Laura Brisson + Léo “Hit” Coupal + Achraf “Eywaa” Maadaoui Terrab + Kaia Portner + Sarah Roy

Originally from Lévis, Laura Brisson began her professional training at École de danse contemporaine de Montréal. She graduated in 2023 and is now focusing on her career as a performer and creator. She had the opportunity to present her solo work as part of Boomerang – danses partagées 2024. She also deepened various aspects of her dance practice at ImPulsTanz 2024 in Vienna, participating in Atlas, a choreographic training program. Her taste for immersive light installations now influences her creation. She takes part in various sound and light workshops. In addition, her invested Gaga practice, propelled by her experience at GagaLab Summer 2023 in Berlin, drives her search for a versatile, sensorial, and complex body while nourishing her choreographic signature. Alongside her artistic career, Laura is a great lover of nature, the outdoors and travel, elements that greatly influence her creative universe and occupy her free time.

For 20 years, Louise Michel Jackson has worked for different companies and independent artists such as Hanako Hoshimi-Caines, RUBBERBAND, Dana Gingras, Grand Poney, Fréderick Gravel, Adam Kinner, Simon Portigal, Lara Oundjian, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Her first project, “STROKE” aka SHUDDER, created in collaboration with Ben Fury (Belgium), premiered at Charleroi-danses (Brussels, 2016). She created Bright Worms, presented at Théâtre La Chapelle and at the OFFTA (Montréal, 2021 and 2023), a research on bioluminescence, in collaboration with sound artist Magali Babin. She regularly teaches at EDCM, UQAM, BIG BANG, and Danse à la Carte.

oLivier Landry-gagnon, also known as gLoart, is an interdisciplinary artist working mainly in the field of sound and live art. As a self-taught artist, he has been experimenting for several years with the combination of different artistic disciplines such as sound, digital art, video, light, and movement. Since 2016, he creates music for theatre, circus, and dance productions. His ability to interact live enables him to create a symbiosis between music and scenic elements. His artistic approach is strongly inspired by prepared improvisation, leaving a large space for human reaction and listening to the present moment.

Achraf “Eywaa” Maadaoui Terrab is a spontaneous improviser who cultivates curiosity through his combined research and exploration in dance, music and design in service to love, harmony and beauty.

My artistic journey unfolds as a fulfilling exploration where curiosity guides my steps through spontaneous improvisation and the implementation of practices and processes to create a harmonizing atmosphere. My creative process blends the pursuit of technical mastery with spontaneous freedom, merging rigor and improvisation. I wholeheartedly share my art, with each performance becoming an endeavor of communion with the present audience, centered on sharing and connection. In essence, my artistic practice merges dance, music, and design into a unique language of movement, celebrating harmony, love, and beauty through every gesture and creation.

Kaia Portner (she/her) is a dancer/choreographic artist based in Montréal, on the Tiohtià:ke territory of the Kanien’kéha nation. Kaia obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Contemporary Choreography from Concordia University and continues to actively participate in the Montréal contemporary dance scene. As a dancer, Kaia works professionally as a showgirl in various local venues and has participated in music video projects for local artists. Kaia has also worked as a movement director with Montréal video production company Production Triskel. She continues to train with heel company Aura Montréal, as well as in floor techniques with artist Victoria “VicVersa” Mackenzie. On the choreographic front, Kaia collaborated with Art Volt x POP Montréal to present her work at L’Entrepôt77 and worked in residency at Concordia University to develop her projects.

Lem Campbell is a photographer based in Montréal whose creative aspirations reside within the world of editorial portrait and fashion. Heavily inspired by the internet and from being immersed in an online world from a young age, he has an impulse for absorbing and reworking content from his digital surroundings. Ironically, he started with analog photography, which helped him develop a decisive skillset and a trained eye. His mind lives online but he strives to continuously expand beyond the timeline. As a graduate of Dawson College’s professional photography program, he prides himself in his technical ability and expertise while simultaneously feeding his creative appetite. As someone who works devotedly on creating editorial work involving people, he is always excited to be able to work with new and interesting faces, and do justice to those who deserve to be seen.

Anthony Jamie Bucciacchio (Chroma Code) is a Canadian visual artist who specialises in photography, filmmaking, and digital art. His work aims to tap into the imagination of our inner youth, and serves to explore how our emotions and vulnerabilities shift as we age. His catalogue consists mainly of experimental pieces that tell stories through conceptual means. His determination in the field has led to a variety of opportunities, some of which include: creating commercial content for BRP (namely Can-Am, Sea-Doo & Ski-Doo), photographing portraits of Canadian actors making their debut on Netflix, directing multiple music videos for independent artists and labels, as well as being an active member in the crypto NFT art community, with pieces being available on platforms such as Manifold, Foundation, and OpenSea.

Capital Erotica has been a burning idea in progress. First, a desire to elaborate on Victor W Turner’s article “Liminality and Communitas”, which explores death in three stages: separation, liminality, and aggregation. I was continuously fascinated by the way in which death of the most familiar self could be tested and embodied. How do we self-indulge in the face of change?

I was additionally inspired by an article I read by Sayak Valencia in the Working Issue of Lampoon Magazine, in which she writes “femininity as performance has become work, a place of self-production where the social capital shifts toward the erotic capital.” In short, the monetization of sex, whether direct or subtle as a concept, has become an obsession. I began questioning the death of my girlhood, and my body’s performative role in that transition. My becoming a working showgirl continues to fuel the physical research for this project.

Nostalgic and sensitive to the beauty of this world, Sarah Roy brings her inner child to life through dance. Constantly searching for new ways to evolve and expand her practice, Sarah has studied dance at Collège Montmorency, in the Contemporary Dance Program at The School of Dance in Ottawa and the BIG BANG program in Montréal, where she has had the opportunity to create her own choreographic works. By immersing herself in the universe of different choreographers, she has discovered a passion for theatricality, floor work, and improvisation. A lover of contact work, she has a growing interest in the encounter of bodies and the infinite possibilities that exist between them. Driven by her curiosity about the world around her, Sarah’s art is inspired by the strange, the beautiful, and the simple. Since 2023, she has worked closely with Johanna Simon and Manon Sérignat-Daléas in their new collective Aparté.

I woke up here

In this body that has so much to tell

I think that’s how it’s supposed to be

Sugar curiosity and rain

Beautiful mess

Fingertips cold like metal

Cheeks flushed with heat

Furniture that collects our past skins

And our eyes that could absorb the universe

This is a contemplation

A tribute

To the moths wandering under the streetlights

To the headlights dancing on my walls

To those people who point out the colours in the sky

To all those who surf through the highway wind with their fingertips

And to the too often invisible poetry of our daily life

Léo “Hit” Coupal is a multidisciplinary artist from Québec, now based in Montréal. A fan of hip hop culture and a breaker, he developed a passion for spoken word poetry during his teenage years. In 2017 and 2023, he represented Québec at the Poetry Slam World Cup in Paris. He performs as a poet on various stages and as a guest artist in schools and events. In 2021, he completed a bachelor’s degree in sociology and self-published his first poetry collection. As a dancer, he has worked with different companies and competed in the breaking scene with the Stylz Corrupt and Qc Roc collectives. Since 2023, he has been working on creating a solo piece that combines movement and oral expression. He leverages his diverse background in dance and poetry to engage in a variety of experiences and develop his own artistic approach.

Laura Borello-Bellemare (she/her/they) is a movement artist, performer, and choreographer. Trained in theatre in secondary school (2016) and dance at cégep de Saint-Laurent (2018), Laura collaborated in 2019 with Theatre Vichama (Lima, Peru) as an artist and teacher. Since then, she has been part of the BIG BANG training program and has participated in various dance and interdisciplinary projects. These have been presented at Festival Vue sur la Relève (2022), YOU ARE HERE (2023), Festival Fringe de Montréal (2021), and FIFEQ (2023). Interested in the power of the arts to bring people together, Laura co-directs the event collective Très bonne idée, which reimagines performance spaces outside of traditional stage settings. Laura also enjoys outdoor activities, biking, cutting, pasting, writing, and juggling. She is finishing a Bachelor’s degree in Contemporary Dance at Concordia University (2024) and explores themes of familiarity, home, and our relationship to inhabited spaces.

Rodrigo Alvarenga-Bonilla began his dance journey at the age of five by joining a Salvadoran folk dance troupe. He delved into hip hop, popping, and breaking in youth centres and through self-teaching. He later took classes at Studio Party Time in Québec City and joined the PNT Dance Company and the group MARVL. Graduating in 2019 from École de danse contemporaine de Montréal, Rodrigo continues to develop his personal style by blending breaking, contemporary dance, and acrobatics. He collaborates with various choreographers and contemporary dance companies such as Destins Croisés, We All Fall Down, Animals of Distinction, Sylvain Émard, Marie Béland, Catherine Gaudet, and Tentacle Tribe. Additionally, he collaborates with Cirque du Soleil and Cirque Éloize.

Pénélope Dulude-de Broin is a multidisciplinary artist based in Montréal. She explores the body as a living sculpture and space as a character, both engaging in dialogue with materials, forms, and colours. Her practice advocates for instinct, listening, individuality, and collective growth. Graduating in scenography in 2023 from the National Theatre School of Canada, she explores design in various living domains. She has worked in theatre, contemporary dance, circus, and events in Québec, seeking to create interdisciplinary artistic exchanges. As a visual designer, she has collaborated with Acollectif, Cirque Hors Piste, and Le Grand Tintamarre festival in Tadoussac. She also assists Fruzsina Lanyi on theatrical productions such as Nostalgie and the musical Albertine en cinq temps, directed by Nathalie Deschamps.

Since my teenage years, I’ve been navigating daily between my dance practice and my poetry activities. Up until recently, I hadn’t mixed my practices because no source of inspiration called me to do so in an organic way.

In 2022, I wrote a poem that reflected the feeling of being nowhere, nourished by both inner turmoil and perspectives on the world. It was this realization that sparked the idea to merge my passion for dance with the power of spoken word. Toujours nulle part is the latest solo piece from this creative project.

I’m inspired by a variety of aesthetics inherent to hip hop and urban cultures, ecology, sociology, and slam poetry. These inspirations stem from both my diverse background and our era of countless trends. This work at the intersection of my interests aims to be as personal as it is engaging.