Sasha Ivanochko is an arts worker with 33 years experience performing, creating, teaching, and curating in the field of Contemporary dance.
Sasha first developed her powerful physicality competing for ten years on the Canadian National Gymnastics Team. At the age of 14 she began training in Ballet and Modern dance at the Etobicoke School for the Performing Arts. In 1991 she graduated from Dance Arts Institute (formerly The School of Toronto Dance Theatre), and she earned her MFA Interdisciplinary Studies from Simon Fraser University in 2017.
A virtuosic and versatile interpreter, Sasha has performed with many celebrated choreographers and companies including, among others, Judith Marcuse Projects, Peter Chin, Denise Fujiwara, DA Hoskins, Peggy Baker, Robin Poitras, Toru Shimazaki, Michael Trent, Tedd Robinson, Citadel+Compagnie, and for 9 years as a lead dancer with Toronto Dance Theatre. During her final two years with the company, Ivanochko was the Artistic Assistant to then Artistic Director Christopher House.
In 2005, she founded her ad hoc company, Ivanochko in company, and her critically acclaimed choreography has enjoyed presentations at the International Theatre Festival of Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), the Dance Meeting (Japan), The 2007 IETM, Festival Quartiers Danse, Studio 303 and Tangente (Montréal), The Canada Dance Festival (Ottawa), The Fluid Festival and Dancers’ Studio West (Calgary), Dancing on the Edge and the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts (Vancouver), New Dance Horizons (Regina), The Music Gallery, The Citadel, Dancemakers and DanceWorks (Toronto), The Festival of New Dance (St. John’s), Mile Zero Dance (Edmonton), La petite scène (Quèbec), and the visiBIe Arts Festival (Los Angeles). She has created commissions for Toronto Dance Theatre, Via Salzburg, Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, and multiple independent dancers.
An educator since 1996, Sasha developed a training methodology that is specific to the demands of her choreography. The class supports participants developing a kinetic and interpretive understanding of her movement vocabulary, but as well encourages a broader range of skills that has applications towards many performance avenues. Sasha has been on faculty on at Dance Arts Institute, The School of Alberta Ballet, The University of Calgary, École de danse contemporaine de Montréal and has guest taught at ARTÈRE, Concordia, Modus Operandi, Ballet Mannheim, Kobe Jogakuen University, Simon Fraser University, The School of Dance, The School of Contemporary Dancers, L’école de danse de Québec and in many independent dance communities across Canada.
Artistic and academic acknowledgements and honours for her research and creative work include the Kathryn Ash Choreographic Commission Award, the K.M. Hunter Award, two Chalmers Family Fellowships, the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate scholarship, and she received the 2020 John Hobday Award for arts management.
Sasha’s service to the community includes acting as Chair for the Board of Directors of the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists-East (2006-2009), and Chairing the Canadian Dance Assembly’s Independent Artist Standing Council (2009-2011). From 2018 for three years, she was Artistic Director of Dancers’ Studio West. In August of 2021, she became the Artistic Director and Pedagogical Director of Dance Arts Institute.