Aria Evans (they/she/he) is a queer, Toronto-based, award winning interdisciplinary artist who’s practice spans dance; creation, performance and film. Aria draws on their experiences with Afro-Indigenous and settler heritage to capture meaningful social and cultural themes through their interactive art. With a large-scale vision, collaboration is the departure point to the work that Aria creates under their company POLITICAL MOVEMENT. Advocating for inclusion and the representation of diversity, Aria uses their artistic practice to question the ways we can coexist together. http://www.politicalmovement.ca.
New Zealand-Canadian composer Juliet Palmer is known as a “post-modernist with a conscience” (The Listener) whose work “crosses so many genres as to be in a category of its own” (Toronto Star). Recent works: Choreography of Trauma and Inside Us, audio-video installation and performance (Continuum and The Element Choir, February 2020); Oil & Water, Detroit Symphony Orchestra (June 2019); Ukiyo, floating world, Urbanvessel and Toronto’s Thin Edge New Music Collective, ONGAKU Festival (September, 2019); Cutwork, Auckland Chamber Orchestra (October, 2019); and Sweat, a cappella opera, writer Anna Chatterton (CalArts, Los Angeles; Bicycle Opera tour; National Sawdust, New York). Recent recordings include: small excesses, pianist Sarah Watkins and violinist Andrew Beer (Atoll CD release); and rivers, solo CD release (Barnyard Records, 2018).
Ayelet Rose Gottlieb
“The communal spirit of Ayelet Rose Gottlieb’s 13 Lunar Meditations: Summoning The Witches feels like a gift.” said Downbeat magazine about Jerusalem-born Gottlieb’s most recent release.
Described as an “intoxicating vocalist” (Vancouver Sun) with an “individually rigorous tone” (Ben Ratliff, New York Times), Ayelet’s contemporary, improvisatory approach has led her to collaborate the likes of composer John Zorn and Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye. In 2018 Ayelet founded the Orchard of Pomegranates, a space for multidisciplinary exploration. There, she produces evocative monthly workshops including with dream specialist IONE, master vocalist Theo Bleckmann and choreographer Aria Evans. www.ayeletrose.com | ayelet.bandcamp.com
Francesca Chudnoff
Francesca Chudnoff (she/her) is a Toronto based millennial, with a BFA in performance, and paying rent as a multidisciplinary artist. She is a dance maker, film maker, photographer, a Sagittarius sun and collector of all things shiny. She has presented her dance work at Dancematters, PS We Are All Here, Flowchart, Wind Down Dance, and Nuit Blanche Toronto. Her film work has been presented at Toronto Urban Film Festival, F-O-R-M, ArtSpin, On Common Ground Festival, Rhubarb Festival, Long Winter, Âjagemô – Canada Council for the Arts, UNITY Charity Festival, Parks N Wreck, FFDN, and Nuit Blanche Toronto. You can find her at @franznfriends
Raelyn Metcalfe
Raelyn Metcalfe was raised in Vancouver and based in Toronto and is Plains Cree from Saskatchewan. A graduate of The Conteur Dance Academy, she also trained with The Richmond Academy of Dance and MOVE: the company. Raelyn has performed with Eryn Waltman’s Conteur Dance Company, Aria Evans’s Political Movement, and for the 2018 Indspire Awards along with Santee Smith, founding artistic director of Kaha:wi Dance Theatre. Following her passion of performing both on stage and on film, Raelyn is a dedicated dance artist who wishes to continue her inspiration for others.
Sierra Chin Sawdy
Sierra Chin Sawdy is an independent dance artist, based in Toronto and graduate of Ryerson University’s BFA Dance program. She has worked with Peggy Baker Dance Projects, Citadel + Compagnie, Tiger Princess Dance Projects, Dancetheatre David Earle, Sylvie Bouchard (Dusk Dances), Aria Evans, Hanna Kiel, Toronto Heritage Dance, Avinoam Silverman Dance, ACE Dance Theatre and Alysa Pires Dance Projects. She has toured throughout Canada, China, Europe, Mexico and the UAE. TSierra has trained across Canada, the United States, Israel and Italy, working and creating with world-renowned teachers and choreographers.
Peggy Margarita Soria
Peggy Margarita Soria (they/she) is a Tkarón:to/Toronto based dance artist, who is finally learning how to skateboard. They have Andinx and Irish/Slovakian settler roots. She is learning to speak Quechua Chanka, South Bolivian Quechua, as well as the Norte Potosí variety, which her family speaks. Their work explores themes of escaping-time and dance as a “memory projector”. As a visual artist, they use impulse and distortion to build a playground where ancestral memory and desire can meet. She has completed residencies in Whitehorse, YT (the Heart of Riverdale) and in Oaxaca, Mexico (Pocoapoco).
Urbanvessel 