COLLABORATORS
Lina Cruz
choreographer, Cloud 9 project
“Stylized to the minimum gesture”, Montreal choreographer Lina Cruz has a background in ballet as much as modern/contemporary styles, and takes interest in martial arts and various forms of stage expression. Her career as a dancer developed in Spain, other countries in Europe and the United States. She came to Montreal in 1989 and has presented her work in festivals and events at local, national and international levels. As a choreographer, Lina is a 2016 Dora Award nominee, a 2012 Dora Award recipient and a second place award recipient in the 1998 choreographic competition of the St-Sauveur Arts Festival (Quebec). She founded Fila 13 Productions in 2003. Lina has created works for Toronto Dance Theatre as well as for other companies, independent artists and for schools of pre-professional training, including École de danse contemporaine de Montréal and École de danse de Québec. Lina’s many interesting collaborations include a short work for Indigenous Dance Residency 2014 (Banff Centre), collaborating with several theatre companies (Montreal and Toronto) and contemporary opera projects. Originally from Colombia, Cruz trained with scholarships at Joffrey Ballet School (New York), Victor Ullate Ballet School (Madrid), Escuela de Danza Irina Brecher (intensive ballet training, Graham and jazz) and short term scholarship at MUDRA (Brussels, school associated with Béjart). Cruz trained in martial arts and obtained a brown belt in karate Shotokan. Before coming to Montreal, Cruz worked with choreographers Carl Paris (former soloist at Alvin Ailey), Luis Fuente (former soloist at Joffrey Ballet), Marco Berriel (former soloist at Béjart), Christopher Fleming (former dancer with New York City Ballet) and other independent modern and classical choreographers. Early in her career, Lina worked with Real Ballet de Camara de Madrid. Her first choreographies were presented in Spain, Colombia and Ecuador. Please consult Fila 13’s website for any additional information: www.fila13.com.
D.A. Hoskins
choreographer, Cloud 9 project
D.A. Hoskins is a choreographer and visual artist based in Toronto. Recipient of the Clifford E. Lee Award from the Banff Centre for the Arts and the KMHunter Award, Hoskins has created over 60 choreographic works. His work has been presented at the Art Gallery of Ontario as part of an evening examining Sexuality and Censorship, as well as, a retrospective on artist Barbara Hepworth. An excerpt from his first full evening work The Mortality Songs was presented at the Holocaust Perspective at the Toronto Jewish Community Centre and later presented in its entirety as a fundraiser for the Toronto People with AIDS foundation. Hoskins choreographic works include commissions from the Elora Music Festival, Pendrecki String Quartet, ArtsUmbrellaVancouver, KitchenerWaterloo Symphony, Hubbard Street Dance II in Chicago, Dancetheatre David Earle, Ballet Jorgen Canada, Open Ears Festival, Toronto Dance Theatre, Ballet Kelowna and Via Salzburg Chamber Orchestra. In 2008 D.A. Hoskins instigated The Dietrich Group - a platform that facilitates interactive exchanges in art to ultimately create potent interdisciplinary works in dance. Since its inception The Dietrich Group has created five full evening works – ARTFAG at Buddies in Badtimes Theatre, PORTRAIT, which premiered at the Theatre Centre in January 2009 and was presented at the Festival TransAmerique in Montreal, Paris1994/Gallery which received three Dora Mavor Award nominations and was recently presented at HFC”s World Stage 2012 season and at the da:ns Festival in Singapore (Oct 2012), The Land of Fuck (a fable) premiering in March 2011 at the Workman Arts Theatre and toured to Place des Arts in April 2014 as part of the DanseDanse series in Montreal. His youth project I AM AN ANIMAL was self-produced at the Citadel Theatre (Toronto) in the fall of 2012. Upcoming is the premiere of his new work with The Dietrich Group entitled This is a Costume Drama as part of the World Stage 2015 season. In November of 2013 The Dietrich Group became incorporated as a not for profit company with D.A. Hoskins as the Artistic Director.
Karen Kaeja
co-artistic director, Cloud 9 project
Dora Award-nominated performer, Karen Kaeja is celebrating 25 years of co-artistic directorship of Kaeja d’Dance with Allen Kaeja. Her awards include the CDA “I Love Dance” Community Award for her invention of Porch View Dances and the Paul D. Fleck Fellowship for Innovation. Distinguished in 3 Encyclopedia’s - The Canadian, The Canadian Who's Who and the Theatre Dance Encyclopedia in Canada, Karen was nominated for the 10th Annual American Choreography, the 2006 Banff World Television Awards and was a finalist for the CDA Innovation Award and NOW magazine’s 2011 Best Local Choreographer. A performer for over 100 stage-works, 20 dance films, a choreographer, educator and project instigator, Karen has been commissioned and presented by festivals and performance series around the world. Appointed in 2012 as the first resident dance artist for the Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, Karen was also Memorial University/Dance NFLD’s first dance artist in residence in 2014, where she conceived, directed and completed many inspiring creations, collaborations and performances. A teacher of improvisation and partnering, she teaches at the School of the Toronto Dance Theatre, Brock University, conferences, festivals and institutions.
James Kudelka
choreographer, Half an Hour of our Time
James Kudelka is widely acknowledged as one of North America’s most innovative choreographers. His mastery of both classical ballet and modern/contemporary dance has earned him commissions from companies—some 25 in all—as stylistically diverse as American Ballet Theatre, Chicago’s Hubbard Street Dance and Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal.
Even as a student at Canada’s National Ballet School Kudelka demonstrated a choreographic interest in exploring innovative approaches. While adept in the classical ballet vocabulary he infuses it with a contemporary sensibility acquired from his intense interest in modern movement idioms.
Kudelka’s work covers an impressive range, from virtuoso pas de deux, through large-scale and always arresting adaptations of such classics as Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and Cinderella, to boldly innovative creative collaborations with dancers, designers and musicians.
Kudelka has never been afraid to tackle psychologically challenging subject matter in his story ballets—he views dance as a primary medium of artistic discourse—and through his gift for movement metaphor infuses poetic, emotional meaning into his many non-narrative works.
After nine distinguished years as artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada (1996-2005) James Kudelka continues to undertake collaborative projects that engage and challenge him as a choreographer.
www.catalysttcm.com/jameskudelka
Tedd Robinson
choreographer, Disconcertante (Cloud 9)
Tedd Robinson, born in Ottawa, first rose to prominence as Artistic Director of Contemporary Dancers in Winnipeg, Canada (1984 to 1990), where he created highly theatrical ensemble works. He returned to Ottawa in 1990 to pursue a solo career, and is now firmly established as a choreographer, educator and solo artist. Robinson’s critically acclaimed, award-winning and utterly unique works have won him a multitude of commissions and an international schedule of touring and teaching.
His critically acclaimed work Rokudo: six destinies in three steps received the 1998 Chalmers National Dance Award. Robinson is Artistic Director of 10 Gates Dancing Inc., a non-profit company formed in 1998 to promote the development and performance of contemporary dance creations. His work is influenced by his six years of study as a monk in the Hakukaze soto zen monastery, Ottawa. Tedd Robinson is a National Arts Centre Associate Dance Artist.
www.tengatesdancing.ca
Susie Burpee
choreographer, This Time Past (Cloud 9)
Susie Burpee creates ‘fully human characters, struggling for connection’ (The Toronto Star). Her work has received Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding Choreography and Performance, and she is a recipient of the K.M. Hunter Artist Award for Dance. Her performance works have been commended for their skillful use of contemporary movement to transform individuals on stage and showcase human complexity.
Susie Burpee was a company dancer for Dancemakers, Le Groupe Dance Lab, TRIP dance company, and Ruth Cansfield Dance. She now performs in her own works and continues to work closely with innovative choreographers Serge Bennathan, Lesandra Dodson and Tedd Robinson. She completed her professional training at the School of Contemporary Dancers (Winnipeg), augmented her studies at the Limon and Cunningham schools in New York, and trained in character and Bouffon at L’Ecole Philippe Gaulier (Paris). She teaches technique classes and workshops for professional dancers and students across the country, notably, 10 Gates Dancing La B.A.R.N. Summer XIntensive, Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre, and Dancemakers. www.susieburpee.com