Festival Founder

Sylvie Bouchard

Festival Founder

Sylvie Bouchard (elle/she/her) is originally from Montréal and began her training there before moving to Toronto in 1983 to study at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre. Sylvie 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 also performed with Kaeja d'Dance, Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers and Dancemakers, and continues to perform with Fujiwara Dance Inventions and pounds per square inch. Sylvie has worked for many choreographers including: the late Tedd Robinson, Denise Fujiwara, Susie Burpee, Roger Sinha, Peggy Baker, Serge Bennathan, Marie-Josée Chartier, Louis-Martin Charest, Gerry Trentham, Yvonne Coutts, Lina Cruz, Santee Smith and Sashar Zarif.

In 1997, Bouchard forms the company CORPUS with artistic partner David Danzon - Between 1997 and 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.

In 1993, Bouchard creates Dusk Dances, a festival that presents dance in public parks. Dusk Dances then grew under the artistic direction of Bouchard and Danzon and through CORPUS, until Bouchard became sole Festival Director in 2008. In 2023, Sylvie left her position at Dusk Dances to dedicate her time to her creation-production company, BoucharDanse. Sylvie’s departure gave way to welcoming a new leadership team at Dusk Dances: Festival Director Sofi Gudiño and General Manager Shivani Joshi.

Throughout her artistic career, Sylvie has continued to forge original concepts in both the creation and the presentation of dance. In 2009, she forms BoucharDanse, a company that serves as an umbrella for her artistic endeavors, both as a choreographer and performer. The works and projects of BoucharDanse focus on the complexity of human stories and gather artists and publics around engaging, evocative, intimate, and unexpected artistic experiences. BoucharDanse creates and presents artistic works that elevate values of human resilience. www.bouchardanse.com.

As a performer for other companies, Sylvie was recently part of the cast of Moving Parts (by Denise Fujiwara), presented at Dusk Dances 2023 (co-presented with DanceWorks). Moving Parts was also presented by DanceWorks in November 2017 for a special 40th anniversary program, and by Dusk Dances in 2019. Bouchard was part of Eunoia (by Denise Fujiwara), which premiered at World Stage (Harbourfront Centre) in 2014 and toured to St. John's, Calgary, Whitehorse, Halifax, Guelph, Kitchener and St-Catharines, and Vancouver. In 2013, Sylvie was part of the cast of Apocalypsis, a Luminato production directed by Lemi Ponifasio, which premiered at the Bluma Appel Theatre in June 2015.

Sylvie co-choreographed and starred in the popular children’s TV Series Four Square on Treehouse TV, she is the recipient of the 2009 K.M. Hunter Artist Award for dance and has training in trauma-informed therapy.

Sylvie recently received a Chalmers Fellowship grant (administered by the Ontario Arts Council) that will allow her to research a personal approach to interdisciplinary solo work.