NETWORKING LUNCHArtist Tables 2014

Shannon Litzenberger is Toronto-based contemporary dancer, choreographer, writer, director and arts advocate. Over her decade-long career as a professional artist, she has

worked with some of Canada’s leading choreographers including David Earle, DA Hoskins, Marie-Josée Chartier, Susie Burpee, Heidi Strauss, Darryl Tracy, Meagan O’Shea, Michael Greyeyes, and David Pressault. Her work has taken her through small towns and big cities across Ontario, Canada, the US and Europe. Since 2009 she has been creating and

producing dynamic multi-disciplinary performance works through the creative umbrella of her company Shannon Litzenberger Contemporary Dance. Her choreography has been

presented in collaboration with DanceWorks, JD Dance, Anne Portnuff Theatre, The Toronto Fringe Festival, and Dance: Made in Canada, among others. Last year, she premiered her first full-

length solo work HOMEbody – lessons in prairie living… to critical acclaim in Toronto. Her latest work Everyday Marvels was presented at the Gardiner Museum during Toronto’s 2013 all- night contemporary art event – Nuit Blanche. Based on Lorna Crozier’s The Book of Marvels: A Compendium of Every Things, this episodic performance installation features over 60 professional and community-based artists including an enthusiastic team of bankers from the Royal Bank of Canada. Shannon was the 2012 recipient of the Jack McAllister Award for accomplishment in dance.

CREATING & PRODUCINGTABLE 1

TABLE 3

Lee “Lethal” Pham is an artist and producer. Known in the b-boy community as Lethal, he is a fifth generation member of world-renowned b-boy crew the SuperNaturalz. He is also a part of Toronto-based contemporary collective The Chimera Project. He has proudly represented Canada on stages across the world. He passionately teaches breaking and is determined to positively engage communities at a global level. As a producer he works in

the film, event, and entertainment industry. – www.leepham.ca

ENGAGING YOUTHTABLE 2

Kathleen Rea danced with Ballet Jörgen Canada, National Ballet of Canada and Tiroler Landestheater (Austria). Kathleen earned a diploma in expressive arts therapy from ISIS-

Canada, a certificate in psychology from Ryerson University and a Master’s degree in expressive arts therapy with a minor in psychology from the European Graduate School. She is a certified Psychotherapist with the OACCPP. A practicing therapist for the past twelve years, she is also a therapeutic performance facilitator, helping people express their life stories through multidisciplinary performance. Kathleen teaches contact dance

at George Brown College and Niagara College and dance therapy at York University. She founded and runs the Wednesday Dance Jam at Dovercourt House in Toronto. Kathleen has

choreographed over forty works for her company REAson d’etre dance productions and for other organizations. Her award winning dance film Lapinthrope aired on Bravo Television and screened at numerous international festivals. Her production Long Live was nominated for three Dora Mavor Moore awards, including outstanding choreography. In 2010, Kathleen was co-winner of the K. M. Hunter Dance Award. Her book The Healing Dance was recently by published by Charles C. Thomas in 2013. “Beauty and authenticity were my immediate impressions...The Healing Dance reads like a novel yet delivers a professional and academic body of work that will be sure to please..” The Arts in Psychotherapy.

AUDITIONING ABROADTABLE 3

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, Chair of the Pluralism Advisory Committee at CDA, and is on TAC’s Dance Committee.

BUILDING YOUR DANCE COMMUNITYTABLE 4

MAKING YOUR PLACE IN THE DANCE WORLDTABLE 5

Ofilio “Sinbadinho” Portillo is artistic director of Dora Award winning dance company Gadfly. Founder of TUDS Festival of Urban Dance Culture. 2 time finalist for KM Hunter award in Dance

by the Ontario Arts Council (2013 & 2014). Manifesto Award recipient for Innovation & Origi-nality. Dance Ontario recipient of Innovation Award.

• Urban Dance Production: Klorofyl (3 Dora Award nominations, Arkemy (Tour 7 cities)• Choreographic Commissions: Ryerson University School of Theatre, Alias Dance Project,

Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre.• Dancer Credits: Feist, Nelly Furtado, Shawn Desman, Cascada, MMVA.

• Film Credits: Camp Rock II, Turn The Beat Around, You Got Served 2 and Resident Evil Retribution.

Artistic consultant, Food connoisseur, & Volunteer Board Member for Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists and Dance Ontario Association. Street dance activist who has set for hobby to establish Street Dance as a legitimate art form and promote its cross-cultural movement. www.gadfly.ca “Do what you preach, Teach what you know”

Meagan O’Shea is a Canadian contemporary dance theatre artist who has been creating a place for herself in the dance world since 1996. Her work has been called “whacky,

whimsical and wonderful” by the Toronto Star, and “Off the wall, impossible to categorize, fun!” by the Montreal Gazette. She has performed her much lauded interdisciplinary solo shows across Canada, in the USA and in Europe: Night Stills (2004), something blue (2006), Coffee for One (2007), based on actual unrelated events (2009), The Atomic Weight of

Happiness (2011), Where Truth Lies (2013). Her contemporary dance as public art dance like no one is watching project has engaged over 200 dancers and caught the eyes of over

30,000 audience members since she began this guerilla dance intervention in 2007. Always looking for new ways to interact with and impact an audience, O’Shea is now devising stand-offs

between audience members as part of We Don’t Need Another Hero. As a maker, performer, teacher, and facilitator she works across Canada and in Europe. She is Artistic Director of Stand Up Dance, co-founder of hub14, a recipient of the 2013 KM Hunter Award in Dance, and International Associate Artist at Dance Ireland this season. She is the first graduate from The School of Dance’s professional training program.

Apolonia Velasquez is Founder and Artistic Director of Dora Award winning dance company Gadfly, TUDS Festival of Urban Dance Culture, and the ProFRESHional Training Program.

Theatre works include Stygmata, Klorofyl, and Arkemy. Apolonia has been commissioned by Dance Ontario, Ryerson University Theatre School, MoOnhorSE Dance Theatre, Alias Dance Project, and more. She is currently faculty at George Brown College.Dancer: Katy Perry, Shawn Desman, MMVA, Massari, Eva Avila, Beauty and the Beast, Scare

Tactics

Commercials: SYTYCD Canada, WalMart, Virgin Mobile, Nike, Bell, Staples, DoveChoreographer: TEDx Toronto, Luminato, Nuit Blanche

9 to 5 Artist, Dancer, Choreographer, Actress, and entrepreneur striving to learn and exchange savoir faire with artists whose skills match their personality to contribute spreading Urban Dance Culture. www.gadfly.ca “Model what works, Not what everybody else is doing”

STARTING A COMPANYTABLE 6

Lauren Cook is a Toronto based dancer, teacher, choreographer and administrator. Shortly after receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance from Ryerson University in 2005, she co-

founded Alias Dance Project alongside dance artists Geordan Olson and Meghan Cafferky. As a dancer, Cook has worked with many incredible Canadian choreographers including: Julia Sasso, Vicki St Denys, Kathleen Rea, Heidi Strauss, Darryl Tracy, David Earle, Susie Burpee, Valerie Calam, Allen Kaeja, Apolonia Velasquez, Ofilio Portillo, Jodee Allen, Helen Simard, Troy Feldman and Emmanuel Jouthe, among others. In January of 2012 Cook

took on the exciting role of Artistic Director of Alias Dance Project. With this responsibility she has decided to split the focus of the company between collaborative commissions

and the development of her own choreography. Cook’s work has been presented in festivals, performance series and Alias Dance Project productions across Toronto. In October 2013, Cook was nominated and awarded emerging artist of the year, at the Soul Pepper Dance awards. Her creative collaboration with filmmaker and visual specialist, Dean Vargas, ‘Restorative Structure’, was presented as a part of the SPRUNG project, this November at the Reel Asian Toronto International Film Festival. Currently, Cook is working with choreographer, Troy Feldman and Film maker Dean Vargas on Alias Dance Projects next full length production to be presented in the Spring of 2015.

Born in Victoria B.C, Courtnae Bowman received her professional training at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre, Ballet B.C and Ballet Jorgen Canada. Bowman’s love of choreography

began at the young age of nine when she entered the “young choreographer’s” section of the local festival. Since then she continued to choreograph creating her first professional work in 2004. In 2008 Courtnae founded Cadence Progressive Contemporary Ballet for which she has created over twenty works. In 2010 Bowman launched two training companies, Cadence Youth Ballet and Cadence Bridges Ballet, under the umbrella

company Cadence Ballet. In 2011 Courtnae co-founded Cadence Dance Studio with Partner Zhenya Cerneacov in order to create a school to feed into the company and nurture young

artists.

Since founding Cadence Dance Studio in 2011 Courtnae’s students have been accepted to over 27 international schools such as the Paris Opera Ballet-Paris, the Royal Ballet-London, Bolshoi Ballet Academy-Moscow and American Ballet Theatre-New York; have been invited to represent Canada at the finals of international competitions, such as the Youth American Grand Prix, American Dance Awards and International World Dance Championships and are currently found performing in various companies throughout the world.

Courtnae looks forward to continuing on her mission to develop, create and produce compelling contemporary dance works to be presented throughout Canada and abroad and to further the development of dance artists who continually push the boundaries of what is possible.

TEACHING / OPENING A STUDIOTABLE 7

Stephen Roberts is a Toronto/New York City based artist. His selected credits include the Broadway tour of Mary Poppins (Asst. Dance Captain/Swing/Bert Cover), Scarecrow in the

Wizard of Oz (Drayton), title role in Peter Pan (Neptune), Abe in Altar Boyz (Angelwalk and Victoria Playhouse), Dance Captain in The Little Mermaid (RPPI/Elgin), Bert in Mary Poppins (Theatre St. John’s and Rainbow Stage), Degrassi Goes Hollywood (Epitome), Save The Last Dance II (MTV), as well as several seasons for the Stratford and Charlottetown Festivals.

Stephen will also be choreographing for the Neptune Theatre this spring. Stephen has been the recipient of the Alan Lund Memorial Scholarship, two Tyronne Guthrie Awards,

a Broadway World Toronto Award, and a Top Choreoraphy Show Choir Canada Award. Aside from performing, Stephen has also taught at U of M, Randolph, Sheridan, George Brown, Broadway

Connection, National Dance Institute, Metro Movement, Harbour Dance, and Cornerstone University. Stephen writes for Dance Canada Quarterly Magazine, Industry Dance Magazine, and co-owns and operates QUICK ball change Inc., Canada’s premiere agency for Dance Educators.

COMMERCIAL DANCE /MUSICAL THEATRE/CRUISE SHIPSTABLE 8

Andrea Ciacci began dancing at the age of 3 and hasn’t stopped since. Her love of dance led her to study many disciplines of dance, as well as gymnastics, acting, singing, and aerial silks. She is a highly versatile, expressive, and dynamic performer based out of Toronto.

Her performing arts career has taken her throughout the world including Le Rossignol in France, Tokyo Disney, aboard Celebrity Cruises, and tours across North America. Some of

her performing credits include the Canadian Opera Company’s Carmen, The Nightingale, War and Peace, Canada’s Wonderland, Toronto Raptors Dancepak, HeadFirst aerial dance at

CanStage, That Dance Show in P.E.I., Romeo & Juliet Remixed, Legends Alive Canadian Tour, I’m a Soulman, as well as numerous industrials such as Sony Music, MAC Fashion Cares, Bell Mobility,

Contessa Awards, ReMax, Coke, Gillette, and LG. She can also be seen dancing in a number of movies including Honey, Disney’s Cheetah Girls, CBC’s Stormy Weather, Repo! The Genetic Opera, and Amelia and a SoYouThinkYouCanDance Canada Commercial.

Andrea has also had the opportunity to share her passion for dance by teaching and choreographing for shows, studios, and schools throughout Canada.

Her academic background includes a degree in Physical Education and Health from the University of Toronto where she did dance specific research projects. She emphasizes proper technique and training to maintain health and injury prevention in dancers.

Andrea Nann is a Toronto based contemporary dance artist and artistic director of Dreamwalker Dance Company. She is a graduate of York University’s Fine Arts Program and

is currently a Resident Artist at Soulpepper Theatre (Toronto), and Visiting Artist at River Run Centre (Guelph), The Grand Theatre (Kingston), Burlington Centre for the Arts and Brock Centre for the Arts (St. Catharines). As creator of The Whole Shebang, a multi-arts performance platform, Andrea has developed a unique collaborative interdisciplinary engagement process, the Shebang Process, that is being shared with artists across

Southern Ontario. Andrea has created over 20 works for the stage, film and various outdoor sites. As an interpreter, Andrea was a member of Danny Grossman Dance Company from

1988-2003 where she created performed and taught major roles from the works of Mr. Grossman and guest choreographers. Andrea is currently a member of Peggy Baker Dance Projects, and a guest artist with Astrid Dance, Volcano Theatre and Modern Times Stage Company.

ARTISTIC COLLABORATIONSTABLE 9

Kate Nankervis is an independent dancer, choreographer and teacher. With a BFA (Hons), York University (2008), her dancing has taken her across Canada, USA , Europe, Brazil and now

India. In Toronto, Kate dances with Blue Ceilings Dance, Eroca Nicols/Lady Janitor, Vanessa Kimmons, Elke Schroeder, Amanda Acorn, Bee Pallomina, Parahumans and worked as rehearsal assistant for adelheid/ Heidi Strauss.

Katheros in Motion is a collection of her artistic projects since 2011. only place, her recent, solo show, has been presented in Toronto, Edmonton, Halifax, Calgary and Prague CZ, after

a session as Artist in Residence at Earthdance, Mass. USA. In spring 2013, she was, a multi-arts event presenting dance, music and visual arts in collaboration with Simon Renaud and Coleman

Lemieux& Compagnie. January 2014, marks the beginning of a new collaboration with indian martial artist and contemporary dancer, Abhilash Ningappa and Practice Play Residency Centre in Bangalore, India and Toronto, Canada.

A recipient of the IMASCO Performing Arts Award and Spedding Award for Choreography. She is a co-director and performance series coordinator of ps: we are all here of Toronto Dance Community Love- In (www.tolovein.com) and co-artistic director of hub 14 (www.hub14.org).

COLLECTIVES, COOPERATIVES AND INDIE PROJECTSTABLE 10

Meryem Alaoui is a practicing artist, who works with the body to create and perform. She is from Morocco, and lives in Toronto. She is a graduate of the School of Toronto Dance

Theatre. She’s danced for various choreographers, including Peggy Baker, Angela Blumberg, Marie France Forcier, Susanna Hood, Karen Kaeja, and Julia Male. She also performed as a dance/voice improviser with local Toronto experimental music bands. Her choreographic creations have been presented at the Badass Dance Fun mini festival at Harbourfront Centre, at Dance Matters, and Series 8:08, among others. In 2011, she collaborated in

the creation of multidisciplinary projects “Mrtvolka”, with video/electronic media artist Dianela Sneppova and poet/playwright Penn Kemp, and “Dancing to a White Boy Song”, with

theatre director Mumbi Tindyebwa and poet Motion, presented respectively at HATCH, and the SummerWorks festival in Toronto. In March 2012, she participated in a co-facilitated exchange project involving 20 Moroccan and European performance artists, MAM - Marrakech Artist Meeting. She is part of the creative team of the Toronto Dance Community Love-In.

She founded Soft Matter, in April 2013, as a way to support and structure her own performance and choreographic projects.

TABLE 5

Sky Fairchild-Waller is a Koerner Award-winning dancer, Dora Award-nominated choreographer, and internationally exhibited video artist working in performance and

installation. Sky’s work has been presented across Canada, the USA, Italy, Switzerland, India, and Egypt, and published in Border Crossings, The Present Tense, Existere Journal of Art & Literature, Giornale dell’Umbria, and KATALOG. Select performance credits include World Stage, Scottish Ballet, Dancemakers, Canadian Opera Company, Art Gallery of

Ontario, and Scotiabank Nuit Blanche. Select choreographic credits include 2009 Canada Games, Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, stromereien11 Performance Festival

Zürich, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Next Stage Theatre Festival, and Instituto Cervantes. Select screening credits include Torino Performance Art Festival, Studio Beluga, Fashion Art

Toronto, Angell Gallery, Videofag, Assisi Sala Pinacoteca, and the Center for Performance Research. A former student of the National Ballet School of Canada, Sky completed his formal education at York University and the University of California, Berkeley. www.skyfairchildwaller.com MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTS

MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTSTABLE 11

Louis Laberge-Côté is a Toronto-based dancer, choreographer, and teacher. A graduate of both L’École de Danse de Québec and The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, he joined Toronto

Dance Theatre in 1999, and danced with the company for eight seasons, under the artistic direction of Christopher House. Meanwhile, he built an exceptionally active career as a freelance artist. He has worked with several esteemed choreographers, and has toured in North America, Europe, and Asia. Between 2009 and 2011, he joined the Kevin O’Day - Ballett Nationaltheater Mannheim (Germany) as a soloist dancer and contemporary

dance teacher. He has created over 60 choreographic works, which have been presented and commissioned in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Switzerland, and been

described as a “wonderfully sophisticated jewel” (Die Rheinpfalz) and a “triumph... with tremendous depth and subtext” (Classical 96.3FM). A sought-after pedagogue, Laberge-Côté has

taught workshops and master classes across the country. He is currently on faculty at the National Ballet of Canada (In-Studio) and Ryerson University. His work has garnered him five Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations for Outstanding Performance and Choreography, and NOW Magazine named him “Toronto’s Dance Most Valuable Player” in 2006. He recently was the recipient of a Metcalf Foundation Performing Arts Internship Grant, and is currently nominated for a K.M. Hunter Artist Award. He was the Chair of the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists - Ontario Chapter between 2005 and 2007, and currently sits on the Board of the Canadian Dance Assembly, where he shares the Vice-Presidency and is the Chair of the Independent Artists Council. He is also the Chair of the Dance Committee at the Toronto Arts Council.

INTERNATIONAL WORK / PERFORMINGTABLE 12

Georgia Simms moved to Guelph to attend university and was extremely fortunate to discover the amazing community of artists at Dancetheatre David Earle. She has been studying

modern dance with David Earle and Suzette Sherman in a unique studio-based context since 2003. Georgia first performed with the company in 2005 in the premiere of Collecting Light, and continues to be an active member of the company having recently danced in Earle’s classic works Mirrors and the Baroque Finale.

Independently, Georgia’s choreography has been presented at the Guelph Dance Festival (2011, 2013) and she is a guest choreographer with the Guelph Youth Dance Company. With

her own creative enterprise, IMAGEO artworks, she has been commissioned by the City of Guelph to animate the Downtown Guelph Market Square Splash Pad creating memorable,

participatory public performance events. Her work with arts-based facilitation for civic engagement and peace building is ongoing, and she teaches introductory modern dance classes for adults.

DANCING OUTSIDE THE BIG CITYTABLE 13