A new dance series in Hamilton featuring a line-up of Canada's most exciting choreographers.
March 20th-22nd at the Art Gallery of Hamilton.
Here&Now offers audiences the chance to experience the work of Canada’s most exciting up-and-coming choreographers in a vibrant and inviting environment.
A mixed program of breaking, contemporary, and dance theatre, Here&Now promises a great night out for new dance audiences and seasoned attendees alike.
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Meet the Choreographers.
Photo by Kendra Epik
Photo by Saysah
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Kéïta is a queer, Métis, Franco-Manitoban artist from Winnipeg (Treaty 1), currently based in Tkaronto, Ontario (Treaty 13). They are continuously discovering what these intersecting identities mean to them, and the role they play in their art as a dancer, choreographer and educator.
They are a graduate from Dance Arts Institute (formerly the School of Toronto Dance Theatre), and hold a BFA in Dance from York University. They have performed and choreographed in festivals such as Skylines Film and Dance Series, Toronto Fringe Festival, SummerWorks Dance Festival, Bloom Festival, Citadel Dance Mix. They have had the pleasure to work with artists Aria Evans, Marie Lambin-Gagnon, Marjolein Vogels and others. She has an interest in dance-theatre and has collaborated as a choreographer/performer with Theatre Passe Muraille, Tarragon Theatre and lemonTree creations. Kéïta is interested in collaborating on works that question power, heteronormativity, and other societal norms that reject her identity.
Kéïta is receiving dramaturgical support from Aria Evans.
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Saysah is a queer-nonbinary Black diasporic multisensorial artist. Saysah's artistic practice, rooted in trauma-informed somatic modalities, aims at decolonizing the body. In their community work, they prioritize decentralized political education, exchanging cultural knowledge within Black liberation, Indigenous sovereignty, and anti-poverty movements. As both a mover and maker, Saysah employs multi-sensorial mediums to narrate stories focusing on spatialized grief, joy, ecologies of care, resistance, and belonging. Their commitment extends to acknowledging the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade and advocating for divestment from the Euro-Expansionist global project of anti-Blackness. Saysah's art serves as a profound exploration of their Afro-Caribbean and Arsi-Oromo lineages and a contribution to collective healing and empowerment. Their work centres on co-creation, intuitive movement, and the rootwork understanding of water as source.
Saysah is receiving dramaturgical support from Nickeshia Garrick.
Photo by Jerick Collantes
Photo by David Wong
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Jayson “JC Fresh” Collantes is a professional B-boy currently residing in Toronto, Ontario. His dance training began at the age of 14 in Ottawa,he has been competing nationally for over a decade and internationally for the past 9 years. Jayson’s notable credits include WDSF World Breaking challenge Japan (2023), WDSF World Breaking Challenge, South Korea (2022), including You Be Ill - The Vaccine (2020), Battle Of The Year (2019), The Legits Blast Prague (2018), as well as several other competitions worldwide. This past year (2023) Jayson was selected to join Breaking Canada’s National team.
Jayson’s mentors have helped him grow as a dancer, he hopes to pass on these valuable experiences which have expanded his creativity and skill as an artist to future generations of Canadian Breakers. While currently a company dancer for BBoyizm, Jayson is also a part of Breadcrumbs Crew (Ottawa) and The Unknown Floor Force (Toronto).
Bryce “Wayward” Taylor is a Breaker, contemporary dancer and emergent choreographer newly based in Toronto Ontario. They began Breaking at the age of 13, and would begin their classical dance training at the age of 15.
Bryce would become a company dancer with Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 2019, and later would join Ballet Edmonton as a company dancer in 2020-2022.
Following their time with these companies Bryce would begin working as an independent artist, and would reconnect with the Canadian Breaking community.
During this new phase of their career, notable achievements include:“Equal-Eyes Movement Lab/MasterClass Series”Founder/Operator(2022)Winnipeg,MB, “Winnipeg’s Summer Dance Collective”Choreographer in Residence(2022,2023) Winnipeg,MB, 1st Place “Flowdown 1vs1”(2022)Winnipeg,MB and, Dance Made in Canada’s “WYSIWYG” Choreographer(2023)Toronto,ON.
Bryce’s diversity, and incredible skill as an artist makes them truly unique in the Canadian arts Landscape.
Bryce and Jayson are receiving dramaturgical support from Kosi Eze.
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Nicole is a member of Curve Lake First Nation and Tiohtià:ke (Montréal) based dancer, teacher, and choreographer. Since graduating from Concordia University’s contemporary dance program, Nicole has collaborated with companies including Theatre Junction, A’nó:wara Dance Theatre, Corpuscule Danse, Maude Lecours, and Ange Loft.
Nicole's teaching repertoire includes the development and facilitation of acrodance workshops that she has shared across Québec at studios and programs including Studio 303, École National de Danse du Canada, Big Bang, and Espace Ouvert. She is an experienced contact improvisation dancer and facilitator, having studied the dance form intensely through travelling, teaching, and coordinating contact improvisation festivals in India, Thailand, Portugal, and Germany.
Nicole’s current choreographic research is focused on the meeting points between contemporary dance, floorwork, and acrobatics. She is interested in the merging of disciplines, drawing from her training in theatre and circus arts to create emotionally immersive and resonant works that explore the complex intricacies of the human psyche.
Nicole is receiving dramaturgical support from Mathieu Leroux.