Kelly is a Montreal based contemporary dance artist and teacher working in the field since 2001.  As a performer Kelly has danced for several choreographers and is currently in creation processes for pieces by Katie Ward (Compagnie Katie Ward), Adam Kinner and Sarah-Éve Grant, each of which will be performed in the 2019-2020 season.

Kelly teaches regularly for organizations offering continued training for professional dancers including Studio 303, le Regroupement Québécoise de la Danse, TransformationDanse, L’Artère (QC), and The Toronto Love-In, as well as abroad in the US and Europe. She is part-time faculty at Concordia University’s Department of Contemporary Dance where she teaches contemporary technique, an in-studio practice based undergraduate course.

As a choreographer, Kelly is concurrently pursuing an MA in Concordia’s Individualized program at the hinge of Dance Studies, Art Education and Anthropology. Her research addresses the contradiction that dance, as a kinesthetic practice, is mainly performed for the spectator and accessed through the visual sense. Kelly’s research inquires into Somatic Choreography as a means to dissolve distances and enfold the felt experience of dance practice as performance.

Multidisciplinary performance and ongoing research with Strange Strangers Collective - Kevin O’Connor and Billy Douthwright, and PublicDisplaysArt, London Ontario.
 

Formative education in folk, sacred dances, storytelling and music has greatly influenced her work. Graduate from EDCM (Montreal) with parallel studies in Voice, BMC and Continuum, continued studies at Laban (UK) and The Kyoto Arts Centre (Japan).  Danced with l’inattendue compagnie (Belgium), ABCDC (France), all dance projects (UK), Dasein Dance (Ontario). In her current work as an Artist In Residence with the London Arts Council, Ruth facilitates dance programs in schools, Museum London and for people with a wide range of physical and intellectual disabilities through L’arche, Participation House, Parkwood Mental Health and McCormick Home.

Kevin O’Connor, MFA, is a multidisciplinary artist working as a choreographer, dancer, improviser, circus artist and installation artist.  He is involved in a decade long artistic collaboration with Ruth Douthwright and Billy Jack exploring un/settling participatory performances within watersheds in Ontario.  He is also currently working with NAKA dance in Oakland exploring the intersection of race and gentrification in the Bay Area. His attentional practices have recently been made different by working as a biodynamic cranial sacral practitioner, learning alongside Inuit hunting families on Baffin Island, and joining the round dance protests during the Indigenous uprising called Idle No More. He is currently completing a PhD in Performance Studies where he is researching anatomies, body performance capacities and imaginations, environmental activism and unsettling practices, and community-based performances.

Ashlea Watkin is a movement educator certified by the Axis Syllabus International Research Network and an Occupational Therapist (MSc.OT). As a performer, she has collaborated with many Canada-based choreographers including: Tania Alvarado, Marie Béland, Heidi Bunting, Nicolas Cantin, Dorian Nuskind-Oder, Sasha Kleinplatz, and Dana Michel. Personal projects have been presented by Tangente and Studio 303 in Montreal, as well as supported by Mains d’oeuvres in France. Ashlea has taught and facilitated movement workshops in Brussels, Edmonton, Lasqueti Island, Montreal, Quebec City, and Vancouver. Recently re-located to Vancouver Island, her work investigates the interaction of scientific perspectives and theory with dynamic movement practices that aspire to foster the training of resilient bodies and opportunities for connectedness - to self, space, and other.

Damarise is a dancer, teacher, producer and choreographer. Since completing contemporary dance training in 2012, she has been studying dances of the African diaspora, specifically in Western and Southern Africa and Brazil. She teaches, directs, and curates dance/movement projects in Vancouver and throughout BC. She also facilitates creative arts programming for children in First Nations communities across the province. She is currently conducting studio research in Vancouver for an interdisciplinary group performance project involving song, dance, and drumming. Damarise teaches in studios, community centers, and schools across Canada and internationally.