Night Shift is an exciting annual series produced by Citadel + Compagnie and co-presented with Fall for Dance North, celebrating the many dance forms explored and practiced by Ontario-based movement makers.
Join us at The Citadel: Ross Centre for Dance, for an immersive experience like no other. Enjoy nine unique performances from artists: Ana Claudette Groppler, Candace Kumar, Carleen Zouboules & Vania Dodoo-Beals, Kieran Heralall, Kiyo Asaoka, Mushtari Afroz & Christine Samuel, Samantha Sutherland, Sofía Ontiveros and Stuti Mukherjee.
Programmed by distinguished dance artists Penny Couchie, Christine Friday and Dedra McDermott, this highly anticipated late-night dance series returns live September 29 – October 1, 2022. All performances begin at 10PM EDT.
Penny Couchie is an award-winning arts leader, dancer, actor, choreographer and community engaged artist of Anishinaabe ancestry from Nippissing First Nation, Ontario.
Penny is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Aanmitaagzi, an Indigenous multi-arts company committed to community engaged projects that promote well-being, strengthen relationships with the land, and incorporate intergenerational approaches. In 2016, Penny received the K.M. Hunter Award for Dance through the Ontario Arts Council. Over the past 20 years, Penny has been a guest instructor at schools throughout Canada and the U.S., including the Centre for Indigenous Theatre, where she has been a faculty member and choreographer since 1998.
Christine Friday is deeply rooted to her family’s ancestral hereditary lands, Friday’s Point which includes surrounding lands and lakes that make up her family’s tribal hunting grounds, located within the unceded lands of the Wabi Mkwa family. She lives on Bear Island, in her community of Temagami First Nation.
Christine is Anishinaabe Kwe, she is a proficient resilient Indigenous storyteller. She began her dance career with In the Land of Spirits in 1992 and has maintained a professional dance career for over 30 years, as a choreographer and director, developing solo work, commissioned work, youth creations and full-scale productions. In the past four years she has produced several dance films to broaden her audience and expand her potential. As a community activator she inspires gifts that awaken the connections to ignite the cultural wellness and traditions of our Anishinaabek community. Christine has developed and delivered strong community focused programs and gatherings for over 20 years.
Her company, Friday Creeations based on Bear Island Lake Temagami is a First Nations professional arts and culture-based community platform that encourages creative entrepreneurship and self-sufficiency that connects to land, empowerment and truth. She is in the process of launching her dream into reality with the grand opening of the Dance Studio Lodge and Outfitters Company the summer of 2023, inspiring and activating land based with professional performance and traditional artistic practices to awaken storytelling rooted in land and individual creativity, connection and healing.
Dedra McDermott is a new-generation Black artist-researcher, emerging curator and movement dramaturg. She holds a BFA in Choreography and Performance (York University) and an MA in Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies (University of Toronto).
Her artistic research explores identity, memory, and grief—utilizing autoethnographic methodology to weave movement and literary choreographies to create live, filmed, and installation works. McDermott is currently an MFA candidate in Criticism and Curatorial Practice at OCAD University (Supervised by Dr. Andrea Fatona).
Some companies she has recently worked with/for include dance: made in canada | fait au canada, Dance Arts Institute, Aeris Körper, Pencil Kit Productions, Syreeta Hector Dance, Canadian Stage, Political Movement, and Soulpepper Academy. Helin is also the current administrative and arts education assistant for tiger princess dance projects. She received her BFA in Performance Production from TMU’s School of Performance.
A graduate of the Toronto Metropolitan University Performance Production + Design program, they’ve worked on performances and workshops in a variety of genres, including dance, theatre, opera, and live music. Dedicated to life-long learning, Emerson gravitates towards projects that explore the richness and complexity of diverse human experiences, in which important stories and voices of the past and present are uplifted. She has had the pleasure of working with and designing for many inspiring artists and companies, including BoucharDanse, Citadel + Compagnie, The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, Fall For Dance North Festival, MOCA Toronto, Naishi Wang, Red Sky Performance, and Soulpepper Theatre Company. Other projects include EMRSN x EOS, an open-source project designed to bring financially accessible and portable lighting control devices to emerging artists, companies, and site-specific performances.
A Toronto native, Marianna Rosato received her BFA as a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University – where she now teaches Dance Stage Management. Marianna spent three years as the assistant stage manager for Toronto Dance Theatre before working as a freelance SM in Toronto.
During that time she stage managed works for Fujiwara Dance Inventions, Tiger Princess Dance Projects, Adelheid Dance Projects, BoucharDanse, Blue Ceiling Dance, the Older & Reckless series for Moonhorse Dance Theatre, the National Ballet School of Canada, the School of Toronto Dance Theatre, and many others. Outside of dance, Marianna spent 11 seasons as the Production Stage Manager for Mainstage Theatre Company. In 2014, Marianna began stage managing for Citadel + Compagnie, and after receiving a Metcalf internship, became the company’s Production Stage Manager in 2017.
He began working professionally in the industry since his graduation from Toronto Metropolitan University in 2019. Eli joined the Citadel team in 2021.
