Margie Gillis + Paco Ziel + Mark Sampson

Internationally acclaimed dance artist Margie Gillis is one of the most influential Canadian choreographers/dancers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Her company, the Margie Gillis Dance Foundation, was founded in 1981. Margie has created more than one hundred and fifty creations, solos, duets and group works, which have been performed around the globe. Her repertoire covers a wide array of topics, including the feminine consciousness, the natural world and the transformative process, all merging in a profound and powerful expression of humanism and emotion. Teaching, mentoring and passing her legacy and creative history are an integral part of her vision. From there was born the Legacy Project, which is now performing and touring both new and retrospective works. She has received numerous awards, including Officer of the Order of Canada, Chevalier de l’Ordre du Québec, the Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award from the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award Foundation, an Honorary Degree from Concordia University, and many more. She continues to develop her craft through experimenting, teaching, creation, innovation, and performance. In 2023, Margie Gillis celebrated her 50th career anniversary: 50 years of creation, love, and dance.

Born in Mexico City, Paco Ziel is a transdisciplinary artist based in contemporary dance, self-taught filmmaker, photographer and electronic music composer who focuses primarily on the human body, movement, and natural landscapes. Co-director, with Diana León, of the company Vías for which he participated in the creation of the works On this path, you are sure to lose yourself, Sabor de mi corazón, and Flesh and Sound. Together, they developed Origen, which is a practice that helps the participants to open their senses and inhabit the present moment with focus on complex movement, the subjectivity of time, and the interconnectedness of life around us. Origen has been shared nationally and internationally in professional dance programs and interdisciplinary educational contexts. Paco has been a dancer for RUBBERBAND since 2015, and as a freelancer he has worked with other Montréal artists and companies such as PPS Danse, Anne Plamondon Productions, Martin Messier, and Je Suis Julio, among others. He has been a guest teacher at Springboard Danse Montréal, Transformation, Domaine Forget, Danse à la Carte, l’École supérieure de ballet du Québec and L’École de danse de Québec.

Mark Sampson, originally from Prince Edward Island, began his dance training at the National Ballet School of Canada and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. He furthered his education at the Juilliard School, where he earned his BFA and received the Martha Hill Prize for Leadership and Excellence in Dance. Mark has danced with BJM Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal and Gauthier Dance//Dance Company Theaterhaus Stuttgart. He now works as a freelance dancer, choreographer, and teacher based in Montréal. He has performed in pieces by Kyle Abraham, Camille A. Brown, Aszure Barton, Mauro Bigonzetti, Virginie Brunelle, Merce Cunningham, Sylvain Emard, Itzik Galili, Marco Goecke, José Limón, Barak Marshall, Ohad Naharin, Jerome Robbins, Hofesh Shechter, Cayetano Soto, Twyla Tharp, and Sasha Waltz. As a choreographer, Mark has created works for the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown (PEI), The Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, the National Ballet School of Canada’s Assemblée Internationale 2013, and Concept Office in Stuttgart, Germany. His most recent work, Sword Swallower, was a site-specific piece that premiered in 2023 in collaboration with Haus Otto, an industrial design company based in Stuttgart. Following this premiere, Mark has been in residence at the Banff Centre, adapting the piece for the stage. Mark is passionate about finding empathy within his creations, striving to tap into the diverse emotional and physical capacities that exist in our bodies.