Will Howie is an award-winning Music Producer, Sound Engineer, Educator, and Researcher based in Vancouver, Canada. His professional audio production experience covers myriad genres, including classical (large and small ensemble), jazz, fusion, acoustic, new music/avant-guard, rock and funk, as well as many live and in-studio broadcasts for CBC/Radio-Canada. An innovator in 3D audio research and production techniques, he has recorded and mixed content in the studio and live for many immersive music formats, including 22.2 Multichannel Sound, Dolby Atmos, Auro 3D, octophonic surround sound, and various binaural mediums. Will holds a PhD in Sound Recording from McGill University, and was a postdoctoral research fellow at Tokyo University of the Arts, teaching courses in music and audio production at both these institutions. He has had the pleasure to have worked with such artists as Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, James Ehnes, Steven Page, Toshiyuki Honda, Tafelmusik, Angela Hewitt, Chucho Valdés, Measha Brueggergosman, Angélique Kidjo, Tanya Tagaq, and Jane Coop. Will is currently sessional faculty within the University of British Columbia’s School of Music, and an active producer-engineer. 

Richard King is an Educator, Researcher, and a Grammy Award winning recording engineer. Richard has garnered Grammy Awards in many fields, including Best Engineered Album in both the Classical and Non-Classical categories. Richard is a Professor at McGill University in Montréal, Canada. A long-standing member and Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society, Richard is a regular convention presenter. His research interests include small environment acoustics, the process of music mixing, and immersive audio recording and reproduction. His book Recording Orchestra is part of the “AES presents” series, and the Second Edition was released in August of 2024.

Dave Horrocks is a mastering engineer, drummer and percussionist from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Associated with Infinite Wave Mastering studio and Sundae Sound recording studio. Formerly the co-owner of Sundae Sound recording studio. 

Aanii, ndinaawamagaanadog! Maygabow Ogidajew Kwe, nindizhinikaaz. Gaa-waabaabiganikaag + Um’oha, ndoonjibaa, Migizi ndoodem. Hello, my relatives! My name is Woman Standing on the Mountaintop; Valerie St. Pierre Smith is my English name. A proud descendant of White Earth Nation, I currently reside on the unceded lands of the Um’oha people, commonly known as Omaha, NE, USA. I am Eagle clan.” St. Pierre Smith is a two-spirit mischief maker, multi-disciplinary designer/artisan, scholar, writer, and healer, Valerie has an eclectic creative background including fiber arts, installation, costume, textile, and fashion design. Her creative practice explores, and is deeply influenced by, her lived experience as a mixed-blood Annishnaabe kwe, focusing on the confluence of healing, social justice, traditional Anishinaabe teachings, and the power of identity. A bit of a unicorn, Valerie’s creative research and scholarly work focuses on decolonizing western design and creative practices, pedagogies, and paradigms. Some of her favorite costume credits include McCarter Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, Sea World: San Diego, the National Museum of the American Indian, and Pilobolus Dance Theatre. St. Pierre Smith holds a B.F.A from Stephens College, and an M.F.A from San Diego State University.

Reese Wilson is a performer, choreographer and educator based in Mohkinstsis (Calgary). Since graduating from the University of Calgary, with a B.Ed (2023) and BFA in Dance (2020), Reese has trained fervently both locally and abroad, most recently in the b12 Research and Dance workshop festival in Berlin, with Stefan Crainic, Lisard Tranis and Josephine Haas. As a performer for both stage and screen, Reese has had the opportunity to participate in choreographic processes as well as perform original and repertoire works by Meghann Michalsky of Project InTandem, W&M Physical Theatre, Kloetzel&Co, Corps Bara Dance
Theatre, Marie France Forcier, Nicole Charlton-Goodbrand, and Karissa Barry. Her self-choreographed, directed and performed film, A Practical Guide to Serenity, was presented at the Ignite Festival for Emerging Artists and WildDogs International Screendance Festival in 2021. Reese is a dedicated advocate of Dance Education for all populations and finds unmeasurable joy in regularly teaching both the youth as well as within the local professional dance community.

Hélène Simoneau is a choreographer exploring themes of intimacy, agency, identity, sexuality, and power. In the last few years, she has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Choreography Fellowship at New York City Center, and most recently, she was awarded a Pillow Lab residency at Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, MA. She was also a resident artist at Baryshnikov Arts Center, NYU/Tisch, NCCAkron, and a fellow of The NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts, Ailey’s New Directions Choreography Lab, the Bogliasco Foundation, and the Swiss International Coaching Project for Choreographers (SiWiC) in Zurich. Simoneau was awarded first place for Choreography at the 13th Internationales Solo-Tanz-Theater Festival in Stuttgart, Germany, for her solo “the gentleness was in her hands.” Her choreography has been commissioned by Oregon Ballet Theatre, The Juilliard School, Charlotte Ballet, PARA.MAR Dance Theatre, Vitacca Ballet, Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, BalletX, the Ailey School, Dimensions Dance Theatre, and the American Dance Festival. Originally from Eastern Québec, Simoneau now divides her time between Montréal and NYC.

Photo Credit: Whitney Browne

Kaitlyn Seibold, based in Mohkinstsis (Calgary) AB, is a movement researcher, performer, choreographer, and educator. She holds a BFA in Dance Performance from Toronto Metropolitan University and an MFA from York University, where she was awarded the Lipson Family Endowment Award for her choreographic promise. Kaitlyn has worked with renowned choreographers such as Vicki St Denys, Louis Laberge-Cote, Robert Glumbek, Ryan Lee, Hanna Keil, Matjash Mrozewski, Colleen Snell, and Apolonia Velasquez, immersing herself in a diverse range of styles and approaches. Currently teaching at Alberta Ballet and performing with Project InTandem and Ballet Bodies YYC, her research investigates the fluid boundaries between physicalized theatre and contemporary movement. With over 30 original works to her name, Kaitlyn’s choreography invites audiences to experience the emotional and physical depths of the body on both stage and screen. 

Alisia Pobega completed her dance training in Montréal at L'École Supérieure de ballet du Québec. 

In 2000, Alisia joined Les Grands Ballets Canadiens where she danced for over 12 years, performing in works by numerous international choreographers and rising to the rank of soloist. 

She is currently an independent artist in Montréal dancing for choreographers Jane Mappin, Andrew Skeels, Hélène Simoneau and Kvarcakova-Galdeano and is a member of The Legacy Project, directed by Margie Gillis. 

Along with Louis-Martin Charest, they have developed and teach a series of workshops: Presence and Interpretation Method For Dancers. They have also collaborated on several short dance films. 

Alisia teaches classical ballet and contemporary dance for established institutions such as Danse à la Carte, Studios GB, l’École Supérieure de ballet du Québec, L’École de danse contemporaine de Montréal, Springboard Danse Montréal and Compagnie Marie Chouinard. She also spends time in the studio as rehearsal-director, rehearsing pieces for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Cas Public, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal (BJM), Véronique Giasson and Anne Plamondon Productions. 

Since June 2023, she has been the Artistic and General Director of Danse à la Carte.

Photo Credit: Michael Slobodian