Our People

Born in Québec City, Lemieux studied dance at L’École Supérieure de Danse du Québec, and at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre. Her performance career began when she joined Toronto Dance Theatre in 1986, dancing for founders David Earle, Peter Randazzo and Patricia Beatty, and later for Christopher House. A member of the company for 8 years, Lemieux’s 1998 performance in House’s Cryptoversa earned her the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Performance in Dance.

Over the course of her career, Lemieux has danced for some of Canada’s most prominent choreographers, including William Douglas, Margie Gillis, James Kudelka, Benoît Lachambre, Sylvain Émard, and Jean-Pierre Perreault. Since presenting her first choreography in 1983, Lemieux has created over thirty original works, drawing deeply on personal experiences that resonate strongly with audiences and presenters alike.

As an educator, Lemieux has taught at many respected institutions including Ryerson University, York University, Concordia University, the University of Quebec in Montreal, l’École Supérieure de Ballet Contemporain and Canada’s National Ballet School. Lemieux uses her cumulative artistic experience to inform her programming choices for the company’s multiple presentation series, showcasing the work of diverse talent from emerging, marginalized and established choreographers.

In 2012, Lemieux created the Citadel Dance Program and brought high quality, accessible dance classes to children and youth living in Toronto’s Regent Park. She is a passionate advocate for the arts and is a member on the board of Daniel Leveillé Danse in Montreal.

Lemieux’s satisfaction as an artist comes from sharing her passion and talent with dance audiences and students, and as a deeply engaged and active member of the dance community.

Over the last three years, Standeven has played an integral role in the development and management of many of C+C’s recent strategic initiatives including Night Shift, C+C’s Residency Program, Citadel LIVE and the redevelopment and rebranding of C+C’s website and streaming platform.

As a dancer Standeven spent eight seasons with Toronto Dance Theatre under the artistic direction of Christopher House, and has been greatly influenced by notable creators Susie Burpee, Deborah Hay, Ame Henderson and Heidi Strauss. Independently she has engaged in projects with Allison Cummings, tiger princess dance projects, Dusk Dances and Citadel + Compagnie, and aims to support, nurture and inspire through her multiple roles as a performer, teacher and facilitator. Standeven holds a BFA from Ryerson University.

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.

Mateo has performed in Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Germany, Mexico, and Panama. As an educator, he has taught in multiple schools across Canada. Most recently, Mateo became faculty at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre. As a choreographer and creator, he has presented work in many Canadian cities including Montreal, Toronto and St John’s. His most recent work I:POLITICAL was presented by Citadel+Compagnie as a hybrid cinematic theatrical film. Mateo’s work is highly influenced by his Latin American background, often politically charged, and inspired by social subject matters. He fuses his eclectic movement training within his choreography creating a distinct movement quality.

On top of producing his own choreographic work, Mateo has helped shape works by different choreographers and companies such as Kaeja d’Dance, Michael Caldwell and Chimera Dance Theatre. He is now the Artistic Producer at Compagnie de la Citadelle.

Mateo is the founder and artistic director of GUETCHA GUARITCHA, a dance and performance company, whose call is “to find our essential truth, to connect with it, honour it, and to express ourselves from it”

She has toured throughout Canada, China, Europe, Mexico and the UAE. To further develop her abilities, Sierra has trained across Canada, the United States, Israel and Italy, working and creating with world-renowned teachers and choreographers.

He has created more than 250 original designs, including works with Ballett am Rhein; Citadel + Compagnie; CôtéDanse; the National Ballet of Canada; Soulpepper Theatre Company; Théâtre français de Toronto; Toronto Dance Theatre; and he is the Lighting Director of Fall for Dance North. The recipient of three Dora Mavor Moore awards and nine nominations for Outstanding Lighting Design, Simon is also Business Agent for the Associated Designers of Canada, IATSE Local ADC659.

With the support of the Ontario Arts Council’s Skills and Career Development grant, Rachana was able to broaden her professional career with the guidance of Nova Bhattacharya, and she is now a company dancer with Nova Dance. She also had the opportunity to work as Bhattacharya’s Staging Assistant for Citadel + Compagnie’s production of Red & Yellow in 2019 and participated in Ukai Project’s Migration Online Residency in 2020 on behalf of the company. In 2021, Rachana was selected to take part in Peggy Baker Dance Project’s ACTION LAB online, and was fortunate to receive choreographic mentorship from Peggy Baker to develop and explore her creative practice during the pandemic. Rachana is currently focused on broadening her choreographic skills by creating own dance works and building multidisciplinary artistic collaborations for the future. Aside from Bharatanatyam, she is trained in various movement disciplines such as kallari, hip hop, bollywood, improvisation techniques and contemporary dance. Rachana joined the Citadel + Compagnie team in 2021 and currently acts as the Box Office and Outreach Manager for the company.

Now a freelance performer in Toronto, Tyler dances on stage and in film. He is a regular collaborator with Citadel + Compagnie, Hit & Run Dance Productions, Opera Atelier, Stacey Tookey’s Still Motion Dance, and The Dietrich Group, to name a few.

Tyler has been the development and tour manager since 2018, negotiating the company’s tours. He handled social media promotion up until 2021.

She moved from Edmonton, AB to T’karonto to study at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre’s professional training program, graduating in 2019. Following graduation, they travelled to Mexico for a residency with La Escuela Profesional de Danza de Mazatlán. Since then, she has worked with Frog in Hand, Human Body Expression, Kaeja d’Dance, Peggy Baker, the Citadel + Compagnie, the wind in the leaves collective, and Tiger Princess Dance Projects, and has performed in Nextfest, the Toronto and Edmonton Fringe Festivals, InSitu, Dance Ontario DanceWeekend, SummerWorks and the Festival des arts de Saint-Sauveur. 

They have performed and choreographed for festivals like the Skylines Film and Dance Series (2018), Toronto Fringe Festival (2019), SummerWorks Dance Festival (2020), Bloom Festival (2021) and Covid Dance Hug TO (2020). She has worked with artists like David Norsworthy, Aria Evans, Marc Boivin, Jennifer Dallas, Peggy Baker, Riley Sims, Marie Lambin-Gagnon and other distinguished artists. Kéïta has travelled to attend intensives like Dance Italia in Lucca, Italy, and the Rubberband Dance Intensive in Montreal. After graduating from the School of Toronto Dance Theatre, they joined SQx Dance Company, working with youth across Canada and internationally in Santa Maria, Azores, Portugal. She is also completing her BFA in dance at York University. They are excited to explore the world of freelancing as a choreographer and performer.

She has a strong desire to absorb as much knowledge as possible, and to deeply understand a variance of teachings and methodologies. Barbara is a 2021 graduate of the Performance Dance program at Toronto Metropolitan University. She is the co-founder of Off Course Footing, which operates with the goal of bringing site specific work out of the studio and to the general public.