Beatriz Pantojo is a Montreal-based producer, coordinator, and multidisciplinary circus artist with over a decade of experience in the performing arts. She has collaborated with internationally recognized companies such as Cirque du Soleil, The 7 Fingers, Circus Cirkör, and Cirk La Putyka, gaining strong insight into large-scale artistic production environments.  

Her management experience spans Canada and Brazil, including projects with the École nationale de cirque, 100lux, Y2D Productions, and the Rojo Nova exhibition. She has led logistics, budgeting, scheduling, and administrative coordination for festivals, tours, and exhibitions.  Beatriz currently works as a producer coordinator with Anowara Dance Theatre, bringing a structured, efficient, and detail-oriented approach to production and artist coordination. 

Kim Wheeler is a Mohawk/Anishinaabe kwe who has brought positive Indigenous stories to the mainstream and Indigenous media since 1993. She is the executive producer of Words and Culture, a national Indigenous language radio/podcast series with an all-Indigenous team of hosts and producers. She is also the host/producer or writer of several audio and TV shows including The Juno Awards, Remembering the Children: National Day for Truth and 
Reconciliation, The Kim Wheeler Show, Turtle Island Talks, Auntie Up!, and The Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack Fund’s A Day to Listen. She is currently part of the Pimootayowin Creators Circle and is writing a play with her husband Jordan Wheeler. 

From the George Gordon First Nation in southern Saskatchewan, Canada, Jordan Wheeler’s been writing professionally since 1982 and working in film and television since 1984. Among his numerous credits are the books Digital Ogichida, Brothers In Arms and Just A Walk and as a scriptwriter and story editor the series North of 60 and as a scriptwriter/producer the series renegadepress.com and Arctic Air. Wheeler’s been nominated for and won numerous awards including a scriptwriting Gemini for an episode of renegadepress.com. Of late Wheeler is contributing to a number of projects in various stages of development. He also remains active in the literary community through spoken word appearances, instructing and participating as a cohort in this year’s Pimootayowin Creator’s Circle with the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. When not writing he edits books, tells stories and plays golf. He lives in Winnipeg with his wife Kim.

Ivan Coyote is a writer and storyteller. Born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon, they are the author of thirteen books, the creator of four films, six stage shows, and three albums that combine storytelling with music. Coyote’s books have won the ReLit Award, been named a Stonewall Honour Book, been longlisted for Canada Reads, and been shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Prize for non-fiction, and the Governor General's Award for non-fiction twice. In 2017 Ivan was given an honorary Doctor of Laws from Simon Fraser University, and in 2023 they received the first Honorary Doctor of Arts ever bestowed on anyone by Yukon University. Coyote’s stories grapple with the complex and intensely personal topics of gender identity, family, class, and queer liberation, but always with a generous heart, and a quick wit. Ivan's 13th book, Care Of, was released in June 2021 by McClelland and Stewart and their new one-person show Playlist premiered in February of 2024.

Olivier Arseneault is an artist from Sept-Îles who has worked in the professional dance world for over fifteen years, specializing in contemporary Quebecois step dancing. He has graced stages around the world in innovative choreographic and musical projects. An active member of the traditional dance network through numerous projects including Bigico, La Chasse-Balcon, l’Écho des Racines, Archétype Trad, and LaboTrad, he develops a hybrid artistic approach that blends movement, sound composition, and video creation. His artistic sensibility is also showcased in his work as a videographer specializing in motion capture. His work highlights the richness of traditions while projecting them into a decidedly contemporary aesthetic through several projects involving programming, interactivity, and intermediality. A unifying and passionate artist, Olivier enthusiastically shares his love for Quebec's living heritage.

Born in Mexico, Paco Ziel is a multidisciplinary artist, choreographer, dancer, teacher, rehearsal director, and artistic advisor based in Montreal. Since 2019, he has co-directed the company Vías with Diana León, with whom he has produced impactful works such as Sur ce chemin, tu es sûre de te perdre, Sabor de mi corazón, Flesh & Sound and Tout ce qu'il reste.
In 2024, Paco and Diana received the prestigious Prix de la danse de Montréal in the Revelation category, presented by the Agora de la danse and Tangente, recognizing their impact on the contemporary dance scene.
He danced with Rubberband for 10 years, where he also served as the artistic coordinator, contributing to the company's growth under the direction of Victor Quijada. He toured across Canada, the United States, Mexico, Germany, and Poland. Paco has also collaborated with PPS Danse, Anne Plamondon Productions, Martin Messier, Je suis Julio, Edgar Zendejas, and other independent choreographers.
Paco is also a passionate educator, having taught at the École supérieure de ballet du Québec, Springboard Danse Montréal, Domaine Forget, Transformation, Danse à la Carte, the École de danse de Québec, and the École de danse contemporaine de Montréal.
In parallel, Paco explores other art forms such as music, writing, and visual arts, focusing on the phenomenology of movement as a union with the natural world. His constant artistic indiscipline reflects his commitment to the search for new forms of expression.
 

Oliver performed over 1,400 times in 250 dance, theatre, film, and TV productions, reaching 10 million audience members across Canada, the US, and Europe. Recipient of The Elsa Bolam Award in Recognition of Outstanding Achievement by an Emerging Theatre Artist, and MyTheatre's Outstanding Ensemble Award for Factory Theatre's Banana Boys, he's had the opportunity to dance for various companies and choreographers such as PPS Danse (Bagne re-creation), George Stamos (Agora de la danse), Sursaut Dance (Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur), Ballet Ouest (Nutcracker), Willi Dorner (FTA), Cirque du Soleil (Tapis Rouge), Dynamo Theatre/YPT (Me Me Me), in 4 touring productions for Fleuve-Espace Danse (La Rotonde/Quartiers Danses) and 3 productions for A’nó:wara Dance Theatre. He also received 3 Montreal English Theatre Awards nominations for his solo Psycho 6 : Outstanding Lead Performance (PACT Production), Outstanding New Text and Outstanding Contribution to Theatre (Choreography). He was a lead performer in the video game Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey - PS4/Xbox) which sold 2 million copies worldwide. Critics have mentioned his performances to be: "Frightening but magnetic." (Toronto Star), "fiercely physical" (Gazette), "has a scary intensity" (Globe and Mail), "the surgical Oliver Koomsatira vibrates with sexuality, strength and poise" (Dance Current).

Nicole Jacobs is a member of Curve Lake First Nation and a Montreal-based choreographer, teacher, and dance artist. Her movement research weaves contemporary dance with the embodied languages of floorwork and acrobatics. Her choreographic language is informed by her experience in theatre and circus, and an ongoing curiosity for lighting design. Her work emerges through physically and emotionally immersive experiences that confront perception and intimacy, vulnerability and control, and states of transformation and liminality.
She is a graduate of Concordia University’s contemporary dance program and has collaborated with creators and companies including Theatre Junction, A’nó:wara Dance Theatre, Corpuscule Danse, My-Van Dam, Ivanie Aubin-Malo, and Ange Loft. Nicole shares her methodology through classes and workshops at Espace Ouvert, Université du Québec à Montréal, Concordia University, Studio-303, and the Watershed Dance Program. In 2025, Nicole joined the curatorial
team at Centre de Création O Vertigo as Indigenous Curator.
Her choreographic work has been presented at the St. Ambroise Montréal Fringe Festival (2022), Festival Quartiers Danses (2023), Here&Now Festival (2024), 
Quai 5160 – Maison de la Culture Verdun (2024), and Tangente (2025).
 

Michael Tekaronianeken Diabo is a Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) composer, arranger, guitarist, educator, and ukulele fanatic from Kahnawake, based in Punamu’kwati’jk (Dartmouth, NS).

He has been nominated for a Genie Award, and won the Atlantic Film Festival Craft Award. Many of his songs have been licensed for use in television, movies, and the web.

He works as a performer and composer with A'no:wara Dance Theatre, and has spent the last while looking at music through the lens of Indigenous Futurism.

Michael is also a member of Canada’s longest running, award winning instrumental surf band Urban Surf Kings.
 

Graduated from the National School of Classical and Contemporary Dance at the National Institute of Fine Arts (2016, Mexico, City).
In her fourth year of the program, she received a scholarship from the Limón Institute in New York to attend an Intensive Limón Technique Workshop in Los Angeles, California (2015). She was part of the company Barro Rojo Arte Escénico, participating in national and international festivals in Mexico, Colombia, the United States, and Ivory Coast (Africa) (2014-2018). Since 2019, she is part of A'nó:wara Dance Theatre, directed by Barbara Diabo, dancer and choreographer from Kanyen'kehà:ka Nation, performing in the Quartiers Danses Festival (Montreal), Prismatic Arts Festival 2021 (Halifax), Harbourfront Centre (Toronto), and the "First Peoples Performing Arts Festival of the Thousand Islands" in 2019 & 2023. 
She performed at Fleck Dance Theatre with the company Newton Moraes Dance Theatre in 2022, in the piece « Life under my skin ».
She offered a masterclass for students and professional dancers at the KOYA 2023 Festival of Contemporary Dance (Chiapas, Mexico), where she also presented her piece "Son semilla," a choreography created in honor of women who have suffered gender violence and femicide. 
She participated in the Sherbrooke Contemporary Dance Festival (Quebec) 2023 & 2024, in collaboration with dancer and choreographer Gabriela Guerra Woo, creating the piece "Mujeres de tierra », and Alexander Herrera « La mujer dormida y la montana humeante »

Since 2023 and in the present she works with the company Red Sky Performance, performing at Canadian Stage,Vancouver, Oregon, Washington DC at the Kennedy Center, and in the Danse Danse Festival in Montreal.