My Tale on a Fish’s Body

Artist, director and choreographer Daina Ashbee is based in Canada, born in Nanaimo, British Columbia and known for her radical works at the edge of dance and performance. At the age of 26, she had already won two awards for her choreographies. She was a double prizewinner at the Prix de la danse de Montréal, winning both the Prix du CALQ for Best Choreography of 2015-2016 for her choreographic installation When the Ice Melts, Will We Drink the Water?, and the Prix Découverte de la danse, for Unrelated (her first choreography). Daina was named by the prestigious German TANZ magazine as one of 30 promising artists for the year 2017 and named one of 25 to watch by the American publication, DANCE in 2018. In 2019, she won a New York Dance and Performance Award, Bessie, for Outstanding Choreographer. In 2021, at the age of 31, she had two separate Retrospectives of her performance artworks; one in Montpellier, France and the second in Montreal, Canada. In 2022 she became the recipient of The Clifford E. Lee Choreographer Award from The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Alberta, Canada.

Born in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. Dancer, actress, performer and choreographer, she is a researcher of movement and body language.

In her latest works, she seeks for social expressions of different kinds, such as prejudices, stereotypes, paradigms, etc. of the environment related to her in searching to understand and build (or deconstruct) the humanization and dehumanization of common and/or habitual circumstances. She perceives movement as an excuse to create, however she uses other tools to complement it such as video, photography, music, writing.

She trained at the Santa Cruz School of Contemporary Dance, and later graduated from the Santa Cruz Higher Institute of Fine Arts ISBA. She made a cultural exchange in Germany in which she had the chance to study at the Folkwang University of Arts  with Malou Airaudo as a teacher. Then she continued studies at the Center of Arts of Noreen Guzman de Rojas (ex soloist dancer at the Komisher Oper Berlin). Later on she was able to take classes with David Zambrano, Jennifer Müller, Raymond Luckens and Franco de Vita  Directors of the American Ballet Theatre National Training Curriculum.

She participated in different dance and theater festivals as a choreographer, dancer, actress and workshop facilitator, either as independent professional or as a participant in dance and theater companies

She founded the TANZHAUS Bolivia Children's Performing Arts Center (2017 - 2019).

Currently she is director of her own dance program present at CBA Centro Boliviano Americano which is related to the U.S. Embassy in Bolivia, and other institutions as well
 

Nyda Kwasowsky a freelance dance artist, interpreter, performer and emerging choreographer based out of Tsi Tkaronto with a background of classical training from The National Ballet School of Canada. She has studied and worked with a large range of movement forms. 'This body has the role of remembering, dance as the action that collects us’. Her work centers around grief, hybridity and belonging in racialized diasporic experience. Studied in trauma informed practices and somatics, she scores multidisciplinary improvisational and experimental explorations. Her most recent explorations look at the intersections of cultural materiality and the moving dancing performing body. 

She has danced for Citie Ballet in Edmonton, Alberta and with project-based companies: Pena&Artists, Les Grand Ballet Canadiens, Ballet Creole, Kaeja Dance, Public Recordings, Nova Dance, Battery Opera, Working On Working on Us Collective, Sujata Goel among others. Her choreographic voice has been recognized and presented by: Sketch Working Arts, New Blue Dance Festival, FormCDT's Prospects Showcase, Buddies in Bad Times–OpenOpenOpen Collective, This is Our Place–The Bentway Residency, Native Earth Performing Arts, Long Winter 2019, Splitbill–'The Preshow' Showcase, Rhubarb Festival, Kinetic (Halifax), Guelph Dance Festival, Toronto Dance Theatre, Summerworks Lab. She has attended a multitude of residencies nationally and internationally throughout her artistic career and continues to develop through these exchanges. 
 

Based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, Camil Bellefleur works as a contemporary dance artist. They completed their training at École de danse contemporaine de Montréal in 2020 and have danced with Daina Ashbee, Clara Furey, Charlie Prince, Jean Benoit-Labrecque, LA TRESSE Collective, Le Radeau Company, and emerging artists such as Justine Bellefeuille and Rozenn Lecompte. Camil has presented a solo called First Layers at Tangente in 2022 and at Mauricie Arts Vivant Festival in 2023. They are working on their next creation called QUEER CORE – Embodiment. Camil has also completed a Bachelor’s degree by accumulating certificates in Feminist Studies, Critical Studies of Sexuality and Sociology at UQAM in 2023. These study fields have shaped their approach to their artistic practice which is based on their queer and trans identity, as well as on research of society and its systems of oppression. They wish to make their body practice an empowering space for healing, transformation, risk taking and a safe space to grow together.

Based in Montreal, Rachelle Bourget is a contemporary dance artist from Winnipeg, Manitoba. A graduate of The School of Contemporary Dancers, she has worked as an interpreter with Daina Ashbee, Margie Gillis, Paco Ziel (VIAS DANZA), Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, ENTITEY/jason martin, VIVUS - James Viveiros, Pablo Bronstein + The Plug-In Institute of Contemporary Art and Riley Sims.
 
Her choreographic practice has explored themes surrounding shame, escapism and the deconstruction of sex, beauty and fixation. She presented her solo AFTER THE CAUSE in Winnipeg at the Rachel Browne Theatre (2019) and in Montreal at Tangente Danse (2021) and Festival OFFTA (2022). Presently, she is creating a new duet, MERIDIAN RESPONSE, with the support of Studio 303, LA SERRE - arts vivants, Usine C  (Labos de 4eme) and Tangente Danse.
 

Sarah Flack is a Vancouver Island based dance artist. In 2020, she received her BFA in Dance from SUNY Purchase College in New York. During her studies, Sarah had the opportunity to work alongside renowned dancers and choreographers such as Manuel Vignoulle, Diane Madden, Doug Varone, Bobbi Jene Smith, Or Schraiber, Maayan Sheinfeld, Danielle Agami, Leah Ives and Liat Tamar Waysbort. Sarah performed reworks of Trisha Brown, Doug Varone and Batsheva Dance Company. Sarah had the opportunity of studying abroad for a semester at Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten. Amidst the pandemic, Sarah moved to Montréal where she, alongside Isabella Di Liello and Sylvia Berman, formed SSIP Collective. Sarah received her first Canada Council for the Arts Grant in 2022 in support of SSIP Collective’s debut emerging choreographer performance at Festival Quartier Danses. Following her time in Montréal, Sarah lived nomadically in her van which brought her to Vancouver Island. Here, Sarah has collaborated and performed in various formats alongside local music artists Shilo Preshyon, Finn Smith and Ora Cogan. Sarah had the opportunity to work with choreographer Daina Ashbee at the Banff Centre in 2022 and is grateful to return and work with her once again in 2024.

Dancer, researcher and creator of the movement. Her country of origin is Venezuela but she is currently living in Mexico. She studied contemporary dance at the Universidad de las Artes de Venezuela. Greissy has danced in companies such as Caracas Rojas Laboratorio, Neodanza de Caracas, Agente Libre and Teresa Danza Contemporánea. She is currently a creator and researcher of projects that involve social impact processes such as Luminiscencia and Movement in live, where she focuses on Afro-caribean, contemporary and krump movement research . Since 2021 she perform and is part of the Team Daina Ashbee project dancing in the Performance: Time Creation and Destruction in the festival Montpellier Dance ( France) Festival Reencontre ( Paris ) Kvs Teatre (Brussels) 2022 Festival Potsdam Tanzzage (Alemania), Tanz im august ( Berlin), Oktober Dans (Norway. Bergen) Nueva York at EMPAC and Gybney Dance Center, in addition she danced the solos of the creator Daina Ashbee Serpentine in Nueva York and When the ice Melts, we will drink the water? in Festival Montpellier dance and Colombia 2024, Festival Pies Descalzos. She does social work with the dance for the migrant people.
Now she works in the Live movement that is an independient project in Mexico that is looking to create a body language based in Afro contemporary and in the expression of the live As a teacher she has been able to teach in :Venezuela, México, Universidad Iberoamericana de danza Cartagena, Bogotá He is a restless spirit who is always on a personal quest.

VENEZUELAN ARTIST. AT THE AGE OF 13, GABRIEL BECAME INTERESTED IN MOVEMENT AND DANCE , ESPECIALLY LATIN RHYTHMS , CAPOEIRA ANGOLA &  STREET DANCE.  OVER TIME, AND WITH TRAINING, GABRIEL BECAME A PROFESSIONAL DANCER, PHYSICAL ACTOR, EXPERIMENTAL COMPOSER AND WRITER. FROM 2013 TO 2017, GABRIEL WAS BASED IN NEW YORK CITY WHERE HE CIONTINUED HIS CONTEMPORARY DANCE STUDIES IN THE PERIDANCE CAPEZIO CENTER. ADDITIONALLY, HE RECEIVED A SCHOLARSHIP WITH RONALD K. BROWN FOR A FULL SUMMER SESSION TO LEARN REPERTOIRE AND RECEIVE CLASSES IN AFRICAN MOVEMENT DANCE. GABRIEL FELT REALLY CONNECTED AND DECIDED TO TRAVEL AROUND LATIN AMERICA WHERE HE CREATED A PLATFORM CALLED "NOMADS OF THE SOUTH/MOVEMENT IDENTITY". HE INVESTIGATED AND LEARNED ABOUT LATIN AMERICAN HISTORY RELATED TO DANCE, CULTURE, MIGRATIONS, SOCIETY IN ALL ASPECTS, THE INDIGENOUS AND AFRICAN CULTURES OF LATIN AMERICA. THIS MADE GABRIEL INSPIRED AND FEEL RECONNECTED WITH HIS ENERGIES, NATURE AND HIS ROOTS. ON THIS TRIP, HE ALSO BEGAN TO STUDY OTHER TOOLS RELATED TO THE ARTS SUCH AS CLOWNS, PHYSICAL THEATER, FLUTES, FREQUENT SONGS.  GABRIEL ALSO LEARNED EMPIRICALLY LIKE WRITING, PSYCHOLOGY, COMPOSITION WHICH TRANSFORMED INTO HIS MOVEMENT.
GABRIEL IS ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE PLATFORM "NOMADS OF THGE SOUTH / MOVEMENT IDENTITY" FOR  MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTIST. HE IS CURRENTLY RESEARCHING HIS CULTURAL ROOTS AND DEVELOPING HIS OWN EXPERIMENTAL MOVEMENT.

Born in Caltagirone (Sicily, Italy) in 1993, she studied Cunningham and Limon techniques at the National Academy of Dance in Rome, where she graduated in 2015. She continued her dance training in Israel with the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company. In 2021 she obtained her master's degree in Theater, Music and Dance at Roma Tre University with a thesis about the relation between contemporary dance and performance art.
In 2018 Bosco was selected by Marie Chouinard to take part in a dance project at the Venice Biennale. Here she performed Chouinard’s repertory and a commissioned work by choreographer Daina Ashbee. She has performed Ashbee’s pieces at the New York Live Arts, the KVS - Brussels City Theater, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the Cardiff Dance Festival in Wales, the CCOV- Centre de Création O Vertigo in Montréal, and at the Vancouver International Dance Festival (VIDF).

Shvii Rosen (they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist who was raised in Toronto and now lives in Nanaimo B.C. They studied dance and physical theatre at Prescott College and have gone on to study with various teachers in Canada and the U.S.; including, Jay Ruby, Christopher Mankowski, Jan Henderson, Britt Small, and Nayana Fielkov. Their first time working with Daina Ashbee was in December of 2022 and they are excited to be participating in another Banff Residency for the creation of her newest work. Back home in Nanaimo, Shvii is part of a drag trio called The Living Faeries, performing comedic skits and avant-garde lip syncs. Shvii is motivated by the call to resist systems of oppression through political action, living close to land, and the arts. They enjoy going on forest and beach adventures with their dog and going to shows in downtown Nanaimo.

Morgane Guillou is a French dancer, creator, and performer based in Montreal, Canada. After studying under Corinne Lanselle at the Studio Harmonic in Paris, she earned her BA in dance at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Since then, she has explored the notions of vulnerability and agency within the aesthetics of groove and trance, as she danced for for Caroline Laurin-Beaucage, Emmanuel Jouthe, and Andrea Peña. Choreographically, her practice focuses on the self: how one’s roots, familial history, and cultural heritage inform and participate in one’s identity. Morgane’s work investigates what lies behind the desire and need for expressive movement; how these hidden forces manifest themselves; what shape they can take; and how they express themselves on stage.
Recently, Morgane participated in the creation of La Brigade, a collective that strives to give voice to emerging artists whose practice challenges the idea of “normalcy” and its constituents.