Staff Directory

Aviva Fleising

Interim Managing Director
aviva[@]dancecanada.net

General Manager, Aviva Fleising has been with the Canadian Dance Assembly since 2008. Aviva began as Membership and Programming Coordinator in 2008 and then evolved her role within the organization to be General Manager in 2013. Aviva is the recipient of several professional development grants from the Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts in pursuing research to examine the evolving role of service organizations. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Contemporary Dance from the University of Calgary and a Certificate in Arts & Cultural Management from Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton. Locally, Aviva is actively involved in the Toronto arts community. She has participated in local theatre and dance festivals including Dance Ontario’s Danceweekend, New Ideas Festival and the InspiraTO Festival. She is an emerging playwright and a member of the Playwrights Guild. Her short play Last Call won first prize at the King’s Shorts 10 minute play festival in Annapolis Royale, NS and was also presented at the Truckee Community 10 minute play festival in Truckee, CA in 2019. Currently Aviva is developing a short dance film in collaboration with Tangy Lime Dance projects as well as writing 2 full length interdisciplinary plays through the support of Canada Council and Toronto Arts Council.

Oriana Pagnotta
Operations Manager
oriana[@]dancecanada.net

Oriana Pagnotta is a dance artist now making Toronto her home. Formerly based in Calgary and originally from B.C., she choreographs, performs, rehearsal directs, and produces. Oriana is passionate about integrating holistic and collective models of care in her work. She is a Lover/Co-Artistic Director with the Toronto Dance Community Love-In, and rehearsal director with lbs/sq” (Gerry Trentham). Her past roles include as Artistic Director for Dance Montage, Dance Curator for Ignite! Festival, and Artistic Associate with both W&M Dance Projects and Momo Movement. She holds a B.A. with Distinction in Dance (University of Calgary), an Arts Management certificate (Haskayne School of Business/Rozsa Foundation), and completed a Metcalf Foundation arts management placement with Peggy Baker Dance Projects. Oriana is a certified DanceAbility International teacher.

Mayumi Lashbrook
Communications and Outreach Manager
mayumi[@]dancecanada.net

Mayumi Lashbrook is an accomplished dance artist, choreographer, Artistic Director, and arts administrator residing in Tkaronto, Canada. She strives to increase connection, visibility and diversity in the Canadian arts landscape through on and off stage initiatives. A graduate of Ryerson University’s Theatre Performance Dance program on the Dean’s list, Mayumi values the support systems that allow performers to thrive. She works to develop healthy ecologies for dance to be made with a specific focus on prioritization of marginalized voices and inclusivity. She is the Communications and Co-Artistic Director of Aeris Körper, a contemporary dance company based in Hamilton. She is an active member of Wind in the Leaves Collective and a facilitator of Dreamwalker Dance’s Conscious Bodies methodology. She has garnered a wealth of skills, pulling on her managerial and administrative experience from movement studios Barreworks (Tkaronto) and GOODBODYFEEL (Hamilton) respectively, as the Dance Coordinator for the Burlington Performing Arts Centre 2018/19 season, and through her work as a freelance artist. Mayumi continues to contribute as a creative voice through both choreography and strategic marketing. Her different roles are all-encompassing and overlapping. This enables her to approach projects and communities with knowledge, openness, and curiosity. 

Pam Tzeng

Regional Advisor - Alberta 
pam[@]dancecanada.net

Pam Tzeng is a Canadian-Taiwanese artist that lives and creates where the Bow River and Elbow River meet, Mohkinstsis in Treaty 7 Territory, also known colonially as Calgary. She is an active choreographer, performer, curator, and producer of the live and contemporary and is currently Artist in Residence 2019-2021 with Dancers’ Studio West.

Passionate about contributing to a healthy arts ecology in Alberta, Pam works as an arts professional and actively engages in initiatives that foster equity and diversity. She has had the pleasure of serving her local and provincial arts sector as Artistic Associate Producer and Marketing Director with Springboard Performance, Dance Curator for the Ignite! Festival, Director on the board of the Alberta Dance Alliance and providing her services in marketing strategy and volunteer coordination to non-profit organizations like Three Left Feet Movement Creations.

Pam is co-curator and founder of to the AWE, a recurring risk-based multi-disciplinary performance series. She shares her passion for embodied living as a therapeutic movement educator, teaching GYROTONIC© & GYROKINESIS© Methods and Yamuna Body Rolling.

Ashley Bomberry
Advisor 

Ashley Bomberry is Mohawk from the Six Nations of the Grand River territory. She is a writer, producer, director and actor for film and theatre. Her short documentary film, Hoop Dance, premiered at the Female Eye Film Festival and she continues to write and create projects within an Indigenous storytelling framework. Ashley recently co-produced The Hunt, a short VR film, written and directed by Danis Goulet, included in the 2167 installation at TIFF Bell Lightbox Theatre. It features a predominantly Haudenosaunee cast and the film is predominantly in the Mohawk language and shot on Indigenous territory in Tkaron:to and on Six Nations. As a producer and curator for multicultural and diverse showcases, Ashley creates discussion and aims to build bridges between marginalized and non-marginalized groups with her work. Ashley focuses on her Indigenous roots and endeavors to impart strength, hope, and healing in Indigenous communities around the world.


Michele Decottignies
Equity Advisor  

Michele Decottignies has 30 years’ experience teaching evidence-based, anti-oppressive practice to agents of change in the arts sector and beyond. She's spent the last 15 years exclusively prioritizing equity & diversity in the arts through her own company, Stage Left Productions – a conduit of artistic innovation and cultural freedom for diverse artists and national arts equity support organization. Through Stage Left's globally-esteemed Theatre of the Oppressed practice, Michele has successfully facilitated over 300 arts equity workshops, across Canada, as well as in the USA and Australia.

Michele's current arts equity work includes attending to the continued evolution of The Deaf, Disability & Mad Arts Alliance of Canada (DDMAAC) and facilitating the services offered by The Calgary Collective for Equity & Diversity in the Arts (CCEDA). Some of her recent arts equity consulting includes supporting the development of PACT's national arts equity program, All In; introducing Opera.ca and Orchestras Canada's members to a Canadian-specific Arts Equity Framework; and providing Theatre of the Oppressed capacity mentorship to Indigenous artists and community members engaged in Dr. Lynden (Lindsay) Crowshoe's many Indigenous Health initiatives.

Support Staff 

Marketing and communications coordinator, Juliana Feng - Dance Umbrella of Ontario
Bookkeeping services by Young Associates
Government Relations Consultants - Global Public Affairs
Advocacy and Executive Consultant - Lucy White, The Osborne Group