After performing her work in New York, Alex Elliott and Hurricane Sandy came face to face. Physically demanding and emotionally charged, her work made it back to her hometown of Winnipeg and beyond. Her dances have been presented in New York, Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Regina, and Halifax. Alex thanks Tedd Robinson for his ecstasy charged commission Logarian Rhapsody. She is the Artistic Director of her own company Alexandra Elliott Dance, as well as Art Holm, a multidisciplinary performance series in Winnipeg, and the Executive Director of Young Lungs Dance Exchange.
Marcus Merasty is a Nēhithaw/Cree performer, choreographer, and multidisciplinary artist, with ancestral roots from Wapâwikoscikanihk/Pelican Narrows in northern Saskatchewan. The Cree people of northern Saskatchewan are also known as Assin’skowitiniwak, which translates to “People of the rocky area”. Marcus’ journey into the world of dance began in 2014 through a mentorship with dance artist Robin Poitras and Metis visual artist Edward Poitras, Co-Artistic Directors of New Dance Horizons (NDH). He studied contemporary dance at The School of Contemporary Dancers in Winnipeg, MB, graduating in 2021. A Past Artist-in-Residence at NDH (Regina, SK). Marcus’ passion lies in exploring Indigenous contemporary dance performance and creation. In 2024 their work was presented at the Remai Modern (Saskatoon, SK) and at NDHs Stream of Dance Festival. Recently, Marcus has worked as an interpreter for; The Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, The Globe Theatre, NDH/Rouge-gorge, and Lara Kramer. Marcus is currently based in Treaty 4 Territory/Regina, SK.
Alexa Solveig Mardon is a dancer, performance maker and facilitator co-creating and seeking spaces for imperfect ritual, queer fantastical myth-making, and multi-sensorial solidarity across difference.
Alexa is a first generation settler of Finnish and British Isles descent living as an uninvited guest on the illegally occupied, unceded Coast Salish territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ peoples. Alexa’s work takes forms including stage performance, poetry, movement workshops for frontline support workers, dreamwork + prophecy practices, and teaching professional and non-professional level dance classes. Studying inherited and learned practices of divination through carromancy, dousing, and dream opening, Alexa practices listening and receiving with the other side. Alexa holds a B.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing from Simon Fraser University, and an MA in Choreography from DAS Choreography, University of the Arts Amsterdam, where their research focused on dreaming, writing + movement practices that seek anti-colonial mythical, queer + speculative relations with ancestors of all species.
Alexa’s work has been presented by Western Front, The Dance Centre, OFFTA (Montreal,) Boombox Vancouver, PS: We are All Here (Toronto), Kinetic Studios (Halifax), Surrey Art Gallery, and VIVO Media Arts Centre. Alexa’s poetry, fiction and essays have been published by ISSUE Magazine, Charcuterie, LINE, The Dance Current, and The Dance Centre, as guest editor of the Capilano Review.
Alyssa / Lyzah is a transient being, moving through the world with fluidity, curiosity, and love. An experimental dance artist, who primarily creates, interprets, and facilitates in so-called “Vancouver” and “Montreal.” While balancing ambition and rest as an act of resistance, their work has been graciously supported by Odd Meridian Arts for the premiere of Gigil during Asian Heritage Month (2024), as well as by the Canada Council for the Arts, which supported Vibrate in its final stages, leading to performances at Dancing on the Edge (2023) and Studio dB, Berlin (2024). They also interpret for choreographers such as Hélène Simard / We All Fall Down (Montreal) and Khoudia Touré / Compagnie KHOR (Paris) and Lamont / self checkout (Vancouver). Feeding their facilitation practice, Alyssa has the honour of engaging in a teaching mentorship exchange with All Bodies Dance Project, working with folks with and without disabilities. Producing and facilitating wh/aacking experiences has taught them about uplifting stories while harnessing self-expression. Lyzah is deeply grateful for the continuous loop of learning, creating, and sharing that sustains their practice, transforming each singular experience into the infinite.
Robert Abubo was on Dancemakers board of directors from 2020-22, as part of the team that stepped up from the community to keep it from sinking, and to reform it into its current iteration. In 2017 he was also on hub14’s board during its transition from being led by three co-artistic directors, to a spaceless organisation that supports indigenous inspired leadership, reborn as Creative Mafia.
He is a graduate of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, where he studied under David Moroni in the professional division. He worked with Le Groupe Dance Lab in Ottawa from 1994 to 2006 under artistic director Peter Boneham, and with Dancemakers from 2008 to 2015 (under artistic director Michael Trent until 2014). As an independent artist, he has worked with Bill James, Tedd Robinson, Sylvain Émard, Lynda Gaudreau, Shannon Cooney, Bill James, Luc Dunberry, Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, Heidi Strauss, Kate Hilliard, Ame Henderson, Dana Gingras, Ben Kamino, Valerie Calam, Robyn Breen, Kate Nankervis, Amanda Acorn, Plastic Orchid Factory, Jordan Tannahill, Louise Lecavalier, K.G. Guttman, Mohammadreza Akrami, Tony Chong, Andreane Leclerc, Serge Aimé, Carol Prieur, Aurelie Pedron, and Tamara Cubas.
His choreographies have been presented at the Canada Dance Festival, Tangente, Dancer’s Studio West, Kaeja d’Dance, Dancemakers, Nuit Blanche (Toronto), CanAsian Dance Festival, Toronto Love-In, Interplay, ODD, DJD, and Short & Sweet (Guelph) with Lexi Vajda.
Dance artist Katie Ward works from the traditional unceded territories of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe nations. She draws from the inner world of the self and an experience of change connected to the world. Her works contain non-linear assemblages of forms, entities and rhythms, from score-led dance. In her work, audience-performer relationships are not static – inviting a lively spectatorship. She has developed multiple stage dance performances, a spectator led performance, and a radio performance, Katie offers workshops, practice sharing and mentoring situations. Katie has presented her work in the UK, France, USA, Québec and across Canada. With Marie Claire Forté, Katie is developing a practice sharing that actualises dancer’s ever-changing embodied imagination – for dancing that continually forms and re-forms itself. Katie holds a Master of Theatre Practices from Artez University, in Arnhem Netherlands.
Emma Dal Monte is a Montréal-based professional dance artist and teacher, originally from Nanaimo, BC. Emma is a graduate of the School of Contemporary Dancers, and her training also includes intensives at Arts Umbrella, Modus Operandi, and Kaeja d’Dance. She co-produced Bloom during an internship with MascallDance.
As a dancer, Emma has worked professionally with @tendance/C. Medina (AT), Alexandra Winters (CAN), Roberto Mosqueda (ESP), Le Fils d’Adrien Danse (CAN), Jasmine Ellis (DE), Stephanie Ballard (CAN), MascallDance (CAN), Odette Heyn Projects (CAN), and she was a cast member of Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers’ Verge for three years. She collaborated on and performed in a new work at SFU’s CRASH (CAN), and performed a piece by Trevor Pick at the Manitoba Museum to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1919 General Strike.
Emma has the joy of teaching recreational and pre-professional students of all ages. She was previously on faculty at the School of Contemporary Dancers in their Junior Professional Program and General Program, and was an occasional rehearsal director for the Professional Program. She has recently relocated from Winnipeg to Montréal and has shifted her focus from performance work to teaching, choreographing, and rehearsal directing.
