8PM @ The Citadel TICKETS: $30 Get Tickets
Citadel Dance Mix 2023 is made possible (in part) by the Government of Canada.
Citadel LIVE Presents
Citadel Dance Mix 2023
Featuring works by Kéïta Fournier-Pelletier, Meghann Michalsky & Katherine Semchuk, and Sofía Ontiveros
Citadel Dance Mix is an annual program that celebrates exploration and experimentation. This year we are proud to present three works from four inquisitive emerging choreographers, demonstrating real variety and risk-taking. Audiences are invited to enjoy these radical works by some of Toronto’s very best.
Approximate run time is 1hr 40 minutes with pause and intermission.
Meet the Artists
Photo by Alvin Collantes
Kéïta Fournier-Pelletier
Choreographer
Kéïta Fournier-Pelletier (she/they) is a queer, Métis, Franco-Manitoban artist from Winnipeg, Manitoba (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.
Read more +They are a 2020 graduate from Dance Arts Institute (formerly the School of Toronto Dance Theatre), and also hold a BFA in Performance and Choreography (Hons) with summa cum laude from York University (2023). They have performed and choreographed in festivals such as Skylines Film and Dance Series (Winnipeg, 2018), Toronto Fringe Festival (2019), SummerWorks Dance Festival (2020), Covid Dance Hug TO (2020), Bloom Festival (2021). They have had the pleasure to work with artists like Aria Evans, Marie Lambin-Gagnon, Marjolein Vogels (Amsterdam) and other distinguished artists. She has an interest in dance-theatre and has collaborated as a choreographer and performer with Theatre Passe Muraille, Tarragon Theatre and lemonTree creations. She is passionate about learning and has travelled nationally and internationally to learn from a variety of artists. Kéïta is interested in creating and performing works that question power, heteronormativity, and other societal norms that reject her identity.
Photo by Rich Bridgewater
Meghann Michalsky
Choreographer and Performer
Meghann Michalsky is a dance artist working in Alberta. She is the co-creator of Project InTandem and YYC Contemporary Technique Training, two programs that offer opportunities to emerging artists in Canada. She was awarded the 2019 RBC Emerging Artist Award – she is the first Dancer/Choreographer to receive this award.
Read more +Since completing her BA in Contemporary Dance, with a concentration in Choreography and Performance, at the University of Calgary. She has rigorously pursued her training in Canada, Europe, and Israel. As a dancer, you’ve seen her dance for an array of individual artists and companies, including Karissa Barry, Laja Feild of LajaMartin, Davida Monk, Linnea Swan, kloetzel&co, & Dancers’ Studio West to name a few.
Her movement signature has been described as vigorous, raw, and intricate. Her knowledge of Hip-Hop and Krump movement principles has influenced her development of isolated, rhythmic, bound, and fast-twitch movement qualities into her contemporary choreographies.
Photo by Kendra Erik
Katherine Semchuk
Choreographer and Performer
Originally from Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton), Katherine is a dance artist currently based in Tkaronto. An alumni of Victoria School of the Arts and The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, she has spent the last few years connecting with communities across Canada. Good Women Dance Collective (GWDC), Kaeja d’Dance, Mile Zero Dance, Nostos Collectives, The Platform TO, Peggy Baker, Shay Kuebler/Radical System Art, Tia Kushniruk, Mateo Galindo Torres, Meghann Michalsky, Sasha Ivanochko, and Naishi Wang have been integral in informing Katherine’s evolving practice.
Read more +Through the investigation of an improvisational practice and the creation of solo/duet work, she continues to dissect her voice as a dance artist. She is currently working on a project called Inner Works: A Solo Study which includes collaborative making with Tia Kushniruk, Sasha Ivanochko and Peggy Baker. Her choreographic work has been presented by Expanse Festival, Fluid Fest, FODAR (Market Dances), Mile Zero Dance, and New Dance Horizons. Maybe we Land, a duet created with Meghann Michalsky, will premiere and tour nationally in 2023.
Photo by Richie Lubaton
Sofía Ontiveros
Choreographer
Sofía Ontiveros is a dance artist and choreographer based in Tkaronto, Ontario and México. Sofía is a queer, white, Mexican woman, and carries these parts of her identity through her works by questioning and exploring social constructs and how they play on individual or interpersonal relationships. Sofia is a 2021 graduate from Toronto Metropolitan University’s The Creative School BFA Dance Program.
Read more +Show Credits
Pillar of You
Choreographer and Performer: Kéïta Fournier-Pelletier
Performers: Morgyn Aronyk-Schell, Tavia Christina, Kéïta Fournier-Pelletier, Kiah Francis, Barbara Simms
Maybe We Land
Choreographers and Performers: Meghann Michalsky, Katherine Semchuk
Sourced Music: Vessel, Drew McDOwall, Budh
Sound Mixing and Original Composition: James Hill
Lighting Design: Victoria Bell
Outside Eyes: Denise Clarke, Mike Czuba, Helen Husak, Emily Spearing
Dramaturge: Irma Villafuerte
Ojalá…
Choreographer: Sofía Ontiveros
Performers: Danielle Davis, Kiah Francis, Aryana Malekzadeh, Simon Mazziotti, Frédérique Perron, María Riaño
Collaborator: María Riaño
Producer: Jasmine Au
Production Team
Lighting Director and Designer: Noah Feaver
Stage Manager: Helin Gungoren
Program
Pillar of You
Pillar of You explores the pillars – or central building blocks of who we are, with a focus around queer relationships of all kinds and how our queerness and defiance intersect with our personal experiences from childhood to today. It examines the experiences of an AFAB (assigned female at birth) and gender non-conforming cast and the open resistance they encounter from being perceived certain ways by the surrounding society.
Maybe We Land
Maybe We Land unveils the recurring cycles experienced inside of our relationships. Within the confines of a union, we balance fears of abandonment and vulnerable dependence with euphoric connection and unconditional support. Intimacy intertwines us; we fluctuate between resisting and surrendering to its binding nature.
Ojalá…
Ojalá… explores how bodies connect, stumble upon interpersonal betrayals, and search for healing. Ojalá… dives into the uncertain risks taken in connections, with the hope it leads us to what we truly seek within.
