Professional Training

Class Descriptions

Irene Martínez - Irene Martínez is a Mexican creator, performer and workshop leader. Originally from Mexico City, she has performed as a soloist and performer interpreting the repertoire of the Canadian artist Daina Ashbee in different international dance festivals in France, Belgium, Germany, Canada, Norway and U.S.A. She is a graduate of the National School of Classical and Contemporary Dance. She has shared her experiences and research through workshops and classes in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Canada and Germany. Currently, she is a beneficiary of the Support System for Cultural Creation and Projects (SACPC in spanish), Artistic Residencies 2022.

Christopher House - Born and raised in St. John’s, NL, Christopher House is a queer choreographer, performer, educator, and curator. He was resident choreographer and a leading dancer with Toronto Dance Theatre from 1979-2020, the last twenty-six years as Artistic Director. He created over sixty works for TDT, diversified the company’s repertoire, and developed innovative programs in education, audience cultivation and support for young choreographers. He has collaborated with many leading companies and artists including The National Ballet of Canada, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Ballet Gulbenkian, Cirque du Soleil, Kimsooja, Ame Henderson, Jordan Tannahill, The Hidden Cameras, and post-modern icon Deborah Hay. His works have been performed in nineteen countries and he has taught creative process workshops for many organizations, often in collaboration with Ame Henderson. As a performer, he has enjoyed a wide variety of collaborations, notably with Henderson, Tannahill, and Hay. Recent projects include staging movement for I Forgive You (Artistic Fraud of NL) at the National Arts Centre and performing his solo New Tricks (2022) in Toronto, St. John’s, Vancouver, and Victoria. He is currently collaborating with Dance Collection Danse, curating an exhibition called Stories of HIV and Canadian Dance, and is working on duets with Giovanni Impellizzieri and Pulga Muchochoma. He is a a long-time Associate Dance Artist of the NAC, and a member of the Order of Canada.

Sarah Hopkin (Contemporary) - Sarah Hopkin is a freelance dance artist from Nova Scotia. She is currently dancing for the Ottawa Dance Directive led by artistic director Yvonne Coutts, and is a CSJ Production Assistant for Mocean Dance. She has danced for TAKE UP SPACE led by Elizabeth Emond-Stevenson, and for choreographers Peggy Baker, Cathy Kyle Fenton, and Allison Burns. She has danced as a junior company member for Toronto Dance Theatre (2015-2016), an intern for Mocean Dance (2015), for Nostos Collectives (2014-2015), and in Dance Ontario's Dance Weekend (2015). She has worked as a demonstrator for Peggy Baker at Canada’s National Ballet School, and taught contemporary dance at The School of Dance in Ottawa for five years. Sarah collaborated with composer Pierre-Luc Clément through her work at The School of Dance, and received a research and creation grant from the City of Ottawa (2020) to further develop work with Clément. Sarah has choreographed and performed in the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival and in Ottawa’s Dark Horse Dance Projects (2017). In 2016, Sarah was commissioned by composer Julia Mermelstein to choreograph a solo with the support of the Toronto Arts Council. Sarah has recently moved back to Halifax, and will be teaching at Halifax Dance in the fall of 2021.

Emma Kerson (she / her) is a dance artist newly returned to Kjipuktuk (Halifax) after fourteen years of living in Tkaronto (Toronto). Emma's choreographic works have been presented by platforms across Canada and developed in residencies with adelheid, Arts Orillia, Citadel + Compagnie, Mocean Dance, MOonhORsE Dance Theatre, the National Ballet of Canada, Peggy Baker Dance Projects, and Shawbrook Residential. As an independent dancer, Emma has worked with Julia Aplin, Phin Performing Arts, Patricia Beatty, Blue Ceiling Dance, Elizabeth Chitty, Jennifer Dallas, Robert Desrosiers, Dancetheatre David Earle, Sylvain Émard, Michael Sean Marye, Jane-Alison McKinney, Sharon B. Moore, Peter Randazzo, Simon Renaud, and Tedd Robinson amongst others. Emma is a graduate of Dalhousie University, The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, and in 2021 she completed an M.A. at the Centre for Drama, Theatre, & Performance Studies at the University of Toronto. As a dance educator, Emma has been on faculty at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre and Quinte Ballet School, and has taught in a variety of roles through Canada’s National Ballet School, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, the National Ballet of Canada, Toronto District School Board, Tarragon Theatre, DanceWorks, and recently, Halifax Dance.

Kate Holden (she/her) is an award winning dance artist, and has originated and interpreted the works of many esteemed Canadian choreographers, with performances across North America, Europe and Asia. She was a company member of Dancemakers, under the direction of Michael Trent, and of Danny Grossman Dance Company. Kate is a graduate of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and spent many years in T’karonto engaged in the dance community as an interpreter, rehearsal director, teacher, creator, and producer. Her dance practice is influenced by her work as a Craniosacral Therapist and Reflexologist, and her curiosity for finding ease and pleasure in an expansive moving body. Associate Artist with Peggy Baker Dance Projects from 2019 to 2022, Kate is deeply grateful for the experience of working and learning with Peggy Baker for more than 20 years. Kate is currently based in Mi’kma’ki/Nova Scotia where she plays, learns and works by the Pijinuiskaq (Lahave River).

Lauren Runions (Contemporary Ballet) is a dance artist, choreographer, and facilitator. They are the artistic director of place-based dance project I/O Movement. Their work investigates the role of choreography as a reciprocal spatial practice between self + other. Lauren's processes currently result in scores, improvisation, sounding, dancing, observing, walking and routine dailiness supporting an embodied awareness, and responsibility, to living with city and natural ecologies.

Meredith Kalaman (Contemporary, Ballet) - Meredith is a Contemporary Choreographer and Performer born and raised in Greater Vancouver, B.C. Meredith is known for her innovative vision and for creating thought provoking dance theatre works. She began creating solo’s on herself because she wanted to move the way her body was asking for and interested in moving. Since then she began exploring her ideas on other bodies and found that she loves both dancing in other people’s works and making her own work. For Meredith, both practices inform and grow each other. As a dancer, Meredith has worked with the Karen Jamieson Dance Company, Dancers Dancing, Judith Marcuse Projects and Movent and performed works by Noam Gagnon, John Ottmann, Kate Franklin, Farley Johansson, Michael Kong, Julie Lebel and Kirsten Wiren. She is a graduate of the Ballet BC Mentor Program. Her own choreography has toured Canada, the US and throughout China. Meredith is a recipient of the 2015 & 2017 Chrystal Dance Prize from Dance Victoria. Her first full length work, Femme Fatales premiered in May 2017 at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in Burnaby, Canada and then made its European debut in Berlin at Uferstudios in August 2017. Meredith enjoys teaching, learning new things about herself and life everyday, energy, magic, seeing the world and most recently began training in Counter-technique with Charles Slender-White and Joy Davis in San Francisco at Fact/SF’s Summer Dance Lab. It has changed her life!

Lisa Phinney Langley (Contemporary)- From Halifax/K'jipuktuk, Lisa trained at Halifax Dance and professionally at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre.  After touring with several dance companies and co-founding Mocean Dance, Lisa founded Phin Performing Arts, focussed on producing her choreographic work and contributing to the community through artistic opportunities.  Concurrent with her dance career, Lisa completed an honours BSc in Physics and Earth Systems Science and an MSc in Atmospheric Science, and has held employment as a scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Gillian Seaward-Boone (Contemporary) - Originally from Nova Scotia, Gillian Seaward-Boone completed her professional dance training at l’Ecole de Danse Contemporaine de Montréal (EDCM). Upon graduating, she worked with Sinha Danse (Montreal), Pigeons International (Montreal) and Sasha Ivanochko (Toronto), before joining O Vertigo Danse (Montreal) as a full company member until the direction of Ginette Laurin. During her time with the company, she performed and taught extensively throughout Europe, Asia, and North America. Since returning to Halifax in 2013, Gillian has worked as an independent artist, performing the works of Alexis Cormier, Lydia Zimmer, Lisa Phinney-Langley and Vanessa Goodman (Votive Dance). Gillian has danced with Mocean Dance for eight seasons, performing works by Serge Bennethan, Marie-Josee Chartier, Sara Coffin, Sharon Moore and Parts+Labour_Danse, and was Rehearsal Director for Danielle Desnoyers, Heidi Strauss, Sara Coffin and Lydia Zimmer. Gillian is currently in Phase 3 creation for Home Economics in collaboration with Alexis Cormier, Sarah Murphy and Genevieve Boulet. She is also delighted to be in creation for Everywhere the Edges, a collaboration between choreographer Rebecca Lazier and visual artist Janet Echelman, to premiere in 2022. Gillian is a senior member of the modern dance faculty of Halifax Dance's Intensive Training Program and regularly teaches technique classes to the professional community in Halifax and beyond.

Ross Burns is a professional musician, performer, capoeira player, and teacher based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Training in the Afro-Brazilian dance/martial art form capoeira since 2003 Ross has led Mestre Azeitona’s Capoeira Group Dendê - Halifax since 2007. His musical résumé ranges widely across different territories - jazz, rhythm & blues, Brazilian, Jamaican, modern art music and free improvisation - as a guitarist, singer and percussionist.

Zoe Davidson (Contemporary) is a Nova Scotia based dance artist that enjoys the collective energy dance brings. With a background in various dance styles, Zoe deepens her practice by continuously exploring new territory in her art form, and is extremely curious to find truth and deliver clear meaning through movement. In her class she offers a space where dancers can explore their physicality and move.

Anastasia Wiebe (Contemporary) - Anastasia Wiebe is a Halifax-based dance artist. She completed her post-secondary training at the Peridance Capezio Centre in New York, graduating from their Certificate Dance Program in 2015. Performance credits include Petite Danse with Maire-Josée Chartier, Striketone with Vanessa Goodman, Inhabit with Kyana Lyne, Wild Within with Sara Coffin, and Sonderlings with Lydia Zimmer. She is currently the co-artistic director and dancer with Nostos Collectives and dancer with Mocean Dance.

Sally Morgan (contemporary)  - lives in K’jipuktuk/Halifax and is a mother, improviser, interdisciplinary dance/performance artist, and a movement and environmental educator. She has been a part of the Canadian dance community for 25 years, studying nationally/internationally in contemporary and postmodern dance, improvisation/contact improvisation, and somatic practices. Her work has been presented across Canada, in Europe and the USA and she is honoured to have performed and worked with so many incredible collaborators over the years.

Sally trained at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, completed her BFA, MES, Dip. Sustainable/Environmental Education at York University and is four years into her PhD in Dance Studies. She currently works within an eco-somatic framework and on/in/with the borderlands between body and place, performance and ecology, improvisation and the everyday. Her work is rooted in place studies, relational embodied ethics, slow pedagogies, and site responsive practices. She uses the body-as-manual and questions the how and why of our everyday movements, in and with the more-than-human environment, as embodied acts of performance. 

Sally coordinated the Somatic Movement Exploration Lab in Toronto from 2013-2018 (with Meryem Alaoui/Jasad), taught as a TA at York University from 2011-2016, and was recently contract faculty at Acadia University and at Dalhousie University. She sits on the Board of Directors of Wonder’neath Arts Society, is a certified Yoga and Pilates instructor, and is currently in enrolled in the Body-Mind Centering SME Program with Esprit En Mouvement (Montreal).

Sally teaches independently through Eastward Moving Dance + Somatics and works creatively under both the umbrella of SLOW DANCE LAB and with artist collective the sense archive.

Alicia Grant (Contemporary) - Alicia Grant (she/her) is a choreographer and dancer working in various constellations with other makers in Toronto and Berlin. After earning a BFA from York University, her work in performance, video, and sound design has been presented in Canada, USA, and Europe from stages to swimming pools to abandoned factories to galleries. She is one half of WITCHTITS along with Zinzi Buchanan, and has worked alongside of Zoja Smutny, Andrea Spaziani, Ellen Furey, Anna Fitoussi, Ivan Björn Ekemark, Jacinte Armstrong, and Inky Lee, amongst others. She has shared why-am-i-alive dance practices at Studio 303 in Montreal, Love-In in Toronto, Ponderosa in Stolzenhagen and TanzFabrik in Berlin. Interested in power dynamics, transformation, and intimacy, Alicia is currently working on saxophone solos and a fantasy travel noise album.

Sarah Prosper (Reconciliation Movement Workshop) - Sarah Prosper is a proud Mi’kmaq Women from Eskasoni First Nation, Nova Scotia. Currently she is taking a Bachelor of Science in Therapeutic Recreation at Dalhousie University. Sarah has a great connection to her family and her Mi’kmaq culture. Growing up in one of the largest First Nation communities in the province, she has always been guided by her elders who have taught her to always be proud of who she is; a Mi’kmaq ~Mekite’t ta’n teli l’nuit and of where she has come from and will go. She began dancing at age 2 and soon after her mother began a boys and girls dance program in Eskasoni; The Native Alcohol & Drug Abuse Counselling Association (NADACA) Dance Program us where hundreds of community members have come to learn and celebrate dance. Sarah became a fixture in the group where she began teaching dance at age 14. Sarah has continued dancing at Dalhousie University and as well as volunteering at special needs facilities and health centers during her school year. Back in her community, she continues providing opportunities for children and adults to build connections within themselves through dance. She is always involved with the community in one way or another and tries her best to bring recognition to her Mi’kmaq culture whenever the opportunity arises. ‘Giving back to your community’ has taught Sarah that through acts of kindness and humility in everything you do, there are rewards that help you flourish in your life as you stay connected and grow. Sarah has hopes and dreams but most of all she hopes to incorporate indigenous creativeness in the dance world and throughout communities; this way reconciliation continues.

Lydia Zimmer (Contemporary, Ballet) - Lydia Zimmer is a graduate of Walnut Hill School for the Arts (’07) and The Boston Conservatory (B.F.A. ‘11). Since returning to her home city of Halifax, Lydia has created several works supported by Canada Council for the Arts and Arts NS. These include Bonne Nuit (2016), presented through Live Art Dance; Embankment, commissioned (2017) and remounted (2021) by Votive Dance; Sonderlings (2018), commissioned by Nostos Dance Collectives, and Sondering (2019), a solo presented by FODAR. Lydia completed a dance residency at Nes Artist Residency in Skagastrond, Iceland, and a choreographic residency in Sofia, Bulgaria at the Derida Dance Centre. Lydia has been commissioned by Mocean Dance to create a new work that will premiere in the Spring of 2021 … she is grateful to be able to rehearse with Votive and Mocean during this pandemic! She currently works for Mocean Dance, Votive Dance, and Kinetic Studio. 

Diana Rutherford (Ballet) - Based in K’jipuktuk/Halifax, Diana Rutherford is a teacher, choreographer, and continuing dance education advocate. Diana is a graduate of the Teacher Training Program at Canada’s National Ballet School and York University (Honours BFA in Dance). She holds teaching qualifications at the Licentiate level with Cecchetti Canada and the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing. Diana also holds Advanced 2 examination certificates from Cecchetti Canada and the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD).Originally from Owen Sound, Ontario, Diana began her dancing career in both ballet and highland dance. As a highland competitor, she represented Canada across North America and Scotland and was a scholarship recipient and award winner in both highland and ballet. Diana has performed across Canada and the United States.

In her former role as Dean of Dance at the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts, Diana had the opportunity to teach students across Atlantic Canada, collaborate with the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra, and produce multiple full-length ballets. She is a certified Progressive Ballet Technique (PBT) teacher and combines concepts from Stott Pilates Mat with PBT into her classes. She is an active member of the Nova Scotia arts and culture scene and has served on the boards of Votive Dance and the Nova Scotia Talent Trust.Diana has successfully trained students for Cecchetti Canada examinations at the Advanced 2 level, in collaboration for the RAD Solo Seal and Genée International Ballet Competition, and the Youth America Grand Prix. Diana is looking forward to working in collaboration with the artist of Mocean Dance.
 

Alexis Milligan (Open Practice) is a noted artistic collaborator and has created choreography and movement for many theatre and dance companies around the world. She is the resident Movement Director at The Shaw Festival, in Niagara-on-the-Lake and has also worked at The Stratford Festival and The National Theatre of Norway, in Bergen.  Alexis’ passion project is her company, Transitus Creative, an interdisciplinary performance company specializing knowledge translation and exchange.  She has created original works in collaboration with Dalhousie University’s School of Nursing, The Association of Nova Scotia Museums, gender consultant Michelle Raine and The Hatch, through Parks Canada.  Currently Alexis is pursuing her master's in Interdisciplinary Studies at The University of New Brunswick, combining the performing arts, communication, education and neuroscience.

Sabrina Castillo (Feldenkrais) is artistic director, founder, and choreographer of Momentum, a professional contemporary dance company in Guatemala City. She has choreographed more than 60 works that have been funded by national and international organizations and performed in Guatemala and abroad. In 2009, she was granted the National Dance Award by the President of Guatemala and under a Fulbright scholarship pursued post-doctorate studies on the Phenomenology of imagination with philosopher Edward Casey. She is a Certified Movement Analyst, Feldenkrais Authorized Trainee Awareness through movement teacher, ISMETA somatic educator and qi gong teacher.

Syreeta Hector (Contemporary) - As a highly accomplished performer, Syreeta has worked for internationally recognized companies like Adelheid Dance Projects, Danny Grossman Dance Company, Peggy Baker Dance Projects, and Toronto Dance Theatre. She is a proud graduate of The National Ballet School’s Teacher Training Program, The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, and has achieved her Master of Arts in Dance Studies from York University. Her work called “Black Ballerina” focuses on the dualities within ones identity, along with Syreeta’s blackness and indigeneity in relationship to classical ballet. Syreeta is currently one of the Luminato Artists in Residence and part of the Creative Incubator at the Citadel+ Compagnie. Website: syreetahector.com

Syreeta Hector began her teaching career with Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre during her time at The National Ballet School's Teacher Training Program in 2004. She graduated from the teaching program in 2006 and continued to teach dance while furthering her dance education with The School of Toronto Dance Theatre's Professional Training Program. As she began her professional career, she maintained her relationship with CCDT. For over a decade she taught ballet, modern and creative dance at Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre.

While tackling her Master’s paper titled: “The Negotiations of Dance Practice Within The Indigenous and African American Peoples: Examining The Hybridity of Culture Through The Lens of Social Event and Movement)," Syreeta began teaching on a pre-professional level at the Randolph College for the Performing Arts in 2015. At this time she had the pleasure of teaching ballet to emerging musical theatre artists.

She continues to teach emerging professional dancers and educators in the dance program at York University. Within the dance program, she has taught dance for non- majors and currently teaches modern technique to the undergraduates within this fine arts program.