Michael Caldwell

Core Member

Michael is a Toronto-based choreographer/performer. A graduate of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, he has interpreted roles for many of Canada's esteemed dance creators and companies, including Peggy Baker, Sylvie Bouchard, Danny Grossman, Guillaume Côté, Maxine Heppner, Sasha Ivanochko, James Kudelka, Louis Laberge-Côté, Tedd Robinson, William Yong, Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie, Corpus Dance Projects, Dusk Dances, Kaeja d’Dance, Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, Signal Dance Theatre, among others, and has performed across Canada and the United States, in Europe, Asia, and Australia. Michael was an interpreter at Le Groupe Dance Lab, studying with the iconic Peter Boneham. He has also initiated a solo-commissioning project, performing in the work of established choreographers – Conrad Alexandrowicz, Danny Grossman, and Karen Jamieson.

Michael is quickly emerging as a skilled, and critically acclaimed choreographer. His recent works include: Ash Unravel, an acclaimed solo based on his journey to Vietnam, The Horologium, a whimsical group piece created for Dusk Dances, Boogie Back, a community work for non-dancers in Porch View Dances, and Mary, a dynamic new solo for Stéphanie Tremblay Abubo. With a bachelor’s degree in film and art history from Syracuse University, Michael seeks to incorporate cinematic sensibilities in all his work. Upcoming, Michael will begin creation on a new group choreography, based on loneliness and isolation, in fall 2013.

Michael’s teaching experience varies from professional level contemporary technique classes to intensive workshops for youth, the elderly, and the disabled. He has taught at various locations in Toronto, and across Ontario.

He currently sits on the board of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, is the co-chair of the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists – Ontario Chapter, and is the associate curator for Older & Reckless.

Michael has been a core member of Dusk Dances since 2006.

Zhenya Cerneacov

Core Member

Born in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova, Zhenya grew up in a household of musicians and from an early age developed a great passion for the arts.  After studying ballroom dance for nine years, he was invited to become a member of Moldova’s Show Ballet Theodor where his versatility in a range of dance styles had a chance to shine. In 2006 Zhenya arrived in Canada where quickly became an active member of the contemporary dance scene.

He has been featured in the works of a number of companies including; BoucharDanse, Coleman Lemieux Compagnie, Chimera Project, Corpus, Danny Grossman Dance Company, Menaka Thakkar Dance Company, Kaha:wi Dance Theatre. 

Fort the past three years he has been a member of Dusk Dances core ensemble.

Irvin Chow

Core Member

Irvin Chow began dancing at the Ontario School of Ballet in Toronto. He was then accepted into the BFA Dance program at York University in 2007. Throughout the last few years he has danced in projects by: Angela Blumberg, Sylvie Bouchard, Debra Brown, Susan Cash, Robert Glumbeck, Michael Greyeyes, Terrill Maguire, Yvonne Ng and William Yong.

Irvin has performed as a part of David Earle’s (2011) “Miserere” in the Toronto Heritage Dance project and with Julia Sasso (2012) in her most recent show, “SLoE”, performed at the Enwave Theatre. Irvin was a part of the 2012 Dusk Dances tour dancing in a “Flock of Flyers” and “Tenterhooks”.

MairÉad Filgate

Core Member

Mairéad Filgate is a Toronto-based dancer, choreographer, and teacher.

Shortly after graduating from the School of Toronto Dance Theatre Mairéad joined the Danny Grossman Dance Company. She feels honored to have had the opportunity to perform many of Grossman’s greatest hits including Higher, Bella and Endangered Species; as well as work by American dance pioneers Anna Sokolow and Paul Taylor. Mairéad collaborates regularly in projects with Public Recordings, BoucharDanse, Tiger Princess Dance Projects and Kaeja d’Dance. Recently Mairéad had the opportunity to perform Ame Henderson’s Relay, across Canada and in Paris, France. 

A core member of Dusk Dances, as a performer and choreographer, Mairéad has toured with the festival for the past four years. Her piece One Couch, co-created with the Throwdown Collective, was commissioned by Dusk Dances in 2009 and toured with the festival in 2010.

As a choreographer Mairéad enjoys working independently and in collaboration, most recently with Meredith Thompson and the ThrowDown Collective. She teaches workshops to young people of all ages at elementary and high schools, summer camps and studios in Toronto, throughout Ontario and occasionally further off, in New Brunswick, Vancouver and New York.

Kate Franklin

Core Member

Originally from North Bay, Kate is a Toronto-based contemporary dancer, choreographer and teacher. Kate received her dance training at the Quinte Ballet School, the Mentor Program at Ballet British Columbia in Vancouver, and as an Intern Dancer at Toronto Dance Theatre.

Over the past decade, she has worked with choreographers Kate Alton, Piotr R. Biernat, Matjash Mrozewski, and Matt Waldie, amongst others, and companies Kaejad’Dance, TILT sound+motion, ZataOmm Dance Projects and ProArteDanza, amongst others. Her choreography has been commissioned by JD Dance, YMI Dancing, the Quinte Ballet School and Dusk Dances. She is the co-artistic director of firstthingsfirst productions with Kate Holden.

Molly Johnson

Core Member

Molly Johnson hails from the beautiful island of Cape Breton, and is a graduate of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre.

Molly works with such renowned artists as Susie Burpee, Nova Bhattacharya, and Heidi Strauss, and has performed with the companies Julia Sasso dances, the Irondale Ensemble Project, Zata Omm Dance Projects, and Judith Marcuse Projects.

She is an ongoing collaborator with BoucharDanse, and with Forcier Stage Works, for whom she played 'the young woman' in Sharon Moore’s Dora-nominated Bliss. Molly has spent five summers performing in parks across Ontario and beyond with Dusk Dances, and recently joined Montréal’s le Carré des Lombes, interpreting Danièle Desnoyer’s acclaimed works Là où je vie and Dévorer le ciel in Canada and abroad. She is a recent recipient of an Ontario Arts Council Residency grant, which brought her to Berlin for the purposes of exploration and renewal. Molly is a member of the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists and the Dancer Transition Resource Centre.

Mariana Medellin-Meinke

Core Member

Mariana is originally from Mexico and moved to Canada for her dance studies in 2000. She has trained in ballet at La Escuela Superior de Musica y Danza (INBA) and The Quinte Ballet School; and contemporary dance at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre. Mariana is part of The Dietrich Group, Dusk Dances Core Ensemble, Hogtown, Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, Monster Feelings and has worked for Trish Beatty, Danny Grossman Dance Company, Tino Sehgal’s “The Kiss” at the AGO, among others.

Her work is heavily based on improvisation and experiments with the public. Some of these have been presented at the Allende Arts Festival, Dancemakers, fFIDA, A Choreographer’s Ball, Series 8:08, and others.

In terms of Theatre, she has been the Rehearsal Director and Choreographer for the red light district, DitchWitch Brigade & the staging of Jean Genet’s Die Zofen for the Hochschule Für Schauspielkunst “Ernst Busch” (Berlin) directed by Johanna Schall and Choregraphed by Brian Solomon. Mariana is bringing much of her focus to improvisation and collaborative experiments with various artists/art realms and the publik.

Mariana became a member of BoucharDanse in 2009 and is very very thrilled to continue to be a part of Bouchard’s endeavours!!!

Brodie Stevenson

Core Member

Brodie Stevenson was born in the small village of Oweekeno on British Columbia’s central coast. After studying theatre for four years in Victoria and Vancouver he discovered dance through the practice of Contact Improvisation. In 2004 Stevenson enrolled in The School of Toronto Dance Theatre and graduated in 2007.

Stevenson has recently enjoyed working with choreographers Julia Aplin, Peggy Baker, Sylvie Bouchard, Darryl Hoskins, and Sasha Ivanochko. He is an active member of the collaborative dance collective, Octamerous. With the Throwdown Collective he co-created One Couch for the 2009 season of Dusk Dances and was very happy to remount the piece for their 2010 season. He spent most of the summer performing in One Couch and Inner City Sirens II around the GTA as part of the Dusk Dances 2010 season.

Stevenson is currently a company member of Toronto Dance Theatre where he has had the opportunity to work with choreographers such as Josh Beamish, Deborah Hay, Christopher House, Felix Marchand, and Natasha Torres-Garner.

Meredith Thompson

Core Member

Meredith is a native of Huntsville, Ontario who now works as an independent dance artist based in Toronto. Shortly after graduating from York University (BFA/BEd, 2000) she began working with the Danny Grossman Dance Company and soon thereafter, Dancetheatre David Earle. More recently she has enjoyed working with Sylvie Bouchard of Bouchardanse, Yvonne Ng of Princess Productions, and Santee Smith of Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, among others.

As a core member of Dusk Dances she has also been performing and touring with the festival since 2007. Her co-choreographic projects have been presented at a number of festivals,and she is currently on faculty at George Brown Dance, as well as Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre.

Brendan Wyatt

Core Member

Brendan Wyatt is an independent dance artist with over twenty years of experience in classical and contemporary dance. Since 2005 Wyatt has been one of the Canada’s most sought after professional dancers, collaborating and performing in over 50 works.

Wyatt trained professionally at Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet and The School of Toronto Dance Theatre. In 1997 he co-created and instructed an interactive dance program for the postural and spatial awareness of visually challenged students with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Victoria BC.

Wyatt has interpreted works for a multitude of companies and choreographers across the country, creating and performing in dances by Andrea Nann, Heidi Strauss, DA Hoskins, Robert Glumbek, Sharon Moore, Sasha Ivanochko and Susie Burpee for Winnpeg's Contemporary Dancers, Kevin O'Day, Emily Molnar, Matjash Mzorwecki, Shaun Hounsel and Roberto Campanella for ProArte Danaza, Yvonne Ng, William Yong, The Chimera Project, Sylvie Bouchard for Dusk Dances, Marie Forcier, Karen Jamieson and Trish Beatty.

Sylvie Bouchard

Performer

Sylvie Bouchard is originally from Montréal and began her training there before moving to Toronto in 1983, to study at the School of The Toronto Dance Theatre. She subsequently joined The Toronto Dance Theatre in 1985 and performed nationally and internationally with them for 5 years. Sylvie has also performed with Kaeja d'Dance, Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers and Dancemakers and continues to work for many independent choreographers including Susie Burpee, Roger Sinha, Denise Fujiwara and Sashar Zarif. She was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore award for best performance for her solo Cassiopeia, which premiered at the DuMaurier Theatre in 1999.

In 1997, Sylvie Bouchard formed the company CORPUS with artistic partner David Danzon. Until 2008, she co-created and performed in 8 works through CORPUS, touring internationally. She also co-choreographed and starred in the popular children’s TV Series Four-Square on Treehouse TV.

In 1993, Bouchard created Dusk Dances, a festival that presents dance in public parks. Dusk Dances grew under the artistic direction of both Bouchard and Danzon and through the Company CORPUS, until Bouchard was appointed sole festival director in 2008. Ms. Bouchard is the recipient of the 2009 KM Hunter Award for dance, and is Artistic Director of BoucharDanse, a Company that serves as an umbrella for Ms. Bouchard’s artistic endeavors.

Jordyn Brown

Choreographer

Bio to come

Susie Burpee

Choreographer

Susie Burpee creates ‘fully human characters, struggling for connection’ (The Toronto Star). Her work has received Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding Choreography and Performance, and she is a recipient of the K.M. Hunter Artist Award for Dance. Her performance works have been commended for their skillful use of contemporary movement to transform individuals on stage and showcase human complexity.

Susie Burpee was a company dancer for Dancemakers, Le Groupe Dance Lab, TRIP dance company, and Ruth Cansfield Dance. She now performs in her own works and continues to work closely with innovative choreographers Serge Bennathan, Lesandra Dodson and Tedd Robinson. She completed her professional training at the School of Contemporary Dancers (Winnipeg), augmented her studies at the Limon and Cunningham schools in New York, and trained in character and Bouffon at L’Ecole Philippe Gaulier (Paris). She teaches technique classes and workshops for professional dancers and students across the country, notably, 10 Gates Dancing La B.A.R.N. Summer XIntensive, Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre, and Dancemakers.

Robert Glumbek

Performer

Robert Glumbek’s passion and sensitivity towards the dynamics of human relationships is what characterizes his emotionally charged choreography. In 1987, Robert Glumbek left Poland for Canada where he danced for 10 years with Desrosiers Dance Theatre in Toronto.

Glumbek is currently Associate Artistic Director of ProArteDanza. Glumbek’s recent works include commissions for Ryerson University, the Mannheim Ballet, princess productions and ProArteDanza. In the 8th International Solo-Dance Festival in Stuttgart, he was entered as a finalist for his solo, Subsistence. He and Campanella were finalists at the 17th Internationaler Wettbewerb für Choreographen in Hannover for their quartet, Nothing Twice. They again collaborated in the creation of Nine Sentiments, titled after, and inspired by, Michael Ondaatje’s poem. Glumbek has been dancing with tiger princess dance projects since 2000 and serves as an Artistic Associate for the company.

He is a three-time Dora nominee, a finalist in the Hanover Choreography Competition, was named Now Magazine’s Best Dancer Of The Year 2006 and was recently honoured with both the K.M. Hunter Artist Award and the Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award. He currently teaches at the National Ballet of Canada, Dance Teq, Mannheim Ballet and Ryerson University. In the Fall of 2011, Glumbek created a new work for Ballet British Columbia.

Melanie Kloetzel

Choreographer

Melanie Kloetzel is the artistic director of kloetzel&co., which she founded in New York in 1997 and which has travelled with her across the United States and now into Canada.

kloetzel&co. has performed in New York at such venues as Danspace at St. Mark’s Church, Movement Research at Judson Church, The Flea Theater, and the Clark Studio Theater at Lincoln Center, as well as internationally at the Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia, On the Boards in Seattle, the University of Victoria, the California Museum of Photography in Riverside, CA, Dancers’ Studio West in Calgary, the Horizons Concert Series in Flagstaff, AZ, and the Fluid and Feats Festivals in Alberta. Kloetzel’s film works have been shown at such competitive film festivals as the Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema in Colorado, the DANSCAMDANSE Festival in Belgium, the Northwest New Works PodFest at On the Boards in Seattle, the Danca em Foco Festival in Brazil, and the Festival Internacional de Videodanza del Uruguay, among others.

Kloetzel has received grants/awards from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Brooklyn Arts Council, the NYC 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center, and the Movement Research Exchange program. Kloetzel has performed nationally and internationally with such artists as Ann Carlson, Leah Stein, and Kim Arrow and was a member of Race Dance under the direction of Lisa Race from 1995-2000. Kloetzel is currently an associate professor of dance at the University of Calgary and her anthology Site Dance: Choreographers and the Lure of Alternative Spaces is in its third printing from the University Press of Florida.

Anjali Patil

Choreographer

Founder and Artistic Director of Aroha Fine Arts in Ottawa, Anjali Patil has established herself as a major pillar in the Classical Indian dance style Kathak.

She combines the reverence of its history and its present perspective to create an artistic vision for its future. She promotes Kathak in North America by sharing her vision, her choreography and her stage presence through new and contemporary works. Anjali Patil is an internationally acclaimed performer and choreographer.

With two decades of training in both cultural nuances and the complex technical aspects of the dance, all choreography and performances are infused with her creative genius and unique style. Her gurus have been renowned Padmabhushan Kumudini Lakhia and the late Pandita Rohini Bhate. Known at dance festivals and conferences across Canada, India and the United States, Anjali Patil is often featured in notable publications, dance magazines, television and radio. She is currently performing both in India and Canada.

Annie Lefebvre

Choreographer

Annie Lefebvre is a multifaceted, bilingual creator. In the theatre, we have seen her in Strawberries in January (GCTC) and Coma Unplugged (GCTC). She has been nominated for Prix Rideau Awards in the “Outstanding Female Performance” category for Under Milkwood, Medea (Deluxe Hot Sauce), for Roberta in Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Ottawa Chamber Theatre) and for her strange and beautiful butoh inspired solo piece, The Squatter Heart, nominated in “Outstanding Fringe Production” category. She was co-artistic director of .Ism(e): Performance Cabaret. She is a co-founding core member of Deluxe Hot Sauce theatre collective. She is also a makeup and hair artist. Annie appears with the permission of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.

Daniela Pagliaro

Choreographer

Bio to come

Propeller Dance - R. Soutter / J. Huggett

Choreographer

Renata Soutter is Co-Founder and Co-Artistic/Executive Director of Propeller Dance founded in 2007 in Ottawa. With a ten-year history of creating and teaching integrated dance, she is among the leaders in Canada as a choreographer, teacher, performer, arts manager and forever student of this innovative art form.She is a graduate of Concordia University’s Contemporary Dance Program, and has trained with Candoco and DanceAbility, and also holds a degree in comparative development and certificate in expressive arts therapy. She is a Diamond Jubilee Medal recipient and lives in Gatineau Quebec, near the hills.

Jessie Huggett is 23 years old and is an artist with Down syndrome. She started dancing when she was little, and then joined an all girl group called Dandelion Dance. Through Dandelion, Jessie created and choreographed her first piece called I Am which features her and her experiences on the long and rough journey to inclusion. Now she is a professional dancer with Propeller Dance, Ontario’s only integrated contemporary dance company. The piece Out Of The Box was first created and performed with Amelia Griffin on June 2, 2012 at Centrepointe Theatre and will be performed as a duet in Toronto next spring.

Carmen Romero

Choreographer, Performer

Carmenromerois the artistic director of Compañía Carmen romero Flamenco Dance music and theschool of Flamenco Dance arts based in Toronto. Carmen has been involved in the art of Flamenco for over 30 years and has been awarded several awards and grants for her work in the field of flamenco dance.

Some of the awards include TheChalmers award, The K.m Hunter emerging artists award given to artists who in the development stage of their careers have already made and impact on dance in Canada, the Canada Council Grant B for further training in Spain, a Toronto arts Council project grant, the Laidlaw Creation grants in 1995 and 1998 as well as touring support from the Canada Council outreach program in 1997, 2000 and 2001. Achoreographer of merit she conveys old traditions to the modern world articulating the primal essence of flamenco.

In June 2000, Carmen Romero’s company was the only professional flamenco dance company from Canada and North America to perform in Spain at their most important choreographic event: the 9th annual Certamen de Coreografia de Danza española y Flamenco at the prestigious Teatro albeniz in madrid, spain. There the company performed Luna Llena, which first premiered in FiDa 98. This was a milestone in her career as it affirmed that her work is of international caliber deserving a place on the world stage.

Yvonne Ng

Performer

tiger princess dance projects (tpdp) was founded by Yvonne Ng in 1995 under the umbrella of princess productions, an “art making company” and cutting edge organization that produces quality contemporary dance works that combines new music and theatre in an interdisciplinary approach to performance.

tpdp supports Yvonne Ng's activities as a performer, choreographer, arts educator and producer and reflects her uniquely Canadian experience as an Chinese immigrant and visible minority. Since 1995, twenty-three of tpdp’s works have received critical and commercial acclaim across Canada, Australia, Europe and Asia; and have garnered eight Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations for performance and choreography.

tpdp’s repertoire includes both Ng’s own works and commissions of creations by other esteemed contemporary choreographers with similar artistic values, from Canada and abroad. Toronto’s most gifted dancers are involved in the creation and interpretation of the company’s repertoire. tpdp is honoured to be working with Julia Aplin for this Dusk Dances 2012 commission.

Dan Watson

Host

Dan has created, performed and taught theatre across Canada, Scotland, France, the United States and Japan.

He is Artistic Director of Edge of the Woods Theatre (Nuit Blanche North, Edge of the Woods Theatre Festival) in his home town of Huntsville, a co-founder of the international Theatre company Ahuri Theatre (Yabu No Naka, A Fool’s Life), and a member of Compagnie Houppz! (SplasH20, Mouving-2011 Eloize for Outstanding production). Dan has performed with Theatre Smith Gilmour (Grimm Too, As I Lay Dying), Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (The Golden Thug), Theatre Panik (The Finger) and TheatreRun (Pylade).

He has completed a Metcalf Foundation internship with Jumblies Theatre and is the Artistic Producer of one its offshoots Arts4All. Dan is a graduate of Humber College in Toronto and École Jacques Lecoq in Paris.

Zata Omm Dance Projects - William Yong

Choreographer

William was trained at the London Contemporary Dance School in England and was admitted to the Master of Arts with distinction by University of Kent. In the last year of his MA study, he was sent alone for his secondment to study with the Nederlands Dans Theatre 1 in the Netherlands.

Previous dance companies he worked with included Wayne McGregor's Random Dance, Matthew Bourne’s Adventures in Motion Pictures, Toronto Dance Theatre, CORPUS, Theatre Rusticle, Lina Cruz's Fila 13 and many others. William has performed in eleven dance films including his latest film To Fly or Fall directed by Kathi Prosser. He was also profiled in an episode of the Bravo TV documentary Freedom as a choreographer, interviewed and hosted by Robert Desrosiers. He also finds time and has expanded his acting career and worked in films and television.

Currently William is the artistic director and choreographer of Zata Omm Dance Projects (www.zataomm.org). William is a double Dora Mavor Moore Award nominee. His latest nomination was for 'Outstanding New Choreography' for Zata Omm's production Frames. William's latest full-length choreographic work Eight Ways From Mara for Zata Omm was premiered at the Harbourfront Centre's Enwave Theatre in October 2011.