Dance and Ballet Company standing council members will gather for a pre-conference break-out meeting and working lunch to connect with colleagues and discuss emergent issues. This is a rare opportunity for cross-country exchange in-person, which rotates between councils. Members unable to attend in-person will be able to join through an online meeting platform (Zoom). Members wishing to attend this meeting should be in touch with membership@dancecanada.net
Great Knowledge Café I 8:30am - 10:15am
Location: ALT Hotel
Table Facilitators: Coming soon
Movement and Meditation | 10:45am-11:30am
Location: ALT Hotel
Facilitator: Join Siôned Watkins (Dance Education Associate and Teaching Artist for NAC Dance)
A Movement and Mediation class that will stretch you out and leave you feeling focused and calm.
Discussion on what is professional dance in the 21st century | 12:30pm - 2:30pm
Location: ALT Hotel
Facilitator: Kristina Lemieux
Join a discussion on what it means to be a professional dance artist. What does arriving as a professional mean? What purpose does distinguishing emerging from professional serve? Who decides when someone is professional? Is this imposter syndrome? Systemic barriers working to keep some people out?
Session: Cultivating Conversation, Creating Context and Intentional Intersectionality | 3:00pm - 5:00pm
Location: ALT Hotel
Facilitator: Nova Bhattacharya
Artistic Director Nova Bhattacharya will be facilitating our closing session entitled Cultivating Conversation, Creating Context and Intentional Intersectionality. Making the most with the humans in the room, Nova Bhattacharya hosts a workshop that creates time and space for reflection and connection. Nova is a compelling speaker who was recently featured on the CBC’s The Move.
Speaker Bios
Animikiikwe Ode Couchie-Waukey
Animikiikwe Couchie is an emerging multidisciplinary dance artist from Nipissing First Nation. She has worked across a number of disciplines and artistic genres. Most notably, she has engaged and worked with a number of large-scale community arts projects, including Like an Old Tale / Jumblies Theatre and Dances of Resistance / Aanmitaagzi. In 2013, Animikiikwe worked within acclaimed choreographer Penny Couchie’s dance theatre piece entitled “When Will You Rage?”. She narrated and danced within her mother’s piece. It was the most influential project that Nimikii has the privilege of working on, and also her first professional theatre project. In 2015 she worked on a project called Dances of Resistance with Aanmitaagzi, which was a three-year long process. This project involved working with a team of skilled artists who put their energy and time into seeing the vision be brought to life. She attended 3 years of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre’s 4-week summer dance intensive. In 2015 she completed her studies at the Canadore College Theatre Arts Program. In May 2018 she completed her training at the Ecole de Danse Contemporaine de Montreal. In September 2019, she was a part of the cast of Unnatural and Accidental Women, marking the opening of the inaugural season of the National Arts Centre’s new Indigenous Theatre department. She would like to thank her parents, Penny Couchie and Sid Bobb, among many other arts organizations and artists for giving her the space to explore her art form within in these projects.
Indigenous Bus Tour of Ottawa Coordinator
Kristina Lemieux is an accomplished arts manager with more than 20 years of professional experience. She is also a contemporary dancer. Raised in Treaty 6 territory (rural Alberta), Kristina lived in Edmonton, attending the University of Alberta, for 10 years before heading to Vancouver where her passion for the arts has driven collaboration, creation, and innovation in the Vancouver arts scene for over a decade. After working with Generator in a freelance capacity for several years, Kristina made the move to Toronto in January 2017 to take on the role of Lead Producer of Generator.
Kristina has worked with many of Vancouver's leading art organizations and she co-founded Polymer Dance, a group dedicated to bringing dance experiences to non-professional dancers. Kristina remains tied to Vancouver through her project Scaffold, a coaching and skill development service designed to support performing artists and groups. She is the co-founder and Creative Producer of F-O-R-M (Festival of Recorded Movement) and works frequently with the Dancers of Damelahamid and Coastal Dance Festival.
Meg Saxby, MSW, RSW, (www.megsaxby.com) is a social worker, educator and clinician. She has over ten years of experience in feminist sex education, newcomer support services, gender-based violence prevention and response and the cooperative movement. Meg works with both individuals and organizations who want to imagine, build and restore relational health for better relationships, healthier workplaces and a more just world.
Tracy Montgomery
Therapeutic support - Making Space for Conflict and Dialogue
Tracy Montgomery is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, a lifelong teacher and learner who loves bodies and the people who live in them. Somatic Experiencing is a method for resolving trauma and restoring aliveness in the body. Tracy works to invite and support individuals to come into calm, ease and curiosity through loving presence and gentle movement practices.
Siôned Watkins
Facilitator - Movement and Meditation
Siôned Watkins began dancing at a young age and performed in her first professional production at the age of 13. After training with Le Groupe De La
Place Royale in Ottawa, she received her diploma from Les Ateliers de Danse Moderne de Montréal and began a vibrant professional career. She has danced for many choreographers including Tammy Forsythe, Sarah Williams, Dana Gingra and Bouge De Là. With Danièle Desnoyers’ company, Le Carré Des Lombes, Siôned had the opportunity to perform internationally for 10 years and was involved in 5 creations. Also a certified GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® instructor, Siôned is dedicated to sharing contemporary dance and these movement modalities with professionals and students alike. She has taught at École De Danse De Montréal, UQAM, Concordia, Ottawa University, School of Dance and Ottawa Dance Directive. Currently, Siôned is the Education Associate and Teaching Artist for NAC Dance and Acting Company Manager.
Nova Bhattacharya
Facilitator - Cultivating Conversation, Creating Context and Intentional Intersectionality
Nova Bhattacharya is a dancer, choreographer and cultural leader who has been working to make positive change in multiple circles for more than three decades. Trained in the multi-disciplinary form of bharatnatyam, her curiosities and collaborative spirit have led to a compelling body of work. She is an active participant in civic life speaking for dance, for the arts and always for equity – within the arts and in society at large. Her activism and profile take her from dance conferences to arts symposiums to cultural consultations, where, in addition to promoting the arts at large, she is frequently called upon to lead, model and address issues of cultural diversity in national and international forums. Nova Dance is the first dance company to be invited into a long-term partnership with Toronto’s Theatre Centre, and is currently creating a large scale production, Svāhā supported by Canada’s National Arts Centre featuring 75 women. www.novadance.ca
Josée is an Algonquin First Nations multi-disciplinary artist who was born in Ottawa and raised mostly in Toronto. She began her dance journey as a gymnast and contemporary dancer with training from Flames of Hope. Josée was able to build a strong foundation of passion for stage performance with a drive to bring creation through dance at a very early age. When she began her first year of high school, she was signed to the Ford International modelling agency and began a lengthy journey as one of Canada’s only First Nations high fashion models. At the age of 23, she made a profound decision to begin learning Pow Wow dancing and her life completely shifted through this decision.
Josée has focused her lifestyle over the past 12 years to traveling as a Fancy Shawl and Jingle dress dancer on the Eastern Pow Wow Trail, making roots with her son Little Thunder, creating a positive impact through dance arts on her ancestral Algonquin territory and collaborating with artist like DJ Shub, DJ Classic Roots, and DJ Rise Ashen. Other highlights of Josée’s dancing journey include studying under Victoria Hunt at the Banff Centre, dancing in National Arts Centre’s Wild West Show- Gabriel Dumont Story, and performing
as Kina Nimiwag (Contemporary Pow wow dance troupe) in the opening act for the Backstreet Boys at Ottawa’s Bluesfest 2019. Josée is committed to continuing trailblazing and reclaiming space as an Algonquin Artist all over Turtle Island and across the world.