+ Mayumi Lashbrook

Artistic Director, Choreographer, Performer
Mayumi performs with an “electric” and “life-giving” connection (The Fringe Review, John Hinton). Her desire is that the audience is left with a rich and lasting experience. Born and raised in Toronto, Mayumi hasn't stopped moving since age four. Her passions lie with exploring all possibilities of beauty, finite detail, and a raw elegance. She performs as a way to find connection, commonality and vulnerability in others. Mayumi is interested in, but not limited to, movement that is fluid, powerful, delicate, weighted, intricate, agile and impactful.

Mayumi Lashbrook began her journey with Aeris Körper is 2014 as a performer and her role quickly evolved into Social Media Liaison, Co-Choreographer (Parentheses, Revel, III, Parting Ways, Opening), Co-Producer (RE(Variations), Variations of Silence, PROSPECTS, Vivid Voyage) and most notably Artistic Director. Her choreography has been presented in the company’s series PROSPECTS, and she has performed in numerous performances with the company including Art Crawl, Culture Days, Hamont Works-in-Progress Series, Frost Bites, Hamilton Fringe, New Blue Festival and Intersection Dance.

Mayumi is an accomplished dance artist, choreographer and artistic director. Her different roles are all encompassing and overlapping. This enables her to approach projects and communities with openness, curiosity, excellence, skill and is deeply satisfying.

+ David Hudson

Chair
David Hudson (he/him) has been performing, creating and appreciating contemporary dance for over twenty years. Born and raised in Oxford, UK, David trained at The Laban Centre in London. David has enjoyed a diverse career as a performer, choreographer, and lecturer in dance and movement. Now living in downtown Hamilton with his husband and two dogs, David is the current Artistic Director for Hamilton Arts Council.

+ Priyanka Tope

Treasurer
Priyanka Tope (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist who has studied Indian dance and music her whole life. She currently studies and performs dance within the repertoire of Kathak and trains in Hindustani vocal music. Priyanka is also an emerging choreographer who seeks to create work that speaks to her experiences as a North American, while staying rooted to the Kathak artform. Priyanka enjoys baking and cooking with her family, taking long walks with her dog and traveling.

+ Anne Prat-Kalonji

Board Member

Anne (she/her) is currently a French teacher in a Montessori school. She’s been an amateur dancer since childhood and has explored many genres. She participated in the Aeris Korper’s project Collapsing the night as well as many of their workshops throughout the years. Anne is also an occasional storyteller sharing tales of a biracial and multicultural upbringing. She’s currently dancing in the adult competitive program of Defining Movement Dance studio, a street dance focused studio in Hamilton.

+ Rebekka M. Gondosch

Secretary
Rebekka M. Gondosch (they/she) is a theatre maker, writer, and arts educator living in Hamilton. They are a proud graduate of Trinity College Dublin’s M.Phil. in Theatre and Performance program. Some of their favourite work to engage in is devised theatre, Irish theatre, physical theatre, site-specific theatre, and queer performance. Rebekka coordinates and co-leads the Spark Teen Performance Intensive through the Hamilton Festival Theatre Company and has had the honour of teaching amazing high school students for over seven years. Rebekka currently teaches at Glendale Secondary School in the arts based program. Learn more at www.rebekkagondosch.com and @theatre_is_wilde.

+ Laureen Flanagan

Board Member
Laureen (she/her) is currently a Dance/Theatre teacher with the Waterloo Catholic District School Board where she has developed a thriving Dance program. Previously, she trained with the National Ballet School, Les Ballet Jazz Toronto and the Black Walnut Ballet Company. She has been an active member of the Dance community in Kitchener-Waterloo as a local Ballet Director for 25 years. Laureen is a passionate advocator for Arts Education and continues to promote the benefits of dance. She teaches that “dancers make passion visible”. In a society where everything is transferred digitally, the human quality of dance has never been more imperative.

+ Khaoula Bengezi

Board Member
Khaoula (she/her) is a PhD candidate at the Department of Politics at York University and the program coordinator and facilitator for Righting Relations Hamilton. Khaoula is passionate about social justice education through popular education and the arts.