DANCER-IN-residence: Kaitlyn Seibold
Kaitlyn Seibold is trained in movement, and is engaged in research, performance, choreography, and education. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Dance Performance Degree from Ryerson University and recently completed her Master of Fine Arts at York University for Dance, Choreography & Collaboration. She has created a multitude of works that were chosen to be featured in EnChoreo 2017, Choreographic Works 2018, Choreographic Works 2019, and Springworks 2019. She was awarded the Lipton Family Endowment Award for the most promising emerging choreographer. Throughout her professional training, she was able to work with many prominent choreographers including Robert Glumbeck, Matjash Mrozewski, Vicki St. Denys, Angela Blumberg, Josh Beamish, Ryan Lee, Hanna Kiel, Colleen Snell, and Apolonia Velasquez.
Knowledgeable in many techniques and styles of dance, Seibold’s choreography respects the technique of classical training and the understanding of lines, clarity, movement quality and rigour. Taking part in an ongoing investigation with the moving body in the theatre and alternative performance spaces, her current research involves discovering boundaries between physicalized Theatre and contemporary movement. She is currently working with Frog and Hand.
Knowledgeable in many techniques and styles of dance, Seibold’s choreography respects the technique of classical training and the understanding of lines, clarity, movement quality and rigour. Taking part in an ongoing investigation with the moving body in the theatre and alternative performance spaces, her current research involves discovering boundaries between physicalized Theatre and contemporary movement. She is currently working with Frog and Hand.
Musician-in-residence: aparna halpé
Aparna Halpé is a Sri Lankan-Canadian tango violinist, arranger, and composer, based in Toronto. She began her musical education in Sri Lanka at the age of 3 with her mother, Bridget Halpé, and went on to study violin performance under the respected pedagogue Eileen Prins. Halpé holds Licentiates of the Guildhall School of Music and the Royal Schools of Music, UK. In Sri Lanka, Halpé debuted and subsequently performed with the Sri Lanka Philharmonic. Halpé has over a decade of experience performing, arranging, and composing traditional Argentine Tango and she continues her education under the guidance of Guillermo Rubino, Ignacio Varchausky, Julián Peralta, Ramiro Gallo, Diego Schissi, and Charles Gorczynski. Her compositions will be featured on Solidaridad Tango’s debut album Distancia (2023) which is funded by the Ontario Arts Council. Halpé has performed with the Reed Tango for Musicians Festival, Stowe Tango Festival, and Tanguero Workshop Festival orchestras, at multiple tango festivals in Toronto, and with tango ensembles across North America. Halpé is the founder and director of Solidaridad Tango, North America’s first and only all-woman, diversity-affirming tango orchestra. Halpé founded Solidaridad to affirm the diversity and talents of women in tango.
PlayWright-In-Residence: victoria mcintyre
Victoria McIntyre is the 2022-23 Playwright in Residence. She is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. She is also the associate producer of the Brave New Play Rites Festival. At UBC, she is a teaching assistant for the Intermediate Writing for the Stage and Radio course. This past summer at the Heliconian Club, Victoria was the playwright, producer, and co-director of A Line of Dust. This play is based on the true story of a young Jewish woman who was imprisoned with sex workers in Nazi Germany. She is also the co-playwright of A Portrait of Two Men. This story follows her great uncle's intimate friendship with Tom Thomson. The play was workshopped at Theatre by the Bay this past June. Both of these shows have received awards from the U of T Spotlight Playwriting Contest. She recently completed the first draft of her novel, Magpie, which received a Norma Epstein Foundation Award in Creative Writing. Her passion for the arts extends into her academic research. As a Northrop Frye Undergraduate Fellow, she wrote an English Literature research paper entitled "The Character of Light." She worked as a Drama and Cinema Studies specialist on Professor Atsuko Sakaki's book, Trains of Intensities: Toward Alternative Narrative Theories. Victoria is also a comedic writer and performer. She was a member of The Bob Comedy Revue for three years, and performed at the National College Comedy Festival in New York, alongside professionals in the industry. She is currently writing a coming-of-age comedy screenplay at UBC. Victoria is thrilled to be a part of the Heliconian Club's community.
VISUAL ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE: Helaine Becker
When Helaine Becker isn’t painting digitally or making stopmo Helaine Becker Helaine Becker animation films, she’s the well-known author of more than 90 books for children and young adults, including the international bestseller Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13; and the #1 National Bestseller and “enduring Canadian Christmas classic,” A Porcupine in a Pine Tree. Recent titles include The Fossil Whisperer: How Wendy Sloboda Discovered a Dinosaur; Pirate Queen: A Story of Zheng Yi Sao; Emmy Noether: The Most Important Mathematician You Never Heard Of; and Alice and Gert: An Ant and Grasshopper Story. Her books have been recipients of Picture Book of the Year Award, The Cook Prize, the Giverny Prize, Bank Street Best of the Year, et al.
Helaine is a member of the Lawrence Park Art Collective, The North Toronto Group of Artists, Don Valley Art Club, and the Artists’ Network. Her digital original paintings have been exhibited by the Society of Canadian Artists (juried shows), The Square Foot Show, the Aird Gallery (juried show), and Neilson Art Centre, among others. It will be on display at the Yonge-Eglinton Centre’s art showcase throughout 2022. Limited-edition digital prints and NFTs are available directly from the artist.
Helaine is a member of the Lawrence Park Art Collective, The North Toronto Group of Artists, Don Valley Art Club, and the Artists’ Network. Her digital original paintings have been exhibited by the Society of Canadian Artists (juried shows), The Square Foot Show, the Aird Gallery (juried show), and Neilson Art Centre, among others. It will be on display at the Yonge-Eglinton Centre’s art showcase throughout 2022. Limited-edition digital prints and NFTs are available directly from the artist.
Writer-in-residence: Catherine Graham
The Literature Section is pleased to announce our Writer-In-Residence for the 2022-2023 season. Catherine Graham is a Toronto-based writer and creative writing instructor. Æther: An Out-of-Body Lyric (Wolsak and Wynn 2021) won the Canadian Authors Association’s Fred Kerner Book Award and was a finalist for the Trillium Book Award and Toronto Book Award, while her sixth collection of poems, The Celery Forest (Wolsak and Wynn 2017) was named a CBC Best Book of the Year and was a finalist for the Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry.
Her debut novel Quarry (Wolsak and Wynn 2017) won an IPPY Gold Medal, The Miramichi Reader Award for Best Fiction, and was a finalist for the Sarton Women’s Book Award and Fred Kerner Book Award. Catherine teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies where she was honoured with an Excellence in Teaching Award. Additional accolades include winning the Toronto International Festival of Authors Poetry NOW award. Catherine’s second novel, The Most Cunning Heart (Palimpsest Press 2022) is available at bookstores everywhere. Her forthcoming poetry book, Put Flowers Around Us and Pretend We’re Dead: New and Selected, appears spring 2023. Her writerly activities are too numerous to list here, but do explore further online via her website www.catherinegraham.com, or follow her on Instagram @catgrahampoet.
Her debut novel Quarry (Wolsak and Wynn 2017) won an IPPY Gold Medal, The Miramichi Reader Award for Best Fiction, and was a finalist for the Sarton Women’s Book Award and Fred Kerner Book Award. Catherine teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies where she was honoured with an Excellence in Teaching Award. Additional accolades include winning the Toronto International Festival of Authors Poetry NOW award. Catherine’s second novel, The Most Cunning Heart (Palimpsest Press 2022) is available at bookstores everywhere. Her forthcoming poetry book, Put Flowers Around Us and Pretend We’re Dead: New and Selected, appears spring 2023. Her writerly activities are too numerous to list here, but do explore further online via her website www.catherinegraham.com, or follow her on Instagram @catgrahampoet.
