Connections//Collisions Cabaret
Connections//Collisions Cabaret
* Please note, online pre-sale tickets have SOLD OUT. A limited quantity of tickets will be available at the door! DOORS OPEN AT 7 PM.
Mile Zero Dance’s Connections//Collisions Cabaret, curated by Josh Languedoc, welcomes audiences to experience a series of new and exciting art pieces. The upcoming Cabaret is co-hosted with Chris Dodd!
Saturday, March 1
$25/$20 MZD Members
7:30 PM
MZD is located at 9931 78 Ave NW, Edmonton
The Cabaret will be ASL interpreted
Curatorial Statement | Josh Languedoc
A big part of this cabaret came out of an ongoing conversation with the group “Postmarginal.” In this group we have discussed what it means to potentially work towards a postmarginal arts space. How do we create inclusive spaces for BIPOC artists? What does it mean to create art that challenges margins that are placed upon us? Or the margins from which our world operates? And what happens when we push through those margins? Featuring several brand new pieces, as well as two pieces from the Postmarginal Edmonton Collective, this cabaret will show you how we work with and around the margins. Co-hosted with Chris Dodd!
MARCH 1 | Connections//Collisions Cabaret features artists:
Mustafa Rafiq with Parker Thiessen
Ainsley Hillyard with Iris Dykes and Heath Birkholtz
Lauren Johnsen
Kathy Metzger with Initial 6
Brooke Leifso & Victoria Myronyuk
Tonio Bavaro
Band | Tamarack
ABOUT THE WORK
Mustafa Rafiq with Parker Thiessen
This saxophone piece is based around an interpretation of the Ethiopian (Ethio-Jazz) scale Tezeta (nostalgia). The in-progress piece is to be developed through live improvisations. The piece is a dedication to a friend, but acts more like a conduit for conversations we never had. As the saxophone is not my primary instrument, one that I have no formal training with it asks for a new method of dedication and one-ness with sound.
Ainsley Hillyard with Iris Dykes and Heath Birkholtz
O.K.Okay is a duet choreographed by Ainsley Hillyard and performed by Iris Dykes and Heath Birkholtz. The two performers explore Action theatre practices together. The piece plays with movement, gibberish and storytelling as the two performers play and improvise off each other.
TEAM
Ainsley Hillyard- Choreographer
Iris Dykes- collaborator/performer,
Heath Birkholtz- collaborator/performer
Julie Andrews- rehearsal assistant
Lauren Johnsen
Lauren Johnsen presents This Is Not a Test, a work that explores the notion of time and its relationship to creative liberty and freedom. It asks the question “What if time was not something to chase, but something to inhabit?” through the deconstruction and rebuilding of self in space.
Kathy Metzger, with Initial 6
Presenting a group dance called Seven! This dance project has been a quest to explore and create movement in relation to the 7 chakras of the body, through improvisation, with the influence from their meaning. Each chakra has specific meanings, emotions, colours, and are represented in the body in specific areas, which will influence the process. The creative process has developed these ideas, using a structured improvisation, into a group dance called Seven.
DANCERS INCLUDE
Pirkko Markula
Kathleen Hughes
Tamara Bliss
Philip Kloc
Wendy Gervais
Brooke Leifso & Victoria Myronyuk
Tonio Bavaro
presenting his solo piece, CHOPERA
Band | Tamarack
Jesse | vox, guitar, banjo, bandurria
Kessler | bass
Holly | saxophone
Manny | Congas, electro-acoustic percussion
Upcoming 2025 Cabarets
March 1
April 5
Featuring
Mustafa Rafiq
Mustafa Rafiq is a person and artist. Through music, paint and performance he researches relationships among blackness, nature, divinity, sound and time. Born in 1995 to Fijian immigrants, he lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Parker Thiessen
Parker Thiessen (Kaunsel), hailing from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, is a multifaceted artist blending sound and visuals. Employing modular synths, samplers, and various electronics, Thiessen draws inspiration from early electronic music, drone/minimalism, jazz and avant-garde. His collaborations span diverse groups, including the Spiritual Drone-Jazz collective Takleef Ensemble, Experimental/Noise group Zebra Pulse, Dark Ambient turned New Age duo Soft Ions, and an array of projects ranging from plunderphonics to psychedelic rock. Thiessen is also the co-founder of cassette label Pseudo Laboratories and is committed to cultivating the underground experimental art scene across the Canadian Prairies. Photo credit | Abram Hindle
Ainsley Hillyard
Ainsley Hillyard (she/her) is an Amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton)-based artist of settler descent. She is a choreographer, performer and educator who works in contemporary dance and theatre. Her work is immersed in the curiosities and connections between these two forms. As an independent artist, Ainsley has worked with many theatre companies and received numerous Sterling nominations and awards for her performances and choreographies. Select choreography credits include; Frozen the Musical (Citadel Theatre/the Grand Theatre) The Sound of Music (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre/Citadel Theatre/The Grand Theatre) Deafy by Chris Dodd (Citadel Theatre), Almost a Full Moon (Citadel Theatre), Mermaid Legs by Beth Graham (Skirts A Fire), Jane Eyre adapted by Erin Shields (Citadel Theatre), Mr. Burns: A post electric play, (You are Here theatre and Blarney Productions), Cardiac Shadow (Northern Light Theatre/Good Women Dance Collective) and assistant choreographer for Hadestown and Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Citadel Theatre).
O.K.Okay is a duet choreographed by Ainsley Hillyard and performed by Iris Dykes and Heath Birkholtz. The two performers explore Action theatre practices together. The piece plays with movement, gibberish and storytelling as the two performers play and improvise off each other.
Ainsley Hillyard- Choreographer
Iris Dykes- collaborator/performer,
Heath Birkholtz- collaborator/performer
Julie Andrews- rehearsal assistant
Photo credit | Marc Chalifoux
Iris Dykes
Iris Dykes started with Idance in 2005 and continued dancing with CRIPSiE until the present. She has performed in many local festivals and conferences in the play Searching for Normal at the Fringe as well as Careful by CRIPSiE and several Orchesis performances.
Heath Birkholtz
My name is Heath Birkholz. My background is in creating Art towards Social Justice in the lens of the Disability Community, by developing and collaborating with other communities to contribute in breaking down barriers and stereotypes. Accessibility is the core to my work in cultivating sustainable communities with healthy relationships of diverse communities and genders, human rights and love. While I have been involved with Inclusive, Integrated and Disability Arts I hope my contribution in the collaborative performance O.K.Okay will share the wealth of ability of our performance and the acceptance comes within. Much of what I know of the Disability Communities’ resiliency has grown to new narratives from sharing the stories that craft our performances.
Julie Andrew
Julie is grateful to be a Part of this year’s show , she is excited to try something new. With each performance, she raises her expectations on what she can achieve. Julie grew up in Flatbush, a lovely hamlet in Alberta. She moved to Edmonton to take Psychology at Kings College. After completing her Degree in Psychology, she has gone on to pursue more artistic endeavors such as music and dance. Julie has been a part of CRIPSIE for 15 years her first piece as a dancer was Vacuum and Boom in 2010 where she discovered the joy of movement and dance. Julie also was the lead Actor in the 2013 Fringe production of “Searching for Normal” a musical by Alison Neuman. In 2015/16 Julie was part of the CRIPISE and Mindhive co-production and reprise of “the Wedding Reception.” in which she very much enjoyed the freedom of writing and performing her own monologue. She performed in We/ Ourselves in the 2018 CRiPISE show Mobilize. Julie has also been actively advocating for persons with disabilities. She hopes to continue to grow her own artist abilities and tell meaningful stories which can lead to a changed world.
Lauren Johnsen
Lauren Johnsen is an Alberta-based performance artist, currently pursuing her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting at the University of Alberta. As a creator, Lauren is inspired by the intersection between contemporary movement and theatre practices; seeking out new ways of defining and redefining performance through varying lenses. She is particularly drawn to improvisation and experiential practices as a means to create real-time composition.
Kathy Metzger
Kathy Metzger is a dance artist, choreographer and teacher of ballet, contemporary modern, and Pilates since 1990. Kathy has choreographed works for Dirty Feet Productions, Alberta Dance Explosions, Edmonton Dance Centre, Citie Ballet and Orchesis since 1995. Her professional performing experience includes Mile Zero Dance Co., Brian Webb Dance Co., Usha Gupta, Heidi Bunting, Tamara Bliss, Citie Ballet, The New Dance Collective, Kathy Ochoa and Kathleen Hughes. After finishing her Masters of Arts in 2017, Kathy teaches dance studies for KSR at the University of Alberta, Concordia University, as well as Pilates and dance for CCR at the UofA. Kathy performs and choreographs regularly with the Initial 6 dance research group, and performs with the KO Dance Projects.
Initial 6
Initial 6 is a group of accomplished Edmonton dancers. All are educators, performers, researchers and makers in dance. All are dedicated and determined to continue dancing for a lifetime. As a University of Alberta dance research group they are committed to an open-minded, unbiased approach in their ongoing creative process. The collaborative choreographers of Initial 6 for this performance of “Seven” are Tamara Bliss, Wendy Gervais, Pirkko Markula. Joining them in this dance are 2 amazing experienced dancers from the Edmonton area: Kathleen Hughes and Philip Kloc.
Brooke Leifso
Brooke Leifso (she/they) is a disabled/crip artist, academic, access consultant, and expressive art practitioner (EGS, MA,EXA-CT). She has made artwork with youth, the disability communities, and communities in conflict, and professionally through collective creation and as a solo performance/theatre artist. She has worked with Robertson-Wesley United Church as a justice artistic director, creating community-based programming on urgent topics for social cohesion: gender, burnout, disability and most relevant, AiR collaging and performance interview project: How do we let go, to come back together?, (2022). As an academic, Brooke is the Research Chair in Workplace Inclusion and Accessibility at NorQuest College. Most recently as a professional artist, Brooke had recent fellowships at Akademie Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart, Germany) and Art Quarter Budapest (Budapest, Hungary) producing the performance series, Body Work describing an embodied lived experience through metaphor, audio description and captioning. Other relevant credits include: CRIPSiE Dance series (2018), Dwelling (2017, 2024) a durational performance piece, The Moon at Midnight (2016/2017), a performance for the Canadian Prairie Dance Circuit.
Photo Credit: Irasema Fernández
Victoria Myronyuk
Victoria Myronyuk is an interdisciplinary artist, dramaturg, and theatre maker. Born in 1985 in Kolomyia, Ukraine.
Victoria has an MA in Theory of Culture, National University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy,” Kyiv (2010); MA in Stage Practice and Visual Culture, University of Alcalá de Henares, Madrid (2012); Post-master in Advanced Performance and Scenography Studies (A.PASS), Brussels (2014).
Between 2016 and 2024, Victoria participated in numerous theatre festivals, residencies, and fellowships, including Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart, Germany), Pontica Magna Fellowship (Bucharest, Romania), and the Gaude Polonia Scholarship (Poland). Her work explores participatory theatre practices, sensory dramaturgy, and the reconstruction of ritual frameworks, with an emphasis on fostering intimacy, trust, and collective storytelling.
Antonio Bavaro
Antonio Bavaro is a theatre development artist, a holy clown in the best of times & a disastrous procrastinator at the worst of times. With a diploma in Theatre Arts from MacEwan, a BFA in Theatre & Development & course work in Art & Resistance through NYU's Hemispheric Institute for Performance & Politics: they have danced, sung & shouted through many movements for social change with gusto & flair. Since moving back to YEG in 2019, they have been doing less drag & burlesque, more ballroom\vogue dancing & travelling to dream spots to discover the ancient mysteries of our world.
Tamarack
Composer, songwriter, and maybe the seventh-best ukulele player in Edmonton (there’s no official ranking). Everything from traditional Métis tunes to indie rock to electro-acoustic soundscapes. Pioneer in the genre of post-bardcore (not a typo). For the first time, Tamarack will be performing live tunes from his album Frequency Modulation, an experimental folktronica soundtrack for a podcast that was never made. He's Joined by Brian Raine on synthesizers, Kessler Douglas on bass and Manny Valencia on percussion.