DANCER-IN-residence: Tavia Christina
Tavia Christina, is a multidisciplinary (Métis) artist residing in Toronto (Tkarón:to). Currently completing her BFA in Performance Dance, with a double minor in French Languages and Indigenous Studies at Ryerson University, she has also studied abroad with Israels Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, where she performed repertoires of Rami BeBe’er, The Cullberg Ballet and a new creation by Ilya Nikurov. Tavia has worked in the commercial field for Tourism Toronto’s commercial The Views are Different Here and performed in music videos such as The Beaches’s Snakes Tongue Majid Jordan’s Body Talk and Little Scream’s Dark Dances Recently, she has worked for the Queer company LemonTree Creations, part of Factory Theatre’s Foundry Unit, and had a feature role in Theatre Passe Murraille’s new play workshop series, playing the role of Arjola in The Blood Cycle. As an emerging choreographer, Tavia seeks humanness. She believes in work that manifest s itself from the soul; work that is not just for the stage but for the mind and body. She is also interested in creating socio-political work, pieces that revolve around the unspoken stories in today s society. Tavia also aspires to produce multidisciplinary work. She puts to use her other talents ( text and, design) in her choreographic process. She has choreographed works for her own company; Near&Far Projects, Torgan Dance Company (London, UK), Kalos Collective, Ryerson University students, and solo works for herself.
Musician-in-residence: Afarin Mansouri
Afarin Mansouri is an award-winning composer whose works have been performed in Canada, the United States, England, Iran, and South America. In 2018, her opera “Forbidden” gained national and international attention. She is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Iranian-Canadian Composers of Toronto, produced more than 30 new music programs in Toronto, and has worked with Canadian League of Composers and North York Arts as a counselor and Board member. As a soprano, Afarin has performed her own new music. As an educator and researcher, Afarin has led many opera workshops. www.afarinmansouri.com
PlayWright-In-Residence: Polly Phokeev
Polly Phokeev is a playwright, dramaturg, actor and arts educator, born in Russia and based in Toronto. She has written numerous award-winning works including Seams, How We Are, and The Mess. She holds the 2016 Safewords New Canadian Play Award, the 2016 MyEntertainment World Award for Outstanding New Work, and was recently honoured with the inaugural Award for a Young Canadian Playwright. She is currently adapting the classic Russian novel Master and Margarita with Mikaela Davies and Hailey Gillis (to be workshopped with the Stratford Festival in summer 2019), and writing her new play Kostroma.
VISUAL ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE: Janet read
Janet Read is a painter, musician, and poet, who grew up near the shores of Lake Simcoe. Read has sought the water’s edge ever since. Born and educated in Toronto, her roots go back to the Ottawa Valley Irish, Belfast and county Wexford in Ireland. Perhaps this explains a fondness for fiddle music, poetry and the sea.
Residencies in Newfoundland and Ireland and travels in Norway, Iceland, and Scotland have allowed her continued access to the sea, leading to a lifetime investigation of water, as a metaphor for strength and fragility. Read holds an MA in the philosophy of art, focusing on the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Paul Ricoeur.
Residencies in Newfoundland and Ireland and travels in Norway, Iceland, and Scotland have allowed her continued access to the sea, leading to a lifetime investigation of water, as a metaphor for strength and fragility. Read holds an MA in the philosophy of art, focusing on the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Paul Ricoeur.
Writer-in-residence: Danila botha
Danila Botha is the author of two short story collections, Got No Secrets (Tightrope Books 2010), and For All the Men (and Some of the Women I've Known) (Tightrope 2016), which was a finalist for the Trillium Book Award, The Vine Awards and The ReLit Award. She is also the author of the novel Too Much on the Inside (Quattro Books, 2015), which won a Book Excellence Award and was short listed for a ReLit Award. Danila holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Guelph University, and teaches Creative Writing at University of Toronto and mentors writers at Humber School for Writers. She’s currently working on a new collection of short stories, and finally finishing her next novel. You can find out more about her by visiting her website https://www.danilabotha.com/.
