Valerie Calam is a dance artist interested in finding pathways to refresh and support herself. She works with fabric, patterns, sound, numbers, the nervous system, the body, and likes to edit/adapt/repurpose things. Most of all, Val enjoys working alongside dancers, artists & queer creatives. She umbrellas much of her work under the name Company Vice Versa (www.companyviceversa.com) and works frequently with Fantastical Realms. Valerie is the Membership Coordinator & Operations Manager for
CADA/East (Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists-East Chapter). She completed a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Choreography in 2014. Recently, Val worked with Toronto Dance Theatre, Dance Arts Institute (formerly The School of Toronto Dance Theatre), Bad New Days Theatre, Allison Cummings/Sore for Punching You (sound and set design), Citadel & Compagnie, Michael Caldwell (costume design), Emma Kerson (sound design), ProArteDanza (improv teacher), and she is looking forward to designing costumes for Atri Nundy and choreographing a new work for dance students at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Bri Clarke is a performer, choreographer, teacher, and producer, based in Tkarón:to. Her creative practice centres around how physical, textual, and musical narratives shape characters in space. While gaining her BFA in Performance Dance, Bri performed and choreographed in works across various disciplines, including works by Hanna Kiel, Hassan El-Amin, Alysa Pires, and Dylan Crossman of the Merce Cunningham Trust. She continues to be a freelance artist for multiple dance and theatre collectives. Bri is currently associate producing and performing in “Dinner is Served”, the immersive experience presented by TOES FOR DANCE. Other credits: “WOODS” (Clarice Lima/The Bentway), “ORACLE” (Guelph Dance Film Festival), and “A Grimm Night” (Transcen|Dance Project), “5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche” (Unit 6 Collective), and “Phantasmagoria” (Toronto Fringe Festival). Bri also enjoys hosting and producing (Art)versations Podcast. www.briclarke.ca @brianna_clarkee

Yuichiro Inoue is currently working in his 16th season with the Toronto Dance Theatre. Born in Japan, Yuichiro moved to Germany at the age of 15 to study at the Ballet School in Stuttgart. He spent nine years as a company member of German state theatres Braunschweig, Karlsruhe, and Saarbruecken before joining TDT. Yuichrio completed the Teacher
Training Program and RAD certification at The National Ballet school of Canada. A nominee of multiple Dora Awards and a Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Award, A co-founder of 3+ Dance Collective, as a choreographer, his works have included commissions for award-winning film, international festivals and competitions.

Independent Dance Artist Ryan Lee graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. He has made works for ProArteDanza, Anandam Dance Theatre, Toronto Metropolitan University, Dance Arts Institute (formerly The School of Toronto Dance Theatre), Jorgen Dance/George Brown College, Centennial College, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, Etobicoke School for the Arts and Rosedale School of the Arts. Ryan’s work has been shown at Dance Ontario and The Summerworks Festival and is 1/3 of the Toronto based collective, The Platform.

Megan Nadain is a Toronto-based dancer, choreographer and dance educator originally from North Vancouver, BC. She is a graduate of Dance Arts Institute (formerly The School of Toronto Dance Theatre) and was the recipient of the The Hnatyshyn Foundation Developing Artist Grant during her first year. She is a company member with Dancetheatre David Earle and has worked independently with Darryl Tracy, Nicole Nigro, inDANCE, Toronto Heritage Dance and Miranda Abbott. In the summer of 2014, she performed with Dancetheatre David Earle in Düsseldorf, Germany at the tanzmesse dance festival. She has the pleasure of being a faculty member at Dance Arts Institute (formerly The School of Toronto Dance Theatre) teaching in The Professional Training Program and Adult Recreation program. She is also on faculty at The School of Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre (CCDT) and directs CCDT’s Core Apprentice Program. She also works as a dance educator at York University and The National Ballet of Canada’s In Studio program and facilitates the dance programs at several independent schools in Toronto. Two projects that she has been involved with recently and that she is exceptionally passionate about are Bridging Generations Through Dance with Dancing with Parkinson’s and Moving together: Choreographic mappings of children with diverse dis/abilities and their neurological responses to a dance-play event with Coralee McLaren.

Emily Spearing (she/her) trained at Dance Arts Institute (formerly The School of Toronto Dance Theatre). Upon graduating, Spearing worked as a freelance dancer for various companies, collectives and independent choreographers in Toronto and Halifax and has been a key member of Nostos Collectives since 2016.

She attended the post-graduate International Choreographic Exchange Program at Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD). After completing the program she was invited for a year long Artistic Residency at SEAD where she also worked as a rehearsal director for the academy. Emily has been able to present her own professional choreographic works at New Faces New Dances Festival (Austria), Kinetic Open Studio Series (Halifax), Dance Ontario’s Dance Weekend, Dance Works Co-Works, Edmonton’s NextFest, New Blue Dance Festival and London Fringe Festival as well as several self-produced shows through Nostos Collectives.

Darryl Tracy is a Toronto based artist who loves the human body. He is involved in dance, choreography, movement facilitation, movement, health, and teaching. He has performed with many Canadian and European choreographers over the last 25 years and has also created 42 works through commissions and self-productions. His latest work “quietly rooting for the storm” was presented in Winnipeg with SawdonDance. Darryl is also is a neurological rehabilitation physiotherapist in Toronto. He teaches and is developing a new creation at L’ École de danse contemporaine de Montréal.

Pamela Wong Shoebottom has national and international professional performance and choreographic and teaching experience that reflects Contemporary dance, interdisciplinary and somatic work. She has taught Ballet, Modern, Contemporary, Improvisation, and Yoga at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, National Ballet School, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, George Brown College, Shawl Anderson Dance Centre, ODC Dance, and Leeward Community College. Pamela’s invested experiences include the following: Resident Choreographer, Dancer and Singer with Pop/Cantopop Singer, Actress Teresa Carpio in Hong Kong, Choreographer, Performer and Collaborator with Returning River Dance Collective, Dancer, Singer and Interdisciplinary Performer with Joe Goode Performance Group in San Francisco, and Associate Artistic Director of Every Day Movement Outreach program with Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre in Toronto. Pamela earned her BFA in Dance at York University in Toronto, Canada and an MFA in Dance at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. As the Recruitment and Training Associate at Dance Arts Institute (formerly The School of Toronto Dance Theatre), Pamela is thrilled to advocate dance studies and facilitate professional dance artists’ aspirations.