After earning her Honors BFA in Film/Video/Performance and Sculpture from California College of the Arts (San Francisco and Oakland, CA), Eroca Nicols accepted a scholarship from Ballet Creole’s Professional Training Program in Toronto. She then trained at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre. Eroca founded Lady Janitor in the fall of 2008. She is currently a Toronto-based dancer, art-maker and curator. Since arriving in Canada from California in 2004, her choreographic work has appeared at: Nuit Blanche, Toronto (’07,’09); The Cube (Bristol, UK); Dance in My Backyard (DIMBY ’08, ’09, ‘10); Toronto’s International Dance Day; Dance Matters Performance Series, Fresh Blood, and Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, The Young Centre, and The Rhubarb Festival. In 2009, a BravoFACT of her choreography, Ah! Mes Synchronettes! (co-directed with Toronto filmmaker Andrew Munger) – aired on the BRAVO channel. In addition to her own work, Eroca also performs in the work of others among these artists are Pam Johnson, Elke Schroeder, Les Imprudanses, Kaeja d’Dance and Andrea Nann. In early 2009, Eroca co-founded the Toronto Dance Community Love-In, a networking and advanced experimental technique training provider for emerging artists, with fellow dancer Amanda Acorn. Some upcoming projects include: curating and choreographing for Harbourfront Centre’s Badass Dance Fun: A mini Festival of emerging dance artists, presenting her new solo, The Deer in Headlights Side-show Slide-show,at Newfoundland Festival of New Dance and becoming a candidate for Axis Syllabus instructor certification.Eroca was also named winner of Dance Ontario’s 2010 Dance Innovation Award for her outstanding and original work and is the Keynote Speaker at DTRC’s 2012 On the Move conference.
Kate Nankervis is an independant dancer and choreographer. Kate has a BFA in dance from York University. She has performed and presented her own work at many festivals, including Toronto International Dance Festival, Nuit Blanche (2007, 2008, 2009), Dance Ontario’s Dance Weekend 08, Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, The Fringe Toronto’s Theatre Festival and Luminato. Kate has been the recipient of the IMASCO Performing Arts Award and the Spedding Memorial Award for Dance. Kate is a board member of Dance Ontario and writes and works with MERGE zine for emerging dance artists. Kate’s most recent project, launched September 2010, Intersection Project with Priscilla Guy, is a 10 month site specific dance instillation of organic sculptures against urban architecture. Kate is a member of Canada Alliance of Dance Artists.
Katya Kuznetsova is a dance artist focused on bringing people together. Originally from the city of Magadan, in the Russian Far East, she trained in ballroom dance since the age of eight with Tanzgracia Ballroom Dance Company. She then lived in Alaska for twelve years, where she began to “untrain” through the study of release and improvisation as a base for creative practice. In her work as a performer, Katya fuses social dance forms with contemporary dance and physical theatre. With an MA in Adult Education and an MFA in Choreography and Dramaturgy, Katya is now based in Toronto, Canada. She works independently and in collaboration with Mind the Gap Dance, as well as Toronto Dance Community Love-In. Her dances have been commissioned by the Alaska Dance Theatre, University of Alaska Anchorage Department of Theatre and Dance and Montana Rhythm Explosion Workshop. For more information, please visit www.kuznetka.blogspot.com
Amelia Ehrhardt is a contemporary dance artist based in Toronto. Her work is predominantly in interpretation and choreography, but she is also an avid writer and speaker on dance. She has performed professionally in works by Carol Anderson, Susie Burpee, Zeesy Powers, Julia Sasso, Menaka Thakkar, and Bluemouth Inc. Her choreographic work has been presented at Extermination Music Night (in collaboration with Cara Spooner/Alicia Grant), A Month of Sundays (in collaboration with Jonathan Adjemian), Double Double Land, and The Deleon White Gallery. Amelia’s writing on dance has appeared in Offerings Magazine and Back to the World, and has spoken on dance at the Canadian Society for Dance Studies Bi-Annual Conference, The White House Studio Project, Double Double Land, and on Megabus Travel at Trampoline Hall.
Board of Directors
Sarah Pitters-Caswell, Chair
Sky Fairchild-Waller, Treasurer
Carina Cojeen, Secretary
Tim Bermingham
Meryem Alaoui is an artist in dance and performance, originally from Morocco, based in Toronto. She is a graduate of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre. Professionally, she has danced for various choreographers and companies including Peggy Baker, Angela Blumberg, Kaeja d’Dance, Andréa de Keijzer, Marie France Forcier, Kate Hilliard, Susanna Hood (hum – dansoundart), Julia Male, and Jenny-Anne McCowan, and has collaborated as a dance/sound improviser with local Toronto experimental music bands.She has presented her choreographic work in Toronto in the frames of the Badass Dance Fun mini festival as part of Harbourfront Centre’s Next Steps Series (2012), at Dance Matters, and Series 8:08 (2010), and at Fresh Blood (2009). Furthermore, she has collaborated in the creation of multidisciplinary performance projects Mrtvolka, with video/electronic media artist Daniela Sneppova and poet/playwright Penn Kemp, and Dancing to a White Boy Song, with theatre director Mumbi Tindyebwa and poet Motion, shown respectively at Harbourfront Centre’s HATCH (2011), and SummerWorks festival (2011) in Toronto. In March 2012, Meryem participated in a co-facilitated exchange project involving 20 Moroccan and European performance artists, MAM – Marrakech Artist Meeting, held in Marrakech, Morocco. In the fall of 2012, she received a grant from the Ontario Arts Council for a mentorship project that she initiated with choreographer | teacher | multidisciplinary performer Susanna Hood, in Montreal, which she is currently completing. Meryem strongly believes in collaboration, in sharing information and resources, in pro-activity, in seeing opportunities in challenges love. This led her to join the creative team of the Toronto Dance Community Love-In.
Madeleine Shen is a Toronto-based dancer, teacher, interpreter. She used to dream of being a ballerina/scientist before she joined the Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre and trained in modern dance and the Limón Technique. After taking a four-year hiatus from dance to complete a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering at U of T, Madeleine studied at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and at the Limón Institute in New York City. Over the years, Madeleine has been lucky to learn and experience many different dance styles including breakdance, hip hop, samurai sword fighting, contact improvisation and poi. Most notably she has become a huge Axis Syllabus nerd. She has recently started a new dance collective with two other dancers called Bare Neck and Brazen, and they plan to navigate the world of dance together. Their goal is to explore collaborations with other artists in as many fields as they can find, building a support network amongst emerging artists and bringing new energy to this already vibrant city. BareNeckAndBrazen.wordpress.com
Kate Nankervis is an independant dancer and choreographer. Kate has a BFA in dance from York University. She has performed and presented her own work at many festivals, including Toronto International Dance Festival, Nuit Blanche (2007, 2008, 2009), Dance Ontario’s Dance Weekend 08, Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, The Fringe Toronto’s Theatre Festival and Luminato. Kate has been the recipient of the IMASCO Performing Arts Award and the Spedding Memorial Award for Dance. Kate is a board member of Dance Ontario and writes and works with MERGE zine for emerging dance artists. Kate’s most recent project, launched September 2010, Intersection Project with Priscilla Guy, is a 10 month site specific dance instillation of organic sculptures against urban architecture. Kate is a member of Canada Alliance of Dance Artists.
Board of Directors
Sarah Pitters-Caswell, Chair
Sky Fairchild-Waller, Treasurer
Carina Cojeen, Secretary
Tim Bermingham
