Poetry in Motion Programme

To access this program in audio format, scan the QR code below.

Performed for the first time at the Arts Court Theatre in Ottawa, ON on October 5, 2023

Under the artistic direction of Jasmine van Schouwen

Lighting: Scottie Mitchell

Costumes: Daniele Robert and Julia Sterling

Front cover photo: Ahmad Hijjawi - Instagram : @ahmad hijjawi

Accompanying photographs: Crow Walker

Videography: Taamarbuta productions

Program Design: Jasmine van Schouwen

Audio Recording of Program by: Natasha Bakht, Kendra Guidolin, Jack Hui Litster, Ainslie Moors, Noah Pacheco, Julia

Sterling and Jasmine van Schouwen

Synopsis

Situated at the crossroads of literature and movement, Poetry in Motion is a one-hour mixed-contemporary dance program, featuring fourteen new works collaboratively choreographed by the Voices Dance Project's company dancers. The works explore the themes, motifs, and narratives of fourteen poems written by Canadian BIPOC and 2SLGBTQIA+ poets. Through poignant choreography that blends contemporary ballet, modern dance, graham technique, and belly dance, these emerging dancers bring the poets' prose to life, allowing audiences to experience the stories and imagery these poems offer in both written words and the language of dance. The product of more than a year of collaboration between dancers, composers, musicians, and poets, Poetry in Motion is the first public performance of the Voices Dance Project, the National Capital Region’s newest contemporary dance company.

The music for this performance bridges music genres from chamber classical, ambient, Celtic, experimental to cinematic and was composed and recorded by Jack Hui Litster during the decade from 2014-2023. Tonight we feature the premiere performances of two songs from Jack’s 2022 album Shining Suns, to accompany the pieces ‘Unheard Stories’ and ‘Untitled.’ We will also perform six brand new compositions by Jack, created in collaboration with the choreographers to accompany: ‘Vex’, ‘Milk River’, ‘Love is Kind of Like That Moment’, ‘Queer Artist Haiku’, Every Avocado Needs A Husband’, and ‘Birthright’.

The process of creating music and choreography inspired by poems written by members of equity-seeking groups, placed us in a meaningful dialogue with the works, and with the experiences of the poets. These works explore a wide range of themes: love and heartbreak, domestic violence, migration, the experience of childbirth, the clash between gender identity and established norms and institutions, the challenges of being seen and understood meaningfully by those we love Our hope is that presenting the choreographies alongside the works that inspire them will enable the audience to develop a deeper understanding of the themes, images and motifs of a poem by experiencing them not only in the language of poetry but also in the language of movement

Jasmine van Schouwen - Co-Founder | Artistic Director

Jack Charles Hui Litster - Composer-In-Residence

Sarah Squizzato - Co-Founder

About the Voices Dance Project

The Voices Dance Project is a non-profit dance company that puts dancers at the center of artistic creation in a collaborative, supportive, and accessible environment.

Voices aims to give amateur and part-time professional dancers a space to explore choreography and expression The project enables dancers to workshop new choreographic works and creates opportunities for them to train and perform on stage or in multimedia productions.

Through these performances, Voices hopes that artists will be able to develop experience, connect with artists from a variety of backgrounds, and discover new ways of expressing themselves The project specifically offers a creative space to dancers with experience training and performing in ballet, modern dance, contemporary dance, indigenous dance styles and traditional dance styles from around the world.

The project provides dancers of all body types, ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnicities, genders and sexual identities a platform for their works to be experienced, unfettered, by audiences in the Ottawa area.

The Voices Dance Project also hosts monthly workshops offering affordable dance training and dance-related programming to the general public

Interested in joining the project? Contact us at info@voicesdance.ca

by Zynphonicka

in a forgotten space my hands grow stronger and plans are creeping into my future gagging is a pristine pastime of mine didn't you know? from darker days when I desired to be a shadow and when the sun scarred the passing of the hours across my body then I knew it was the time to burrow underground in wait of winter for the hollow echoes of insanity and the bone ache of desire.

I grow more vulnerable each time and these concrete blocks of fear crumble under his soft words and rough caresses because

I am manufactured and afraid of the emptiness and betrayal the abandonment of reason in which we are always dreaming and yet I leave always absolutely with the first snap of frost upon the ground

Choreography : Kendra Guidolin

Music: Jack Hui Litster

Poetry Reading: Zynphonicka

Dancers: Kendra Guidolin, Sarah Squizzato

Milk River

by Lee Thomas

When you emerge from Milk River the ghost of the seaway leaves the memory of the tides on your hips and I want the breath that unfurls on your lips like the sunflowers that crowd the shore, and I think I might love

the horizon here, the way it reaches for the last drop of sunlight on the evening river and draws in the wide milky way: above and below, the sediment settles into your pores, turns to want I want to be the silt that shrouds your body. the prairie meadow of your chest blooms beneath my lips: a river of sunflowers and aster, eager blossoms. and I think I might love

the way the badlands kiss the sky how the sandstone yields a trembling sigh, and the prairie grass yields to the wind, and we to the sagebrush night-hush, and I think I might love

the way you transmute water into laughter an alchemical recollection of the seas that surged across these plains. A glacial ghost recalled in the set of these spires, reveal the strata of my flesh. you leave me lopsided and deeper and I think I might love —

Choreography : Zakiya Journeau

Music: Jack Hui Litster

Dancers: Chelsey Fawcett,

Kendra Guidolin, Zakiya Journeau, Audrey Lanoux, Daniele Robert, Jasmine van Schouwen

Love is kind of like that moment.

by Myranda Bingham

You know when you’re painting and yet it doesn’t quite look the way you pictured? You continue to add more paint until the imagery becomes more vivid. You touch up the same spots until it feels perfected. Then you realize, if you just take a step back, you can appreciate the art for its imperfections. Love is kind of like that moment when you finally step back and appreciate the beauty it holds.

You know the temporary blindness you get when you first turn off a light? You close your eyes, hoping the adjustment will occur quicker. You take a deep breath before taking your first steps into the place which was once visible. You worry, just for a moment, that what you can’t see may hurt you. Love is kind of like that moment of blindness before your night vision kicks in.

You know the rush of the air which carries you when you jump off a cliff into the water? You stand at the edge looking over the deep abyss, worried the fall won’t be worth the joy You close your eyes, take one last deep breath and you launch yourself into the free fall. You open your mouth to scream, but the adrenaline and excitement freeze you in that moment. You close your eyes again as you crash into the cool water below In that moment, the world goes silent. In that moment, you forget how terrifying the fall was. In that moment, you feel at peace. Love is kind of like that moment before you resurface gasping for air

Choreography : Audrey Lanoux

Music: Jack Hui Litster

Dancers: Chelsey Fawcett, Kendra Guidolin, Zakiya Journeau, Audrey Lanoux, Daniele Robert, Julia Sterling, Jasmine van Schouwen

An Ode to my Foremothers

by Sneha Subramanian

the sky cloaks our veils & we turn into temporary gods holding a child in our arms, navigating spaces between night & day. our heads turn like sunflowers by the brink of dusk, flecks of fire rise like comets out of the mitti ka chulha sounds of glass bangles clank against copper utensils,

as if our smallness is contained in the universe of a million atoms —

Previously published in Arkana

Choreography : Jasmine van Schouwen

Music: Jack Hui Litster

Dancers: Zakiya Journeau, Sarah Squizzato, Jasmine van Schouwen

Photo by Crow Walker

Our Love Song

by Christine Dupuis

When I met youYou were my friend

You help me see the light

When I saw nothing but darkness

When I met youYou were my mystery

My new beginning

What felt like my last hope;

The butterflies came first: Ignoring my attempts to suppress A slight blush

Betrayed my heart's thoughts

From the moment you made me see, I saw you.

I smiled my first smile

My laughter hurt again

If you looked into my eyes

You might have seen them smile too

From the moment I kissed you

At the park

By your car

I knew I was a goner...

There it was my new start

The first step to my goal

With you by my side

Through sickness and health;

I stood by you in a gloom

When I saw your knuckles swell I was quick to call you a bitch

Because you tried taking my pain That night

We argued our last fight

It was the endThe end of our love song.

I don't blame you For forgetting about me You found another girl A girl the opposite of me

I guess you could say

I had moved on

Accepted my fate

As the broken one

But here I am

At 3 AM

Calling you

To turn on the light

It was greedy

I admit But I was desperate

After so long in the dark

You had your own darkness now You had felt the ultimate betrayalTurns out my opposite Can be even more cruel.

It was selfish of me

To ask for your light

Because once again

We said our “I love you”-s

I had problems seeing a future

Where my hand was in yours

Confessing our vows

With an eternal “I do”

So why was my heart broken

When you finally had enough

When your heart was set

And mine was unsure.

This time was different

I made a vow to forget

A bottle and friends

Would keep you at bay...

Little did I know

After countless hoursHours I spent mourning you You would come back again;

I demanded change

I wasn't happy

With how the darkness looked on you

I can reverse what I had done to you

Life felt full again

With you by my side

Silent tears on my pillow

I was blinded by you

Your light too bright

I couldn't ignore the darkness

Instead it consumed me

I loved you But that was the problem

I told others I hated you

Deep down I was missing you

I lost all but at least I still had you

I lost a part of me

But I thought I had you again

Little did I know

My worst fear came true:

I shut out the darkness

I shut out the world

I built up my wall

I forgot to give you the code.

If it's so much better

To let go instead of holding on

Why the hell

Do I feel like this:

My appetite gone

My sense fading

A knife to the chest

Would hurt less than this.

We left on a promise

“Maybe in a few years”

Once we had again found ourselves

And maybe each other;

I'm sorry

This is my final goodbye

I need to leave you behind

My friend my love

The true ending

Hurts like hell

But our author

Shows us no mercy

As much as my heart

Betrays my mind

Here I write

The final note in our song.

—

Choreography : Zakiya Journeau, Daniele Robert

Music: Jack Hui Litster

Dancers: Zakiya Journeau, Daniele Robert

Unheard Stories

by Kelly Kaur

Grandmother spoke

In a language

I barely understood

Leaning toward me

On her rattan bed

Under the squeaky, whirring fan

On a hot Singapore afternoon

I strain to listen

To sounds

And articulated words that hold no meaning for me

Wild gestures and gesticulations

Urgently punctuate purpose

On an indifferent slate

I nod my head

Up and down

Her tongue inaccessible

Until in silence

We sit

Deafened by chasms of language lost and stories left forever untold

Previously published in Singa, Literature in Singapore, No 30, 2000

Choreography : Audrey Lanoux

Music: Jack Hui Litster

Dancers: Audrey Lanoux, Julia Sterling

Ghazal with praise for an Ocean

by Sneha Subramanian for nani

An ocean is concavity Again, I evoke the nebulize of ocean folding into ocean to bless our feet. Give me a widening ocean before a thousand names for God. The songbirds are passing over a prospect of blue prayer despite gravity. Say an ocean may become a holy carriage for feet. I want to move towards the direction of my ancestors. The trace of lineage in an ocean

in flux from Karachi into swift waters is ceremonial. I praise motion by wanting to be a part of nautical miles. An ocean

lingers in the body of my grandmother like the sounds in a conch shell. The folding of hands like a cusp of two tides in an ocean

is an offer of prayer. We arrive at our destination by the smell of a proximate ocean. I want the singing to carry us as far as ocean

currents carry nutrients to organisms underwater. My grandmother makes paper lanterns with shapes akin to waves in the ocean.

To be saved from elegy means being saved by an ocean. We name the intimacy holding our beloveds an ocean.

Previously published in Chestnut Review

Choreography : Julia Sterling

Music: Jack Hui Litster

Dancers: Kendra Guidolin, Zakiya Journeau, Audrey Lanoux, Daniele Robert, Julia Sterling, Sarah Squizzato, Jasmine van Schouwen

Photo by Crow Walker

Women Rising Up

by Kelly Kaur

When I was born my father placed me at the familiar altar of patriarchy I ranted and raved. Stomped, screamed, and shouted until reluctantly, my father’s infinite love gave me powerful degrees, one for each hand

When my daughter was born I breathed intense joy into her lips carved words of power onto the canvas of her skin propelled her ahead of lines of dissent deconstructed dialogues of traditional expectations celebrated her strength and her passion whispered in her ear that Barbie was too skinny and no one needed to wear high heels unless they wanted to let her embrace her glorious size, perfect shape, and seamless color showed her the map to female autonomy from lessons learnt in classrooms and on the streets

And she became sassy, feisty, intelligent, vivacious, beautiful, dynamic, spirited, confident, audacious, bold, adventurous, self-sufficient, wise, brave, broadminded, inquisitive, ambitious, savvy, liberated

We all need just one advocate

Rise up for our mothers, sisters, and daughters

Rise up for the oppressed, muted, and nameless

Rise up for invisible women of the world until on her own every single woman in the universe

Rises up for herself

Poem, “Women Rising Up,” selected by a jury for a travelling exhibition for the North Dakota Human Rights Arts Festival to 6 museums in North Dakota: Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks, Jamestown, Minot, and Williston. January 2022 to November 2022.

Choreography : Jasmine van Schouwen

Music: Jack Hui Litster

Dancers: Chelsey Fawcett, Kendra Guidolin, Zakiya Journeau, Audrey Lanoux, Daniele Robert, Julia Sterling, Sarah Squizzato, Jasmine van Schouwen

Poetry Reading: Ainslie Moors

Photo by Crow Walker

ACT II

Queer Artist Haiku

by Keith Garebian

Pixelated light and storm, the stress of body and soul in love, gay movies of hungry eros, face, hands, and limbs dance the sunset music

you can’t always hear, unless you are curled in tight to its subtle waves.

You can’t be certain, never know where passion leads inside your cottage

or your greedy self. Being queer is a passion in itself, a hive

of bees preparing to die for honey, the heart in squall, or wind chimes,

your skin papyrus on which you leave testament of the eyes and mouth.

When you create art you can be alone, like string broken and forlorn,

but, oh, images that mesmerize the cold eye: a young man dancing around a hanging boy whose tongue is the black death and in his hands, cards

to buy the future, flash and mock with a grim jest. Young men in a tub, toy with each other, evoking their boyhood selves in a spy window,

pour water as time crawls grimly on bruised knees over the shingle.

The gay singer sings, oblivious to wasteland— the silent raven,

the hooded figure moving prophetically over acid ground

who hears the tango swirling around the dancer, as naked bodies

spark against the rock, flesh striking stone, flame-bearing figures in your dream.

Is it victim-art— the male transvestite’s stoning, the tarred and feathered

gagged and trussed-up man, captive to hyena taunts of rabid fascists?

High-booted stamping feet, leather cries of lashes, hymns in the background, the blood-red landscape, the sky pierced and torn, the sea swarming, men burrow

deep to hide their shame, unborn generations bound to parallel crimes.

The world turns and moves its fingers tracing circles on the rims of cups

in a silent trance, a blue light shrouding lovers lets all pass from us.

Art, the last supper at time’s long, cold wood table, is cold and dying.

We too die silent, hands unlinked, so cold, cold, cold, but you sing the song of an old garden and all its vanished pleasures, pulling the slow bow across a cello, making music float in blue half-light, the small star

of our world brimming with the unsayable notes of brave, lost causes.

Queer Artist Haiku

From Keith Garebian’s collection Blue: The Derek Jarman Poems (Signature Editions, 2008)

Choreography : Sarah Squizzato

Music: Jack Hui Litster

Dancers: Chelsey Fawcett, Kendra Guidolin, Zakiya Journeau, Daniele Robert, Julia Sterling, Jasmine van Schouwen

Poetry Reading: Noah Pacheco

Photo by Crow Walker

every avocado needs a husband

by Eli Mushumanski

i am the patriarch of the manor. my nursery is neat and my daughters bloom. when zinnia dares creep from her loamy bed, i clip her vines, and i chop

my sweet alyssum short.

alas! my avocado tree, my flighty child, spindles like a hag. sixteen years since she hatched, yet no corset keeps her trunk from twisting. she bears me no fruit, and she climbs for the greenhouse's gleaming glass ceiling.

a husband! i say a husband for my avocado tree. the gardener fetches him, and we build the happy couple a bower

o, bliss indeed, with roses twining up the sides. my eyes, my spies, these roses watch her wed for me she wifes her husband tree! the indignity!

the roses inform me

these avocado trees' flowers opened to a matching set of stigmas: two wombs with no seeds.

enraged, i run to my books, and they claim that avocado trees come in As and Bs rather than hes and shes.

Nonsense!

i dig her up by the roots— i am the patriarch, words like dichogamy and erasure of binary will not disrespect me— only to find tangles and knots, their lives bonded in the plot i built their bower in.

i cannot stand to fell my child, so the two of them live in peace, a merrily sexless old pair, while i seethe and marry zinnia off to the weeds

Choreography : Chelsey Fawcett

Music: Jack Hui Litster

Dancers: Chelsey Fawcett, Kendra Guidolin, Julia Sterling, Jasmine van Schouwen

Photo by Crow Walker

Summer at Seventeen

by Emma Schuster

Some people are fall. Some are winter, Some are spring, But she,

She was my whole summer.

She was the last one that tasted of sand, That burned itself into my skin Like sun beams.

Every season since Has felt like an untanned imitation, The grit of the beach

Unable to find its way Into my teeth. It is as if

Every beach day I come home

And there is no sand

To pour out of my bag.

The beige and black granules

Chewed to size by sharp rocks

And wave patterns

Must have trickled out behind My creaking red bike

With its unadjusted handlebars And uninflated tires.

I followed the trail back, once.

Hunted down the road

For the last sphere I dropped, Retracing my turns

Until the lake opened up before me. And I swear

The horizon

Hoisted her, Sailing her away from me For the last time.

Our very One sided Goodbye. —

Choreography : Kendra Guidolin, Jasmine van Schouwen

Music: Jack Hui Litster

Dancers: Kendra Guidolin, Jasmine van Schouwen

Photo by Crow Walker

Gas / light

by Kendra Guidolin

As the night crew starts construction on the 401, the highway is stripped of any lines, solid or striped, only keeping cars on the black tar, still drying, with chips taken out of the shoulder. Eight lanes wide, the cars spread out, and leave you alone with one other that threatens to creep over. It becomes more cumbersome driving behind a smashed in tail light, having no other reason to drive close enough to see if there’s a hand waving. Nowhere to pull over to see the alert that sounds like embers, the sparks that fling from a mouth at the gas station pump.

Stitches that have come undone like a zipper. A bruise that demands to be pressed twice. For another six months, it’s another lit match at a gas station. This is waiting for the spark to catch: taking deep breaths. Counting backwards from ten.

Choreography : Julia Sterling

Music: Jack Hui Litster

Dancers: Kendra Guidolin, Audrey Lanoux, Julia Sterling, Sarah Squizzato

Photo by Crow Walker

BIRTHRIGHT

by Kelly Kaur

Mummy sits in the corner of the room dupatta over her head hands in clasped obeisance murmuring verses from the Adi Granth

I scream in unbearable agony expelling this errant child from my womb

her prayers don't make a difference to the intense pain but her presence in the hospital room calms my soul

At that precise cross point I envision my mother's birth I remember my birth I finally give birth

my daughter's rebellious cries fill the room rising to a crescendo to greet my mother's chants

three generations of women three continents forever inextricably linked —

Published in “Birthright” (M)othering. An Anthology June 2022

Choreography : Natasha Bakht

Music: Jack Hui Litster

Dancer: Natasha Bakht

Poetry Reading: Natasha Bakht

Photo by Crow Walker

Untitled

by Riley Hannah Lewicki

Middle-class romantic love sweeps

In, against, domestic green stillness. Extremely Cruelly Women’s experiences Totalize my own uncertain Jack Rabbit Conditions, primarily said with diligent latke-eating cultivated reservation.

Pursuit not expected sourly Decent Christian pagan friend

Yet given the true circumstances Gender adultery & post-wedding advocacy Penetrate the intercourse from a blue marble Archeamedian point sparkling wine distance.

The patriarchs of implications call out to us two, rendered simple and no longer pure, for proper education. They worry that lovers’ eternity combined with free floating knowledge will turn our “us” Of two, into a glorious “us” that Joins Them, petty local gods of property.

But my stomach lining’s wearing thin And you Shuffle gray when you try To walk that highway to Damascus my dear. The garden is no longer wild wonderful weeds, but now mathematically trimmed, whimsically filled with not a twig out of place hedge-animals. These trees can no longer tell that we are here, And cops have once again road-blocked the pretty Apian way

So what now in this LED chastity

Can we retreat against the chimeras Avoiding Continence’s purple infirmities?

Do we accept our bodies’ sovereign preservations Even and although they mix with the public? Should we obey our represented weakness? Let us give in to our lower-class prices.

Choreography : Sarah Squizzato, Jasmine van Schouwen

Music: Jack Hui Litster

Dancers: Kendra Guidolin, Zakiya Journeau Daniele Robert, Julia Sterling, Sarah Squizzato, Jasmine van Schouwen

Photo by Crow Walker

Dancers and Choreographers

Natashsa Bakht She/Her)

Guest Artist – Dancer/Choreographer

Natasha Bakht is an Indian contemporary dancer and choreographer trained in bharata natyam under Governor General’s Performing Arts laureate Menaka Thakkar. Described as “a brilliant diamond” (Dance Current), a “powerhouse” (Hindustan Times), and “all honed to the bone elegance and precision” (Vancouver Sun), Natasha has performed in celebrated venues around the world with the Menaka Thakkar Dance Company, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance and Sinha Danse Her choreography has garnered multiple awards (Dora Award nominations, 2003/2010, K M Hunter Artists Award, 2008; Ottawa Arts Council Mid-Career Artist Award finalist, 2018; Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize finalist, 2021; Order of Ottawa, 2022) and includes solos for herself, and group works commissioned by several companies and festivals. Natasha is also a law professor and the Shirley Greenberg Chair for Women and the Legal Profession at the University of Ottawa Her area of expertise is family law and the intersection of religious freedom and women’s equality She was called to the bar of Ontario in 2003 and began her career as a law clerk to Justice Louise Arbour at the Supreme Court of Canada Her monograph In Your Face: Law, Justice and Niqab-Wearing Women in Canada (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2020) received the 2020-2021 Huguenot Society of Canada Award.

Chelsey Fawcett (She/Her) Dancer/Choreographer

Chelsey Fawcett is an Ottawa-based Canadian entertainer working across Canada and internationally as a director, performer, producer and playwright She is an award winning animation director (Telus Storyhive) for her work on Noonright (2015) She was nominated for Director of the Year from the Calgary Critter awards for her work on The Basement Boys (2014)

As a belly dancer, Chelsey is focused on teaching the influential styles of Egypt in their original forms A dancer with over 10 years’ experience, she is the youngest graduate of the A-Z program under the study of Keti Sharif in Cairo, Egypt in 2008 She has been performing for Arabic weddings, parties and within the South Asian communities of Ontario for five years before moving to Calgary Chelsey is a previous WAMED workshop instructor and has traveled through Canada, Australia and the Middle East, and has spent the past seven years directing and producing theatre and Middle Eastern dance in Calgary, Alberta Chelsey holds a wealth of experience studying with some of the best and most famous dance instructors of the Middle East, and recently produced the Bellydance Circus show INANNA which will be touring Europe in 2023. Chelsey has her MFA in directing from the University of Ottawa and is the General Manager of the Ottawa Fringe Festival

Chelsey recently graduated from her Masters in Directing from the University of Ottawa.

Kendra Guidolin (She/Her)

Dancer/Choreographer

Kendra Guidolin is a dancer and writer based gratefully on the unsurrendered territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation. She began training in ballet, jazz, tap, lyrical, and acrobatic forms at the competitive level at a young age and continued her training at York University, where she completed a bachelor of fine arts degree in dance and creative writing. At York, she trained primarily in Vaganova, Cecchetti, and contemporary ballet forms; Limón, Graham, and Cunningham modern forms; choreographic creation; contact improvisation; and anatomically-safe training practices.

Kendra has performed and assisted in choreographing works on stages across Toronto, notably appearing in Ismailova Theatre of Dance’s Journey with the Wind, and Master and Margarita, and Victoria Kelly’s Begin, Risk Stop. Zakiya

Journeau (She/Her)

Dancer/Choreographer

Zakiya Journeau is a multi-disciplinary dancer based in Ottawa Zakiya began training in Ballet and Contemporary Dance at Just For Kicks Dance Studio in British Columbia when she was 10 years old and continued training until graduating from high school in 2017 During this time she completed her Grade 6, Intermediate, and Advanced 1 ballet exams with the Royal Conservatory Ballet Zakiya appeared in several of her studio’s successful annual performances and competed in regular dance competitions In 2017, her contemporary dance solo earned a score of 82 at the Penticton Festival

After graduating high school Zakiya took a brief hiatus from dance, but resumed her training as soon as pandemic restrictions were lifted Since 2021, Zakiya has trained and performed in new dance styles with the Rouge Studio of Dance and Dance with Bloom, including Jazz funk, Burlesque and Heels. Zakiya joined the Voices Dance Project in the hopes of reconnecting with her roots in ballet and contemporary dance, and is excited for her first ever piece of choreography to be featured in the company’s inaugural performance in October 2023.

Audrey Lanoux (She/Her)

Dancer/Choreographer

Audrey grew up in the northeast of France where she started ballet at the age of three In her teenage years she learnt jazz and modern dance In 2012, she defended her thesis in astrophysics and earned a PhD from Université de Toulouse

In 2013 she moved to the UK and had the opportunity to train with professional dancers from 3rd Stage Dance Company. As one of the former members of the 3Motion performance group, Audrey performed on numerous occasions in Bristol and Bath. She was also involved in several shows with Bristol Opera While in England, she discovered the Graham dance technique and fell in love with it

After moving to Canada in 2020, she started a more extensive study of Graham technique through intensives and workshops with the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. In July 2023, she became a certified teacher by completing a Graham Technique Teacher Training Course Level 5, with honours, at M-Intensive University She now studies Horton technique. Audrey currently runs Graham technique and contemporary dance workshops and classes in the Ottawa-Gatineau area, in English and in French. On top of teaching weekly adult classes, she visits secondary schools with arts programs to share her passion and knowledge with younger students. She is also involved in screendance projects with local filmmaker Chelsey Fawcett Additionally, she works as a life drawing model for secondary school students in visual arts programs.

Daniele Robert (She/Her)

Dancer/Choreographer

Daniele Robert is a dancer and Registered Psychotherapist based in Ottawa Daniele started dancing at the age of 8, with the Grand River Academy of Dance, where she trained in various styles such as contemporary, jazz, and ballet Daniele went on to dance competitively and at 15 years old she won a scholarship with Be Discovered, which allowed her to further her training in Los Angeles. Daniele’s experience from this training led her to apply to Ryerson University for dance Daniele was offered an audition. Unfortunately, Daniele suffered a serious car accident, and was unable to audition due to her injuries

This accident changed the trajectory of her life. Daniele had to begin her rehabilitation so she could finish off the dance year Daniele never stopped dancing She was on the Carleton University Dance team, while studying Psychology and Neuroscience. Daniele’s passion for dance never left, and she began taking drop in classes at Flava Factory, which introduced her to heels dance. Daniele joined Dance With Bloom company in 2019, where she began performing in heels dance styles Since returning to dance, Daniele has performed in Dance with Bloom’s productions, and appeared on the stages of festivals and entertainment spaces as a go-go dancer for Toptyr Productions Daniele loves to perform and is grateful she can still dance to this day.

Julia

Sterling

(She/Her)

Dancer/Choreographer

Julia Sterling is an Ottawa-based dancer and choreographer. She comes from a competitive studio dance background with diverse training in disciplines ranging from contemporary and ballet to tap and jazz in Woodbridge, Ontario. Starting at age 3, dance became a grounding force in her life that continues to bring her joy, fulfillment and healthy balance

Julia danced on and choreographed for Carleton university’s competitive Ravens Dance Pak in 2017-2020 leading the team in 2019 Today she continues to explore outlets for dance in the Ottawa region in a wide range of styles and techniques She is inspired by the way dance can be a tool for communicating, expressing, and experiencing the turbulent thoughts, issues and feelings we live through everyday as individuals and as a collective She is interested in exploring how dance can speak to and heal our relationship with the earth. She wonders whether there is a place for dance in knowledge translation in academic spheres

Sarah Squizzato (She/Her)

Dancer/Supervising Choreographer

Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Voices Dance project

Sarah Squizzato is an emerging dance artist practicing in the Ottawa area on unceded Anishinabe Algonquin territory land She works as both a dancer and choreographer in Modern/Contemporary dance as well as Street Styles like Heels, Street Jazz, and Hip Hop She has choreographed numbers for several artists including music videos, social media videos, and stage based performances. Most recently Sarah choreographed for Mischa and her dancers The numbers debuted at Bluesfest 2022 and have been performed at House of Paint, MetroMetro, at the NAC and more

During the Pandemic Sarah took online courses in Choreography and Dance Film and is excited to be finally putting those skills to work Recently, Sarah collaborated with choreographer Cathy Kyle Fenton and dance artist on the film even a sparrow has a home which has been shown at the Lift-Off First Time Filmmaker Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Short Dance Film at the Vesuvius International Film Festival

She is excited to be a part of Voices and to create space for dancers to create, explore, and help each other grow as artists

Jasmine van Schouwen (She/Her)

Dancer/Supervising Choreographer

Chair of the Board of Directors of the Voices Dance project

Jasmine van Schouwen is a freelance ballet dancer, teacher, and choreographer with over 15 years of experience on the stage Jasmine began dancing at the age of two at the École de Ballet Adagio, where she fell in love with classical ballet In 2006, she joined the Ottawa’s Les Petits Ballets performing company, where she trained and performed in several corps de ballet and soloist roles in productions such as The Little Mermaid, Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and The Nutcracker. After suffering a career-limiting injury, Jasmine began pursuing an alternative career path, while continuing to dance, and obtained a Juris Doctor from the University of Ottawa in 2018.

Jasmine has created and performed in choreographic works that have appeared in music videos, commercials, and small stages across the city. She is a passionate advocate for equity and inclusivity in dance, and is the co-founder of the Voices Dance Project, a non-profit dance company which aims to give part-time dancers like her a space to create and perform new works In September 2021, Jasmine had to take a brief hiatus from dance training to undergo reconstructive hip surgery. She resumed her training in March of 2022, and has since appeared in several projects on stage and online.

Zynphonicka (They/Them)

Poet- Vex.

A trained goldsmith, multi-media artist, and spinner of fibres and words, ZYN interweaves storytelling, intangibility, and a sense of magick in everything they create Ever lurking in liminal spaces, they seek to illuminate the fragments of beauty that hide in the darkness. Much of their practice is deeply connected to music, and they are excited and grateful to be exploring the world of dance and movement by sharing their words with Voices dance

Myranda Bingham (She/Her)

Poet - Love is kind of like that moment

Myranda writes poetry for the pure joy of releasing her emotions and thoughts in a creative space. She has always been drawn toward written expression and creativity, and this is the first time her work has been displayed publicly

Christine Coralee (She/Her)

Poet - Our Love Song

Christine Coralee (she | her | elle) is a recent graduate from the University of Regina, completing a Bachelor of Science in Biology with minors in Psychology and Sociology. In her spare time, Christine enjoys volunteering, reading and writing poetry with subjects reflecting on aspects of relationships, emotions and lifestyle.

Christine’s poem “Our Love Song” reflects on a good relationship turn bad while also saying goodbye through heartbreak Recently, Christine accepted her sexuality and identifies as bisexual. Because of this, she hopes to write more poems related to identity in the near future

Keith Garebian (He/Him)

Poet - Queer Artist Haiku

Keith Garebian is a theatre and literary scholar, poet, and editor who lives in Mississauga He has won international acclaim for his books on theatre (especially his Broadway production histories and his latest biography William Hutt: Soldier Actor), and he has been widely praised for his poetry collections Frida: Paint Me as a Volcano (Buschek), Blue: The Derek Jarman Poems (Signature), Children of Ararat (Frontenac), Poetry is Blood (Guernica), Against Forgetting (Frontenac); In the Bowl of My Eye (Mawenzi House), and Finger to Finger (Frontenac). Some of his poetry has been translated into French, Romanian, Bulgarian, Hebrew, Hungarian, and Armenian One of his poems from Blue was adapted to music for choir and instruments by celebrated American composer Gregory Spears for a piece entitled “The Tower and the Garden” that has since been released on Cd by Navona Records His many awards include a Canada Council Senior Grant for Writing; over three dozen Ontario Arts Council grants; four Mississauga Arts Council Grants for Established Writing; the Naji Naaman Literary Honour Prize (Lebanon); the Surrey International Writers Conference, Poetry Award; and the William Saroyan Medal he received in Yerevan in 2013 for his writing about Armenian culture and the genocide He has also been shortlisted for several national poetry awards, and two of his theatre books were longlisted for the Society for Theatre Research Book Prize in London, England. This Fall, his 11th poetry collection, Three-Way Renegade” (about American sexual renegade Samuel Steward), will be published by Frontenac House.

Kendra Guidolin (She/Her)

Poet - Gas/Light

Kendra Guidolin is a doctoral student, writer, and dancer based on the unsurrendered territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation. Her work has appeared in The Fiddlehead, carte blanche, Contemporary Verse 2 (CV2), Cosmonauts Avenue, and Arc Poetry Magazine online, among others. She writes mostly about the body.

Kelly Kaur (She/Her)

Poet – Unheard Stories, Birthright and Women Rising Up

Kelly grew up in Singapore and lives in Calgary Her novel, Letters to Singapore, was published by Stonehouse Publishing in 2022. Her poems, fiction and nonfiction work have appeared in journals and anthologies in Canada and internationally Her two poems and Letters to Singapore are going to the Moon on the NOVA-C Mission 1 in September 2023 and on the Astrobotic Griffin Mission in 2024 as part of the Lunar Codex Project Kelly is a Reader for IHRAF Publishes, New York. She was a curator and editor for the anthology, From Africa With Love: Voices of a Creative Continent, for the International Human Rights Arts Festival, New York. Kelly was shortlisted across Canada as the Top 75 finalists for the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards of 2023. Her children's book, Howdy, I'm Harnam Singh Hari, about the first Sikh pioneer in Calgary, will be published in Spring 2024.

Riley Lewicki (She/Her)

Poet - Untitled

Riley Lewicki is a disabled trans woman educated and working in the field of disability studies She is a published poet and member of the Sapphic Poetry Collective, a journalist, and an academic Her works notably include her award nominated thesis on automation, basic income, and Hannah Arendt. She is fascinated by growing intersectionality and new group and self understandings within the queer and disabled communities.

Riley holds an Honours B Soc Sc Political Science (University of Ottawa), and an M.A. Political Science (University of Ottawa). She is currently completing her graduate studies in Philosophy at McGill University Her research interests include Political Theory, Phenomenology, Trans Studies, The Frankfurt School, Hannah Arendt, Republican Theory, Automation, Judaism, Critical Theory, Anime and Manga Studies, and Disability Studies

Eli Mushumanski (They/Them)

Poet - Every Avocado Needs a Husband

Eli Mushumanski is a queer writer living on the unceded territory of the Lekwungen peoples They were the tenth Youth Poet Laureate for the City of Victoria. Eli has work published in The Warren Undergraduate Review and Flare: The Flagler Review, and will appear in forthcoming issues of the Humber Literary Review and Plenitude Magazine.

Emma Schuster (She/Her)

Poet – Summer at Seventeen

Emma Schuster is a twenty-one year old poet from the coast of Lake Huron who has found a new home in Ottawa Blending storytelling and the natural environment, Emma effortlessly writes about her love for the world around her. She also writes a local music blog called Fan Behaviour and is a recording musician.

Sneha Subramanian Kanta (She/Her)

Poet - Ghazal with Praise for an Ocean, and An Ode to my Foremothers

Sneha Subramanian Kanta is a writer and academic from the Greater Toronto Area, Canada She is a recipient of the 2022 Digital Residency at The Seventh Wave. She is the recipient of the inaugural Vijay Nambisan Fellowship 2019. She was the Charles Wallace Fellow writer in residence (2019-20) at The University of Stirling. An awardee of the prestigious GREAT scholarship, she has earned a second postgraduate degree in literature from The University of Plymouth (2017) Her dissertation concentrated on a comparative literature analysis of postcolonial ecocriticism in the fiction and nonfiction of Arundhati Roy and Amitav Ghosh Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Room Magazine, Cream City Review, UBC’s PRISM International, Pleiades, The Minnesota Review, and elsewhere Her essays have been published or forthcoming in Shenandoah, Passages North, and elsewhere

Her work is anthologized in The Penguin Book of Indian Poets (ed. Jeet Thayil) published by the Penguin Random House imprint India Hamish Hamilton, 2022 Her work appears in transnational anthologies such as Suvarnarekha (ed. Dr. Nandini Sahu) published by The Poetry Society of India, 2014 She is the author of the chapbook Ghost Tracks (Louisiana Literature Press). Her chapbook Ancestral–Wing is forthcoming with Porkbelly Press She is the founding editor of Parentheses Journal

Lee Thomas (They/Them)

Poet - Milk River

Lee Thomas is an emerging queer non-binary poet and amateur bookbinder currently located in Calgary in the beautiful prairies of Alberta. They enjoy writing about the queer experience and about roadkill, sometimes at the same time They hold a bachelor of arts in English from the University of Calgary Their work can also be found in Plenitude magazine and Filling Station.

Composer

Jack Hui Litster (He/Him)

Voices Dance Project Composer-in-Residence

Percussion/Guzheng/Guitar

Treasurer of the Board of Directors of the Voices Dance Project

Jack Hui Litster is a musician, composer, producer and educator based in Ottawa Jack is also excited to be working as Composer-in-Residence for Ottawa-based Voices Dance Project, for which he is composing music to accompany dance and poetry for performance in autumn 2023. In December 2022 Jack released his debut solo album, titled Shining Suns, a suite of eight cinematic songs in various genres which chart a journey of inner discovery and awakening

As Composer-in-Residence for OperOttawa, Jack composed his first opera The Day You Were Born and created an innovative online performance during a COVID-19 lockdown in 2021. The opera deals with the range of emotions that accompany pregnancy, childbirth, and parenthood Jack’s second opera was premiered by OperOttawa in June 2022 Titled What Is Love?, this opera grows out of poetry from Kahlil Gibran’ beloved book The Prophet. 2022 also saw Jack working as composer for two episodes of SPEAK Podcast, produced by BEING Studio, a role that Jack will be continuing as SPEAK enters its third season in 2023

Jack has studied composition with Dr. James K. Wright as well as veteran film and TV composers Robbie Teehan (Elementary, Jessica Jones, Homeland) and Edmund Eagan (This Hour Has 22 Minutes, The Rick Mercer Report, Winds of Heaven). Jack recently completed his Master of Arts in Music and Culture at Carleton University where his thesis research explored the blending of cultures in the film score for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In addition, Jack holds a Professional Certificate from Berklee College of Music Online (music business and film scoring), a Diploma in Jazz Performance from St Francis Xavier University, and a Bachelor of Social Science from the University of Ottawa

Musicians

Parra Aguilera (He/Him)

o Parra Aguilera is a passionate and multidisciplinary h experience in Classical composition and performance, reation, teaching, and arts administration Well-organized, nd empathetic, with a profound interest and curiosity about ew skills and acquiring new knowledge His professional olve around the mutual-shaping processes of digital artifacts, society, and arts and culture, which in turn wn creative work.

a Bachelor’s degree in Music -Performance Major for the Guadalajara (2019) and an M A in Music & Culture - Digital om Carleton University.

ntly works as an independent Arts Administrator and g pianist at The School of Dance.

Emily Calongcagong (She/Her)

Flute

Emily Calongcagong holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music - Performance from the University of Ottawa and an M A in Music & Culture from Carleton University Sheis actively involved in the Ottawa arts community, and currently serves as Artistic Administrative Assistant for Ottawa Chamberfest and as Coordinator, National Creation Fund and Professional Development at the National Arts Centre.

Raphael Weinroth-Browne (He/Him)

Cello

Internationally renowned Canadian cellist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer, Raphael Weinroth-Browne has been celebrated for his emotive and virtuosic playing both on stage and in the studio.

Combining his classical cello training with a passion for progressive metal and Middle Eastern music, in 2013 he formed the cello/voice duo The Visit, whose otherworldly compositions earned them coveted slots at prestigious festivals such as Wave Gotik Treffen (Germany), 21C (Koerner Hall, Toronto), and the Cello Biennale Amsterdam (Netherlands)

In 2014, Raphael formed East-meets-West duo Kamancello. In 2019, they performed their own concerto ‘Convergence Suite’ as soloists with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra

In 2016, Raphael was recruited by Norwegian progressive rock icons Leprous His cello has since been featured prominently on their latest three albums; he has played over 150 shows with them in Europe, North America, and the Middle East

For over a decade, he has been composing music and playing cello in Musk Ox, whose acclaimed releases blur the line between classical chamber music, progressive rock, and dark folk.

Appearing on over 150 studio albums, including the Juno Award-winning Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light (Woods of Ypres), Raphael has also produced cello renditions of prog/metal songs that have been praised and reposted by Opeth, Steven Wilson, and Chris Adler (Lamb of God)

In 2020, Raphael’s debut solo album, Worlds Within a 40-minute composition created entirely on cello was released to critical acclaim

ow Walker (They/Them) hotographer

ow Walker is a nonbinary poet and film photographer with a B Sc in physics om a young age they made it their goal to figure out how the world works, hich led to research interest in renewable energies and a deep personal interest the ways we form relationships as human beings. Their work focuses mostly n queer relationships at their best and their worst, and how transition fits into ese spaces, often using their scientific and photographic backgrounds to nalyze these situations in a new light.

Photographer

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