Festival Director

Sylvie Bouchard

Festival Director and Curator

Sylvie Bouchard is originally from Montréal and began her training there before moving to Toronto in 1983, to study at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre. She subsequently joined Toronto Dance Theatre in 1985 and performed nationally and internationally with them for five years in works by Peter Randazzo, Trish Beatty, David Earle and Christopher House. Bouchard has also performed with Fujiwara Dance Inventions, Kaeja d'Dance, Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers and Dancemakers and has had the pleasure to work for many choreographers including: Tedd Robinson, Denise Fujiwara, Susie Burpee, Roger Sinha, Peggy Baker, Serge Bennathan, Marie-Josée Chartier, Louis-Martin Charest, Gerry Trentham, Santee Smith and Sashar Zarif. In 1997, Bouchard formed the company CORPUS with artistic partner David Danzon. Until 2008, she co-created and performed in eight works through CORPUS, touring nationally and internationally in theatre venues, outdoor venues and in schools through Prologue for the Performing Arts. She also co-choreographed and starred in the popular children’s TV Series Four Square on Treehouse TV.

In 1993, Sylvie Bouchard created Dusk Dances, a festival that presents dance in public parks. Dusk Dances grew under the artistic direction of Bouchard and Danzon and through CORPUS, until Bouchard became sole Festival Director in 2008. Throughout her artistic career, Sylvie Bouchard has continued to forge original concepts in both the creation and the presentation of dance. In 2009, she formed BoucharDanse, a company that serves as an umbrella for her artistic endeavors:www.bouchardanse.com.

As a performer, Sylvie Bouchard was recently part of the cast of Moving parts (choreographed by Denise Fujiwara), presented in DanceWorks’ special 40th anniversary program in November 2017, and in Dusk Dances in 2019. Bouchard was part of Eunoia (choreographed by Denise Fujiwara), which premiered at World Stage (Harbourfront Centre) in 2014 and toured (2015 and 2019) in St. John's, Calgary, Whitehorse, Halifax, Guelph, Kitchener and St-Catharines. In 2013, Bouchard performed femme assise, a solo created by Marie-Josée Chartier, in Older & Reckless. She was part of the cast of Apocalypsis, a Luminato production directed by Lemi Ponifasio, which premiered at the Bluma Appel Theatre in June 2015. Bouchard performed in The Art of Peace, created by Gerry Trentham, which premiered at Fort York in November 2015, and in Trees (from the series The Bush), also created by Trentham, which premiered in October 2018. Bouchard is the recipient of the 2009 K.M. Hunter Artist Award for dance, and she has training in trauma-informed therapy.