CHOREOGRAPHER BIOS

JULIA APLIN

Julia is an award winning choreographer and has created dances for theatres, rivers, boxing rings, wading pools, cyberspace, neuroscience labs and forests. She works with a wide range of people from elite performers to beginners. Julia was a dancer with Dancemakers for 15 years, performing contemporary work in Toronto and around the world. She founded Upward Spiral in 2010 to gather her healing and movement practices under one umbrella. Julia is currently focusing on following her lifelong love of trees and exploring practices that create invitations to appreciate our kinship with the non-human world. www.juliaaplin.com  www.upwardspiral.me

SUSIE BURPEE

Traversing both dance and theatre, Susie Burpee's artistic work includes choreography, performance and teaching. She has been deeply inspired by artists and companies with whom she has worked: Serge Bennathan, Bouchardanse, Dancemakers, Lesandra Dodson, Hanna Kiel, Alyssa Martin, Le Groupe Dance Lab, Linnea Swan, and Tedd Robinson among them. Teaching at a post-secondary level is a passion, and in 2020, Susie furthered her own studies - a Master's degree in Theatre, Drama, and Performance Studies from the University of Toronto. Susie is currently Artistic Producer of Theatre Direct's Balancing Act, a national initiative to support parents and caregivers who work in the performing arts.  www.susieburpee.com

MARIE-JOSÉE CHARTIER

​A versatile artist, whose talents transcend the boundaries of dance, music, opera and multi-media, Marie-Josée moves easily between her roles as choreographer, performer, director, vocalist and teacher. Her pieces have been presented at festivals and by dance companies across Canada, Europe and Latin America. Her work was the subject of documentary films presented on television and film festivals. In 2003, she founded Chartier Danse to create a cornerstone for large scale productions and partnerships in Canada and abroad. Since 2004, Marie-Josée directs/stages opera, dance and multi-media productions that tour nationally and internationally. Collaborations include: BoucharDanse, Gryphon Trio, Queen of Puddings, Tapestry Opera, Arraymusic, Theaturtle and l’Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal. Awards include: Jacqueline Lemieux Prize (2015); K.M. Hunter Artist Award (2001), 9 Dora Mavor Moore nominations; recipient for fifty-one pieces of silver for Dancemakers (2002) and two Doras with the collective URGE for And by the way Miss (2005). www.mariejoseechartier.com, www.chartierdanse.com

YVONNE COUTTS

Yvonne Coutts is the Artistic Director of Ottawa Dance Directive and resident choreographer of Compagnie ODD. Her new works for the company have been featured at the Canada Dance Festival, Dancing on the Edge, Festival Quartiers Danses, Dance Made in Canada, Public Energy, The Citadel, the Ottawa Art Gallery Grand Opening, and the XO Ball. As an independent, Yvonne Coutts’ work was presented by the Brian Webb Dance Company, the Winnipeg Dance Festival, Tangente, Danceworks, Women in View, Dancemakers, Arraymusic, Four Chambers, Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers, the Canada Dance Festival, the CanDance Network, and BoucharDanse. Recipient of the 1994 Bonnie Bird Choreographic Award from the Laban Center in England, her work toured through Europe, the United States, and Asia. As a member of Le Groupe Dance Lab, she worked with artists such as Paul-André Fortier, Claudia Moore, Carol Anderson, Sylvain Émard, Louis Bédard, Russel Maliphant, Wayne McGregor, Harold Rhéaume, Noam Gagnon, and Tedd Robinson. She became Artistic Associate at the Lab from 2003 to 2006. Yvonne has received three nominations for the K.M. Hunter Artists Award, was the 2015 recipient of the Ottawa Arts Council Mid-Career Artist Award, and was nominated for the 2021 Eldred Family Dance Award.

LINA CRUZ

Montreal choreographer Lina Cruz founded her company, Fila 13 Productions, in 2003 and has presented her work in festivals and events at local, national and international levels. Cruz has a background in ballet as much as modern/contemporary styles and takes interest in martial arts and various forms of stage expression. She has created works for independent artists as well as dance companies and institutions of professional dance training. Cruz is also often involved in theatre and opera projects. In her works, she explores detailed body language, sound and vocal expression, composing characters and sketches which portray an unsettling strangeness, but always hand in hand with a mischievous playfulness. Cruz is a two-time Dora Mavor Moore Award recipient for Outstanding Original Choreography (2012 and 2017) and was nominated for the same award in 2015. She received a second place award in the 1998 international choreographic competition of the St-Sauveur Arts Festival (Quebec). www.fila13.com

DENISE FUJIWARA

Denise Fujiwara is based in Toronto where she choreographs, dances, dramaturgs, teaches, and presents dance. The two dances she created for Sylvie Bouchard, Cross My Heart and Hope (2018) and Unquiet Winds (2011) were acts of curiosity and love. Noppera-bo, a short film created with filmmaker William Yong won a 2020 One-Reeler Short Film Competition Award of Excellence in Los Angeles. EUNOIA, a multimedia work based on Christian Bök’s Griffin Poetry Prize winning book, premiered at World Stage in Toronto and was nominated for three Dora Mavor Moore Awards, named one of NOW’s Top 5 Dance Shows of 2014 and began national touring in 2015. Her six solo dance concerts, Spontaneous Combustion, Vanishing Acts, Sumida River, Elle Laments, Brief Incarnations and Komachi garnered praise across Canada and toured to festivals in the United States, South America, Europe and Asia. She is the Artistic Director of Fujiwara Dance Inventions, a co-founder of CanAsian Dance and a recipient of the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Muriel Sherrin Award for international achievement in dance.  www.fujiwaradance.com

TEDD ROBINSON

Tedd Robinson was a Canadian choreographer, performer and educator, best known for his idiosyncratic solo works. As Artistic Director of 10 Gates Dancing, he created repertoire for some wonderful dance artists in Canada. His collaborations have included creation with dance artists Louise Lecavalier, Margie Gillis, Ame Henderson and composer/performer Charles Quevillon. He led choreographic labs in Ireland, Scotland, Australia and across Canada, and was consulted on the work and work practices of over 50 choreographers. Tedd is a National Arts Centre Associate Dance Artist, the 1998 Chalmers National Dance Award winner and the recipient of the 2014 Walter Carson Award. His work Canvas 5 X 5 for Halifax’s Mocean Dance won the 2016 Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks award. His work was influenced by his six years of study as a monk living in the Hakukaze soto zen monastery in Ottawa. Tedd passed away on August 27, 2022.

www.tengatesdancing.ca

SASHAR ZARIF

Sashar Zarif is an internationally renowned performing artist, educator, and researcher. For the last three decades Zarif has toured across forty countries; and has spent his professional life promoting cultural dialogue through intensive fieldwork, residencies, performances, and creative collaborations. His award-winning, multi-disciplinary dance projects are steeped in the artistry and history of traditional, ritualistic, and contemporary dance and music of the Central Asian, Middle Eastern, and North African regions. Zarif is committed to developing his own practice, grounded in a deep, mystical connection to dance. His creative approach Living Stories / Moving Memories explores the physical, mental and emotional aspects of memory. Zarif is an external research associate at York University’s Centre for Asian Studies.