Chanel Cheiban + Mara Dupas

Originally from Lebanon, Chanel Cheiban began her career as a performer and choreographer in a variety of artistic projects in Tio’tia:ke (Montréal). She obtained a diploma in contemporary dance at Collège Montmorency, a CID recognized by UNESCO in BIGBANG training, and graduated from École de danse contemporaine de Montréal. Since 2019, Chanel has been a performer for Veils of Bollywood, founded by Rameez Karim. She dances in several of his pieces, including Dabav, Jardins des possibilities, Bindi, and Solaris. Since 2022, she has shared different excerpts from her multidisciplinary project El kamar bi zaher, which she performs in and choreographs. She presents PLAYGROUND at Tangente in 2022, a co-creation with Maude Laurin-Beaulieu. She initiated Wholeness Movement in 2020, a project that promotes exchange between members of the Montréal community and a return to nature. Chanel has multiple experiences that inspire her to convey a story with her body and to share this common sense that is found in living art.

Oisín Hannigan is an award-winning multi-instrumentalist and an experienced bodhrán teacher. Originally from the UK, he is currently based in Montréal. His main instruments are bodhrán, frame drums, darbouka, and drum kit. He primarily specializes in traditional Irish music, but has branched out to play a large variety of different genres and fusions, such as jazz, electronica, Canadian folk, traditional Arabic, Balkan and Turkish music, and many others.

Nadine Altounji, a Montréal-based musician of Syrian descent, masters both the guitar and the oud, drawing from her Syrian and Lebanese roots. Inspired by her great-grandfather, she refined her skills with renowned oud players. Performing solo since 2012, she has explored various musical traditions with her project The Stories That Tie Us to Trees – Volume 1. Her latest EP, Enracinées dans l’histoire – Volume 2, blends Afro, Peruvian, and Arabic rhythms. Her songs have been recognized by renowned labels such as Putumayo World Music, featuring tracks like “No lo olviden” and “Dans la folie de nos temps”. She has participated in local and international events, including the Afropolitan Nomade Festival in Douala and the Calgary Folk Festival.

Najla Jaffel is an Arab singer from the city of Tunis in Tunisia, where she grew up listening to the great classical singers such as Oum Kalthoum, Fairouz Abd Al Halim, etc. She attended the national music conservatory in Tunis for two years before deciding to move to Québec in 2003. Her musical experience continued thanks to meeting a community of Arab artists with whom she has performed in several shows in and around Montréal.

Tiffanie Boffa is a lighting designer, scenographer, and performer. She works to create sensorial and visual atmospheres, informed by her background as a contemporary dancer. As a lighting designer, she has collaborated with multiple artist in theatre, dance and the performing arts, including Gabrielle Lessard, Guillermina Kerwin, Jon Lachlan Stewart, Hanna Sybille Müller, Simon Renaud, La Tresse, Véronique Giasson, Marie Béland,100Lux, the company We All Fall Down, and Sébastien Provencher.

Corinne Skaff is a Lebanese dance artist, movement educator and community organizer based in Montréal, pursuing a Master’s degree in Dance and Somatic Education. She currently works as co-artistic director of the Toronto-based dance company Jasad. She approaches dance as a vital practice of self-embodiment rather than as entertainment. In a constant search for dances that make sense for the personal and cultural context in which they take place, Corinne is inspired by continuously learning through play and ephemerality. She is interested in the strategies and politics of transmission, cultural bodies, and the creation of community bonds through movement practices.

Artist and teacher Stéphanie Decourteille founded the dance and contemporary creation program Big Bang in Montréal in 2018, and a year later co-founded the organization supporting movement artists Espace Ouvert. Professionally trained in ballet and contemporary dance, and stimulated by more than 25 years as a performer, choreographer and trainer locally and internationally, Stéphanie places the development of professional and pre-professional artists (dance, circus, theatre, performance, etc.) at the heart of her artistic and cultural commitments. In each of her positions as artistic director, creative advisor or movement teacher, Stéphanie Decourteille works to ensure that process is valued, that skills are perfected, and that all forms of expression are encouraged.

Charlie Prince (1991) is a Lebanese dance and performance artist. His interests are rooted in the intersection of the political and the poetic body, and the many profound resonances this may create. His transdisciplinary choreographic works have been presented in several major festivals and theatres, including ImPulsTanz Festival, Dansmakers Amsterdam, Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, Vancouver International Dance Festival, Oktoberdans, Fabricca Europa, and Beirut International Platform of Dance. Charlie holds a Bachelor of Music from McGill University in Montréal with a minor in Religious Studies, and continues to engage as a composer in his artistic practice. In 2023 he was artist in residence at the Villa Empain in Brussels, after having received the Prize for Dance and Performance awarded by the Boghossian Foundation in Belgium. He was also an apap (advancing performing arts project) 2020 artist supported by the European Union Commission for Culture from 2017 to 2020.

Being part of the first-generation Lebanese diaspora, I have a privilege: that of being a woman born in a place such as Québec, while having the education and heritage of parents from a country where the socio-political situation has never been obvious. I aspire to embody, in complete freedom, a path of reconciliation to stories to transform the barriers of the ego. In this creation, dance and music come from the heart and become one to represent a gesture with a societal impact.

In this project, interculturality lives in the exchange with the artists who are involved in it. Often with multiple identities, there are many Quebecois/Montrealers with origins from elsewhere. The sharing and knowledge of an individual’s heritage follows and inevitably influences him in today’s world. Addressing questions about religions, myths, war stories, mysteries and family expectations cover this creative process where we try to revive an intimate and sensitive story.

Born in France to a multicultural family, Mara Dupas grew up in Québec. She pursued her academic training while perfecting her technique in classical ballet and contemporary dance at Académie du Ballet Métropolitain and then at École de danse contemporaine de Montréal, from which she graduated in 2022. Mara collaborates as a performer with several artists while developing her own choreographic practice. She is interested in the connections that can be made between aspects of her Caribbean heritage, dance, and literature. The stories and lived experiences of Afro-descendant people are one of her main sources of inspiration. Her work has been showcased in Montréal at the Vue sur la relève festival, the OFFTA, and the Phénomena festival.

Tiffanie Boffa is a lighting designer, scenographer, and performer. She works to create sensorial and visual atmospheres, informed by her background as a contemporary dancer. As a lighting designer, she has collaborated with multiple artist in theatre, dance and the performing arts, including Gabrielle Lessard, Guillermina Kerwin, Jon Lachlan Stewart, Hanna Sybille Müller, Simon Renaud, La Tresse, Véronique Giasson, Marie Béland,100Lux, the company We All Fall Down, and Sébastien Provencher.

Camille Gendron, a contemporary dance artist based in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal, navigates between performance and rehearsal direction. A sensitive and playful spirit, Camille never leaves home without their notebook. They see relational phenomena (human, ecological, historical) as an endless source of questioning and wonder. Believing in the importance of positioning gestures and words, they delve into their own physical sensations as a fertile gateway to redefine relationships with ourselves, with others and with the land. Holder of a BA in dance from UQAM, Camille performed in Rhodnie Désir’s latest creation, Symphonie de coeurs, and continues to work with emerging choreographers such as Rozenn Lecomte, Mara Dupas, and Melina Pires. Camille chooses the performing arts out of a desire for frank, assertive human connections, perceiving them as a source of intangible links that transcend our individualism.

Engone Endong is a visionary producer and composer blending rich Gabonese tradition with cutting-edge electronic sound design in Montréal. His main focus is to captivate audiences with his immersive soundscapes and unique textures, pushing creative boundaries. Engone Endong collaborated on innovative tracks with artists such as Pindi, Elom 20ce & Blitz the Ambassador, Tali Taliwa, Slam Action, Orchestra Maestro, conductor Liberté Anne Lymberiou, as well as Juno-nominated artists Waahli and Eccodek. His latest album, Okeng (UNLOG), gained international exposure on AFROPUNK and OkayAfrica, and was performed during Piknic Électronik, POP Montréal, Mellotron (France), the Renaissance des Étoiles festival (Gabon), which he co-founded, and at Société des arts technologiques. He co-composed for Rhodnie Desir’s Symphonie de coeurs and performed with Orchestre Métropolitain, the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), and Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana (Switzerland). He recently created an original soundtrack for Malanda Loumouamou’s art exposition Invitation au voyage éphémère, shown in France.

The creation of this solo is part of a series of reflections on my relationship with my body as an Afro-descendant person. It abstractly addresses notions of exoticism and fantasy, often associated with representations of racialized people. 

Like many Black children, my relationship with my hair while growing up was complex. I hid it for a long time out of fear of attracting negative attention and of a desire to feel integrated into predominantly White environments. During adolescence, this discomfort transformed into a genuine obsession with hair, combined with new insecurities related to the onset of puberty. 

By questioning my relationship with my body and the predominance of Western beauty standards, the intimate setting of Olympia 2.0 becomes a place of (re)discovery, an attempt at acceptance and self-expression.