“The best way to know each other is to be together. The only way for art to flourish is to do it.” – Curator Maxine Heppner
Thursday April 16
7pm at Intergalactic Studio
9pm at Small World Music
180 Shaw Street
In gaming, CrossPlay refers to the ability for players on different systems to come together and play simultaneously, expanding possibilities and creating new shared worlds.
In that spirit…
Curator Maxine Heppner created CrossPlay as a 2 month exploratory residency for dance and live music artists to be in the game of creating shared worlds.
Maxine facilitated, from an open call, dance-music partnerships of artists curious about the infinite possibilities within their chosen collaborations.
The artists are a cohort who are curious about how sound and movement live in their forms and influence each other, excited to connect with other artists across disciplines, across generations, across backgrounds, and open to open to experimentation, dialogue and discovery.
In a culminating event, the artists shared their discoveries.
From Curator Maxine Heppner:
”It’s a pleasure to be in the studios with these 30 gifted artists and their curiosities and approaches. The 9 groups have each found convergences, each group following its own course, some digging into expressiveness, some expanding ways of interacting, some riffing on themes, images. Working from knowledge, experience, sensation, inspiration, each partnering is original.”
7pm sharing in Intergalactic Studio:
– Alicia Grant, Aisha Sasha John, George Stamos + Ali Massoudi
– Chantelle Mostacho, Ori Chacon + Fedor Bondar
– Rachana Joshi + Luis Anselmi
– Mafa Makhubalo (with Lucy Rupert) + Honey Paw
– Oriah Wiersma + Grace Scheele
9pm sharing in Small World Music:
– David Norsworthy-Shibatani, Rakeem Hardy, Patrick O’Reiley + Just Prince
– Rumi Jeraj, DIVKA + Ooldouz Pouri
– Pulga Muchochoma, Newton Moraes, Andrea Kuzmich + Shalva-Lucas Makharashvili
– Brianna Maltais, Tarek Ghriri + Gandhaar Amin
cUratOr & Artists
Maxine Heppner
Curator Maxine Heppner is a dance & inter-medial artist & educator known for her dedication to collaboration and community building since the 1970’s.
Alicia Grant
Alicia Grant is a dance, performance, video and installation artist.
Aisha Sasha John
Aisha Sasha John is a performer, choreographer and poet.
George Stamos
George Stamos is a celebrated Montreal-based transdisciplinary dance artist and filmmaker, acclaimed for genre-crossing works.
Ali Massoudi
Ali Massoudi is an Iranian-born percussionist, composer, and educator based in Canada
Chantelle Mostacho
Chantelle Mostacho (she/her) is a Filipino-Canadian multidisciplinary dance artist bridging street dance and contemporary concert forms
Ori Chacon
Ori Chacón is a singer, songwriter and healing arts facilitator, co-creator of Sonic Breath
Fedor Bondar
Fedor Bondar is a multi-instrumentalist and live-looping artist, co-creator of Sonic Breath
Rachana Joshi
Rachana Josh i is an independent dance artist based in Tkaronto. She completed her Bharatanatyam arangetram under the tutelage of Lata Pada in 2017 and is currently a company dancer and teacher at Sampradaya Dance Centre.
Luis Anselmi
Luis Anselmi blends Venezuelan roots and world music, performing with GRATITUD to create vibrant, rhythmic, uplifting Latin-World sounds
Mafa Makhubalo
Mafa Makhubalo is a Movement Poet trained in folk forms from the Regions of African tradition, Southern African contemporary, and Western-Contemporary.
Lucy Rupert
Lucy is a dancer, choreographer, art-science researcher, and writer.
Honey Paw
Honeypaw’s vision is to explore the connection between Finnic and Baltic cultures to create rich and enchanting soundscapes.
Oriah Wiersma
Oriah Wiersma is a multidisciplinary dance artist and actor based in Tkaronto.
Grace Scheele
Grace Scheele is an unconventional electroacoustic harpist and composer noted for her innovative take on experimental and ambient forms.
David Norsworthy-Shibatani
David Norsworthy-Shibatani is a dance artist, choreographer, and artistic director. His work deals with improvisation, co-creation, dialogue, and transformation.
Rakeem Hardy
Rakeem Hardy is a dance artist, creator, and educator. They received their BFA from Purchase College, SUNY, and currently dance with Kidd Pivot.
Patrick O’Reiley
Patrick O’Reilly is a composer, artist, and community-driven fixture in the Toronto creative music scene.
Just Prince
Toronto-based singer-songwriter Just Prince blends Western and Eastern traditions through genre-defying, soulful songwriting and experimental expression.
Rumi Jeraj
Rumi Jeraj is an Ismailli muslim hailing from Sherwood Park Alberta.
DIVKA
DIVKA uses folk songs from Ukrainian and global women’s music-making traditions
Ooldouz Pouri
Ooldouz Pouri is a Toronto based Iranian singer who has implemented her voice in Azeri, Persian folklore songs.
Pulga Muchochoma
Pulga Muchochoma, Dance artist born and raised in Mozambique and founder of Pulga Dance based in Toronto.
Newton Moraes
Newton Moraes is a Brazilian/Canadian choreographer and movement director blending contemporary dance, storytelling, and cultural rhythms for stage and screen.
Andrea Kuzmich
Singer/guitarist Andrea Kuzmich’s signature style is to tickle the listeners’ senses into an irresistible, groove-driven experience.
Shalva-Lucas Makharashvili
Shalva-Lucas Makharashvili is a Toronto-based vocalist specializing in Georgian polyphony, performer, workshop leader, and cultural ambassador blending tradition with jazz.
Brianna Maltais
Brianna is a tap dance-based artist whose work explores textural soundscapes, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and fosters opportunities for youth in her hometown of Barrie.
Tarek Ghriri
An awards nominee for Canadian and Ontario Folk Music Awards.
Flamenco and fretless guitarist with over 22 years of experience in the music industry
Gandhaar Amin
Gandhaar Amin is a music composer and producer, known for his innovative reimagining of the Indian fusion music genre.
acCessibilIty
Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
Youngplace is a fully accessible building and both studios are wheelchair accessible.
Will the event be ASL Interpreted?
Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.
Will the event be described for Blind and low vision audiences?
Please contact us about audio description.
In partnership with
The best way to know each other is to spend time together.
The only way for art to flourish is to do it.
This is an invitation
In gaming, CrossPlay refers to the ability for players on different systems to come together and play simultaneously, expanding possibilities and creating new shared worlds.
In that spirit…
Our CrossPlay is for dance and music artists to be in the game of creating shared worlds. They are a cohort who are curious about how sound and movement live in their forms and influence each other, excited to connect with other artists across disciplines, across generations, across backgrounds, and open to improvisation, dialogue and experimentation.
This 2-month residency in 2026 will open doors to find new partners, provide studio-space to work together, and facilitate sharing of discoveries.
This is a paid opportunity. More details are included in the application form.
Expressions of Interest will be open until Friday December 19 2025.
Artists
acCessibilIty
Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
Both studios are fully wheelchair accssible.
Will the event be ASL Interpreted?
All live events will offer ASL interpretation (upon request). Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.
Will the event be described for Blind and low vision audiences?
This performance does not include audio description.
In partnership with
A year-long working group exploring Dance Curation as a practice and role.
This group of independent dance curators will attend all of Dancemakers’ programming as well as other relevant programs across the GTA to experience, reflect, discuss and engage with dance curators working in the field.
Throughout the year, they will work with invited guests to discuss various emergent practices found within dance curation.
These dance curators were selected by our Call for Curators selection committee.
Artists
Kaili Che
Kaili Che 謝祖弘 is a Vancouver-based interdisciplinary artist, choreographer, and movement educator.
Shalon T. Webber-Heffernan
Dr. Shalon T. Webber-Heffernan is an independent curator and writer.
Aisha Sasha John
Aisha Sasha John is a performer, choreographer and poet.
Megha Subramanian
A multi-disciplinary artist, Megha Subramanian practices several forms of storty-telling, constantly engaging with diverse thoughts that question her conditioning.
Wai Liu
Wai Liu is a Hong Kong-born movement artist based in Toronto.
Ralph Escamillan
Ralph Escamillan is a queer, Canadian-Filipinx performance artist, teacher and community leader based on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh Nations – on so called Vancouver, BC.
Tia Kushniruk
Tia Ashley Kushniruk (亚 女弟) is a Chinese-Ukrainian Queer dance/theatre artist based in ᐊᒥᐢᑿᒌᐚᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ (Amiskwacîwâskahikan) Treaty 6/Métis Territory of Edmonton AB.
Rachana Joshi
Rachana Josh i is an independent dance artist based in Tkaronto. She completed her Bharatanatyam arangetram under the tutelage of Lata Pada in 2017 and is currently a company dancer and teacher at Sampradaya Dance Centre.
Dhvani Ramanujam
Dhvani Ramanujam is a writer and emerging curator currently pursuing a PhD in Cinema and Media Studies at York University
Brianna Maltais
Brianna is a tap dance-based artist whose work explores textural soundscapes, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and fosters opportunities for youth in her hometown of Barrie.
Roxy Menzies
Roxy Menzies seamlessly weaves the disciplines of dance, writing, and healing arts.
Ranganathan Rajan
Ranganathan Rajan (He/Him) is originally from India and is currently based in Tkaronto.
acCessibilIty
Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
Yes, the venue is wheelchair accessible including ramps into the building, elevators and wheelchair accessible washrooms.
Will the event be ASL Interpreted?
All live events will offer ASL interpretation (upon request). Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.
Will the event be described for Blind and low vision audiences?
This performance does not include audio description.
In partnership with
…reminding us of the many unexpected ways to be seen.
Aisha Sasha John begins her three-year residency with Dancemakers by remounting an entirely revised version of her first full-length solo performance “the aisha of is”—a show whose previous presentations include the Whitney Museum (2017), MAI (2018) and SummerWorks Festival (2018).
In this latest iteration of an essentially mutable work, live musical environments created by collaborators Victoria Cheong and Amy Manusov provide the atmosphere wherein Aisha Sasha John is both Wizard and Dorothy—here the wizardry is one of reception, and the home being sought is perpetually found: “the aisha of is” has and continues to be a laboratory for arrival. Welcome to is. Where arrival has a sensual imperative—rhythm.
Team
Victoria Cheong & Amy Manusov | Music
Adam Kinner & Justine A. Chambers | Outside Eyes
Tina Fushell | Curatorial Support
Yehuda Fisher | Lighting Design
Artists
The Talking, Thinking, Dancing Body is a facilitated conversation about aesthetics, context and artistic process.
Initiated in 2012 by Lee Su-Feh of battery opera performance, it encourages speaking about dance from an awareness of our bodies as well as the world it lives in. It unabashedly interrogates dance through a lens that is concerned with anti-colonialism, anti-racism and feminism.
In this edition of The Thinking Dancing Body (TTDB), Lee Su-Feh and Barak adé Soleil will lead a discussion on “Performing the Dominant Body” and what it means for different bodies in different spaces: the how, the why and the impact on both the space and the bodies within that space.
Food and ASL interpretation will be provided. Dancemakers is a fully accessible space. For the accessible entrance, enter through the doors on the north side of the Case Goods building, up the ramp. The Case Goods building is immediately east of Balzac’s. Take the elevator to the third floor and follow signage to the Theatre Studio 313.
Co-Presented by Dancemakers, the Toronto Dance Community Love-In & the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists – Ontario Chapter
Artists
Amelia Ehrhardt
From 2015-2019 Amelia Ehrhardt was the Curator at Dancemakers fostering international success for many of the artists engaged in the Incubation Production House model.
Lee Su-Feh
Lee Su-Feh (she/they) is a dancer, choreographer, performance-maker and teacher of voice and movement.
Barak adé Soleil
Barak adé Soleil makes dance, theatre, and performance art.
acCessibilIty
Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
Yes, the venue is wheelchair accessible including ramps into the building, elevators and wheelchair accessible washrooms.
Will the event be ASL Interpreted?
All live events will offer ASL interpretation (upon request). Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.
Will the event be described for Blind and low vision audiences?
This performance does not include audio description.
A playful, yet also meditative experience.
In her inaugural Residency year, we showed the Toronto Première of Lee Su-Feh’s Dance Machine, a kinetic sculpture that is transformable into multiple configurations.
The public was invited to enter this family-friendly installation and share tasks, play, and work with the artists who act as hosts and facilitators. An embodied experience that has the potential to inspire deep rest as well as mindful play, the Dance Machine is simply a beautiful dynamic object to witness from multiple perspectives.
Dance Machine premiered at Festival TransAmériques in 2017, and it is now being shown across Canada.
Co-produced by battery opera performance
Conceived by Lee Su-Feh
Designed by Jesse Garlick
Assisted by Justine Chambers
With Brandy Leary, Alexa Mardo, Supriya Nayak, Barak adé Soleil, & Brian Solomon
Artists
acCessibilIty
Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
Yes, the venue is wheelchair accessible including ramps into the building, elevators and wheelchair accessible washrooms.
Will the event be ASL Interpreted?
All live events will offer ASL interpretation (upon request). Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.
Will the event be described for Blind and low vision audiences?
This performance does not include audio description.
In partnership with
A year-long working group exploring Dance Curation as a practice and role.
This group of independent dance curators will attend all of Dancemakers’ programming as well as other relevant programs across the GTA to experience, reflect, discuss and engage with dance curators working in the field. Throughout the year, they will work with invited guests to discuss various emergent practices found within dance curation.
These dance curators were selected by our Call for Curators selection committee.
Artists
Lukas Malkowski
Lukas Malkowski (he/they) is a CODA(Child of Deaf Adult), performance maker and Aquarius based between Canada/Germany.
abisola oni
abisola oni is a performance artist, writer, and curator based in Tkaronto.
Natalia Arancibia
Natalia Arancibia (she/her) is a Chilean performer / educator based in Tkaronto.
Wai Liu
Wai Liu is a Hong Kong-born movement artist based in Toronto.
Keira Marie Forde
Keira Marie Forde is a multidisciplinary performer, creator, and community arts producer.
Kin Nguien
Kin Nguien is an award-winning choreographer and performer, originally from Ukraine and now based in Toronto.
Roxy Menzies
Roxy Menzies seamlessly weaves the disciplines of dance, writing, and healing arts.
sarah koekkoek
sarah koekkoek is an ecology focused multidisciplinary artist working with movement, dance, flora and biomaterials from Tkarón:to (Toronto).
Kage Wolfe
Kage Wolfe is a Boylesque performer and the Director of the QTBIPOC production brand Kreative Kulture.
Meek
Meek currently centers their practice on embodied movement, spiritual healing, truth and storytelling.
Bryce Taylor
Bryce Taylor (They/He) is a Breaker, Dancer/Choreographer originally from Colebrook, ON, currently based in Tkaronto (Toronto).
Holly Chang
Holly Chang is a Toronto based artist, curator, and researcher. Her practice is focused on topics of hybridity, craft, and ecology.
acCessibilIty
Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
Yes, the venue is wheelchair accessible including ramps into the building, elevators and wheelchair accessible washrooms.
Will the event be ASL Interpreted?
All live events will offer ASL interpretation (upon request). Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.
Will the event be described for Blind and low vision audiences?
This performance does not include audio description.
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
Revealing the powerful and painful intersections between twinship, blackness, madness, and art-making.
Dancemakers supported Same As Sister (S.A.S) in a month-long development residency at the Dance Arts Institute in October 2023.
Upstairs, In Our Bedroom is an interdisciplinary performance that places Same As Sister’s experiences as female identical twins of color next to the real-life story of outsider authors June & Jennifer Gibbons (a.k.a. The Silent Twins). Utilizing dance, text, mobile VR technology, and puppetry they will reveal the dual struggles to be recognized as individuals within a pairing and within a racist and patriarchal society.
Choreographed and Performed by: Same As Sister/Briana Brown-Tipley + Hilary Brown-Istrefi in collaboration with Peggy Piacenza
Dramaturgy by: Susan Mar Landau
VR Specialist: Lora Appel
Disability Arts Advisor: Rachel da Silveira Gorman
Upstairs, In Our Bedroom is being commissioned and developed through the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP), NYC, with additional support from Dancemakers (Toronto). The project was developed in part during a 2022-2023 Plug-N-Play Residency at Toronto Dance Theatre.
Artists
acCessibilIty
Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
Yes, the venue is wheelchair accessible including ramps into the building, elevators and wheelchair accessible washrooms.
Will the event be ASL Interpreted?
All live events will offer ASL interpretation (upon request). Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.
Will the event be described for Blind and low vision audiences?
This performance does not include audio description.
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
In the summer of 2015, I went to sleep with a question and woke to the memory of a vivid dream of Diana Ross on Broadway, dancing in the center of a sea of other Black dancers, everyone wearing magnificent rose gold costumes of various materials. It felt like an instruction—like a call.
In DIANA ROSS DREAM we are dancing the following:
Feeling cherished.
Verve.
The Quiet.
Pure channel.
Psychic boldness.
Affection.
Awe.
Relaxedness.
Encounter.
Bewilderment.
Miracle.
Mystery.
Black being-together.
Vesselhood.
Tone.
Team
Choreography & concept: Aisha Sasha John
Performance: Aisha Sasha John, Tyra Temple-Smith, Devon Snell, Marcus “Ademi” Paris-Johnson
Outside eye: Dedra McDermott and Evan Webber
Lighting design: Sam Skynner
Sound/Music: New Chance (Victoria Cheong) and Amy Manusov
Costumes: Nyda Kwazowsky
Production Management: Evan Webber & Vishmayaa Jey
Curation: Amelia Ehrhardt (in 2019 as part of the Dancemakers 3-year Residency Program)
Artists
Amelia Ehrhardt
From 2015-2019 Amelia Ehrhardt was the Curator at Dancemakers fostering international success for many of the artists engaged in the Incubation Production House model.
Aisha Sasha John
Aisha Sasha John is a performer, choreographer and poet.
Nyda Kwasowsky
Nyda Kwasowsky is a multi-disciplinary performing artist and emerging choreographer of Indo-Caribbean, British and Ukrainian ancestry.
SUPPORTED BY
Cultural loss, retention and creation.
Curator Bageshree Vaze selected Kate Kamo McHugh’s project ’20 Grains of Rice’ for a technical residency and development period.
Kate and her collaborator Meghan Cheng integrated projection mapping, storytelling and dance to tell the story of Kate’s family history with the Japanese interment camps in Canada.
The team worked with dramaturg Intisar Awisse, creative instigator Andrea Nann and outside eye Denise Fujiwara.
This residency was supported in part by The National Ballet of Canada’s Open Space program with additional support fromThe Region of Waterloo Arts Fund and Green Light Arts.
Artists
SUPPORTED BY
