CALGARY

Cindy Ansah is a dancer, choreographer, instructor, actress, writer and filmmaker playing, creating and collaborating in Mohkínstsis on Treaty 7 Territory (colonially known as Calgary). Her choreography has been presented in the Quick + Dirty Festival, IGNITE! Festival for Emerging Artists and Fluid Festival with her written work featured on The Dance Current, Springboard Performance and Alberta Dance Alliance. As a multi-hyphenate artist and recent graduate of the University of Calgary BFA in Dance degree, Cindy’s current aspirations are to nurture her artistic curiosity through multidisciplinary collaboration.

Mentors: Sabrina Naz Comănescu + Pam Tzeng

VANCOUVER

Sevrin “Sevi” Emnacen-Boyd is a half-filipino b-boy and experimental street dancer. Seeking to emulate the wild creativity emerging from the growing Vancouver street dance scene, Sevi’s style has become attuned to musical details and bizarre movements uncommonly explored in breaking. Sevi is majoring in philosophy, hoping to construct bridges between street dance and the oeuvre of 20th century continental philosophy. Sevi has represented Vancouver at various international street dance competitions ranging from Amsterdam to Tokyo. He is an active member of the Now Or Never Crew, Scndrlz, Immigrant Lessons, and Think Twice Japan.

Co-Commissioning Partners: Co.ERASGA + Tara Cheyenne Performance
Mentor: Mark Valino

VANCOUVER

Alger Ji-Liang 梁家傑 (he/him) is an emerging filmmaker, interdisciplinary artist, and Canadian national team racewalk athlete based in Vancouver, BC on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam peoples. Alger situates the body as the centre of research and uses a lens-based practice to speak on identity, memory, and space. Recently, he has been exploring mental health, grief, and queer diaspora identity through video, performance, and experimental sound. He is currently completing his BA in visual arts and Asian Canadian and Asian migration studies at the University of British Columbia.

Mentors: Nancy Lee + Ying Wang

VANCOUVER

Danielle Mackenzie Long, a queer emerging contemporary dance artist and self-taught filmmaker, resides on the stolen and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (Vancouver). Captivated by the ideas of childhood memories, her upbringing in the Okanagan has greatly contributed to her fascination of exploring identity and perception of self. Upon graduating from Modus Operandi Contemporary Dance Program Danielle will be continuing to expand her practice as she begins studies in Film Production at the University of British Columbia in the fall. Her past film works have been presented internationally with Birmingham International Dance Festival, and within Canada at Digit Carnival Z, Capsule, F-O-R-M, and Screen:Moves.

Co-Commissioning Partner: New Works
Mentors: Justine A. Chambers + Sammy Chien

VANCOUVER

Justin Calvadores
Justin Calvadores is a freelance dance artist based in Vancouver BC, the lands of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam First Nations. They are a second generation Filipinx Canadian who is gender fluid and queer. Born and raised on Treaty No.1 Territory they began their dance training in high school doing hip hop, jazz, modern and ballet. During their latter years of high school, Justin trained classically at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. They completed their formal dance education in Vancouver, BC receiving a Contemporary Dance Diploma at Arts Umbrella. In 2017, they joined Ballet BC as an emerging artist under the direction of Emily Molnar and performed various works on the Queen Elizabeth stage. Additionally they toured internationally and performed a triple bill on stages such as Sadler Wells and the Autostadt Theatre in Wolfsburg, Germany for the Movimentos Dance Festival. During the 2019/2020 season Justin joined the contemporary dance company, Ballet Edmonton, under the direction of Wen Wei Wang and Karissa Berry. Currently they have returned to Vancouver and are reconnecting to their journey as an independent artist. They have been in creation and performed with companies such as Mile Zero Dance, Inverso Productions, Wen Wei Dance, FakeKnot and Dumb Instrument Dance.

Amanda Sum
Amanda Sum is a performer and creator based in Vancouver, on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. She dances between music and theatre, and strives to create work that dips between disciplines. Her debut singles, Groupthink and Mary Shelley were released in the fall of 2020. The Permanent Rain Press described Amanda's "quirky indie pop" as having "the perfect amount of wit and tact". She is currently working with producer Emily Millard in developing her debut full-length album. Amanda created a “concert in construction paper form” as a commission for Theatre Replacement and Company 605’s 2021 PushOFF Festival. This pop-up book performance piece, New Age Attitudes: Live in Concert, was presented locally and internationally, with books travelling by mail to Ireland and Sweden. Recent theatre credits include do you want what i have got? a craigslist cantata (The Cultch), Panto Come Home! and East Van Panto: Pinocchio (Theatre Replacement), and Chicken Girl (rice&beans). She was the Georgia Straight's 2018 Fall Arts Preview featured theatre artist. Amanda also has extensive training in tap dance, and has taught students from beginner to advanced. She was recently invited to speak at See Sounds Listening Party about her current practice of informing pop melodies and lyrics through improvisational tap rhythms and movement. Amanda aims to champion other under-represented artists through her work, making her opportunities collective ones. Amanda holds a BFA from Simon Fraser University.

Co-Commissioning Partner: Company 605
Mentor: Nancy Lee

MONTREAL

Siam Obregón
Siam Obregón is a Mexican Independent Filmmaker and Creative Director based in Montreal, Quebec. In 2020, she completed her BFA with a Specialization in Film Production at Concordia University. As a filmmaker, her work focuses on observation, the intimate, and themes of cultural identity. Her latest work, JONTAE, a hybrid experimental-dance and documentary film, won the Coup de Coeur Award at the Festival Quartier Danses and has been featured at multiple festivals including Hot Docs and REGARD.

Kyana Lyne
Kyana Lyne is a contemporary dance artist and choreographer based in Montreal, Qc. Inspired by her Indigenous heritage, her works traverse mind-body philosophy and the conscious individual through raw somatic reflections surrounding notions of identity. Most recently, Kyana’s choreography won the Coup de Coeur award for her latest dance film, Jontae, premiered and produced by Festival Quartiers Danses 2020. Its continued presentation has extended at the Screen.Dance Festival 2020 in Scotland, Hot Docs Film Festival and will be screened at Regard Film Festival in June 2021.

Co-Commissioning Partner: Wild Mint Arts
Mentors: Philip Szporer + Marlene Millar + Wild Mint Arts

TORONTO

Winnipeg-born Sophie Dow is a multidisciplinary creative, inspired by dance, music, collaboration and Métis-Assiniboine and settler roots. An avid adventurer, Sophie has a passion for busking, yoga and traveling on top of holding a degree in Dance Performance and Choreography. With a unique list of credits deeply impacting personal process and vocabulary, Sophie’s had the great fortune of working with some of Turtle Island’s wonderful dance innovators, including Chimera Dance Theatre and Kaeja d'Dance. Presently Sophie is Artistic Associate of Chimera Dance Theatre, writes music with The Honeycomb Flyers and is a licensed practitioner of Traditional Thai Massage.

Co-Commissioning Partner: Wild Mint Arts
Mentors: Aria Evans + Wild Mint Arts

VANCOUVER

Sebastian is a filmmaker working within the documentary and commercial space.

Growing up as a first generation New Zealand/American in Australia, with Caribbean roots, he has learnt that there is power in diversity, as well as an importance of having intersectionality portrayed on screen.

He believes filmmaking has the potential to shine a light on heroic role models, which is exactly what the world needs right now.

MONTREAL

Emma Morris is a storyteller who works within contemporary dance, poetry, and film to craft surreal encounters inspired by abstracting her personal history. She works to re-imagine how movement can express memory, surprise, connect, and expose the underbelly of the human experience. Emma is a graduate of the contemporary dance program at Concordia University, (2017), and also completed the Artistic Business Lab for Choreographers through La Fabrique de la Danse in Paris France, (2019). She now creates between Montreal and Toronto. Most recently you can read Emma’s poem, "The Reciting Body" in The Dance Current, (Summer 2021 issue.)



Mentor: Francesca Chudnoff

TORONTO

Mirusha aims to showcase the multifaceted experiences of being a person on the margins and the delicate and intimate experiences they host alongside survival. Their works have been produced by National Film Board of Canada, premiered at the 2020 Inside Out Film Festival, 2020 Regent Park Film Festival, and is set to premiere at the 2021 F-O-R-M Film Festival. They were selected for the Emerging 20 program through Reelworld Film Festival, which selects and trains 20 emerging BIPOC filmmakers in Canada. They were selected for the Regent Park Film Festival Emerging Directors’ Spotlight. They received their Masters of Public Policy degree from the University of Toronto in 2019 and before that, they double-majored in Ethnic Studies, Political Science, and Liberal Arts Honours.

Mentor: Kalainithan Kalaichelvan