enjoyed an active career as a Technical Director, Production Manager, and Stage Manager for contemporary dance, opera, circus, and theatre. Selected credits include three seasons with Toronto Dance Theatre, six seasons with the Festival of Dance Annapolis Royal, and assorted projects with Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, Fujiwara Dance Inventions, ProArte Danza, Dreamwalker Dance Company, Groundling Theatre Company, Holla Jazz, Zero Gravity Circus, Soundstreams, and Signal Theatre.

Elysha Poirier

VIDEO DESIGN

Elysha Poirier is a multidisciplinary artist working with animation, film and video. Combining digital and analog techniques she creates intrinsic worlds that dabble between 2D animation, mixed media and 3D environments. Based in Tiohtiá:ke/Montréal, Elysha is currently experimenting with generative platforms for virtual and mixed reality, including experimental web design. Elysha's realized a wide range of installations and engaged in live performances for dance, experimental music, film, theatre and web.

www.elyshapoirier.com

Ken Mackenzie

LIGHTING AND SET DESIGN

Ken MacKenzie has been a freelance designer and educator for the past 17 years. Ken’s set, lighting, costume, and video designs have appeared on stages across Canada, the United States and Europe. Ken has been a resident artist at Soulpepper Theatre company as well as the Young Centre for the Performing Arts. Ken has also been a collaborator and performer on several productions including Other Jesus, with Public Recordings, as well as Alligator Pie, Animal Farm and e.e. cummings: (re)birth in Song with Soulpepper Theatre Company. Ken has won multiple Dora Mavor Moore Awards and has been nominated for awards across Canada.  Since 2017 Ken has been the president of the Associated Designers of Canada and has been one of the founding members of IATSE local ADC659. Since the fall of 2021, Ken has begun a faculty position at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon teaching in the department of Drama.

John Gzowski

COMPOSITION

Composer, sound designer, musician and instrument maker John Gzowski worked on over 250 theatre, dance and film productions for which he has composed, created sound designs, performed live foley, performed live music and as acted as musical director. His works run from new music, folk musics, electronic to the use of found sounds and custom made instruments.His theatre work has won him 6 Dora’s, from 18 nominations for companies like Ex Machina, Stratford, Shaw Festival, Luminato, National Arts Centre, the Mirvishes, MTC, the Arts Club, Canstage, Soulpepper, Dancemakers, Tarragon, Factory Theatre and YPT. As a performer he has played Canadian folk and jazz festivals as well as working in the pit in theatre. Gzowski has played on numerous CD’s, with releases with Patricia O'Callaghan, Tasa, and Autorickshaw as well as a Juno nomination with Maza Meze. He has run Canada’s first microtonal group, touring Canada playing the works of Harry Partch, composed and performed with several new music groups and worked as co-artistic director of the Music Gallery.

Marie-Josée Chartier

CREATIVE CONTRIBUTOR / TOURING ADVISOR

A multi-faceted artist, Marie-Josée Chartier moves easily between the worlds of dance, music, theatre, opera, and multi-media in her roles as choreographer, performer, director, vocalist, or teacher. Her choreographic works have been presented in festivals in Canada, Europe, and Latin America and have been featured on documentary films and national television. She is the recipient of the 2015 Jacqueline Lemieux Prize and the 2001 K.M. Hunter Artist Award. She has been nominated nine times for Dora Mavor Moore Awards, having won twice, for fifty-one pieces of silver and with the Collective Urge for And By the Way, Miss. Marie-Josée has choreographed and/or directed productions with Queen of Puddings Music Theatre, The Gryphon Trio, Toca Loca, Tapestry Opera, l’Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, the Glenn Gould School, le Théâtre Français de Toronto, the Canadian Opera Company and the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. She is a frequent guest teacher in modern dance, movement for singers, voice exploration and improvisation in Canada and abroad. Through her company Chartier Danse, acclaimed productions include petites danses, Stria, Red Brick celebrating composer Michael J. Baker with Arraymusic, Contes pour enfants pas sages with PPS Danse, Screaming Popes with fabrik Potsdam, and Bas-Reliefs with Danse-Cité. www.mariejoseechartier.com  www.chartierdanse.com

Linnea Swan

PERFORMER and CREATIVE COLLABORATOR

Linnea Swan is a multidisciplinary artist whose work lives at the intersection of dance, theatre and film. As a performer and creator, she has been an active contributor to the Canadian arts ecology for over 25 years, living and working in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto and now Calgary. A former company member of Ruth Cansfield Dance, TRIP dance company and Dancemakers, she has worked with many esteemed creators including Serge Bennethan, Rachel Browne, Susie Burpee, David Danzon, DA Hoskins, Tedd Robinson, and Jordan Tannahill among others. Her extensive body of work has been acknowledged with the Dora Award for Outstanding Performance in Dance, as well as the K.M. Hunter Artist Award in Dance. Linnea is Co-director of ReLoCate, and was Associate Artist with Dancers’ Studio West (2018-2021). www.vimeo.com/linneaswan

Yui Ugai

PERFORMER

Yui Ugai was born in Hiroshima, Japan. She majored in drama at high school and studied dance and music at Kobe Collage. During her study, she performed in internationally well-known choreograph- er, Toru Shimazaki’s contemporary dance works. Yui obtained professional ballet training at the Roy- al Academy of Dance (RAD) and she was awarded a prize for excellence in dance by the magazine, Dance Dance Dance in 2008. Yui holds a BFA in honours and an MFA in Dance from York Universi- ty in Toronto. She has danced and toured with York Dance Ensemble, Limitless Productions, Parahumans, The Little Pear Garden Dance Company, Ballet Creole, Kashe Dance Company, Anima Inc. (Mexico/Peru) in Japan, Taiwan, Jamaica, The United States and England. Yui worked for The Toronto Blue Jays in the In-Game Promotion as a JForce for three seasons. Yui also focuses on the community engagement through dancing. She has performed Arts in the Parks with Ballet Creole and Porch View Dances with Kaeja d’Dance. Yui also has her career as an actress began with the film “Summer Days,” directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi, and she worked with the Hollywood casting direc- tor Yoko Narahashi. Yui was a heroine for the short film “Raptura” premiered in imagineNATIVE Film+Media Arts Festival at TIFF and ReelWorld Film Festival. In Japan, she produced the annual dance festival, "Dance Kotoen" sponsored by Nishinomiya City in order to support youth dance artists and community since 2011.

Michael Mortley

PERFORMER

Michael Mortley graduated from the university of Trinidad and Tobago in 2015. He Attended Beijing Dance Academy from 2015 to 2016. When he first arrived in Canada, he worked with KasheDance and performed in Re: Imagining TPM in April 2018. He also worked with Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario (CPAMO) at The Gathering in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Michael has also had the pleasure of working for Wind in the leaves Collective on the Searching for Eastman project as a dancer and collaborator in the creation of that full length work. He has also work with Ronald Taylor Dance on a project entitled Psychosis in June 2019 and then again in October 2019 for Rendezvous with Madness festival as a dancer and costume designer. Michael has also travelled to Winnipeg and New Brunswick respectively to perform in NAFRO Dance Presents: Moving Inspirations Dance Festival with KasheDance and Impact Festival by Atlantic Ballet with Wind in the leaves collective.

Michael is also a photographer for Ronald Taylor Dance as well as other noted dance companies. He also does social media and administrative work as well.

Aryana Malekzadeh

PERFORMER

Aryana Malekzadeh is an Iranian Canadian performing dance artist and arts educator based in Toronto. She is a proud graduate of Dance Arts Institute (formerly The School of Toronto Dance Theatre) and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours from York University where she was awarded merit scholarships for her excellent work ethic. Throughout her professional career she has worked for renowned choreographers such as Hanna Kiel, Roshanak Jaberi, Syreeta Hector, Newton Moraes, and The Wind in the Leaves Collective amongst others, and is a company member with Little Pear Garden Dance Company with whom she performs with regularly. In addition, she has also danced in various festivals such as Fall for Dance North, Dance Ontario DanceWeekend, The Carnival of the Arts and Nuit Blanche. Alongside performing, she is a faculty member at York University, where she pursues her passion of teaching and shares her learnings with her students.

Jordana Deveau

COMPANY MANAGER AND TOURING COORDINATOR

Independent dance artist, gardener & seed saver Jordana Deveau (she/her) is a first generation settler based out of Tkaronto, Canada who works as an interpreter, producer, educator, administrator, rehearsal director and project coordinator. With a particular interest in community-based projects, Jordana loves introducing non-dancers to contemporary dance and movement. As part of a commitment to reconciliation and decolonization, she is actively fostering a deeper relationship to land through foraging, gardening and learning about Indigenous land-based practices. Her current curiosity surrounds the possibilities that live at the intersection of creativity, community and sustainability, particularly where climate change and social justice are at the fore.