Kiera Breaugh is a dancer/choreographer whose style lives at the intersection of contemporary and hip hop. She has a BA in Dance from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. While in LA, she was a member of several LA based companies including: the Young Lions, Immabeast, Immabreathe and MashUp Contemporary Dance Company. Since returning to Toronto, Kiera has performed Barely Black for the Dance Matters A Woman’s Work (2020), became an Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellow at the School at Jacob’s Pillow (2021), performed in Femmillennial at the Toronto Fringe Festival (2022) and choreographed a site specific piece Shahidi that was performed as a part of Presence in Lisgar Park (2022). Kiera was chosen by the Toronto Raptors and OVO as a Welcome Toronto Creator (2023) and given the opportunity to create and present an original piece representing the diversity of the city. She currently teaches and choreographs at studios across the GTA.
River Christie-White
Choreographer & Performer, Withrow Park
River is a talented musician and producer who focuses on heavy and progressive metal. He has also overcome many obstacles and barriers in his life, and has transformed from a non-verbal autistic student struggling within the educational system to an honors student at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson). In 2014 he founded Hoops for Hope, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of Indigenous people with disabilities and sheds light on issues of diversity and inclusion vs acceptance. River received the 2017 Diversity, Race Relations and Inclusivity Award for Youth/Young Adults from the City of London in recognition of his work. Today River Christie-White uses his talents of music and the traditional art of Hoop Dancing to spread awareness about Autism and the lack of support for Indigenous children and families with special needs.
Denise Fujiwara
Choreographer, touring & Withrow Park
Denise Fujiwara is based in Tkaronto where she choreographs, dances, dramaturgs and teaches dance. Creating and performing Moving Parts with the wonderful team has been an unwieldy joy after the solitudes of the pandemic and the heart-breaking loss of Phil Strong. Noppera-bo, a short film created with filmmaker William Yong won a 2020 One-Reeler Short Film Competition Award of Excellence in Los Angeles. EUNOIA, a multimedia work based on Christian Bök’s Griffin Poetry Prize winning book, premiered at World Stage in Toronto and was nominated for three Dora Mavor Moore Awards, named one of NOW’s Top 5 Dance Shows of 2014 and began national touring in 2015. Her six solo dance concerts toured across Canada and to festivals in the United States, South America, Europe and Asia. She is the Artistic Director of Fujiwara Dance Inventions, a co-founder of CanAsian Dance and a recipient of the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Muriel Sherrin Award for international achievement in dance. www.fujiwaradance.com
Rumi Jeraj
Choreographer & Performer, Withrow Park
Rumi Jeraj is an Ismailli Muslim hailing from Sherwood Park, Alberta (the world's largest hamlet). A Graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University, Rumi has worked for dance artists including Daryl Tracy, Heidi Strauss, Hanna Kiel and Eilish Shin-Culhane. Since graduating, Rumi has been curious about creating his own work, collaborating with drummer Aidan McConnell on a project called Space and Spectra which aims to create collaboration between contemporary dancers and musicians. Rumi is also using his Tap Dance knowledge to create a work with Purawai Vyas (a Bharatanatyam dancer) which brings their forms together. He aspires to create and be a part of work which mixes forms in order to better tell stories. He believes there is a perfect balance between words, music, and movement which can communicate intellectually, emotionally and viscerally all at once. He aspires to find this state on stage.
Shivani Joshi
Choreographer & Performer, Hamilton
Shivani Joshi has been trained as a Bharatnatyam dancer for over 20 years. She completed her Arangetram with Avni Vyas at Shivanjali Dance Academy and graduated with a Master's in Performance Studies from NYU Tisch School of the Arts in 2021. Her dissertation focused on communities of women creating cultural spaces, colonialism in India, and how it affected Bharatnatyam as a whole. Shivani advocates for the importance of folk arts, such as garba, and teaches various folk dances and prop work that is prominent in Indian culture. She works as an arts educator and guest speaker, offering workshops about Indian heritage, women’s spaces, dance, and diversity and is also the secretary of the board of Pratibha Arts. Most recently, she created Shiva/Shakti – Eternal Lovers, a film for Guelph Dance SDS, and performed Tangled Threads at the AGH. Currently, she works as an artist/writer/producer, combining media and narrative to explore stories to tell modern stories, and playing with metaphor in physical form.
Michael Mortley
Choreographer, Performer & Workshop Leader,
touring & Withrow Park
Michael Mortley graduated from the university of Trinidad and Tobago in 2015. He attended Beijing Dance Academy from 2015 to 2016. When he first arrived in Canada, he worked with KasheDance and performed in Re: Imagining TPM in April 2018. He also worked with Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario (CPAMO) at The Gathering in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Michael has had the pleasure of working for Wind In the Leaves Collective on the Searching for Eastman project as a dancer and collaborator in the creation of that full length work. He worked with Ronald Taylor Dance on a project entitled Psychosis in June 2019 and then again in October 2019 for Rendezvous with Madness festival as a dancer and costume designer. Michael travelled to Winnipeg and New Brunswick respectively to perform in NAFRO Dance Presents: Moving Inspirations Dance Festival with KasheDance and Impact Festival by Atlantic Ballet with Wind In the Leaves collective. Michael is a photographer for Ronald Taylor Dance, as well as other noted dance companies. He does social media and administrative work as well.
Lisa Odjig
Choreographer & Performer, Withrow Park
Lisa Odjig is the first woman to win World Champion Hoop Dancer at the prestigious Annual Heard Museum World Championship Hoop Dance Contest in Phoenix, Arizona. She is a Two Time World Champion Hoop Dancer, along with six additional hoop dance championship titles won throughout Canada and United States in the Adult 18+ category. Lisa won 2nd place at the 30th Annual Heard Museum World Championship Hoop Dance Contest in Phoenix, Arizona (February 2020) - just missing out on 2020 World Champion title by one point. Lisa has performed throughout Canada, the United States, and overseas including Italy, France, Holland, Germany, Korea, Mexico, Israel, Palestine & Jamaica to name a few. Lisa is a former member of the North American Indian Dance Theatre. She performed at the Winter Olympic Games Closing Ceremony in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Pan American Games Closing and Opening Ceremonies and for the Para Pan American Games in Toronto, Ontario. Lisa was the featured hoop dancer at the Calgary Stampede Grandstand show five times.
