Board of Directors:
Ntara Curry (She/They)
Ntara (she/they) is a career long multidisciplinary artist, specialising in theatre. Her performance experience ranges from Mainstage Repertory (Theatre Calgary) to elevators (Theatre Yes / Workshop West) to school gyms (Prairie Theatre Exchange) to found spaces (Dancing Sky Theatre) to art galleries (FreeFlowDanceTheatre). She holds a BFA Drama (Acting) from the University of Alberta, and is a recent graduate of the Village Conservatory for Music Theatre. Ntara’s professional career spans theatre, film, dance, performance, direction, design, creation, production and management. They regularly workshop in dance, acting, movement improv performance, new play development, physical engagement, embodiment, writing, and artisanal craft. Ntara’s personal practice presently focuses on collage (creation following careful deconstruction), and Opera with an interest in Stage Direction. Ntara is a participant in the 2023-24 RMTC National Mentorship Program, mentored by Philip Akin. She is Settler – Ashuri (survivors of the Sayfo, 1915), an active resistor of Imperialism, practises radical compassion, and is a grateful resident of Turtle Island.
Aria Evans
Aria Evans is a queer, Vancouver Island born, Winnipeg based, award winning interdisciplinary artist who’s practice spans dance, theatre and film. They just moved to Winnipeg after living, schooling and working in Toronto for the past 15 years. As a public speaker, activist and creative leader, Aria draws on their experiences of being multiracial. Aria is a certified Intimacy Coordinator and with a large-scale vision, collaboration is the departure point to the choreographic work that Aria creates under their company POLITICAL MOVEMENT. Advocating for inclusion and the representation of diversity, Aria uses their artistic practice to question the ways we can coexist together. Aria just started a tenure track Assistant Professor position at the University of Winnipeg where they are teaching movement to the 3rd and 4th year Honours Acting cohorts.
Kayla Jeanson
Kayla Jeanson is an interdisciplinary artist who works within the worlds of documentary cinema, contemporary dance, poetry film, and circus arts. In collaboration with numerous artists including Luca “Lazylegz” Patuelli, Kyra Jean Green, Oriah Wiersma, Damian Siqueiros, Stephanie Ballard, Danielle Sturk, Zorya Arrow, Mia Van Leeuwen, Ess Hödlmoser, and Ming Hon, she strives to unpack regressive narratives historically reflected in conventional film and dance and focus her lens on those who are breaking boundaries and challenging limitations. Kayla trained at the School of Contemporary Dancers in Winnipeg, is a graduate of University of Manitoba’s Film Studies program, and is currently pursuing a Graduate Certificate in Quantitative Business Studies from Concordia University. Kayla is an accomplished film director, producer, cinematographer, and video editor whose films have screened at festivals internationally, garnering awards including Ó’Bhéal’s Best Poetry Film for her 2015 short Descrambled Eggs. She has worked for companies such as Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Le Monastère Cabaret de Cirque, Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, and Cirque du Soleil.
Sarah Struthers
Sarah Struthers is a queer and non-binary multidisciplinary theatre and visual artist based on Treaty One Territory. They hold a BA in Theatre and Film from the University of Winnipeg, with a focus in devised theatre research and creation. Sarah explores storytelling through movement-based work as well as sculpture and analog collage processes. Their latest exploration revolves around the liminal spaces that hold non-binary identities, and the contrasting worlds of the natural and artificial.
Nicole Shimonek
Nicole is a visual artist based in Winnipeg, working in sculpture, drawing, video, and performance. She has participated in artist residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts, L’AiR International in Paris, Bow Arts Trust and Brompton Design District in London, as well as Artscape Gibraltar Point in Toronto. Her artwork has shown both nationally and internationally through exhibitions and video screenings. Nicole holds a BFA from the University of Manitoba and an MFA degree from the Chelsea College of Art and Design, UAL London.
Brooke Hess
Growing up in Treaty 1 Territory, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Brooke has been immersed in the contemporary dance scene throughout her life. Her love for dance began while she was a member of a small dance troupe under the direction of Paula Blair. Through that experience, she was influenced and inspired to pursue a career in dance. The desire to challenge herself and seek further education grew, and she was introduced to the School of Contemporary Dancers(SCD). Brooke graduated from the Senior Professional Program of SCD in May 2021.
Brooke’s primary artistic interest lies in creation and performance. She views performance as building a connection between herself and the audience; creating a space where she can convey emotion, tell a story, and make a statement. Some of her most notable professional work includes dancing in Stephanie Ballard’s new screen dance solo work, Hilary James’ full-length choreographic piece “Pull Yourself Together,” and Paula Blair’s full-length show “The Journey of Smud.” Brooke has been an artist in residence for New Dance Horizons and has been mentored by Robin Poitras C.M. and Edward Poitras since 2021. She is a board member for Young Lungs Dance Exchange and is an active member of Winnipeg’s dance community.
Laura Vriend
Laura Vriend is an independent dance artist and scholar born and raised on Treaty One Territory (Winnipeg). After moving to the US in the late 90s, she earned a BA in Dance and Anthropology from Bryn Mawr College and a PhD in Critical Dance Studies from the University of California, Riverside. After 12 years working in Philadelphia as a dance artist, dance dramaturge and Adjunct Professor of Dance at Temple University and Bryn Mawr College, she returned to Winnipeg in 2022, where she began work on her current long term project Vignettes for Sewing Dances and Choreographing Clothing in collaboration with Katherine Magne, owner of Winnipeg Sews and with initial support from YLDE’s research residency. In Philadelphia, she had the pleasure of working with Headlong Dance Theater, Annie Wilson, Irina Varina and Megan Bridge/<fidget>. Laura’s research as a scholar and dance artist has centered around social theories of space and cultural geography, writing extensively on how choreography makes space in site-specific experimental dance in Philadelphia, and centering her dance practice around landscape through the development of psychogeographic scores and other strategies. Laura also maintains a cross-border collaboration with artist Leigh Huster with whom she makes movement-based films exploring ritual and grief. She identifies as a fat and disabled dance artist and seeks to make space for body diversity in dance, often engaging the movements of fat (like jiggling flesh) to which typically thin dancing bodies do not have access. She currently teaches modern dance for Fat Babes Dance Collective.
Eugene Baffoe
Eugene “GeNie” Baffoe is a freestyle Hip Hop dancer, DJ, educator, and filmmaker from Montreal Québec. He has been studying Hip Hop Culture for over a decade, teaching, performing and competing all over the world. GeNie is the co-creator and director of Our Scene the Movie, a documentary Film on the history of Winnipeg’s Hip Hop Dance community. The film can be viewed for free on YouTube. As the Director of B.O.S.S. Dance Team, he has directed and choreographed 2 Winnipeg Blue bomber Canadian Footable League halftime shows, 3 opening sequences for WeDay with several dance battle wins and judging credentials under his belt across Canada and the U.S.A. In 2017, GeNie was flown out to the Canada’s capital city of Ottawa to teach on the main stage for 25,000 attendees after being selected to be 1 of 4 Canadian choreographers to create the official Sharing Dance routine for Canada’s 150th anniversary celebration. GeNie is a high energy performer, instructor and educator dedicated to authentically delivering the culture to his audiences and students in class.
Sam Penner
Sam Penner is an independent contemporary dance artist of mixed settler heritage living and working in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. After graduating from the School of Contemporary Dancers in 2013, she performed and worked extensively in Manitoba for many years, with Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, and Gearshifting Performance Works, working with choreographers such as Peggy Baker, Johanna Riley, Brent Lott, and Jolene Bailie. Her choreographic practice explores collaborative projects and partnerships for stage and screen, including a trio for the stage Nothing Doing (2019), and co-curating Manitoba Yellow Pages: A Scorebook for Movement and Sound (2021), presented by Young Lungs Dance Exchange and Cluster Festival. She is also passionate about community-based dance work, co-directing West Broadway Dance Days (2021), produced in partnership with the Broadway Neighbourhood Centre, and leading dance classes in her local community through Mocean Dance. Recent creative highlights include performing in the full length improvised work Where Dance and Music Meet (2023) by Susanne Chui; and premiering her first short screendance film Cumulus (2023), presented in Shifting Tides: Dance Films from Atlantic Canada, as well as Skylines Dance and Film.
Yuri Karube
Yuri Karube is a Winnipeg-Based accountant, serving micro and small organizations since 2017. She grew up in Japan and loved singing and painting together with other art-lovers until she left for Canada in 2011. She went to the Red River College as an English language student, then completed her bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of Manitoba.
Through her experiences in Canada, her passion for performing art herself evolved into a passion for serving all artists in Canada. Today, she enjoys helping clients with their financial reporting and projection, as well as developing customized tools and systems to increase efficiency in administrative processing and financial reporting for small and micro NPO’s.