Connections // Collisions

For 16 years, I have had the best seat in the house for human nature—right behind the salon chair. Growing up in Edmonton, Alberta, as the second eldest of eight children, I learned early on how to command a room, find my voice, and appreciate a good story. Over the course of my hairdressing career, I have worked with thousands of clients, attended countless hair shows, and taken home several awards. But while I deeply love the technical art of hair, my true passion has always been the profound connections made while doing it.

When I am not transforming hair, I am exploring my creativity through a variety of other artistic mediums, including painting, pottery, and fashion design. To me, every medium is just another way to express a feeling or share an experience.

Sixteen years in the salon industry guarantees you one thing: an endless vault of unforgettable, hilarious, and deeply moving stories. I am thrilled to step out from behind the chair and onto the cabaret stage tonight to share a few of those treasures with you.

Deborah has been a member of the Indigenous Playwrights Circle for the last two years. She is working on a one-act play that is about the intersections of Indigeneity and neurodiversity. Excerpts of this play have been performed at Spring Festival in Regina and read at Script Salon in Edmonton. She also enjoys writing brief 5-minute plays.

Deborah Lee will present Tilda and the Maple Bugs.

Olivia is a passionate artist and community advocate living and working in Amiskwaciywaskahikan on Treaty 6 territory. She is currently an undergraduate Drama student at the University of Alberta. Olivia has been growing as a playwright with Workshop West’s Indigenous Playwright Circle (IPC) since 2024. She had excerpts of her play, “Kitty and Tigy”, read as part of the IPC Readings at Script Salon in January 2025. As an Indigenous woman of Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) heritage and Irish-Canadian descent, she is committed to creating inclusive spaces that empower and connect people. Olivia’s work is driven by a deep sense of cultural pride and a desire to foster meaningful change within her community. She enjoys crafting, writing, sketching, and spending time with her husband and their cat, Jiji.

Olivia McCotter is a feature artist in Deborah Lee’s Tilda and the Maple Bugs.

Shima Aisha Robinson, the 10th Edmonton Poet Laureate, is an amiskwaciy-wâskahikan student, community builder, and spoken word artist. Her chosen pen name, Dwennimmen is the name of an ancient African Adinkra symbol, meaning strength, humility, learning and wisdom. She is the author of two books including HORN, 2016, and Bellow, 2022.

Shima Robinson (DWENNIMMEN) will present LANDING.

Gabi Stachniak is a multidisciplinary theatre artist creating and residing in Treaty 6 Territory. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Alberta. Growing up in the dance world, her love of the arts has expanded into devising, producing, teaching, choreographing and performing. Gabi is passionate about physical storytelling, frequently creating and performing in clown and dance theatre. She’s had the honour of performing in festivals and cabarets such as pepperMUNT, Edmonton International Fringe Festival, NextFest, Common Ground Festival, New Works, and the Off-the-Cuff Cabaret. Select performance credits include Splattered (NextFest), Deserters, Tartuffe and The Moors (Studio Theatre), fold.(MileZero Dance’s Connections//Collisions Cabaret). You can find her on instagram @gabi.stachniak 

Gabi Stachniak will present what falls out of our brains and into the pockets of strangers; a collage of memory, the mundane, and trying to remember where you left your phone charger through movement. Weeding through past and present thoughts, conversations, and moments, Tori and Gabi explore the white noise of what a Wednesday feels like.

Pardeep Kumar is a contemporary dance artist, performer, and choreographer from Punjab, India, now based in Canada. Trained extensively in ballet, jazz, contemporary, and Indian classical styles, he specializes in Indo-contemporary movement that merges Western technique with traditional Indian storytelling. His versatile performance and competition career includes winning Conestoga’s Got Talent 2023, Edmonton Emerging Talent 2024, and Dancefest 2025, alongside roles in major musical productions and cultural showcases. As an instructor, Pardeep conducts workshops across Western Canada, using dance to bridge cultures and express deep human emotions.

Pardeep will present hunar, an expressive contemporary dance piece that explores the profound journey of motherhood from birth to separation. Through evocative choreography, the performance captures a mother’s joy in raising her child, her role as protector, and the ultimate heartache of letting him go into adulthood. It is a powerful narrative of unconditional love and independence, illustrating that true love often requires the strength to let go.

Tzadeka (TZA-deka) is Maigan van der Giessen, an Edmonton based emcee who has been pushing the boundaries since putting out her first tracks with hip hop collective Eshod ibn Wyza (2003). Her creative practice includes music, poetry, ritual-performance, painting and playwriting, in their various experimental forms. She’s evolved into an interdisciplinary artist whose passion for uplifting Edmonton’s local scene (especially our fem-cees), and grassroots community work, is intrinsically connected to her artistic voice as Tzadeka. Her current practice is centered on loop-pedal improvisations, magic-as-method, and world-building through word and sound.

Tzadeka will present FUTURES IN PROCESS

Futures in Process embodies the idea that the future is not an endpoint, it’s an unfolding process, happening right now. Through poetic reflections on time and space, travelling improvised loop-pedal landscapes, Futures in Process acts as a sort of time-machine transport to possible futures, through a sonic shared-present-moment.

Hebert Poll Gutiérrez is a Cuban Canadian author, playwright, poet, storyteller, and multidisciplinary artist whose work brings Afro-Caribbean traditions into dialogue with contemporary literature, theatre, film, and performance.

Through stories, poetry, film, and performance, he explores identity, exile, memory, social, justice, power, and belonging. He is the author of 10 books, including Confessions of a Quixote Without a Homeland (2026), The Last Planet Standing (2023), and Whispers from the Black Gods (2022). His writing has appeared in more than 20 anthologies and literary journals across the Americas and Europe, and his plays have been staged internationally in Cuba, Canada, the United States, Spain, Argentina, Chile, and the Dominican Republic.

His most recent publication is The Tree and the Frost: A Collection of Cuban Canadian Authors, published by Cristálida Ediciones, featuring him as one of its authors. In 2026, Hebert serves as Arts Curator for the Calgary Justice Film Festival, developing multidisciplinary connections between film, storytelling, poetry, spoken word, visual arts, and performance. He is a member of UNIMA Canada, ASSITEJ Cuba and Canada, the Playwrights Guild of Canada, and SpanicArts Calgary. He was named ICAI’s Artist of the Month in 2021.

There will be a recorded presentation of Hebert’s work, Flor de Yoka / Yoka Flower, at the Cabaret! Flor de Yoka / Yoka Flower celebrates Afro culture, identity, and ancestral memory, bringing the richness of Afro-cultural traditions into a contemporary artistic experience.

Danni Daysky Okemaw is Anishinaabe and Swampy Cree from Berens River First Nation and God’s River First Nation in Manitoba. Born and raised in Winnipeg, she now lives in Edmonton, Alberta (amiskwaciwâskahikan). She is the Community Engagement and Alumni Relations Coordinator at the Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta, where she organizes and supports Indigenous events, celebrations, and community-centred programming across campus.

A dancer, organizer, and community leader, Danni co-founded Nimihitotan (Let’s Dance in Cree), a monthly Indigenous dance workshop series celebrating Indigenous movement, cultural resurgence, and community connection. She has also helped organize Indigenous Peoples Day celebrations and Indigenous Pride programming at the University of Alberta, supporting the visibility, joy, and resiliency of Indigenous, Two-Spirit, and LGBTQ+ students.

Danni is currently completing her Master of Arts in Native Studies, examining the relationship between Indigenous dance and movement, cultural resurgence, language revitalization, and intergenerational healing. Coming from a family of Anishinaabemowin and Ininímowin language keepers, she is committed to continuing her parents’ legacy of Indigenous language revitalization for communities across Turtle Island.

Tori Kibblewhite is an actor, producer, playwright, clown and multi-disciplinary artist based in Amiskwaciywâskahikan. She is a recent graduate of the University of Alberta’s BFA Acting program. She is the co-founder and Artistic Producer of Dog Bite Theatre Collective. Recent acting credits include: Deserters, Tartuffe, The Moors (Studio Theatre), Televangelists (Dog Bite), Goalie Play (Common Ground). Recent dance credits include: What falls out… A Dance Show (Co-Creator for Dog Bite Theatre Collective) & Open Tuning (UofA).

Tori is featured in Gabi Stachniak’s what falls out of our brains and into the pockets of strangers; a collage of memory, the mundane, and trying to remember where you left your phone charger through movement. Weeding through past and present thoughts, conversations, and moments, Tori and Gabi explore the white noise of what a Wednesday feels like.