Cast & Crew
Deviani Andrea is a dance artist based in Amiskwaciwâskahikan / Edmonton. Originally from Mexico City, she holds a BA in Literature by the University of Mexico and studied at the Mexico City’s Dance School and Ema Pulido’s Dance Studio. Since landed in Canada, Deviani has worked as Movement Instructor for the Citadel Theatre, and as a guest teacher with Azimuth Theatre. She has performed with SkirtsAfire, Mile Zero Dance, Fringe Festival, Found Festival and Orchesis Dance Society and has choreographed for the Alberta Musical Theatre Company.
Her independent work has been kindly supported by the Edmonton Arts Council and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. This summer she’s going to perform the final version of her solo ESPARTANAE and collaborate with Shammy Belmore to create a choreography to be performed in public spaces around the city as part of the Creative Exchange Project by the CanDance Network.
She likes biking in the summer and skiing in the winter, brewing kombucha, and consuming content in different languages.
Kadin Aumentado is a dancer and choreographer raised in Calgary who has newly finished her
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance with Distinction at the University of Calgary. Although stylistically
more contemporary now, she also trained in ballet, jazz, and hip hop. She has performed in
many pieces through the university, but since graduating, has taken part in DSW’s Quick + Dirty
Festival, the Dance YYC Showcase, and was a guest performer in Decidedly Jazz Danceworks’
show, Old/New/Borrowed/Blue. Kadin looks forward to further developing and experimenting
with her choreographic style and seeking new opportunities to grow as an artist.
Gail Benin is a new grad BIPOC interpreter in Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton), Alberta. She is passionate about her work while maintaining long lasting relationships in the dDeaf/HoH community. She values cultural representation being one of the very few BIPOC interpreters in Alberta. While interpreting is a big part of her life – she also enjoys reading a good book, hanging out with her dog, Beau, hiking in the mountains and spending quality times with loved ones. Gail is very excited to meet people in the theatre community in Edmonton and surrounding areas, while making sure that communication access is provided to all participating audiences.
Ainsley Hillyard (she/her) is an artist residing in the papastew ward of Amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton) and is of Irish/Scottish settler descent. She wears many different hats and works with a few dance and theatre organizations in Amiskwacîwâskahikan, however at this moment in her life, she feels the most free and curious in her role as lighting designer. Ainsley is not a formally trained lighting designer and is extremely grateful to have been mentored by Whittyn Jason, Beth Dart and through experiential learning over years as a performer, secretly listening in on many talented lighting designers during cue to cue. She feels extremely supported by the GWDC adventuring on this, one of many, new shifts in her life and is thrilled to see how this new passion will evolve. Past lighting credits include; How to make something from nothing (GWDC), Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (GWDC) and Carbon Movements (the Invisible Practice). She very much loves her dog (Jezebel), her partner (Mark) and the house they live in together as a family (The Estate).
Galen Hite (any pronouns) is a queer Edmonton-based theatre artist specializing in Stage Management! Notable recent projects include the Thousand Faces Festival’s Mythic New Works Series and the CanNatyam Festival of South Asian Dance, as well as Low Hanging Fruit’s Fringe production of F*gs In Space and Theatre Prospero’s production of Enchanted Antlers. A passionate creative of many interests, Galen also enjoys tabletop RPGs, creative writing, and playing their guitar. They wants to thank their partner, friends, family, plants, cat Paintbrush (and Google), for always being there for them. Enjoy the show!
Alison Kause is a founding member of the Good Women Dance Collective.
She works with the collective and independently, and is a teacher with Edmonton Public Schools. Alison’s dance experience is based in several years of studio, Cechetti, ballet and modern dance technique to the Good Women Dance Collective.
She is a graduate of the Grant MacEwan Dance Program and the School of Contemporary Dance at SFU, as well as the Education program at the University of Alberta.
Alison has trained and performed across Canada and been inspired by work with local and international colleagues. She has worked with Justine Chambers, Melanie Kloetzel, Peggy Baker, Shasha Ivanochko, Melanie Demers, Mile Zero Dance, Heidi Bunting, Brian Webb, Jen Mesch Dance Conspiracy, AM Choreography, Krista Posyniak, Richard Lee, Isabelle Rousseau, Katherine Semchuk, Jessica McMann, Marynia Fecekz and GWD Collective artists. Alison has performed in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Vancouver and Edmonton.
Alison is inspired by the challenge of finding an intersection between being an artist, mother and teacher – these roles constantly demand attention, inform one another and provide diverse perspectives.
Alida Kendell is a contemporary dance choreographer, performer, instructor and mother in amiskwacîwâskahikan, Edmonton. She has trained in both ballet and contemporary dance, completing her BA at the School of Contemporary Dancers in Winnipeg, MB. Her artistry is fed by her work as a collective artist with the Good Women Dance Collective (GWDC), her independent projects, and caregiving. Career highlights so far include performing in the Sterling award-winning productions BEARS (Pyretic Productions) and The Cardiac Shadow (Northern Light Theatre), which she co-choreographed with GWDC.
Recently Alida has returned to a solo practice that investigates durational improvisation as an escape from and return to self. Her recent participation in the Hack Lab (Theatre Direct) has inspired her to work in ways that incorporate the experience of motherhood rather than working in spite of it.
Christine Kozub (she/her) is a sign language interpreter from Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton), Alberta. She has 10 years experience and is quite passionate about her work. She would like to thank the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community who have continuously supported her and shared their language and world with her. She is also grateful to the many colleagues who have mentored her and continue to support her. When she isn’t working, she enjoys spending time with her family and being immersed in nature.
Jessica McMann is an Alberta -based Cree (Cowessess, SK), multi-disciplinary artist. She interweaves land, Indigenous identity, history, and language throughout her dance and music creation/performance practice. A classically trained flutist, she holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Calgary and an MFA in Contemporary Arts from Simon Fraser University. Her work fuses together traditional language and dance with her own contemporary experiences as an Indigenous woman and Two-Spirit person. She also is a champion powwow dancer and spends time travelling in the summer. Her first album of Indigenous-Classical music “Incandescent Tales” (June 2021) won Global Music Awards as well as Classical Album of the year at the 2022 YYC Music Awards. She was nominated for Indigenous Arts of the year at the 2022 WCMA’s. She is currently working on her second album slated to be released October 2023. Her musical, composition, and soundscapes focus on land-based creation and ideas of connection, disconnection, and home Her compositions include The Realities We Have Made (2022, Cecilia Concerts) Muskwa’s Mountain Home (2021, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra), Inni (2018, Coastal Jazz) and soundscapes including beguiling (the) land (2020, Project 686). Jessica has played and performed venues and festivals across Canada, as well as toured in Sweden, and with Laura Vinson in the Netherlands, and Belgium. “Too Good; That MAY Be”, an immersive soundscape performance was shown at the Urban Shaman Gallery in Winnipeg as part of “The 60’s Scoop; A Place Between” in 2017. Jessica currently resides in Cochrane, Alberta, where she works for the City of Calgary as Curator of Indigenous Art. She is also co-founder and co-director Wild Mint Arts, an Indigenous arts company and is a Laureate of the Hnatyshyn Foundation REVEAL Indigenous Art Awards (2017).
Rebecca Sadowski is an Edmonton- based Métis performer and choreographer. She is an artistic member of the Good Women Dance Collective and curates dance programming for the Nextfest Festival. Rebecca holds a BFA in dance from Ryerson University and teaches dance with dancED Movement Projects. Rebecca has previously worked as an understudy with Good Women Dance Collective and Northern Light Theatre’s 2019 co-production of The CARDIAC SHADOW by Clay McLeod Chapman. She also took part in the production of THE BEGINNING OF HAPPINESS, a collaboration with vocal quartet, Femme. Rebecca has performed in BEARS by Matthew MacKenzie with Punctuate Theatre and the Citadel Theatre, and performed in AYITA by Teneil Whiskeyjack at Skirtsafire Festival this past season. Rebecca has produced several dances including THE SASH MAKER, which was developed into a dance film in 2020 with cinematographer Tamarra Lessard, as well as BREAKING BAPTIST produced by Catalyst Theatre. Rebecca continues to deepen her connection to her Métis roots by learning jigging and the traditional skill of finger-weaving sashes. She is so grateful for the Good Women and their ongoing support and encouragement in her performance and choreographic pursuits.
Katharina Schier is an artist working in Calgary (Mohkinstsis) Alberta, Canada. Katharina has choreographed and produced as an independent artist and as the artistic director of Calgary Core Contemporaries, having received project based funding from Alberta Foundation for the Arts (2019), Canada Council for the Arts (2020) and Calgary Arts Development (2022), and Rise Up Calgary (2021). Notable projects in Calgary, AB include producing Calgarys’s first drive-in dance performance since the Covid-19 pandemic was announced (July 2020), producing collaborative outdoor performances with local Calgary artists (September 2021) and co-founding and directing a project called Ballet Bodies (2020). Katharina is an artist who is committed to long term- research oriented practices and (with support of Dancers Studio West, Springboard YYC and Decidedly Jazz Dance and in artistic collaboration with Sarah Uwadiae and Alexandra Contreras) presented a showing of a new work-in-progress in December 2022. Katharina has created new works for the Alberta Ballet School professional division (where she has been on faculty since 2019) as well as Ignite! Festival (2018), Springboard Fluidfest(2022) and HealingMoves (2022/23) project. She graduated (summa cum laude) from the Boston Conservatory in 2016 and while in attendance was privileged to perform in works by Mark Morris, Uri Sands, and Andrea Miller to name a few. While in the United States, Katharina performed with City Ballet of Boston, Emily Jerant-Hendrickson, Wiss.co Dance, Cathy Young, Luminarium Dance Company, and Lorraine Chapman The Company. Since returning to Calgary, she has performed for Davida Monk, Kaja Irwin, Barbara England and Corps Bara Dance Theatre. Katharina is honored to be working with Jessica McMann as a part of Good Women Dance Collective’s 2023 programming.
Emily’s Solstice Tait’s practice is rooted in contemporary dance but happily crosses into theatre, stage management and film. She is of mixed settler and Ojibway ancestry (Urban member of Berens River First Nation). Her dances have been performed at The Manitoba Museum, The Forks National Historic Site, and along the shores of Lake Winnipeg. Select performances include The War Being Waged (Prairie Theatre Exchange), The Secret to Good Tea (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre), Actualize (Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers), moi, suel·e (Théâtre Cercle Molière), Confluence (Raven Spirit Dance) and The___ Place video with CBC Arts.
Crystal Wolfe is an emerging Indigenous Deaf artist and has already built experience as a Indigenous Deaf Interpreter for Pawâkan Macbeth in 2020, Ayita by Skirts-A-Fire and Bear Grease. She is a local Deaf educator and advocate, and a proud member of Neyaskweyaw (Ermineskin) Band of Maskwacis. She actively defends the rights of the Deaf Indigenous community so that they can access traditional ceremony, knowledge, and safe space within the larger Deaf community. She helps us remember and respect the Indigenous history of our land. She also works in the arts, providing treaty audiences in theatre with story keeping and Deaf Interpretation.
