Jacob Boehme is an artist, artistic director and curator of dance, theatre and ceremony for the stage, screen and festivals, from the Narangga and Kaurna Peoples of South Australia. He is the writer and performer of the critically acclaimed and award-winning solo work Blood on the Dance Floor, presented by Dancehouse during its 2019 Canadian tour. Jacob is the founding creative director of Yirramboi First Nations Festival and is the current Artistic Director of Wild Dog, connecting dingo songlines across Australia and the Artistic Director of Seasoned, a new festival in development celebrating Indigenous Elders in the Arts.

Vanessa Goodman respectfully acknowledges that she lives and works on the ancestral and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples including the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Stó:lō, Səl̓ílwətaʔ and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm Nations. She holds a BFA from SFU and is the artistic director of Action at a Distance Dance Society. Vanessa is attracted to art that has a weight and meaning beyond the purely aesthetic and uses her choreography as an opportunity to explore the human condition. She has received several honours including The Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award (2013); The Yulanda M. Faris Scholarship (2017/18); The Chrystal Dance Prize (2019); The Schultz Endowment from Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (2019); and the “Space to Fail” program (2019/20).

Vanessa’s work has been presented in locally by DanceHouse, SFU Woodwards, The Belkin Gallery, The Firehall Arts Centre, The Dance Centre, The Chutzpah! Festival and The Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. Presentations further afield include the Fluid Festival (Calgary), Fodar (Annapolis Royal), The Dance Made in Canada Festival (Toronto), On the Boards (Seattle), Risk/Reward Festival (Portland), Estrogenius Festival (New York), L1 Festival (Budapest), The National Centre for Dance (Bucharest) and The Bienal Internacional de Dança Do Ceará (Brazil).

Vanessa has been artist-in-residence at Cultivamos Cultura/Bio-Friction (Portugal), Dance Victoria, Harbourfront Centre and The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, where she was also on faculty. Most recently she was in invited to create, perform and facilitate at Trinity Laban (London, UK). Upcoming projects include collaborations with composers Loscil and Caroline Shaw. www.actionatadistance.ca

Of Algerian roots, Hervé Koubi grew up in the South of France where he studied both biology and dance at the University of Aix-en-Provence before graduating as a Pharmaceutical Doctor in 2002. After deciding to concentrate on a dancing career and graduating from the world-renowned Rosella Hightower School of Dance in Cannes, Koubi gained professional experience as a dancer with the National choreographic centers of Nantes and Caen and with Thierry Smits – Compagnie Thor in Brussels and has created numerous works since then. He is Associate Choreographer at the Pole National Supérieur de Danse since 2014 and at the Conservatoire de Danse de Brive-la-Gaillarde since 2015.

Photo: Hervé Koubi © Véronique Chochon.

Sonia Destri Lie (Artistic Director/Choreographer) is the artistic director and choreographer of Companhia Urbana de Dança. Having received degrees in both Psychology and Ballet, Destri has a unique perspective on human expression and human form. After completing her studies, she travelled throughout Brazil and Europe, working in dance, theatre, film, and musicals. It was then that she discovered hip-hop and b-boy dance. She defined her unique and refreshing interpretation of these styles by infusing them with the rich cultural influences of Brazil and the favelas from within. Her works creatively embrace elements of hip-hop, b-boy, and contemporary dance, as well as Brazilian social dances. Destri’s choreography has been cited for making a significant contribution to the field of dance. She has created an entirely new genre that results in a greater appreciation for existing dance styles and the significance of sociocultural influences

Photo by Ivan Cavalcanti.