National Council 2020-2021
Dance Companies Standing Council Chair
Fannie Bellefeuille
Executive Director, RUBBERBAND
Montreal, Québec
Fannie Bellefeuille’s career with RUBBERBAND began nearly ten years ago. After being appointed as the company’s administrative director in 2010, she was promoted to Executive Director in 2015. Fannie graduated from the theatre program of UQAM in 2004. She gained experience in arts administration while directing her own theatre company, Collectif Ikaria. She then completed a certificate in the management of cultural organizations at HEC
Vice President
Ballet Companies Standing Council Chair
Barry Hughson
Executive Director, The National Ballet of Canada
Toronto, Ontario
Barry Hughson joined The National Ballet of Canada as Executive Director in 2014. Since that time, the company has accelerated its trajectory of artistic growth, fiscal responsibility, community engagement, and international presence, including landmark tours to New York’s Lincoln Center, Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris and the Mariinsky and Stanislavsky Theatres in Russia.
Mr. Hughson began his career as a dancer with The Washington (DC) Ballet, where he performed classical and contemporary repertoire at the Kennedy Center and on tour throughout the world. For the last 25 years, he has served as an executive leader at Connecticut’s Warner Theatre, Complexions Contemporary Ballet in New York City, New Jersey’s American Repertory Ballet, The Atlanta Ballet, Boston Ballet, and The National Ballet of Canada.
As an arts advocate, consultant and educator, Mr. Hughson has had teaching and speaking engagements in the USA, Europe
Treasurer
Service and Support Standing Council Chair
Kim-Sanh Châu
Artistic and General Co-Director, Studio 303
Montréal, Québec
Kim-Sanh Châu is a Vietnamese-French contemporary dance artist and cultural worker, based in Montreal. Trained in dance at Paris 8 (France) and UQAM (Montréal), she also holds a Master's degree in finance (ACU/Australia, Aarhus University/Denmark et Harvard University/USA). Her choreographic work has been presented locally at l'Arsenal, Tangente, MAI, Accès Asie and Quartiers Danses festivals; as well as internationally at SIDance-HOTPOT, Sejong Festival (Korea), Europe Meets Asia in Contemporary Dance, Krossing Over Art Festival (Vietnam), Dancebox and RAW Art Space (Malaysia). Châu is also a screendance filmmaker. Her work, mostly collaborative, has been screened in Canada, Colombia, Germany, France, Italy and Vietnam. In 2017, she was awarded Best Direction 2017 by Festival Quartiers Danses for Inner Smoke. Finally, Châu is Artistic and General Co-director at Studio 303 (Montreal).
Research & Writing / Training & Education Standing Council Chair
Michèle Moss
Associate Professor; Dance Division Chair, University of Calgary
Calgary, Alberta
Michèle Moss (BEd, MA) is a dancer, choreographer, researcher and community educator. She considers herself a citizen of the world; born in the UK of Jamaican and British parents, raised in Montréal, resident of Calgary since 1978 and frequent flyer in search of the best vantage point from which to consider dance and dancing. Michèle began as a tap-dancing tot in the UK and then had the good fortune to study at NCC in Montreal (Negro Community Centre). She is currently Associate Professor and Chair of the Dance Division in the School of Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Calgary-with pedagogy, global dance practices and jazz dance as her focus. She greatly enjoys her UCalgary teaching, research, and choreographic course assignments as well as local and national commissions, international teaching and the many opportunities to conduct ethnographic research in the field.
As co-founder of concert jazz dance company and community school, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks (DJD) in Calgary, Alberta, she enjoyed a performing career with the company but also created work from 1986 up to a most recent contribution in 2017. Her choreographic work has been supported by Canada Council for the Arts, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Heritage Canada as well as numerous UCalgary research grants. Moss was a long-time member of the board of the Society for Canadian Dance Studies and is excited to bring her wealth of knowledge to her position with the Canadian Dance Assembly. She continues to serve on working groups related to equity and diversity in Canada and USA. She is proud of her mentorship and she continues advise many Calgary dance artists and educators formally and informally.
Tatum Wildeman
Artistic Director/Choreographer/Dancer – The Saskatchewan Dance Project
Saskatoon, SK
Tatum Wildeman is a Saskatchewan based independent contemporary dance artist and artistic director of The Saskatchewan Dance Project. She is dedicated to advancing safe and professional level dance training and performing opportunities for dancers in Saskatchewan. Tatum is committed to safe dance practice and is in the final stage of completing her Safe in Dance certificate through Healthy Dancer Canada. Tatum also dedicates her time to outreach dance-based programs focused on mental wellness for Indigenous youth living on reserve and is currently working with the community of Wollaston Lake to establish and deliver a permanent dance program. Tatum is a practicing Registered Nurse and is currently working towards a masters in nursing at the University of Saskatchewan focusing on the use of dance to improve mental wellness in Indigenous youth living in northern Saskatchewan. Tatum is passionate about the use of dance to improve mental health and advancing safe dance practice for professional independent dance artists.
Harmanie Rose
Associate Artist/Teaching Assistant
All Bodies Dance
Harmanie Rose is a disabled dance artist living and working on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. She is curious about the choreographic possibilities of the disabled dancing body. Harmanie co-founded iDance Edmonton in 2009 as a way of creating ongoing learning and performance opportunities in dance for people with and without disabilities. Since 2014, Harmanie has been working as a performer, choreographer, and facilitator for All Bodies Dance Project. She is excited to be co-facilitating Ready Dance Youth Project with Danielle Wensley. She has created four outdoor, site-specific pieces for Vines Art Festival and was a featured performer in world-renowned dance artist Alice Sheppard’s short dance film Inclinations. Harmanie participated in UCLA’s inaugural Dancing Disability Lab, which aims to answer questions around the culture and aesthetics of disabled dance. In May 2020 Harmanie was featured in The Dance Current. Harmanie has recently joined the board of directors of CRIPSiE in Edmonton and the InterdepenDance collective of disabled dance artists in BC. She is excited to be a part of the discussion of decolonizing the idea of what dance is and what it can be.
Cliff Le Jeune
Executive Director, Dance Nova Scotia
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Cliff Le Jeune is currently the Executive Director of Dance Nova Scotia. He has been a mainstay in the cultural life of Eastern Canada for over 35 years, as an actor, singer, dancer, director, choreographer, teacher/coach and was Artistic Director of the Stephenville Theatre Festival in Newfoundland for five years. He was a founding and principal dancer with Nova Dance Theatre of Halifax as well as
Michelle Olson is a member of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation and the Artistic Director of Raven Spirit Dance. She studied dance and performance at the University of New Mexico, the Aboriginal Arts Program at the Banff Centre and was an Ensemble Member of Full Circle First Nations Performance. Michelle works in areas of dance, theatre and opera as a choreographer, performer and movement coach and her work has been seen on stages across Canada. Selected choreographic credits include Gathering Light (Raven Spirit Dance), Mozart’s Magic Flute (Vancouver Opera), The Ecstasy of Rita Joe (Western Canada Theatre/National Arts Centre), Death of a Chief (Native Earth Performing Arts/National Arts Centre). She was the recipient of the inaugural Vancouver International Dance Festival Choreographic Award.She graduated as a Certified Movement Analyst from Laban/Bartenieff and Somatic Studies Canada and is currently teaching at Langara’s Studio 58.
David Warburton (김모세)
Managing Director, Royal Winnipeg Ballet
Winnipeg, Manitoba
David Warburton (김모세) is the Managing Director for the Company at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet (RWB). A leading cultural institution, the RWB has earned a national and international reputation for its impassioned artistry and technical virtuosity and has received widespread critical acclaim for extraordinary performances of diverse classical and contemporary repertoires.
At the RWB, Warburton has successfully led the organization in developing new and existing relationships with presenting partners, rapidly growing the company’s performance opportunities and presence abroad. In 2018, Warburton led the RWB to join the Winnipeg Indigenous Accord as a signatory, a multi-year commitment to reconciliation and a promise to continue working towards bringing our communities closer together. In consultation and collaboration with Indigenous and Metis elders and leaders, the RWB Indigenous Advisory Circle was established in 2019. Warburton is responsible for the RWB’s increased participation within its respective international peer group that has inspired other arts institutions to further help support artists. He is co-chair of the Crisis Management Team which has actively navigated the organization through the public health crisis and pandemic.
Warburton represents the RWB at the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA), Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP), Manitobans for the Arts, CDA Ballet Companies Council, and Dance/USA. In 2019, he was selected as one of nine emerging leaders for Dance/USA’s Institute for Leadership Training and completed a one-year mentorship with Joffrey Ballet. Warburton serves on the National Council of the Canadian Dance Assembly, a national service organization for artists and dancemakers and he is an organizing member of the Korean Society of Manitoba.
The National Council of the Canadian Dance Assembly consists of between 3 and 17 members. One Director representative of each of the Standing Councils in existence, and not to exceed ten (10) representatives, who are elected by the membership of his or her respective Standing Council. Additionally, a maximum of up to seven (7) Members at Large are elected by the membership at the AGM. Each Director must be a member of CDA or an individual of a member organization.
The terms for the Chairs of Standing Councils are three years, unless a Council has to fill a position that has been vacated during that term’s cycle. The Members at Large serve for terms of one year, which may be renewed annually. The maximum term of service for a National Council member is six consecutive years.
For further details or if a member wishes to join National Council they should express their interest to the office at info@dancecanada.net.