Abigail Thomas (she/her)

Abigail's family migrated to Canada in 2007. She started her journey in Bharatanatyam at the age of seven with Nrutha Kala Kendra Dance Academy under the tutelage of Smt. Preetha Kandanchatha. In August of 2019, Abigail completed a two-hour solo production, Thyaga Panchakam, a dance odyssey inspired by the Pancharatna kritis and choreographed by her guru. Over the pandemic, she participated in several online live dance shows, filmed for different organizations. An avid reader, she enjoys writing poetry and six of her poems have been published by The National Institute of Poetry Canada. She is currently in grade eleven, attending the International Baccalaureate program at St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School in Oakville. Abigail aspires to continue her journey with dance as she connects with new artists.

Birthplace: Kerala, India

Training: Bharatanatyam for seven years.

Companies: NKK Dance Academy

Why Nova Dance? Inspiration, Learning, & Wisdom

My most cherished moment as a dancer was when I completed the two-hour production, Thyaga Panchakam, it was the most challenging and rewarding experience I've ever had.

I love dance because it is magical, filled with diversity, an art form that frees one's mind and has no right or wrong.

For Nova Dance: Svāhā

Alysha addetia (she/her)

Management Associate May 2023-January 2024

Alysha Addetia (she/her) is a Canadian flautist and artist educator, performing solo and part of ensembles and orchestras nationally and globally. She has most recently recorded on the Toronto Tabla Ensemble’s latest albums and went on tour across the country as the solo flautist in the musical production Rihla. She has performed in France and Portugal as the solo flautist in global-membered ensembles and has experience performing in many genres and styles of music. Alysha is an advocate for diversity and a global approach at education, valuing a strong foundation in appreciating diverse cultures from a young age and using music as a means to reach that goal. She has received numerous notable awards for her work in early childhood music education and her interests and research in Ethnomusicology. Alysha holds two degrees from the University of Toronto in Flute Performance and Music Education and has been teaching private woodwind lessons for over 15 years. As an arts administrator, Alysha most recently worked as the Development and Social Media Manager at Yo-Yo Ma's Silkroad Ensemble based out of Harvard University and as Assistant Manager for the Toronto Tabla Ensemble.

WE HAVE A VOICE, WE HAVE TO SPEAK FOR OUR ART FORM - is a repetition that greatly resonates with my work at Nova Dance - I am grateful to be a small part of this collective of inspiring dancers who use their heart, soul, body, and voices to speak on the importance of their art form and how it relates to all of humanity.

Andrea Nann

Andrea Nann choreographs, performs, produces and presents dance to reach across distance, to experience herself and others in celebration of possibility, diversity, connection and belonging. She believes that dance can shift attitudes and ways of being, tuning us into what makes each of us distinct, to what we share, and ultimately how we can live together in wonderment and peace. As artistic director of Dreamwalker Dance Company Andrea creates works for the stage, film, and outdoor sites. She channels her community building passion into various participatory, collaborative multi-arts experiences. Dance has taken her around the globe and she remains forever grateful.

Videos https://vimeo.com/dreamwalkerdancecompany

Social www.dreamwalkerdance.comhttps://www.facebook.com/dreamwalkerdance/https://www.instagram.com/dreamwalkerdance/

Website www.dreamwalkerdance.com

Angela Sweeting

General Manager

Often tucked behind the scenes, Angela has worked in programming, production, and operations with organizations such as the Toronto International Film Festival, Pride Toronto, Luminato, Mirvish Productions, Indigenous Peoples Day Live, FringeMTL, South Asian Visual Arts Centre, North by Northeast, Harbourfront Centre, Regent Park Film Festival, Nuit Blanche, Wavelength, Summerworks, Toronto Fringe Festival, Sappyfest, Queer Songbook Orchestra, and imagineNATIVE. Outside of her work in the arts, Angela is a community builder, bird watcher, photographer, citizen scientist, D&D enthusiast, photographer and poet. Bird facts are her favourite facts.

Angie Cheng

Angie Cheng is the new Artistic Lead of CanAsian Dance, an associate artist of the MAI and co-curator for their 25th anniversary. A continues to be an independent artist in dance. Collaborative creation processes ground her ongoing research in performance; investigating the liminal space between creative process and performance event, between spectator and performer. The embodied and specific understandings that arise from these investigations shape her current questions and engagements both in her own work and with others. She is also an advocate and has also been actively engaged in the conversations of inclusivity, diversity and accessibility as well as participating, co-leading collective actions and activities. It’s not just what we make as artists but how. She is committed to on going learning and practicing consent, respect and accessibility: care in how we are together in all that she is engaged in.

Anisa Tejpar

Dora Mavor Moore Award winner, Anisa Tejpar is originally from Toronto, and is a graduate of Canada’s National Ballet School. She has performed works by Matjash Mrozewski, John Neumeier, Guillaume Côté, Ginette Laurin, Peggy Baker, Robert Derosiers, Robert Glumbek, Roberto Campanella, James Kudelka, Christopher House, and Hanna Kiel, and in companies such as Toronto Dance Theatre, ProArteDanza, Against the Grain Theatre and Human Body Expression. Tejpar is Co-Artistic Director of the dance entertainment firm Hit & Run Dance Productions Inc. (www.hitandrun.ca), for which she has created works for artists and brands all over Canada including: NIKE, Kanye West, The Rolling Stones, PUMA, TIFF, Telus, Evergreen Brickworks, and M.A.C. Cosmetics, and Casa Loma, amongst many others. Anisa is the co-creator of Haunted Cinema, a live-immersive drive-in experience. She is also the pilot choreographer of Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report” and co-choreographer of the video game Far Cry: Primal, and performed in the game as well.

Anisa currently teaches ballet at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson) in the Performance Program. She also is a creative assistant and outside-eye for Guillaume Côté and Côté Danse, and is one third of the Toronto-based, contemporary dance collective The Platform with Ryan Lee and Benjamin Landsberg. Anisa is an Intimacy Coordinator and Director. She is also the host of 'Inside the Arts' on Sauga 960AM radio.

Tejpar is also a current member of the Board of Directors of Canada’s National Ballet School, and on the Performance Program Advisory Committee for St. Lawrence College.

Anjali Patil (she/her/Ms.)

Canadian-born dancer-choreographer Anjali Patil has trained under renowned masters of classical Indian dance Kathak. She is founder and artistic director of Aroha Fine Arts, one of only a handful of organizations working in the professional Kathak dance milieu.

Anjali has performed her works at noteworthy events - from the Canada Dance Festival to Delhi International Arts Festival, the Junos to International Film Festival of India. Her speaking engagements include the Dance Department at Hyderabad University, India, and the National Centre for Performing Arts, India. Anjali teaches in Canada, India and the Middle East.

Anjali co-produces Canada Yuva Mahotsav and produces ArohaFest - Canada's first bilingual festival celebrating arts of India in Canada. She is a recipient of awards including of the Corel Endowment for the Arts. She was featured in a Kathak documentary produced by Doordarshan TV India. Anjali is regularly featured in media and is actively keeping the Indian dance scene thriving in Ottawa and beyond.

Birthplace: Oshawa

Training: Kathak under Gurus Padmabhushan Kumudini Lakhia and Late Pandita Rohini Bhate.

Companies: Aroha Fine Arts, Kadamb Kathak, Nrityabharati Pune, Mystique Ottawa

Why Nova Dance? Nova, Fresh, Fun

My best moment as a dancer: In studio with my Guru Kumudini Lakhia ji learning a piece created for me.

What I love about dance: Kathak has a long history and tradition, and when I am dancing or creating, I feel I am part of its timeline and landscape – I am in a space where the linear walls of time are blurred and history exists in the present.

For Nova Dance: Svāhā

Aria Evans (they/she/he)

ARIA EVANS is an award winning, queer Toronto-based interdisciplinary artist working in dance; creation, performance and film. Aria draws on their experiences of being multiracial (Afro-Indigenous, setter) to capture meaningful social and cultural themes through their interactive art. Collaboration is the departure point to the work that Aria creates with their company Political Movement. Aria was co-Artistic Director of hub14 from 2013-2018 and the Toronto, Ontario and Canada Council for the arts have supported Aria’s endeavours as well as the National Arts Centre, Buddies In Bad Times Theatre, CAHOOTS, Why Not Theatre, Volcano Theatre, Nightswimming Theatre, Jumblies Theatre, Native Earth Performing Arts, Nova Dance and b current.

Aria has presented their choreographic work with Citadel + Compagnie [In The Abyss 2019], The National Arts Centre [Finding Wolastoq Voice 2019], DanceWorks [link 2018], The Toronto Concert Orchestra [The Trickster Re-imagined 2017], Ontario Culture Days [Two Row 2017], the Toronto Fringe [RATED R 2016], SummerWorks [Desiccated 2015], Long Winter [box box box 2014] and many more. Aria's works have been presented in both North America and Europe. Aria has toured with Theatre New Brunswick, Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, created work commissioned by the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance, performed for the Indspire awards, participated and performed in works by The Stratford Festival, Lara Kramer, Tapestry Opera - Michelle Olson, Sylvain Émard, Kaeja d'Dance, Michael Greyeyes and Yvette Nolan, Penny Chouchie, Julia Sasso, Peggy Baker, The Banff Centre, A Tribe Called Red, Constance Cooke, Expect Theatre, and many more.

Aria has sat on Canada Council, Metcalf Foundation and Dora Award juries, been an Invited Guest Contributor to the 20th anniversary Canadian Arts Summit, talked on interdisciplinary panels for CPAMO, the Toronto Dance Community Love-In, CAHOOTS, CADA, TAPA’s INDIEX, DarkNights and On The Move. In 2017 Aria was chosen to participate as one of Culture Days' Youth Arts Ambassadors. Aria’s work in dance film has led them to collaborate with many of Toronto’s leading dance artists and organizations. Aria has taught dance film with a focus on editing at Ryerson University, the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and for the SummerWorks Performance festival. Aria has done videography and editing for Kaeja d’Dance, RT Collective, Dreamwalker Dance Company, MOonhORsE Dance Theatre, Julia Sasso Dances, Ryerson University, The Banff Centre, Dance Matters, Ella Cooper Creates, Canadian Dance Assembly and the Pulse Ontario Dance Conference, and many more.

www.politicalmovement.ca

Arno Kamolika (she/her)

Arno is a Bharatnatyam dance artist and instructor based in Vancouver, BC. Born and raised in Bangladesh, Arno’s earlier training started with learning both Manipuri and Bharatnatyam in Chhayanaut (Dhaka) under Sharmila Banerjee, Tamanna Rahman and Belayet Hossain. After 12 years of training in both forms, she consciously chose to devote herself full time to study Bharatnatyam. Her mentorship under eminent guru Professor C.V. Chandrasekhar in Dhaka and Chennai played an instrumental role to deepen her understanding of Bharatnatyam vocabulary. She continues her training in Canada with Jai Govinda and Bragha Bessel, to expand her imagination around technique and abhinaya. A graduate in architecture, she draws from her training of various disciplines like music, mime, theatre, and other dance forms to add layers to her practice and to create an informed artistic narrative. Her rich repertoires have taken her across the globe at various festivals in USA, Germany, India and Bangladesh. In recent years she has performed for Institute of Asian Research, UBC, Simon Fraser University, Transform : A Cabaret Festival by The Cultch, World Rhythm Festival in Seattle, Dance All Sorts by New Works, Dancer’s Transition Resource Centre, Diwali in BC and Vancouver Moving Theatre among many. Dancing and teaching regularly in Dhaka and Vancouver, where the community have limited access to traditional Indian classical dance and are unaware of the cultural aspect of it, have motivated her to seek non-traditional storytelling. She has recently developed a Bharatnatyam theatre on Tagore’s Bengali play Shyama, in an international collaboration with musicians and dancers from Dhaka and Vancouver, which was premiered at The Cultch, Vancouver with the support of BC Arts Council. Arno’s journey is fuelled by a desire to learn and create artistic narratives through embracing and collaborating with artists across discipline and culture and her current internship with Nova Dance is an extension of her aspiration to reinvent herself.

Birthplace: Dhaka, Bangladesh

Training: Bharatnatyam; Manipuri; Uday Shankar style, Mime, Theatre.

Companies: Mandala Arts & Culture, Vancouver Tagore Society, Nova Dance.

Why Nova Dance: Remembering, Processing, Connecting.

My most cherished moment as a dancer is when I am able to embody a character and inhabit a moment with integrity.

I love how dance can connect one, be it a dancer or a viewer, with their deepest self while being very much aware of their surroundings, how it makes the personal universal, and the universal personal.

For Nova Dance: Svāhā (Internship supported by BC Arts Council)

Asha P. (she/her)

General Manager

Asha is a writer, dancer, theatre artist with a successful career in Arts management. Her management career spans many years in the corporate world as well as the non-profit sector. She is the bestselling author of two poetry books that gained international fame. Her acting career spans many theatre productions on Canadian stage as well as short films. She has recently added direction to her portfolio. Asha has experience educating youth through the arts and she volunteers her time to raise awareness about mental and emotional health.

Ashley Perez

Ashley Perez also known as Colours is a dancer and choreographer making waves in the Canadian dance scene. Training in funk styles and hip-hop, she later specialized in voguing, waacking and house with mentors Jose Xtravaganza (New York), Archie Burnett (New York), Caleaf Sellers (New York), Jojo Zolina (Vancouver) and Kaiti Dangerkat (Calgary/New York).

Ashley is Co-artistic director or Mix Mix Dance Collective with whom she has co-created two full-length works and recently represented Canada at the 2017 Jeux de la Francophonie in Abidjan. Mix Mix has completed an artist residency at York Woods Library and presented new work at Fall For Dance North in 2017. Mix Mix is currently developing a new work for Contemporaneity 3.0 (Toronto, Ontario) for April 2019. Ashley was awarded the 2018 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Performance, Ensemble in the Dance Division for Floor’d presented by Holla Jazz in 2018. Ashley was a resident choreographer and performer with the artist collective House of Dangerkat. Developing works that allowed her to travel and perform in places such as New York, London & Paris. Her most recent teaching enterprise has been Class with Colours, to share the essence of Waacking - the glam, sass, and punk - with people of all backgrounds. These workshops have popped up at spaces such as Sketch Studio (Artscape Youngplace), Lululemon Attic, and Parks N’ Wreck 2016/17.

Ashvini Sundaram

Ashvini Sundaram is a dance artist trained in Bharatanatyam. Born in Singapore, raised in Vancouver and trained in Delhi, Ashvini explores questions related to embodied knowledge, identity and decoloniality through performance work. She receives ongoing training from internationally acclaimed artist, Rama Vaidyanathan, and pursues a Master of Fine Arts degree in dance at York University through the York Graduate Fellowship. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the BC Arts Council Scholarship, Chrystal Dance Prize from Dance Victoria and Professional Development Grants from Canada Council for the Arts and BC Arts Council. Ashvini holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Behavioural Neuroscience from the University of British Columbia and is also professionally trained in vocal Carnatic music, South Indian rhythm, and ballet.

Atri Nundy (she/her)

Dancer/Choreographer/Teacher Mid-career dance artist, educator and choreographer, Atri Nundy completed her arangetram (graduation) in 2005 after years of continuing her passion for dance molded through learning Bharatanatyam at Sampradaya Dance Academy under the tutelage of Lata Pada CM (Order of Canada). An advocate for sharing knowledge, Nundy continues to work as a teacher at Sampradaya Dance Academy, a Company dancer and choreographer with Sampradaya Dance Creations. She has toured extensively in India, Indonesia and the UK and has performed in various prestigious venues across Canada. She continues to hone her craft through professional development in various forms, workshops etc. with acclaimed artists Harikrishna Kalyanasundaram, Priyadarshini Govind, Leela Samson, Mavin Khoo among others. She was also chosen to take part in Akram Khan Company’s first Classical Dance Intensive in November 2019 where she had the opportunity to work with Akram Khan and Mavin Khoo. Technically diverse in her training,including work in a variety of contemporary practices. With this training she has performed with many companies in Toronto including Kashedance, Nova Dance and Ronald Taylor Dance. Commissioned by Anadam Dancetheatre, where she also works as a dancer, she is in the process of creating her first ensemble work, Mindful Chatter and is working with seminal choreographer Padmini Chettur on her new work Chalking, set to premiere and tour internationally in 2021/2022.

Ayelen Liberona

Ayelen Liberona began with a career in dance that has evolved toward radical explorations of movement and the moving image as powerful tools of transformation and social justice. Her work has been presented across 4 continents in theatres, galleries and forests (to name a few) telling stories of ancestry, ritual and our relationship to nature. She has collaborated with artists such as Margie Gillis, Harry Mavromichalis, Gabrielle Roth, Noemie Lafrance and companies such as Nova Dance, Corpus, Cirque Du Soleil and The Future of Storytelling. Together with her life partner Joseph Johnson-Cami they have directed over a dozen experimental and documentary films that have garnered awards worldwide. She was the recipient of the Mark Haslam Award at the 2011 Planet in Focus Environmental Film Festival; awarded to films that “demonstrate the power to inspire reflection and positive action towards the social and ecological health of the planet". She was nominated to TIFF’s 2011 Emerging Filmmaker Award and in 2012 she received the K.M. Hunter Award for Film & Video. Staging plant-people conspiracies alongside anthropologist Natasha Myers has been the fountainhead of Becoming Sensor, a research-creation project that cultivates new modes of embodiment, attention and imagination and new ways of telling stories of lands and bodies. Ayelen is an artist, educator, activist, mother and friend who continues to dance as a way of learning from the land and understanding our place in the world. She is honoured to call Turtle Island her home. www.ayelenliberona.com

Ballu Thakur, Board Member (He/Him)

As a Hospitality & Tourism educator, I bring a different perspective to the artistic and cultural offerings at Nova Dance. Dance is culture, Ritual is culture, Food is culture!

"Nourishing the soul and being…with culture!”

Barbara Kaneratonni Diabo (she/her Nia:wen)

Barbara Kaneratonni Diabo is Kanienkeha:ka (Mohawk) of mixed heritage originally from Kahnawake, now living in Montreal. Barbara is currently the Artistic Director and Choreographer of A’nó:wara Dance Theatre. An award-winning choreographer and dancer for over 25 years, she specializes in creating works that highlight Indigenous themes/stories/perspectives by often combining powwow, Haudenosaunee dance, and mainstream contemporary styles to create a fusion of dance that speaks to many different populations and tastes. She has studied in many forms of dance and graduated with a BFA in theatre from Concordia University and from the Native Theatre School.

She takes great pride in regularly sharing her culture and has performed across Canada and internationally. Some of her most recent work was performed at the Banff Centre, the Montreal Olympic Stadium, the National Arts Centre, the Confederation Centre for the Arts PEI, Harbourfront Centre, Place des Arts, Prismatic Festival Halifax, and Festival Quartiers Danses. She was one of only 8 dancers in North America invited to perform at Gathering of Nations (New Mexico), the world’s largest powwow, in its first-ever hoop dance competition 2015.

Barbara also works with various organizations, including La Danse sur les routes du Quebec and Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance, to educate, help create safe spaces, and support Indigenous artists across Canada. Her goals are to inspire others, encourage cultural pride, uplift the spirit, and increase education and communication.

Belle Jumelles

Belle Jumelles is one of Toronto’s most popular burlesque performers. She's a fierce, fabulous, fat, queer femme who instantly commands the room. She's a talented singer, emcee, burlesque performer, producer and teacher. Her passion for burlesque goes hand in hand with her love for making other people feel empowered about their bodies, and in turn, themselves. She has produced countless shows, providing space for people to share their art on stage, and she's been teaching regular burlesque and body confidence workshops in Toronto as well as all over North America for the last 12 years. Imparting her confidence and self-love to students and audiences alike - she loves encouraging people to love themselves inside and out.

Belle performed in our 2022 season of Discover Dance! Check out associate artist, Neena Jayarajan's, reflection and response here!

BHavajan kumar

Bhavajan Kumar is a sensitive Bharatanatyam dancer, with a captivating stage presence and precision in movement. He is a natural artiste with an innate understanding of the artform. Disciple of Leela Samson, Bhavajan not only imbibes the subtle nuances of his guru's distinctive style, but is also keen to discover the intricacies of the art and strives to adhere to its aesthetic and spiritual beauty.

Awards: Yuva kala bharathi from Bharat Kalachar and endowments under the name of Kelucharan Mohapatra, Vazhuvur Ramiah Pillai and Pandit Durga Lal

Bhavajan was presented at our 2022 season of Discover Dance! Read company member, Purawai Vyas's, response and reflection here!

Blessyl buan

Blessyl Buan, a contemporary dancer, choreographer, and visual artist, crafts colourful interdisciplinary works echoing rhythm, movement, and land-based spirituality. With a Kinesiology degree (2001) and a Chiropractic doctorate (2005), her academic background provides a deep understanding of the human body. This foundation, combined with over two decades of professional dance experience, enhances her artistry with a heightened kinesthetic intelligence. Her process delves into Philippine Indigenous traditions, exploring joy, interconnectedness and cultural identity. Supported by Ontario Arts Council, her dance solo “RARA” evolved from video to a live performance. Her solo exhibition, “Kapwa Kaleidsocope” (2024) reflects her dance form through visual arts.

Bonnie Kim

A dance artist for more than 30 years, Bonnie is a multiple Dora Award Ensemble nominee and one of “Toronto’s top five dancers,” (Eye Weekly magazine). Upcoming projects: performer in Peter Chin’s Trillionth I and Hanna Kiel’s Again; screenwriter/performer in Kiel’s What Happened to Lee? co-choreographer for Corpus’s Divine Interventions; outside eye for Nova Bhattacharya’s Svāhā.

Bonnie was rehearsal and later Associate Director of Dancemakers for nine years. Highly regarded as a teacher, mentor and outside eye, she was rehearsal director/performer for Sylvain Émard’s Le Grand Continental, produced by Luminato, overseeing a cast of hundreds. She trained at Claude Watson School for the Arts and the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and performed with many of Canada’s most respected artists and companies, including Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers, Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault and Claudia Moore.

Bonnie’s writing has been published in the Dance Current, Eye Weekly, Toronto Star, Toronto Life and the Fall for Dance North magazine.

emmandbee.wordpress.com

Brandy Leary

Brandy Leary creates contemporary performances through the body with an artistic practice informed by dance, martial arts, ritual, circus, and theatre. Her works have been produced and performed in Canada, Europe, India, the Arctic, South Africa and the USA in theatres, urban environments, festivals, museums, art galleries and isolated landscapes. She is active in the community as a performer, choreographer, collaborator, curator and Artistic Director of Anandam Dancetheatre. The work she develops holds considerations about the transmission of embodied knowledge; of performance architectures, cultural viewpoints, and customs of audience/performer relationships. She has lived between Canada and India for the past 17 years; training, collaborating and creating (both explicitly and implicitly) 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, post contemporary dance/circus practices and embodied improvisation to create performances.

Brannavy Jeyasundaram

Brannavy Jeyasundaram is a writer and the co-executive director of the Toronto Ward Museum. She is also the managing editor of the literary journal exploring global politics, Adi Magazine. Her main interest lies in exploring movement traditions and memory formation through understanding histories of displacement. Her writing on cultural memory can be found in The Local, Briarpatch, Jacobin, and the Tamil Guardian, among other places.

Brian Solomon

Two-spirited, multi-award nominated, winner and loser, creator Brian Solomon is of Anishinaabe and Irish heritage, born in Shebahonaning on the North Channel of Lake Huron. As a creator his work is multidisciplinary, raw, challenging and full of spirit. His commissions have ranged from community-rooted works with over 100 interpreters, solos in trees, to animated installations of landfill. His works have been presented and toured across Turtle Island and abroad. He is passionate about helping people relearn their ancient bodies, and take back the space those bodies occupy.

Briana Brown (she/her)

Briana has worked with a breadth of arts organizations, from grassroots collectives to large-scale institutions including the Canadian Stage Company (Metcalf Artistic and Producing Intern), Seventh Stage Productions (Associate Producer), Paprika Festival (Artistic Programs Manager), and Brave New Play Rites Festival in Vancouver (Artistic Producer). She is currently the Artistic Producer of Nova Dance and Anandam Dancetheatre and a practicing playwright and theatre director.

Candace Kumar (she/her)

Artist-in-Residence (2023/2024)

Candace Kumar is a Filipino/Indo-Fijian dance artist based in Toronto. She has trained in ballet, contemporary, jazz-funk, hip hop, folk dance and more. She specializes in contemporizing cultural dance forms to reimagine traditional culture from the diaspora. Candace collaborates with musicians such as A La Una and Han Han as a performer and choreographer, creating Filipino-contemporary works. Some of her notable performances include the 2015 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games, Nuit Blanche, SummerWorks Festival, and international festivals in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Mexico, Alaska, and the Czech Republic. Candace has worked with Little Pear Garden Dance Company, Anandam Dance Theatre, Creativiva Entertainment, Hips Don't Lie Dance Company and more. She is presenting a short film this summer with Guelph Dance called "Crossing Waters." She shares her experience as a mixed-Asian Canadian artist in hopes of inspiring other POC artists to explore their relationship to their culture through dance. This will be her first Nova Dance process!

Socials:
@candacekmr
https://www.instagram.com/candacekmr/

Candace was featured at our November 2023 season of Discover Dance. Read Associate Artist, Neena Jayarajan's, reflection here!

Chelcia Creary

Chelcia began dancing at the age of nineteen (19) at the prestigious Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, School of Dance in Jamaica. She graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Dance Education and has performed with the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica and Ashe Performing Arts Ensemble, where she toured extensively to the US, the Caribbean, Asia and Europe. She studied at the Ballet Creole school/company in Canada as an apprentice dancer and is presently with the company as a freelancer. She is currently an Afro-Caribbean instructor at the Children and Youth Dance Theatre of Toronto (CYDT), a not-for-profit organization that serves marginalized kids & youths. Chelcia has worked with various dance companies in Canada viz; L’ariatsila Dance Theatre where she is the assistant choreographer, instructor and dancer. Akwaba Cultural Exchange group, Kashe Dance Ensemble and recently Nova Dance in 2022 as a Dancer.

Citadel + Compagnie

Creative Incubator Pilot Project

As a Resident Company of the Creative Incubator, our operations are being supported through an innovative process of collaborative exchange.

Cole Alvis

Cole Alvis (she\her) is a Turtle Mountain Michif (Métis) artist based in Tkarón:to with Chippewa, Irish & English ancestors. She is one of the leaders of lemonTree creations, manidoons collective, and AdHoc Assembly, and is on the board of the Dancers Of Damelahamid. Recently, she directed Salt Baby by Falen Johnson (Theatre Aquarius), a digital presentation of Toka by Indrit Kasapi (lemonTree creations & Theatre Passe Muraille), and alongside Samantha Brown, co-directed White Girls In Moccasins by Yolanda Bonnell (manidoons collective & Buddies In Bad Times Theatre). Upcoming: Cole co-directs, alongside Yvette Nolan (Algonquin), Three Fingers Back by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard (lemonTree creations & Tarragon Theatre), and performs in You Used To Call Me Marie by Tai Amy Grauman (Savage Society & NAC Indigenous Theatre).

Dainty Smith (SHE/HER)

Metcalf Foundation Intern (2024); Discover Dance Host, Artist-in-Residence (2023)

Dainty Smith is a Toronto based Actor, Burlesque Performer, Playwright, Producer and curator. She believes that through the art of storytelling and a willingness to be exposed that those genuine human connections can be made. Her performances often tell deeply vulnerable stories regarding race, religion, sexuality and challenging social boundaries.

She wrote and self-produced a multidisciplinary play titled Daughters of Lilith, which is currently part of B Current Theatre’s Playwright Incubation 2021 season. The second play by Dainty Smith is titled Blood and Memory, which is currently being workshopped and supported by Obsidian Theatre.

Her diverse array of stage performances includes, Mayworks Festival, Rock. Paper. Sistahz for B Current Theatre, Caminos Festival for Aluna Theatre, The Rhubarb Festival at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, and the Luminato Arts Festival. She is the founder of Les Femme Fatales: Women of Colour burlesque troupe, the first burlesque troupe for women and femmes of colour in Canada.

Dainty performed at our 2021 and 2023 season of Discover Dance and joined the program as guest host! Read our company dancer, Purawai Vyas's, response and reflection to her 2021 presentation here! Read associate artist, Neena Jayarajan's, response and reflection from the 2023 season here!

Denise Bolduc

Denise Bolduc is an accomplished cultural leader and a catalyst for creative growth. Denise curates, programs, and produces platforms inspiring creative experiences, exchange, collaboration, and engagement. Selected work: Biziindan!, Illuminating works, and Tributaries (Luminato Festival), The Original Peoples Party & First Nations Exchange-Turtle Island program (Tri Nations, Australia), Transforming Landscapes, New Voices New Vision, Inconvenient Ideas, and Intersections of Culture (CAPACOA), Beyond 150 Years: An Acknowledgement of Indigenous Film (REEL Canada), Miiyuu Pimaatswin Symposium (Native Women in the Arts), Songs in the Key of Cree (Tomson Highway Retrospective), Maadaadizi/Summer Journeys (PanAm Games), and Thunderbird Marketplace (One of A Kind/Miziwe Biik Development). Denise was founding Artistic Director & Producer of Planet IndigenUs, the Indigenous Arts Program Officer (Ontario Arts Council), and the Indigenous Dance and Music Program Officer (Canada Council for the Arts), and Co-Founder & Artistic Director of the Aboriginal Music Project. She has programmed and presented in Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. She is an instructor, mentor, speaker, host, a member on numerous boards and advisories, and has partnered on many artistic projects with numerous arts and cultural organizations. Denise is the recipient of the Ontario Arts Council’s Indigenous Arts Award, the SOLID Festival’s Arts Leadership Award, the Indigenous Business Leadership Award and a Fellow recipient with the ISPA International Congress.
Denise is Ojibwe | Anishinaabe kwe from the Robinson Huron Treaty Territory, and is a member of the Batchewana First Nation with familial ties in Garden River First Nation.

Devyani Saltzman, Board Member (She/Hers)

Devyani Saltzman is a Canadian writer and curator with a deep interest in relevant, multidisciplinary, programming at the intersection between art, ideas and social change. She is the Director of Public Programming at the AGO, and the former Director of Literary Arts at the Banff Centre, the first woman and first woman of colour in that role, as well as a Founding Curator of Luminato, North America's largest multi arts festival. Her work has appeared in The Globe and Mail, National Post, The Atlantic and Tehelka, India's weekly of arts and investigative journalism. She sits on the boards of the Writers’ Trust of Canada, SummerWorks Performance Festival and Nova Dance, and has been a juror for the National Magazine Awards, Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and The Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction. Saltzman has a degree in Anthropology and Sociology from Oxford.

Dhruv Naik

Dhruv Naik is a Toronto-based Bollywood fusion dancer and has been dancing for 15 years. He's a recent graduate with a Bachelor of Commerce specializing in Hotel Management. He has been actively working as a professional dancer, choreographer, and teacher for years holding many credits and accolades within his expertise.

Currently, He is the Co-Owner and Artistic Director of Jadoo Entertainment - GTA's Premiere Bollywood Fusion Dance Company. JE was founded in 2009, which started out performing at cultural festivals and various events. As Jadoo grew, it began offering dance classes all across the Greater Toronto Area, and has most recently found success with its critically-acclaimed Bollywood Dance Musical Productions, which sold out multiple times over in the past year with him as one of their principal choreographers and creative directors. In Toronto, He is an ongoing guest teacher for the Dufferin-Peel District School Board, as well as a faculty member of various dance studios such as City Centre Dance and Underground Dance Centre. He has also conducted bollywood workshops at dance conventions, such as Desi Dance Convention for two years now.

Moreover, his dance experience centers around Bollywood, hip hop, jazz, and Indian classical, but his aim has always been to expand his skill set to ensure that he is able to explore the realm of dance in its entirety.

Dhruv was presented at our 2022 season of Discover Dance. Read company dancer, Purawai Vyas's, response and reflection here!

Ed Hanley (he/him)

Musician/Composer

Ed Hanley is a multi-dimensional artist – creator, performer, producer, photographer, cinematographer, recording engineer, video editor, educator, writer, and tabla player.

“A remarkable player, both in his musical thoughtfulness and his technical virtuosity” (Halifax Chronicle Herald) *

Ed’s multimedia work embraces music, video and photography. Although best known as a practitioner of tabla, Ed's recent work in the visual world (including over 100 music videos) expresses the same joy, dynamism, love of collaboration, and attention to detail as his years as a touring and recording musician.

Ed has studied tabla for over 30 years with masters including Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri, Pandit Anindo Chatterjee and Taalyogi Suresh Talwalkar in Canada, the USA and on 10 journeys to India. He has also studied Carnatic drumming traditions with Sri Karaikudi Mani and Dr. Trichy Sankaran in Chennai and Toronto.

From the Stockholm Jazz Festival and the Jaipur Heritage Festival, to Massey Hall in Toronto and Joe’s Pub in New York City, Ed has been a featured performer at prominent music festivals and concert halls in Europe, India, the USA, and across Canada.

As co-artistic director of the Canadian world music ensemble Autorickshaw, Ed has been nominated for two Juno Award and the Grand Prize in the World Music category of the John Lennon Songwriting Competition.

As teacher Ed gives private and group lessons on tabla, solkattu and rhythm from professional artists to kids to adults. He runs an Indian percussion unit at the Toronto District School Board, teaching in nine schools involving about 300 students each year.

For Nova Dance: Maskura, Isolated Incidents, Infinite Storms, Elemental, M3, Svāhā!; Related Fragments (film)

Eilish Shin-Culhane

Artist-in-Residence (2023/2024)

Eilish Shin-Culhane is a Tkaronto based artist, dancer, and choreographer of Korean and European descent. She is additionally a dance educator and certified Pilates instructor. She received her B.F.A. in Dance from Marymount Manhattan College in New York.

As a dancer, Eilish has had the privilege to perform in works by Peter Chu, Bill T. Jones, Frog in Hand, Anton Lachky, John Heginbotham, Theatre Oculus, and Adam Barruch. She has additionally trained with Johannes Wieland, Anouk van Dijk, Andrea Miller, Ryan Mason, Isadora Wolfe, and Stefanie Batten Bland.

Eilish's choreographic work explores the nuance of authenticity through both abstracted and highly physical gestures - playing with emotionality, theatre, vocalizations, exhaustion, and connection. She has presented works at Marymount Manhattan’s ‘Dancers at Work’, NYU’s ‘Choreofest’, Aeris Körper's 'PROSPECTS', MillO Dance Projects ‘Nightfall’, and Dance Ontario’s ‘Show & Share Sessions’. Her choreographic mentors have included Bonnie Kim, Elisabeth Motley, Linda Garneau, and Alyssa Martin. She recently began exploration for an upcoming commission from Peggy Baker Dance Projects, through the National Ballet’s Open Space Programme.

Eilish was presented at our 2023 season of Discover Dance. Read host, Dainty Smith's, response and reflection here!

Emilie Monet

At the crossroads of theatre, performance and media arts, Émilie Monnet’s artistic practice addresses issues of identity, memory, history and transformation. Her performances draw on the symbolism of dreams and myths, both personal and collective, to tell stories that question our modern-day world. In 2011, she founded Onishka Productions, a Montreal-based interdisciplinary arts organization specializing in shows created by artists from different cultures and disciplines; and in 2016, she founded Scène contemporaine autochtone (SCA), an artistic and critical initiative foregrounding Indigenous performing arts projects. A scaled-down version of SCA was presented in Buenos Aires in March 2017, featuring Indigenous artists from Quebec and Argentina. The daughter of an Anishnaabe mother and a French father, Émilie lives in Montreal. Her artistic practice is informed by her many years of activism with Indigenous organizations in Canada and Latin America, and her participation in artistic projects involving women offenders and Indigenous youth.

Emily Cheung

Emily Cheung is an Artistic Director of Little Pear Garden Dance Company in Toronto. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Dance (B.F.A.), Master in Dance (M.A.) and Bachelor of Education in Dance (B.Ed) at York University. She grew up with R.A.D. training and was invited a scholarship to study ballet in London, England. She went to Beijing Dance Academy for training majoring in Classical Chinese dance. She also taught dance since 16. Emily has been constantly invited to give academic talks and workshops to graduate university students, undergrads and highs school students. In May 2017, she received an award for Canada 150 being recognized one of the 15 candidates in Voices of Chinese Canadian Women for her contributions to building a strong community. In August 2017, Emily will be celebrating her 10th years of her career as Artistic Director for Little Pear Garden Dance Company.

Emily Law (she/her)

Emily Law is a contemporary dancer, street dancer, and choreographer. She graduated from The School of Toronto Dance Theatre and The Etobicoke School of the Arts. She has trained and competed in house dancing and waacking. Emily is a founding member of Mix Mix Dance Collective, the Toronto house dance crew Warehouse Jacks and Parks N’ Wreck. Emily has had the pleasure of working with companies and artists such as: Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, The Dietrich Group, The Chimera Project and Alias Dance Project. Her choreographic work has been showcased on companies and in festivals such as: Toronto Dance Theatre, The Next Stage Theatre Festival, Toronto Fringe Festival, CanAsian Dance Festival, The Reel Asian Film Festival, Guelph Dance & Fall For Dance North. She has been nominated for two Dora Mavor Moore awards, a Gemini, & the 2017 Premier’s award. Also, she recently represented Canada in the hip hip category at Jeux de la Francophone with Mix Mix Dance Collective in Abidjan.

For Nova Dance: Discover Dance Guest Host

Enakshi Sinha

One of the leading Odissi dancers in North America, Enakshi, a resident of Toronto, cultivated a lifelong devotion to Indian Classical dance starting with Bharatnatyam followed by Odissi dance. She learnt this subtle dance form from Guru Sharmila Biswas (Kolkata), Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra & Guru Ratikanta Mohapatra (Bhubaneswar). Her active performance career spans 17 years and includes performances at major festivals of India, Europe and North America. One of her recent performances was at Taj Mahotsav, 2018, with the Taj Mahal in the backdrop. Enakshi also had the honour to perform during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi in Toronto. At present Enakshi is the Artistic Director of her dance institution 'Mrudanga Dance Academy’, through which she trains dancers in Toronto and Windsor.

Enakshi received the Woman Achiever Award from Dancing Damsels (2017), International Nritya Shiromoni Award from Odisha, India (2014), and the Shingar Mani title from Sur Shringar Academy, Mumbai (1999). She was the project leader for the South Asian Centre of Windsor (2010-11). Enakshi has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. She is an accredited artist of the Indian Council for Cultural Relation, Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre and Sangeet Natak Academi in India

Esie Mensah (she/her)

Esie Mensah (she/her) is someone whose work – every performance, project, and partnership – embodies the multifaceted artist. As a dancer, choreographer, director, educator and speaker, she brings her mastery of storytelling to audiences as diverse as her experience. From working with megastars like Rihanna, Drake, Arcade Fire, and Janelle Monae to historic brands like Coca-Cola, TIFF, Luminato Festival, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Soulpepper Theatre and the Toronto Raptors, Esie shows no sign of limits or slowing down.

A graduate of George Brown College, Esie started her career as a dancer and began forging her distinct style through Afrofusion to explore more personal narratives of her blackness, belonging and Ghanaian heritage. After establishing her company, Esie Mensah Creations, she created three original pieces: Akoma, ZAYO and the Dora-Nominated, Shades. The latter explores the process of healing from shadeism/colorism in the Black community. The success of Shades found her at TEDxToronto and profiled on CBC's The Move where she spoke about her challenges navigating the commercial dance world as a dark-skinned black woman and the discovery of her creative voice.

Her latest project, A Revolution of Love, is a digital short film that follows a young black woman as she grapples with the histories of her ancestors and the present-day violence ravaging her community. Created for the Toronto History Museum's Awakenings initiative, which continues to see artists reimagine Toronto's historically colonial spaces, the film premiered alongside works by celebrity Chef Roger Mooking and Director X.

As an educator, Esie has been using her voice to bring more inclusive practices to the Candian Dance industry through discussions at Sheridan College, the Royal Academy of Dance, the University of Calgary and The National Ballet School. She is a faculty member of George Brown College and is a mentee of acclaimed dance artist Akram Khan through Why Not Theatre's Fellowship Program.

Her next short film, TESSEL, made in collaboration with The Harbourfront Centre and Fall For Dance North features 14 black dancers from across Canada and will premiere online on June 1st, 2021. To learn more about this project and all things Esie Mensah visit: esiemensah.com

FLY LADY DI

Diana Reyes is a multi-disciplinary artist known for Dance, DJing and Live Painting based in her hometown Toronto.

Diana has danced with some of the top artists in dance and music namely Jason Derulo, Ciara, Fall Out Boy, Fabolous, the Clipse featuring Pharrell Williams, LaurieAnn Gibson and has trained with MOPTOP/Elite Force/Dance Fusion in NYC for several years.

As a DJ, she has played events for the Dior, Toronto Maple Leafs, Reebok, Twitter, Rihanna's FENTY Beauty, SOHO House, Royal Ontario Museum, Art Gallery of Ontario, FUNKBOX NYC, Soul in the Horn NYC among many others.

Her work has been featured on media platforms like etalk, CP 24, CBC's The National, Chatelaine Magazine, Toronto Life, Toronto Star, Dance Current and dozens more.

She's had international engagements in the Philippines, South Korea, Germany, United Arab Emirates, Colombia, India, Scotland, New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles. More info: www.flyladydi.com.


Franco Boni

Franco Boni is currently the Artistic and Executive Director of PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in Vancouver. A recognized cultural innovator, facilitator and community builder with a demonstrated track record of artistic credibility and financial acumen. He has served as Artistic Director of The Theatre Centre in Toronto since 2003, and has been a fixture on Canada’s arts and festival scene for more than two decades.

Boni is the inaugural recipient of the Ken McDougall Award for emerging directors, and was awarded the Rita Davies Cultural Leadership Award, recognizing his outstanding leadership in the development of arts and culture in the City of Toronto. Most recently, Franco was awarded the George Luscombe Award for Mentorship in Theatre.

During Boni’s tenure at The Theatre Centre – a nationally recognized live-arts incubator that serves as a research and development hub for the cultural sector – he developed the Residency Program. The celebrated program embraces experimentation and learning with a wide variety of collaborators and features the work of some of the country’s leading artists.

He also established the Free Fall Festival and co-founded Progress Festival, creating vital performance platforms for national and international artists. Boni served as Festival Director of the Rhubarb Festival from 1998-2000 and as Artistic Producer of the SummerWorks Festival from 1999-2004.

Gerry Trentham 9he/they)

lbs/sq” Artistic Director Gerry Trentham’s life-long dedication to the art of performance has created 40 of his works for stage and more recently on screen, garnered numerous Toronto Dora awards/nominations, top ten lists, recent film awards and international acclaim in works of some of Canada’s most renowned choreographers (most notably in original roles in works by Serge Bennathan and as cast/voice director in Denise Fujiwara's hit EUNOIA) and international directing, choreographic, teaching/mentoring opportunities on four continents. His art and teaching focuses on voice/body’s range and depth of presence. With 20 years as faculty of the internationally acclaimed National Voice Intensive and six years with Denise Fujiwara in their new frontier of training Butoh/Voice he is now a co-founder with renowned collogues of the Moving Voice Institute. He is most excited about his recent collaboration, Monument, a film directed by the exceptional William Yong featuring the enduring artistry of performer Michael Caldwell that recently previewed as the first event of lbs/sq”’s 25th anniversary season.

Projects with Nova Dance: Over many years as audience, collaborator on projects as vocal outside eye and primary role in establishing the first Deep End Weekend.

What do you love about dance? MOVING

How have you stayed connected to dance / your art during the pandemic? Solo practice, research, innovating on line and creating a new legacy on film.

Giselle Clarke-Trenaman, Board Secretary (She/Her/Hers)

Being on the Nova Dance Board has kept my eyes and heart open to an art form that I am passionate about and have great respect for.

I use theatre to break many assumptions

Gitanjali Kolanad

Gitanjali Kolanad was involved in the practice, performance, and teaching of bharata natyam for more than forty years. She performed in major cities in Europe, America and India, including London, New York, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Toronto, Tokyo, New Delhi, Bombay, and Madras. Her traditional performances were praised by critics, while her contemporary choreographic work won new audiences for bharata natyam. Her work was often multi-disciplinary, arising out of collaborations with artists from other disciplines: director Phillip Zarrilli, video/installation artist Ray Langenbach, poet Judith Kroll, violinist Parmela Attariwala, to name a few. Her performances incorporated folk and ritual forms of dance, theatre and martial art forms from South India. Gitanjali's short story "The American Girl" won second prize in the 2008 CBC Literary Awards. The story is part of a collection published in January 2011 by Penguin India. Her previous book, Culture Shock: India, published by Marshall Cavendish, is now into its third edition, and has been translated into Korean. She has written numerous articles on aspects of Indian dance for well-known Indian publications, such as India Magazine and Sruti. She co-founded IMPACT - Indian Martial and Performance Arts Collective of Toronto, which teaches the Indian martial art form of kalaripayat to at-risk youth. She developed a performing arts program at Shiv Nadar University and was 2016 Singapore International Writer-in-Residence at the National University of Singapore and The Arts House.

Gurtej (Tej) Hunjan

Tej Hunjan is a professional rhymist, multi-instrumentalist, DJ and composer. His expertise is in north Indian and Afro-Latin percussion, namely: tabla, dhol, dholak, bongo and Cajon.

He has performed and recorded around the world and has shared the stage with some of the world’s most recognizable musicians and dancers. He has composed music for television and film and produced songs in collaboration with local and international artists. He was an original member of The Toronto Tabla Ensemble and iDRUM and currently performs as one half of Toronto’s foremost live percussion duo: the GURU bros.

He continues to perform and currently works out of his Toronto based studio crafting soundtracks and dance floor hits for local and international audiences.

For Nova Dance: New Monuments.

Hanna Kiel

Dora winner Hanna Kiel is from Seoul, South Korea, and moved to Vancouver in 1996. She has presented her work at 12 Minutes Max, PlanB Singles and solos Festival, Dancing on the Edge Festival and Pulse at the Scotiabank Dance Centre in Vancouver. In 2007, she collaborated with Yoko Ono as a dancer and choreographer at the Centre A. Moving to Toronto in 2008, Hanna has continued choreographing for: Rosedale Heights School of the Arts, Conteur Dance Academy, George Brown Dance, Ryerson Dances, School of Toronto Dance Theatre, Kenny Pearl’s Emerging Artist Intensive, IGNITE, ProArteDanza, Ballet Jörgen, Alias Dance Project, The National Ballet of Canada, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, Toronto Dance Theatre and Decidedly Jazz Danceworks in Calgary. She was an E-choreographer in 2015 for Springboard Danse Montreal and one of the choreographer at Osez 2018 in Quebec city. Hanna is the artistic director of Human Body Expression and one of the founders of “The Garage” dance development and exchange collective group.

Hannah Shikatani

She graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University’s (formerly Ryerson) Performance Dance program in 2020, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She is well versed in many styles of dance including ballet, contemporary, jazz, modern and commercial style dancing. Hannah has had the opportunity to work with many esteemed artists/choreographers from around the world such as Anne Plamondon, Peter Chin and Iraxte Ansa and Igor Bacovich. One of Hannah’s many strengths, is her ability to learn choreography quickly and execute it in the way in which it is intended. She loves the opportunity to try new things and step out of her comfort zone, even if it terrifies her. Hannah hopes to dance and perform for as long as her mind and body will allow.

Irma Villafuerte

Artist-in-Residence (2023/2024)

Irma Villafuerte is a Tkaronto based dance artist, educator, emerging choreographer and first-generation daughter of refugees from Nahuat Territory Kuskatan, post-colonial El Salvador. She is a Toronto Arts Foundation 2021 Emerging Artist Finalist. She’s had the honor to be part of festivals such as Night Shift 2020 Presented by the Citadel & Compagnie, Fall for Dance North’s Open Studio, The Rhubarb Festival, DanceWeekend Ontario, Aluna Theatre’s Panamerican Routes Festival, Panamania 2015, 12th Bienal de la Habana 2015, Vanguardia Dance Projects Festival, International Dance Meeting in Guantanamo, CounterPulse Performing Diaspora in San Francisco, etc. She’s been part of works by Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, Jaberi Dance Theatre, Kaeja d’Dance, Victoria Mata, Aria Evans, Alejandro Ronceria, Arsenio Andrade and Michael Caldwell. Since 2017, she has led a journey nurturing her choreographic development through residencies with Dance Makers, TDT’s Emerging Voices, George Brown Dance and Aluna Theatre; currently developing two important works nudoDESnudo and Siwat Piedra. As a Latin American woman, her passion for social justice and human rights is the driving force for creation in Irma’s choreographic and performance work. She is a dance instructor at Casa Maiz’ Semillas Latinas program for Latin American children; in 2019, she joined the faculty of the Theatre Department at Randolph College for the Performing Arts.

Irma was presented at our 2022 and 2023 seasons of Discover Dance. Read company dancer, Rachana Joshi's reflection of the 2022 season here! Read host, Dainty Smith's reflection from 2023 here!

Jasmyn Fyffe

Toronto based award winning choreographer/dancer Jasmyn Fyffe is described as “ a young artist whose body of work is developing in a style all her own.” (Sway magazine -- Anya Wassenberg).

Fyffe was the recipient of the 2013 Frankie Award (in Montreal) for most outstanding choreography/choreographer for her 50 min work “Pulse.” She is the director of “Jasmyn Fyffe Dance” where she has been choreographing and directing for the past seven years and has created a total of twelve works both full length and shorter ensemble pieces. In addition to her work in Toronto, she has performed and choreographed work in Brooklyn NY, Montreal QC, North Bay ON and Sinop Turkey.

As an independent dancer, Jasmyn has performed in the touring musical UMOJA and has danced for Grammy Award winning artist Nelly Furtado. In addition she has worked with: Gadfly, Hanna Kiel, Vanessa Jane Kimmons, Red Sky Performance, Julia Cratchley, Leon Blackwood, Mix Mix Collective, Artists in Motion, Dance Migration,’ K’aeja D’dance, KasheDance, Linda Garneau and more. In addition, Fyffe has performed in four Toronto Fringe Festival Shows in the years 2011 and 2013 and one of them “Jack Your Body” was very successful and went on to be presented in the Next Stage Theatre Festival 2014 to sold out audiences. She has also performed five solo works, one commissioned by Karen Kaeja. The solo works have been performed in: the Dance made in Canada Festival, Pulse Dance Conference, Older and Reckless, Animating

Artist Website www.jasmynfyffe.com

JOHN GZOWSKI

As a composer, sound designer, musician and instrument maker John Gzowski has worked on theatre, dance and film productions doing composition, sound design, live foley, live music and as musical director. He has played banjo for opera in Banff, studied Carnatic classical music in India and played oud and guitar in jazz and folk festivals across Canada and Europe. His theatre work has won him 6 Dora’s, from 18 nominations for companies like Stratford, Shaw Festival, Luminato, National Arts Centre, the Mirvishes, MTC, the Arts Club, Canstage, Theatre Calgary, The Citadel, Soulpepper, Dancemakers, Red Sky, Tarragon, Factory Theatre and YPT. Gzowski has played on numerous CD’s, with recent releases with Patricia O'Callghan, 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.

José Navas

Founder and artistic director of Compagnie Flak, José Navas directs his research over three areas: he performs his solo creations with intensity and emotion, he creates abstract and captivating group works and he creates contemporary ballet pieces that combine classicism and sensitivity. As guest choreographer, he has created his version of Giselle (2013) for Ballet BC; Watershed (2013) for the National Ballet of Canada and Dénouement / Auflösung (2015 ) for tanzmainz, Germany and Calm Abiding for Nova Dance. José ‘s work has been presented in over thirty countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

Judy Luo

people // patterns // puzzles // play!

Jia Yi (Judy) Luo is a Chinese-Canadian dance artist based out of Toronto, Ontario, and in her trusty blue suitcase. Voyaging with faith and the gifts of grace, physical movement and dumpling parties are her chosen mediums for bridging communities. Judy is a former member of touring company Rambert 2 (London, UK). She holds her BFA in Performance Dance from Toronto Metropolitan University and is a laureate of the Hnatyshyn Foundation’s Developing Artist Grant. Known for her stage presence and versatility, her commercial credits include Nike, SportChek, Tim Hortons, Hallmark Channel, Jessie Reyez and Feist. Judy collaborates alongside Anne Plamondon (Montreal), Liam Francis (UK), Nova Bhattacharya (Toronto) and Dreamwalker Dance Company (Toronto/Vancouver). Switching between the hats of performer, rehearsal director and educator, she marvels at the body's intelligence and delights in sharing this fascination with others. Follow along her creative endeavours on her Substack publication, "mindthemoves."

Justine Woods

Justine Woods is a garment artist, creative scholar, and educator with a focus in Indigenous fashion and material culture, Indigenous arts-based methodologies, performance and embodiment, and research-creation. She is a Doctoral Candidate in the Media and Design Innovation practice-based PhD program at Toronto Metropolitan University. Born and raised in Tiny, Ontario, Justine is a registered member of the Métis Nation of Ontario and a Métis rights-holder from the Georgian Bay Métis community - a recognized Métis community in Ontario with section 35 Indigenous rights - from the St. Onge and Berger-Beaudoin families.

Kaela Willey

Kaela Willey (she/her) is a Chinese-Canadian dance artist based in Tkaronto. She has danced with companies such as Coastal City Ballet, Ballet Victoria, Xing Dance Theatre, Ballet Ouest de Montreal, Wondersee Entertainment/Cineplex and the Canadian Opera Company. Kaela has also performed work by individual artists such as Sze-Yang Ade-Lam, Nomi Wiersma and Tara Butler. Kaela expands her artistry into other mediums of performance, having modelled on a cover and twelve-page spread for Culture Magazin, and appearing in commercials for Power Footwear, Oxford Blueberries, CHFI-FM, and Bell Media. She has also performed in episodes of Star Trek: Discovery, American Gods, and films Dancing Through the Shadow and New Monuments. Kaela is joyously looking forward to beginning her work with Nova Dance.

Kalaisan Kalaichelvan

Kalaisan Kalaichelvan began his training in Toronto, Canada, he is a disciple of Acharya Choodamani Guru A. Lakshmanaswamy of Chennai, India.

Kalaisan is active as a dancer, choreographer, composer, musician and biochemist. Having worked across various disciplines and communities of thought, he seeks to bring together incongruous institutions together to build novel structures that reflect his artistic upbringing.

Kalaisan has been presented at prestigious festivals across India, the USA and Canada. He was recently curated at the Madras Music Academy’s prestigious Spirit of Youth Festival. Kalaisan has also had the privilege of working with many of the industry’s most celebrated troupes, dancers and choreographers such as Allen Kaeja, Anita Guha, Brandy Leary, Hari Krishnan, Janak Khendry, Kishore Mosalikanti, Lata Pada, Menaka Thakkar, Padmini Chettur and Shijith N Parvathy. He continues to explore, inquire and further work with Bharatanatyam in both traditional and contemporary contexts

Karla Etienne (she/her)

Karla Etienne is the Executive Director of the Canadian Dance Assembly and guest curator of Mandoline Hybride. She is a dance artist who has worked with Zab Maboungou/Compagnie Danse Nyata Nyata for more than 20 years. The first graduate of the organization's Programme de formation et d'entraînement artistique et professionnel en danse (PEFAPDA) and an accomplished dancer, Karla has been a part of Zab Maboungou's major work. Her commitment is recognized today, notably for the renewal of cultural policies concerning equity in the field of art, on all levels of practice, management and dissemination with the institutions and organizations that are responsible, including the Conseil des arts de Montréal. In 2021, she received the Nyata Nyata Stellar Award for service to the greater dance community.

KH Kanna (he/him)

K.H. Kanna underwent extensive training in Bharatanatyam under gurus Smt. Malini Pararajasingham, and Sri. Sheejith Krishna.

He is featured in Harbhajan Mann’s movie “Jee Aaya Nu” and Sukhdev Sukha’s “Dhola,” the videos “Show Me What Ya Got” (Nessa V), “Too Soon” (Hey Ocean), “A.L.L.” by MTV’s Eric Solomon, “Testify” (Lady Mona), and “We Party” (Razor B). Kanna has also choreographed for Canadian artistes Karian Sang and Navz47. Further credits include Vancouver 2010 Olympics, Sanctuary Season 2, Karl Wolfe, and a short movie with choreographer Jae Blaze; the productions “Ganga” and “Kaal – Time” by the Janak Khendry Dance Company (Kuwait, Oman, India.); The 2017 Toronto International Dance Festival, The 2017 Kalanidhi Festival, hosted by The Menaka Thakkar Dance Company; “Howzat!” by Sampradaya Dance Creations, and “Nadi” by Spanda Dance Company; and the annual Vengamala Bhagavathy Temple festival in Tiruvananthapuram, Kerala. In 2018 Kanna debuted his first margam of his own choreographic works titled “Darshan” with an ensemble of 7 first generation Canadian musicians and 6 other young dancers.

Apart from Bharata Natyam, Kanna studies Kathakali under the guidance of Smt. Anupama Dineshkumar, and Carnatic vocal under Sri Arun Gopinath. Under the able guidance of his gurus, Kanna strives to deepen his understanding of this rich art form and spread awareness among the diaspora.

Birthplace: New Westminster, BC

Training/dance vocabularies: Bharata Natyam, Dancehall, Hip Hop (fundamentals & commercial), Casino Rueda

Why Nova Dance: Respect, inclusiveness, reflective

My most cherished moment as a dancer: being invited into a ceremony by the First Nations representatives at the 2010 Olympics in the green rooms, and bringing our dhols and forms of expression to blend with theirs.

What I love about dance: the fact that I am writing and telling my story to myself.

How have stayed connected to your art and creativity during the pandemic? I've stayed connected through my own practice, teaching my students, and continuing to engage with my Gurus regularly.

For Nova Dance: New Monuments; 2023 Metcalf Performing Arts Intern; jab tak hai jaan.

Social: @kh.kanna

Kiru Ratnasingam, BOARD CHAIR (She/Her)

Being the Chair of Nova Dance is both an honour and privilege to me. Having my initial dance roots begin in the pursuit of tradition, my dance journey eventually led to new explorations found at Nova Dance. A company that thrives on the integration of Bharathanatyam and Contemporary movement, I have become a big advocate of the practices put forth by Nova Dance.

Here's to breaking barriers and creating inspirational work!

Kiruthika Rathanaswami (she/her)

Associate Artist

Kiruthika Rathanaswami is a Vancouver based bharata natyam dance artist and instructor. For the past 26 years, she has been under the mentorship and guidance of Jai Govinda, Artistic Director of Mandala Arts and Culture Society in Vancouver. She completed her bharata natyam arangetram (graduation) at the Jai Govinda Dance Academy in 2004 and since then has been a part of many of Mandala's professional productions and presentations as a soloist, and ensemble. Kiruthika has performed in Canada and the United States at notable festivals such as Canada Dance Festival, Gait to the Spirit Festival, Horizon Series, Feats Festival, HH11 Dance Festival, Nextfest, Baltimore Dance Invitational, New Works Dance All Sorts, Discover Dance Noon Series, Solo: A Festival of Dance and Expanse Festival to many a few. In 2010, she received the Arts Fellowship from the Shastri Indo- Canadian Institute and studied with Gurus B. Bhanumati and Sheela Chandrashekar in Bangalore, India. She was the lead dancer in the documentary film "The Great Night of Shiva" (2011) which was broadcast nationally on Vision TV, Canada. Kiruthika is the recipient of the 2012 City of Vancouver "The Mayor's Arts Award" for emerging artist in Dance and the 2016 Dancing Damsel Women Achiever Award for the Performing Arts.

She continues to work with choreographer Jai on new repertoire and with Nova Dance.

Kiruthika has received support from Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, Edmonton Arts Council, Mandala Arts & Culture Society and Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre.

Birthplace: Pondicherry, India Birthplace: Pondicherry, India

Training: Jai Govinda Dance Academy (Vancouver, BC), Nrityakalamandiram - B. Bhanumati and Sheela Chandrashekar (Bangalore, India)

For Nova Dance: Svāhā! ; Vancouver 2023 Body-Choir Co-ordinator, Canada Summer Jobs Manager

“WE WILL REMEMBER THIS. WE DO REMEMBER JOY.... SENDING SVĀHĀ INTO THE FUTURE” I remember all the rehearsals via Zoom and the uncertain state we were all in at the start of the pandemic. We did not know what was going on in the world, where we were going, but dance brought us together. We could rehearse, share, talk and get to know each other on a personal level that I don’t think would have ever happened otherwise. Looking back, everything we did in 2020-2021 lead us to what Svāhā! is today and it continues to change. I got to know and connect with dancers in a very vulnerable space. So much change happened in those years for so many of us and it all added to Svāhā!.

laurie maher (she/her)

With a background in fashion, film and 13 years at MAC Cosmetics in experiential marketing, Laurie contributes a wholistic understanding of the arts, from ideation to execution. Her love of Nova Dance comes from an appreciation of its boundary breaking inventiveness and joyful eclecticism that engages, celebrates and illuminates everyone.

Lee Su-Feh

Lee Su-Feh is an artist whose work encompasses choreography, performance, teaching, mentoring, dramaturgy, writing and community-organizing.

Born and raised in Malaysia, she was indelibly marked by teachers who strove to find a contemporary Asian expression out of the remnants of colonialism and dislocated traditions. Since moving to Vancouver in 1988, Lee has created a body of work that interrogates the contemporary body as a site of intersecting and displaced histories and habits. In 1995 she co-founded battery opera performance with David McIntosh, and together they have led the company to earn a reputation for being “fearlessly iconoclastic”, producing award-winning works that take place in theatres, on the street, in hotel rooms and in print.

A generous and rigorous teacher, Su-Feh currently teaches voice and movement to a wide range of bodies and abilities, within institutions and out of them. She actively mentors young artists across Canada; and works frequently as a dramaturge on other artists’ works. Keenly interested in the different roles and functions that art and the artist plays in society, Lee regularly initiates and participates in forums in various contexts.

Louis Laberge-Côté (he/him)

Louis Laberge-Côté is Assistant Professor at Ryerson University, School of Performance, since July 2018. He 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 acted as Chair of the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists - Ontario Chapter (2005-2007), Vice-President of the Canadian Dance Assembly (2013-2017), and Chair of the Dance Committee at the Toronto Arts Council (2013-2018). He currently sits on the Board of Healthy Dancer Canada. He holds an MFA in Creative Practice from the University of Plymouth (UK). His research is centred on dance education, somatic training, performance, and the creative process. His writings have been published by the Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices, Choreographic Practices, The Dance Current, and the Conseil International de la Danse Virtual Library. Laberge-Côté continues to be a sought-after interpreter and investigator of new dance creations.

Projects with Nova Dance: Akshongay, Infinite Storm, Svāhā, Creation Labs

Lucy Rupert

A passionate and hyperkinetic performer, Lucy trained at the University of Waterloo in the Dance and Music Depts. simultaneously gearing for careers in dance and music performance. In 2003 Lucy obtained a Master of Arts degree from the University of Toronto in History.

As a freelance artist in dance and theatre, Lucy has been fortunate to work with noted Canadian companies Fujiwara Dance Inventions, Chartier Danse, Anandam Dance, Sashar Zarif Dance, Little Pear Garden Collective, Puppetmongers Theatre, and Theatre Passe Muraille, and to dance in the works of William Yong, Allison Cummings and Angela Blumberg among others. She performed with Theatre Rusticle from 2001-2017. Lucy is a two-time recipient of a Chalmers Fellowship, a two-time nominee for the KM Hunter award in dance, and a finalist for the inaugural Johanna Metcalf awards of 2019.

An avid bird watcher, an astrophysics enthusiast, a conservationist and a bookworm, Lucy lives happily in west-end Toronto with her amazing husband and son.

With Nova Dance: Alaap

Malavika Santhosh (she/her)

Malavika Santhosh is a dance graduate from the Jai Govinda Dance Academy in Vancouver. She received her initial training in the South Indian dance forms: Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Mohiniyattam and Keralanadanam under RLV Anil Kumar in Dubai, UAE. Upon moving to Vancouver, she joined Mandala Arts and Culture to continue her Bharatanatyam training and completed her Bharatanatyam Arangetram in April 2009 under the guidance of Guru Jai Govinda. As a Bharatanatyam soloist, Malavika has danced at several events around Vancouver, including the opportunity to perform for PM Narendra Modi's visit to Vancouver and was also invited to Toronto to perform at the Beyond Boundaries Dance Symposium as a New Generation Dancer in Canada. Recently, she performed in the dance theatre production of Shyama, presented by Diwali in BC. Malavika continues to perform and teach workshops in Toronto and Vancouver

Birthplace: Thiruvalla, Kerala

Training: Bharatanatyam

Companies: Mandala Arts & Culture (Jai Govinda Dance Academy)

Why Nova Dance: Unexpected, Curious, Feeling

My most cherished moment as a dancer is the echo of ghungroos upon entering the stage.

I love dance because it makes me feel one with my body - full of energy, alive and free.

For Nova Dance: Svāhā, Kisanii Hub

Marc Parent

Marc Parent has worked as a lighDng designer for over 30 years, creaDng designs for many choreographers in Montreal’s contemporary dance scene, as well as theatre and opera. Since 1990 Marc has lit most of Peggy Baker’s solo work and all of her ensemble dances. Many of Marc’s designs have been seen over the years in Toronto including Akshongay for Nova Dance, Villanelle + S for José Navas/Compagnie Flak, and Te souvient-­‐il? by Louise Bédard/Sylvain Émard. He is currently resident lighDng designer for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal. Marc is the recipient of two Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding LighDng Designs for Peggy Baker Dance Projects’ Stereophonic in 2013 and Phase Space in 2016

For Nova Dance: Calm Abiding, Rufty Tufty, Out of Bounds, Isolated Incidents, Akshongay (Dora Nomination), Infinite Storms (Dora Nomination).

Meera Krishnanand Kanageswaran (she/her)

As a dancer, teacher and choreographer, Meera Kanageswaran continues to learn and experiment with Bharathanatyam. Meera’s unique vision is to use Bharathanatyam to tell contemporary, secular stories. Meera established her dance school Confidance Bharatham in 2006, where she teaches Bharathanatyam and provides a space for students to explore contemporary choreographies. In her performance career, Meera has danced in Germany, Switzerland, India, South Africa, the US and Canada. Her recent choreographic works include Destructive Desires and Balancing on the Hyphen. As a current student pursuing her MFA in dance at York University, she is interested in exploring Bharathanatyam in the Sri Lankan Tamil context, especially in the Tamil diaspora.

Birthplace: Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

Training: Bharathanatyam.

Companies: Founder/Teacher - Confidance Bharatham.

Why Nova Dance: Contemporary, Inclusive, fresh.

One of my most cherished moments as a dancer was when tears rolled down my face during a performance and the audience members reciprocated that emotion.

What do I love about dance? Everything

For Nova Dance: M3, Svāhā

Mel Hart

Melissa Hart is a vibrant, established dance artist from Toronto. With a Bachelor in Fine Arts Degree specializing in Dance from York University, Melissa co-founded SaMel Tanz with Samantha Schleese. Together they have choreographed, performed in and produced shows for festivals such as the Toronto Fringe, Next Stage and dance: made in canada/fait au canada. Melissa is a member of Hip Hop Dance Crew DEUCEnDIP, and has created and performed for concerts such as WE DAY, Canada’s Walk of Fame and World Pride. Melissa’s versatility has led her to dance for international artists like Jason Derulo and Sean Paul and open for Latin artists such as Bad Bunny, Prince Royce, and Gente de Zona. Melissa takes the most pride in being an arts educator, teaching workshops across Canada, mentoring students in the art of dance and self-expression.

Meredith Potter (she/her)

Meredith has worked with performing arts companies in Australia and Canada, including the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust, Patch Theatre, Dance Umbrella of Ontario, CORPUS, Dusk Dances and Nova Dance. She currently provides general management, producing, and representation services to Volcano Theatre and Peggy Baker Dance Projects. A graduate of the Western Australian Academy for the Performing Arts’ Arts Management program, Meredith currently sits on the Professional Advisory Committee for Centennial College's Arts Management program, and is the Board Chair for Sara Porter Productions. She received the 2014 Leonard McHardy and John Harvey Award for Outstanding Leadership in Arts Administration, and convenes the Producers' Learning Network.

Mithila Ballal

Mithila Ballal is a trained Bharathanatyam dancer. She has performed in India, the USA, and Canada, and teaches children and adults as well as creating original choreography. Her passion and love for dance led her to pursue her Masters in Dance/Movement Therapy and Mental Health Counselling at Lesley University, Cambridge, USA in 2010.

Mithila moved to Canada in 2013. Apart from being a dance instructor, she also is a Registered Psychotherapist and a Dance/Movement Therapist. Mithila works with various populations with mental health issues - autism, trauma, anxiety, depression, Dementia and Alzheimer’s. She has experience providing individual and group therapy sessions to seniors.

As a dance/movement therapist it has been important for her to break it down to simple terms: “breathing is movement.” With the support of the community, Mithila has had the pleasure to choreograph and perform for various events to showcase the unique art form of Indian dance, including Bharathanatyam in Peterborough.

Mithila has been a part of many programs. A recent residency program - Common Thread Collective -
Mithila, along with another artist conducted a workshop, finding your story through movement (more details here).

She is currently chosen in the precarious festival 3. She will be portraying her grief as she lost her loved one early 2020. Here is the link to an interview.

Mushtari Afroz

Mushtari Afroz is a GTA based dance artist with training in North Indian classical dance form ‘Kathak’ and has been practising within the South Asian diaspora since early 2000 following her immigration to Canada from Bangladesh. She has received extensive training in Lucknow style of Kathak under the tutelage of Ontario based teachers, dancers and choreographers Joanna de Souza and Saveeta Sharma. Currently she is advancing her training in the nuances of the dance form under the guidance of India based Kathak artist Anurekha Ghosh. Alongside the classical dance, Mushtari continues to train in contemporary dance and performance aesthetics. Since 2020 she has been training in Minnesota based Shawngram Institute for Performance and Social Justice’s trademark technique Yorchha – a contemporary Indian movement vocabulary that intersects principles from Indian classical dance Odissi (from the eastern state of Odisha), Vinyasa Yoga and the martial art form Chhau (also from eastern India) – through online classes and summer intensives. She recently completed an 8-week professional training with the Shawngram Institute through its NextGen platform.

In 2016, Mushtari established her dance collective ‘Kathak Bandi’ which through collaboration with Canadian musicians, dancers and theatre artists has created and presented original works for the stage in Canada and in the US. She is a recipient of supports from both Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council. While she continues to create work for the stage, she is gradually carving out a new path off stage through choreographic intervention in public spaces. These works are interdisciplinary in nature and intend to critically investigate the relationship between human body and built spaces in urban environment. This new journey of hers began in winter 2022 at a month-long artist residency at Artscape Gibraltar Point on Toronto Island and she aims to deepen this journey through a practice-led research program in 2022-2023 in the Netherlands.

Natasha Powell (she/her)

Natasha Powell is a Toronto native who has been working in the dance industry for 17 years. Her soulful approach to movement that transcends genre can be seen and felt in her dancing, choreography, and teachings.

Growing up in a Caribbean home, dancing has always been in her life. Bringing flavour to her every step, as a dancer she has made appearances in film and television including the HBO Series The L Word, Nickelodeon movie Spectacular!, and Centre Stage 2. Her choreography and movement direction can be seen in the Lifetime biopic “The Clark Sisters: The First Ladies of Gospel” as well as choreography for the Visual Jazz Album Tribute to Nat King Cole by jazz artist Ori Dagan.

No stranger to the stage, Natasha has collaborated and created over 20 dance works for live performance. As the founder, artistic director, and choreographer for her company HOLLA JAZZ, she created the award-winning show FLOOR’D - the company’s first full-length production, presenting historical jazz dances in a new light. The production was nominated for 4 Dora Mavor Moore Awards (including Outstanding Original Choreography by Powell, and Outstanding Production) winner of the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble, and named one of top 10 dance shows of the recent decade by NOW Magazine .

Neena Jayarajan (she/her)

Associate Artist

Neena Jayarajan has trained with Guru Dr. Menaka Thakkar for over 28 years, and holds an MA in dance from York University. She served as Assistant Artistic Director, principal dancer, and rehearsal director of the Menaka Thakkar Dance Company (MTDC) for 6 years. Neena has toured across North America and Asia, and has performed in over 200 schools across Canada with MTDC’s children’s programming. Neena studied under renowned teachers including CV Chandrashekar, Sujatha Mohaptra, and Padma Bushan Kalanidhi Narayan. She has worked with various accomplished choreographers including Sylvie Bouchard, Danny Grossman & William Lau.

Birthplace: Toronto, Ontario

Training: Bharathanatyam & Odissi

With Nova Dance: Broken Lines, Jatiswaram Re-mix, M3, Purnima Pushpanjali, Svāhā!, Creation Lab (Facilitator), New Monuments, Discover Dance Host & Curatorial Team, Compassion Fund Co-ordinator

WE HAVE A VOICE, WE MUST SPEAK FOR OUR ART FORM AND OUR FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS - As a mom and caregiver, I work to find ways to support the caregivers at the Company, finding ways to acknowledge the many sacrifices they make to bring the best of themselves to Nova Dance. Growing our Compassion Fund through collaboration with Balancing Act enabled us to secure additional resources for our supermoms and caregivers. Sharing this important work with other organisations and modelling compassionate infrastructure is a privilege.

Neeraja Ramani (she/her)

Neeraja Ramani is an independent dance artist who has been active in India, Singapore, and Canada for three decades. She works with Bharatanatyam repertoire and contemporary movements based on her training. She creates works based on traditional songs, modern poetries as well as ancient texts. Neeraja is constantly exploring her movement vocabulary and her voice through her contemporary dance theatre works. Her works are energized by nature, the deep journey within the human mind, human relationships, lived experiences and her being a woman. Neeraja continues to question the views of society on women’s bodies through her works. Tamil is an important part of her works. She has created durational multidisciplinary artworks with other artists that speak of collective histories. She has also collaborated with other dance companies and Tamil theatre artists in India and Canada. Her Bharatanatyam teaching experience spans three decades and she has choreographed many Bharatanatyam compositions.

Projects with Nova Dance: Deepend Weekend – 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019

What do you love about dance?: The curiosity, the unknown and the deep concentration that keeps expanding when I dance.

How have you stayed connected to dance / your art during the pandemic?: Slow, focused, sometimes heavy, sometimes light, moving and being still.

Nidhi Baadkar (she/her)

Company Dancer and Financial Coordinator

Born in India and raised in the Kingdom of Bahrain, Nidhi Baadkar started her training at the age of ten in the Indian classical technique of Bharatanatyam. Because of her interest in contemporary art, Nidhi completed her Diploma in Movement Art and Mixed Media at Attakkalari Centre, Bangalore, India where she studied Indian martial arts including Kalaripayattu and Chhau, contemporary dance techniques and physical theatre. Currently residing in Toronto, Nidhi is a recent graduate from the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and continues her training in Bharatanatyam.

An aspiring movement artist, Nidhi hopes to develop a vocabulary of her own which is deeply rooted within Indian aesthetics. She has had the opportunity to perform with various eminent choreographers including Michael Caldwell, Hanna Kiel, Sharon Moore, Alysaa Martin, Pulga Muchochoma, Harikishan S Nair, Riley Sims, Brian Solomon, George Stamos, Heidi Strauss,Darryl Tracy,and Bageshree Vaze.Interested in diversifying her production and arts management skills, she is a co-creator at Nautanki Creations, a dance collective based in Brampton, Ontario and was the co-curator of the second Nautanki Creations Festival 2021. She was recently selected for Sampradaya Dance Creations’ Dance Advance- a residency program for choreographic development.

Birthplace: Bengaluru, India

Training/Dance Vocabularies: Bharatanatyam, Contemporary techniques such as floor work and release, Ballet, Graham, Horton, Kalaripayattu, Break Dance and Physical Theatre.

With Nova Dance: Svāhā!, Dancer and Administration Intern

HERE AND NOW! - To be part of the current journey of Nova Dance while acknowledging histories to create a safe and sustainable community to practice and explore our art practices, its been extremely exciting and I look forward to its future.

Nimkii Osawamick (he/him)

Nimkii is a proud Anishinaabeg nini hailing from Wiikwemkoongsing, Unceded Territory (Ontario, CA). Nimkii is a world renown hoop dancer, champion dancer and drummer/singer.

Over the years, Nimkii has collaborated with and performed on stage with award winning artists—and is now blazing his own path—blending traditional singing, drumming and dancing styles with contemporary music and modern dance.

Awards:

JUNO Awards (Nominated), Outstanding Emerging Artist 2019 (Peterborough, ON)

Nimkii was presented at our 2022 season of Discover Dance. Read associate artist, Sukruti Tirupattur's, response and reflection here!

Nivedha Ramalingam (she/her)

Performing Artist, choreographer, and Director of Bharathalaya Dance Academy, Nivedha began her journey 16 years ago under her mother's guidance and completed her Arangetram in 2003. She has her Diploma in Bharathanatyam, “Natiyakalaimani” (Bachelor in Bharathanatyam) and since has participated in many learning intensives under leading artists in India though she remains primarily self-taught and self-trained. Nivedha founded Bharathalaya Dance Academy in 2006 where she instructs Bharathanatyam to students. Nivedha is the University of Toronto's (Scarborough campus) first Bharathanatya Dance teacher. In 2013, Nivedha was chosen Grand Prize Winner of the Cleveland Thayagarajah Dance Competition winning over Bharathanatyam dancers from India; she is the recipient of the ‘Vazhavoor Ramaiya Pillai’ Endowment Award from the Cleveland Thyagarajah Aradhana and the ‘Guru Subbaraya Pillai Endowment Award from Sri Kirshna Gana Sabha in Chennai. She is a principalt dancer for the Menaka Thakkar Dance Company and has performed in many international dance festivals and, under invitation, has presented her work in Vancouver, San Antonio, Chicago and New York. Nivedha continues to learn and discover the intricacies of Bharathanatyam and strives to adhere to its aesthetic beauty and balances her career as a kinesiologist in cardiac rehabilitation.

Birthplace: Pickering, Ontario

Training: Toronto and India

Companies: Menaka Thakkar Dance Company, Nova Dance, Sampradaya Dance Creations

Why Nova Dance? Creative, Care, Inclusive

My most cherished moment as a dancer was when I danced for the Chidambaram Dance Festival in India on Shivaratri.

I love dance because it signifies my existence on this earth.

For Nova Dance: M3, Broken Lines, Svāhā, Creation Lab (Facilitator)

Norma Araiza

NORMA ARAIZA is a Mexican performer, choreographer and instructor from an indigenous background from the Yoeme Nation in Sonora, Mexico.

She has studied different disciplines within the arts in order to find her own unique style that blends dance, theatre, vocals, percussion, and Tai Chi Chuan with cultural and traditional themes especially from her Indigenous background.

Araiza has studied with international theatre directors Jerzy Grotowski and Eugenio Barba, Butoh Master Natsu Nakajima, theatre groups Tascabile di Bergamo, Pipo Delbono Company - both from Italy, and Kei Takei from New York, among others.

She has performed extensively as a professional actor and dancer throughout Mexico, California, Ontario, Montreal, Hungary and Colombia. She founded Creando Huecos Company in 1986 and co-founded Tolmec Dance Theatre in 1988 in Mexico City. While in Mexico, she was an assistant director, choreographer, dance theatre performer, and researcher at the National University of Mexico in the Laboratory of Performing Arts.

At present Araiza is artistic director of Tolmec Dance Theatre, an independent Toronto-based group working primarily with culturally specific themes through the medium of dance theatre. She is also a member of various collectives working and promoting dance theatre events, Latin American artists, and cultural events. She is also greatly involved in community arts.

She has completed her Master's Degree in Dance Ethnology at York University where she had taught for several years, and graduated from the Expressive Arts Therapy Program at ISIS-Canada.

Norma is currently working at Hospice Toronto as a facilitator and head of the Expressive Arts Therapy Program. She is a member of CADA, Dance Ontario, and Dancer Transition Resource Centre, and she has also been a member of the Dance Committee at the Toronto Arts Council, and a jury member at the Ontario Arts Council.

Araiza has also collaborated in theatre projects with Canadian Stage/Hour Company, L&L Productions, Inner Stage Theatre, Modern Times Theatre Productions, Leading Tone Arts Productions, among others, as a choreographer, actors’ coach and performer. Araiza has been a recipient of various grants from the Ontario Arts Council, The Ministry of Culture through the Ontario Quebec Cultural Exchange, The Toronto Arts Council, and The Laidlaw Foundation.

nova bhattacharya (she/her)

Nova Bhattacharya is a groundbreaking and award-winning dancer, choreographer and cultural leader based in Toronto, Canada. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Nova Dance, established in 2008. Her dance works breathe rich life into the world of contemporary Canadian dance.

For over 20 years, Bhattacharya has been crafting vivid images that invite the viewer on a journey of heart and mind. Integrating improvised movement and gesture, she is inventing a language that needs no translation. Her curiosities and collaborative spirit have led to a body of work widely recognized for its craft, use of space, subtlety of gesture and accessibility to audiences.

She uses the movement, recitation, theatre, and mathematically complex rhythms of Bharatnatyam and she’s always been a rebel, reinterpreting traditions to tell new stories. Throughout her career she's embraced multiple influences and her studies of Butoh, folk dance and Western dance practices have impacted her outlook.

Born in Halifax in 1968 and raised in Toronto, Bhattacharya trained in Bharatnatyam from the age of seven with Dr. Menaka Thakkar, an internationally renowned dancer, choreographer and teacher. She undertook specialized study of the Indian dance technique Abhinaya with the late and notable teacher Smt Kalanidhi Narayanan, and a select repertoire with the legendary Guru Kittappa Pillai, and fellow Canadian dance artist, and scholar Hari Krishnan.

Her career as an independent artist includes performances with many companies, including Peggy Baker Dance Projects, Compagnie Flak and Fujiwara Dance Inventions.

Eager to explore the scope for innovation within Bharatanatyam technique Bhattacharya began choreographing in 1997. Her critically acclaimed works have been presented across Canada, in Germany, India, Japan, the United Kingdom and Uganda.

Her choreography has been commissioned by DanceWorks, Blue Ceiling Dance, Canada Dance Festival, Cahoots Theatre, Dusk Dances, Tarragon Theatre, Toronto Dance Theatre, Theatre Direct Canada and Dancemakers.

Her 2000 solo Maskura, featured in Series 8:08 and Volcano Theatre’s Short Stuff was presented by the Canada Dance Festival. Recognized for its signature vocabulary and ground breaking approach to fusing Bharatnatyam’s abstract and abhinaya techniques, it established Bhattacharya as a bold new voice on the Canadian scene. The first of several collaborations with composer Ed Hanley, they have produced many outstanding works including Metamorphine (2002), Isolated Incidents (2010), *Infinite Storms (2016) and the short film Ritual Traces (2018)

Dancer and choreographer Louis Laberge-Côté has been a collaborator for two decades, their 2013 work Akshongay combines a hybrid physical vocabulary and theatrical sensibility to create a hypnotic journey of two compelling creators and performers.

In 2007 she created Related Fragments for Toronto Dance Theatre’s Four at the Winch program. The work was admired for its rigour of construction, as well as its precise and detailed vocabulary for the nine dancers. In 2009 she was invited into residency by Dancemakers (Artistic Director Michael Trent) and in 2011 was commissioned by the company to create Red & Yellow. This quintet was hailed for its visual impact as a living painting of vibrant colours and was restaged by Toronto’s Citadel & Compagnie in 2019.

In 2017 she presented Infinite Storms featuring a cast of performers with training in Bharatnatyam and Euro-American dance techniques. The work invites the audience to consider one of the most common, and universal human experiences – pain. In exchange, it offers images of hope, joy, and resilience.

Her current artistic focus is the creation of a new large scale work titled Svāhā. This contemporary piece is inspired by women, rituals of life and love, birth and death, and the way women come together to create community. A vibration of faith, a sharing of joy, and ultimately a danced offering to this land. A feminist approach to reinventing tradition; Svāhā is a ritual for our times. Svāhā is intended for premiere in Toronto in 2021.

Bhattacharya is the recipient of multiple awards for artistic achievement and for contributions to community: the Dancing Damsels Inc. “Women Achiever” Award (2019), the Pink Attitude “Game Changer” Award (2018), the Summerworks Outstanding Direction Award for Broken Lines (2016), the Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award for outstanding artistic achievement in dance (2012), and the Manasumanjali Award for Dance (1997). She’s also received multiple nominations from the Dora Mavor Moore Awards, the K.M. Hunter Artist Awards and in 2021 the Eldred Family Dance Award.

An active member of the Canadian arts community, Nova Bhattacharya is a writer, consultant, mentor and a regular participant in seminars and panels concerning issues around dance, art, diversity and inclusion.

As an artist Nova Bhattacharya believes dance and art serve an invaluable purpose in making the world a better place, and have the incredible power to bring us all together.

Nyda Kwasowsky

My language is the moving body and my practice is used as a tool for healing. Creating space to reveal our vulnerability, where listening and storytelling can foster human connections and collective care. This body has the role of remembering, dance as the action that collects us. My work centers around loss, grief and belonging. Transforming memories and histories from colonial supremacies. To voice and empower marginalized experience, to access empowerment.

Indo-Guyanese and British Ukranian, my ‘moving body’ echoes the fluidity and ambiguity of my identity. I score multidisciplinary improvisational explorations, using sensation to create emotional environments. My presence in this racialized body is connected to the past, to histories and the dreams of emergent futures. Creating a ritualist relationship to place and time. I hope to generate undefinable states that are sourced and shared through somatics. Where non-definitive synesthetic relationships become an opportunity to form connections that push at the boundaries of who and what we can be together.

Based in Tkaronto/Toronto, ON Canada

For Nova Dance: New Monuments.

Olga Barrios

Born in Colombia, Mestiza woman, Olga Barrios is choreographer, dancer, arts educator and the co-founder and co-artistic director of Vanguardia Dance Projects. MFA at York University of Toronto. Olga has collaborated with dance, theater, musical and multidisciplinary projects in Canada, USA and Colombia. Some credits as choreographer includes: El retorno (Marilo Nuñez), Aluna Theatre, Wind in the Leaves Collective. Some independent participation includes: Latitudes Fest New York, Hysteria Fest Colombia, Nextsteps Harbourfront, Canadian Campaign I Love Dance, Dance Ontario Weekend, Impact Theatre Festival Kitchener, Bogota Dance Festival, Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, Festival Women on Stage for Peace Colombia; Festival Impulsos Bogotá, Allende Festival at Harbourtfront, and Ffida between others events. Olga is the recipient of a Hamilton Arts Award 2010, and Colombian Ministry of Culture honor mention in Choreography 2004.

As dance teacher she has worked in Montreal, Hamilton, Kitchener, San Francisco, New Jersey and diverse cities in Colombia.

Currently Olga works in exchange projects between Canada and Colombia.

#olgabarriosdance

www.olgabarrios.com

Parul Gupta

Parul’s love for dance started at an early age. Her training began in Bharatha Natyam (South Indian Classical Dance) and Indian Folk Dance at the age of 7. As a teenager and young adult Parul expanded her vocabulary to include Ballet Jazz, Hip Hop, House and Yoga. Almost 20 years after she began learning dance, Parul decided to train in Kathak (North Indian Classical Dance) as this dance style spoke to her heart in a way no other art form every has.

Since 2008, Parul has been dedicated to her study of Kathak. Her early training in Kathak was initially under Sudeshna Maulik, and soon after also under Sandhya Desai. For her advanced studies in Kathak, Parul has learned from Pandit Jai Kishan Maharaj & Ruby Mishra, and the renowned Kumudini Lakhia. Parul continues to seek guidance and training from her Kathak teachers, in Canada and in India.

Parul is the founder, principal teacher and artistic director of Infusion Dance Studios www.infusiondance.ca. Her choreographic works are part of 3 Cirque du Soleil productions: “Love”, “Kooza” & “Totem”. Parul is committed to continually advancing her dance technique by studying with Kathak masters in both Canada and India. She has given performances and workshops across Canada, in the U.S.A and in India. Her recent performance credits include full length solos at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto and the Sivananda Yoga Retreat in the Bahamas. In November 2016, Parul presented her first self-produced Kathak show “Zakha”, which featured 6 Kathak dancers.

Parul’s scholastic degrees include a Master of Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business (Western University) and a Bachelor degree in Molecular Biology from Concordia University. She is a certified Yoga Instructor in the Sivananda Yoga tradition. As well, Parul sits on the Board of the Dance For Life Foundation – a non-profit organization that uses dance as a medium to raise funds to donate to those that need it most.

Other than dance, Parul loves to travel, cook and read – basically anything that inspires her creative side. She believes that dance should have instinctive expression and strong technique. Going forward, Parul hopes to share her passion and continue to grow to new heights in her art form.

Peggy Baker (she/her)

Peggy Baker has been a vivid presence in contemporary dance for four decades, performing in the work of Lar Lubovitch, Mark Morris (with Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project), Doug Varone, Tere O’Connor, Molissa Fenley, and Charles Moulton (NY); Fortier Danse-Creation (Montreal); Dancemakers and Toronto Dance Theatre. She founded Peggy Baker Dance Projects in 1990, dedicating herself for the first 20 years to solo performance, winning praise for the eloquence and depth of her dancing. Over its history, Peggy Baker Dance Projects has been presented at major festivals and dance centres world-wide, including Cervatino Festival, Mexico; the Holland Dance Festival in The Hague; Jacob’s Pillow, and venues in New York, Los Angeles, Copenhagen, Ghent, and Soeul . Her honours include The Order of Canada, the Carsen Prize, the Premier’s Award, the Governor General’s Award, Honorary Doctorates from York and the University of Calgary, and six Dora Awards. She is Artist-in-Residence at Canada’s National Ballet School and a 2017 fellow of Italy’s Bogliasco Foundation.

Projects with Nova Dance:

• 2002 - Map of the Known World / created for Nova Bhattacharya / original music Ed Hanley / costume and set design by Caroline O’Brien / lighting by Roelof Peter Snippe / premiere Dec 12, 2002 / du Maurier Theatre Centre, Toronto
• 2003 - Gift of the solo Sanctum through The Choreographer’s Trust / original music Ahmed Hassan / musician Ed Hanley / costume design Caroline O’Brien / lighting Marc Parent / premiere August 23, 2003 / Betty Oliphant Theatre, Toronto
• 2011 - Aleatoric Duet No. 1 / duet for Nova Bhattacharya and Peggy Baker created collaboratively by the dancers / music Ben Grossman / lighting Simon Rossiter / premiered on the shared concert program Whole Wide World / premiere Feb 5, 2011 / Sullivan Mahoney Courthouse, St Catharine’s Ontario
• 2014 - Gift of the solo heart from The Perfect Word / premiere Oct 4, 2014 / Nuit Blanche, Betty Oliphant Theatre, Toronto

What do you love about dance? As a mover and as a witness, dance never fails to deliver me to a deeper experience of the world in all its turmoil, tragedy, beauty, majesty, and mystery.

How have stayed connected to dance / your art during the pandemic? The pandemic has been a time of deep introspection for me. On the far edge of a long life in dance, I have been attending to my body with care, forgiveness, and gratitude, turning my attention toward the culmination of my company, and focusing my energy on exchange with new generation dance artists.

Peter Chin

Artistic Director of interdisciplinary dance company Tribal Crackling Wind, has been called a “renaissance man” based on his work as a dancer/choreographer, composer/musician, writer, designer and director. Chin was born in Kingston Jamaica, and is based in Toronto and Phnom Penh. Besides his work in Canada, he has also conducted extensive research and creative activity in Asia, Cambodia and Indonesia in particular. Chin’s performance works have been presented across Canada at major dance and music festivals, as well as in Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Taiwan, India, Singapore, Holland, Jamaica, Mexico, Columbia and the United States. Peter Chin is the recipient of numerous awards including five Dora Mavor Moore Awards for dance, as well as the Muriel Sherrin Award for international achievement in dance, a Gemini award for his performance in the film Streetcar, among others.

Purawai Vyas (SHE/HER)

Company Dancer and Administrative/Marketing Coordinator

Purawai Vyas, is an Indo-Canadian emerging dance artist, who began her training in Bharatanatyam at the age of eight and completed her arangetram in 2015 under Guru Lata Pada. She continues to train under her Guru and has had the privilege of taking workshops with highly acclaimed artists, such as, Guru Harikrishna Kalyanasundaram, Priyadarshini Govind, Bragha Bessel, Parshwanath Upadhye, Nova Bhattacharya and Padmini Chettur. Purawai has also received training in modern/contemporary dance, ballet, kalaripayattu and hip hop. She has been a part of multiple dance works in the Toronto community including Play Seriously (inTO focus) [2021], Songs of the Blue God [2021] and Nirguna (Night Shift) [2019]. Purawai graduated with a BFA in Dance along with a BSc. in Biomedical Sciences from York University in the spring of 2020. Currently, she teaches Bharatanatyam at Sampradaya Dance Academy, is a company dancer for Sampradaya Dance Creations and has been working with Nova Dance since December of 2020. She is also exploring her practice in Bharatanatyam as a basis for creating contemporary choreographic works.

Birthplace: Ahmedabad, India

Training/Dance Vocabularies: Bharatanatyam (Thanjavur Bani), Limon/Contemporary-based Modern, Kalaripayattu, Ballet, Hip Hop.

For Nova Dance: Svāhā!; Discover Dance Curatorial Team; Communications/Newsletter

THIS MUST BE FUN - I've been given the opportunity to shift into many roles at Nova Dance; from being a dancer, to helping with administration, curation and communications. I've learned to have fun in these different roles and embrace the idea of play and experimentation in everything we do at Nova Dance

Rachana Joshi (she/her)

Company Dancer and Adminstrative Coordinator

Rachana Joshi is an emerging dance artist based in the GTA. After fourteen years of training, she completed her Bharatanatyam arangetram under the tutelage of Lata Pada in 2017. Rachana is currently a company dancer and teacher with Sampradaya Dance Creations and Academy. In 2019, she graduated from York University's B.F.A program in Dance with honors and received training in Limon and Graham modern techniques through the program. With the support of the Ontario Arts Council’s Skills and Career Development grant, Rachana was able to broaden her professional career with the guidance of Nova Bhattacharya, and she is now a company dancer with Nova Dance. She also had the opportunity to work as Bhattacharya’s Staging Assistant for Citadel + Compagnie’s production of Red & Yellow in 2019 and participated in Ukai Project’s Migration Online Residency in 2020 on behalf of the company. In 2021, Rachana was selected to take part in Peggy Baker Dance Project’s ACTION LAB online, and was fortunate to receive choreographic mentorship from Peggy Baker to develop and explore her creative practice during the pandemic. Rachana is currently focused on broadening her choreographic skills by creating her own dance works and building multidisciplinary artistic collaborations for the future. Aside from Bharatanatyam, she is trained in various movement disciplines such as kallari, hip hop, bollywood, improvisation techniques and contemporary dance. Rachana joined the Citadel + Compagnie team in 2021 and currently acts as the Box Office and Outreach Manager for the company.

Birthplace: Mississauga, Ontario

Training: Bharatanatyam (Tanjavur style), Limon. Graham, Jazz, Tap, Ballet, Hip-hop, Acro

For Nova Dance: Svāhā!, Migrations, New Monuments, Reconnections;Body/Heart/Mind

DANCE FIRST – At Nova Dance, I am fortunate to take on many roles – as a company dancer, on the admin team, and social media among others. These roles may seem worlds apart, but they all center what I am most passionate about: dance. At Nova Dance it’s always dance first!

Rachel Robbins (she/her)

Management Associate November 2022 - January 2024; Arts Therapy Intern November 2022 onwards

Rachel's connection to Nova Dance began during her tenure as the Director of Education and Engagement for TO Live. In this role, she supported the development of the Discover Dance program as well as overseeing a wide variety of arts-based learning experiences for people of all ages. Rachel has worked as an arts education and community engagement professional for over 15 years, with experience managing programs for TO Live, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Community Music Schools of Toronto. She has also served as a board member for the Arts Education Network of Ontario (AENO) and currently co-leads a National Arts, Culture, and Well-being Community of Practice that connects professionals in the arts and health sectors.

Rachel is a certified Therapeutic Arts Practitioner and is currently pursuing an Art Psychotherapy Diploma with the Canadian International Institute of Art Therapy (CiiAT). As part of her studies, she will be completing practicum hours in partnership with Nova Dance to explore creativity, nourishment, and self-care with dance artists. Rachel is committed to building an Art Therapy practice that is rooted in anti-racism and anti-oppression and believes that everyone has an infinite capacity for growth, creativity, and healing.

Rajvi Dedhia (she/her)

Company Dancer and Administrative Coordinator

Rajvi Dedhia started her training in India with Shiamak Davar International Institute for Performing Arts (SDIIPA), for the past fourteen years gaining experience in ballet, contemporary, modern, Graham, Horton, Limón, Indian classical, hip hop, and jazz. She completed several certification programs with the company. Along with that she toured and performed in numerous stage and tv shows for four years as a company member. She has also excelled in the graded ballet, modern, and jazz examinations conducted by the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) and Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing London (ISTD). She has four years of teaching experience with the School of Classical Ballet and Western Dance and SDIIPA. She is currently a second-year student at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre where she has received numerous awards and bursaries including the First-Year Excellence in Performance Award and 2022 Lindy Green and Sam Chaiton Tuition Bursary. After graduating from the program she looks forward to establishing herself as an artist and a choreographer.

Birthplace: Birthpace: Thane, India

Training: Ballet, Bollywood, Contemporary, Graham, Horton, hip hop, Jazz, salsa

For Nova Dance: Svāhā!, Administration Coordinator

WE CAN BE CONNECTED EVEN IF WE CAN'T BE TOGETHER - Although I work remotely for Nova dance and have limited opportunities to be in the same space as my housemates, I still feel a strong connection to them.

Raoul Wilke

A multifaceted Dora Award winning artist, Raoul “Jiggyman” Wilke is the co-founder of The Moon Runners dance crew and the CEO of FeedYourSole. His choreographic work extends into film and theatre, artistic directing and coaching for artists such as Dillion Anthony’s “Love That We Found, Tyra Jutai’s “New Shoes” and Abhithi’s cover of “7 Rings”.

Under the artistic direction of Gadfly Dance Company, he got to perform for major brands such as Canada Goose, Azzaro Fragrance as well as grant commissioned works, at the Four Seasons, The Sony Center and many other Canadian based venues. As a black emerging artist, his accolades within these different communities opened doors for new collaborations.

He was a model for Seika Boye’s “This Living Dancer” in collaboration with the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario). He performed for The Raptors halftime show, as well as to produce his own film over the summer of 2019, commissioned by Canadian Stage Theatre. As a leader of the street dance community within Canada, he has mentored various companies and dance schools over the years, on the importance of the historical context, within these vernacular street forms and the value of themselves. He has represented Canada internationally battling at world renowned competitions, with his biggest accomplishment to date, representing Team Canada In China, for KOD in 2018.

Raoul is currently Faculty at Ryerson Dance School, educating students on these vernacular dance forms that helped shape him into the man he is today. As a student of dance, he continues to live by the quote, “ See the music, Hear the Dance” by Balanchine.

Raoul was presented at our 2022 season of Discover Dance. Read company dancer, Rachana Joshi's response and reflection here!

Rebecca Singh

Rebecca’s multidisciplinary art practice spans over 25 years. She is an award-winning producer, published author, international public speaker, actor and writer. She is a highly sought-after voice-over artist having worked with some of the largest global institutions, voicing descriptions on all genres of artwork shows and events from around the world including art films, large-scale art installations, dance, and opera as well as DORA -nominated productions. Her extensive experience as a performer includes singing on a Juno-nominated record, which was shortlisted for the Polaris prize, sharing the screen with Elizabeth Moss and Joseph Fiennes on the Emmy-winning show Handmaid’s Tale and taking part in Women at Plays for 3 consecutive years as an actor. Her interactive performance artwork has been featured in Nuits Blanche twice and she has been featured as a guest artist many times. She has been a recipient of a Mallory Gilbert Leadership Protegee Award, a Spoken word Residency Banff Centre for the Arts and has been a Jury for the Canadian Screen Award. Rebecca is also the founder and CEO of Superior Description Services. An advocate for accessibility and inclusion in the arts, she has been revolutionizing the industry with leading innovations since 2011 and is a contributor to the Routledge Handbook of Audio Description. This year, she also hosted and co-executive produced the podcast Radio LUMI for LUMINATO Festival and launched the Hopewell Garden Audio Story Project. One of her latest projects is her play My Origami Motorcycle which she originally wrote and performed as a one-woman show that toured Canada and has been recently adapted into a newly published accessible graphic novel.

Reshmi Chetram (she/her)

DISCOVER DANCE: October 20, 2021

Reshmi Chetram is a performing artist & cultural producer based in York Region, ON. Reshmi specializes in Kathak, Filmy & Contemporary dance and has 18 years of experience performing globally, training dancers & producing arts events and exhibitions. Throughout her career, Reshmi has helped to bring dance visions to light with her structured, thorough & intuitive approach to dance education, event design & production management. Reshmi has had the honor of training many dancers, working on campaigns to promote Indian arts within mainstream brands such as Pepsi, Lululemon, Luminato Festival & Adidas. Channeling her duality in artistry & management she has curated arts activations, national dance conferences, sold out productions & events at venues such as, Flato Markham Theatre, Betty Oliphant Theatre, Aga Khan Museum, India Habitat Centre, ROM & others. Reshmi's mission is to provide access to dance education & collective experiences that will preserve traditions while inspiring innovation in the world of South Asian, Indo-Caribbean and contemporary dance forms.

Videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WywSaQoW7PQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2alNCOJ184
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJZZs4dcW3I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rw2ssxCjNA

www.reshmichetram.com Instagram: @reshmichetram Facebook: /ReshmiCheram

Rhodnie Désir

Born of Haitian parents, this Montreal artist articulates her craft through languages specifically created for each of her works. Using innovative spoken or sung language, a series of movements emerge to mark a unique moment in time. The result is a dynamic contemporary illustration derived from the traditions of Haiti as well as Central and West Africa. Her signature is clearly her love of objects and their multidimensional approach, narratively as well as symbolically. She successfully draws a connection between individual memories of the present and the collective memory of the past.

Désir is a Communications and Marketing graduate of the University of Montreal and HEC Montreal. She has a certificate from SAJE Montreal Metro in starting a business and has completed The Professional and Artistic Training Program in Dance (Zab Maboungou / Compagnie Danse Nyata Nyata). Over the years, she has attended professional workshops with such masters as Koffi Kôkô, Salia Sanou, Lena Blou, Peniel Guerrier and Sully Cally.

Her flagship work BOW'T (2013) has shone on the local and international scene (Burkina Faso, Brazil, Martinique, Haiti), adds to its repertoire of eight works (VÍ, VÍ [REC], É'TA, BOW'T, AYEWA, D2US'T, DUSK SOCIETY, and from 2017: MWON'D) and her collaborations with the contemporary Martinique company Art & Fact (DEUX LOVE ME TENDER - 2016-2017 / Martinique, Cuba).

In 2015, she was the only Canadian artist to be invited as an expert panelist at the seminar “Artists and the Memory of Slavery: Resistance, creative freedom and legacies” (UNESCO).

In 2016, Rhodnie started the BOW'T TRAIL, her international choreographic and documentary project. Innovative, this strong valorization of Afrodescendant immaterial heritage leads her to Martinique, Haiti and Brazil and Halifax (Canada). As well, since 2008, Rhodnie is also the businesswoman behind the cultural action company DÊZAM (2008 -...) and Rhodnie Désir Créations (2017). She is frequently invited as a lecturer in universities (UConcordia, Duke University, UQUAM, CELAT …) and involved in the advancement of her community.

Shivani Joshi

Shivani Joshi’s artistic practice stems from years of embodying Bharatnatyam training and Indian Folk dance styles. She continues to nurture her artistic practice with pieces that combine props and narrative to explore modern stories, and she plays with visual metaphor in physical form. Shivani graduated with an MA in Performance Studies from NYU Tisch in 2021, where her dissertation focused on communities of women creating cultural spaces, colonialism in India, and how it affected Bharatnatyam as a whole. Shivani is a Professor at Centennial College, teaching Contemporary Performance Analysis, and is the Writer-In-Residence at Nova Dance.

At Nova Dance, Shivani reflects upon and writes about Nova's journey in creating a non-hierarchical dance organization that serves communities with care, openness, and one that prioritizes a deep and meaningful exploration of dance forms from around the world.

Ross Manson

Ross Manson is an actor, director, and translator, and the founding Artistic Director of Volcano (“The explosive company from Canada” – The Independent, UK). Volcano specializes in projects that explore compelling social and artistic territories in innovative ways, often inventing multi-disciplinary styles of performance or development tailor-made to the idea at hand. Ross has directed across Canada and around the world – for Tarragon; Canadian Stage; Svenska Theatre, Helsinki; Third Wall, Ottawa; Canada Dance Festival, among others. His over 20 shows for Volcano have earned over 70 award nominations or wins at the local, national and international level. These include over 43 Dora nominations over 4 divisions, 13 Dora wins, 2 Governor General Award nominations, The Carol Tambor Foundation “Best of Edinburgh” Award, a Scotsman Fringe First Award (Edinburgh), the NOW People’s Choice Award (Toronto), The Dublin International Fringe Best Design Award, a Chalmers National Play Award (Canada), the Edinburgh Total Theatre Award shortlist, among others. Ross has been nominated for many Dora Awards in directing, acting, playwriting, and producing (winning once for Outstanding Direction, once for Outstanding New Play, and twice for Best Production). He is the winner of both a Harold Award for community service, and a KM Hunter Award for excellence as an emerging theatre artist. He was a finalist for the 2009 Rita Davies and Margo Bindhardt Cultural Leadership Award in Toronto, the 2009 Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in Ontario, and the 2010 and 2016 Siminovitch National Prize in Directing.