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Deviani Andrea
Zero Labs
This September, Mile Zero Dance launches its new season with FRACTURA from Deviani Andrea, the latest work to emerge from our ZERO LAB residency program!
ZERO Labs are an opportunity for artists to put the finishing touches on their work, with a two week production residency and premiere performances.
TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR FOR SEPT 26 AT 7:30 PM
September 25 | 7:30 PM + Artist Talkback
September 26 | 7:30 PM
September 26 | 2 PM Matinee *ages 8 and under are free to attend the afternoon show!
$25/$20 MZD Members
$50 ZERO Lab pass *all access pass to attend ZERO Lab productions throughout the 2026-27 Season
Mile Zero Dance | 9931 78 Ave
about the show
In a land not too far away, a death machine looms over people’s lives. This machine, whose existence is hard to pin down in time, has gone from secrecy to a whisper to an aspiration, finally reaching its current form: a hushed but suffocating omnipresence.
The people in this story are not heroes fighting a monolithic evil; they are survivors coming together in grief after exhausting all other options. They are a reflection of complex circumstances, resourcefulness, bitter resilience, and the inability to quit. To do nothing would be more painful.
Featuring
Choreographer: Deviani Andrea
Assistant Choreographer: Jason Romero
Performers: Phany Peña, Tia Ashley Kushniru, Max Hanic, Jason Romero, and Deviani Andrea
Musician: Simone Atenea Media Polo AKA pseudo-antigone
Dramaturg: Marina Mair-Sanchez
Lighting Designer: T.Erin Gruber
Costume Designer: Natasha Bennett
Producer: Ainsley Hillyard
Technical Director: Trent Crosby
Stage Manager: Galen Hite
artist bios
Deviani Andrea
Deviani Andrea (she/her) is a dance artist based in Amiskwaciwâskahikan / Edmonton. Originally from Mexico City, she holds a BA in Literature from the University of Mexico. Since landing in Canada, Deviani has worked as performer, instructor, and choreographer with many local dance and theatre companies such as the Citadel Theatre, Azimuth Theatre, Skirts Afire, Mile Zero Dance, Fringe Festival, Found Festival, Alberta Musical Theatre Company, among others. She joined the Good Women Dance Collective in 2022 and her work has toured both in Mexico and in Canada as an independent artist. With a strong sense of community and social justice, Deviani works to advance the principles of decolonization of spaces and champions Indigenous teachings.
Ainsley Hillyard
Ainsley Hillyard (she/her) is an Amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton)-based artist of settler descent. She is a choreographer, performer, administrator and educator who works in contemporary dance and theatre. Ainsley has received numerous Sterling and awards and nominations for her choreography. She is also an emerging lighting designer, a seasoned producer of independent dance and theatre and a devoted fan of Mill Creek Ravine. In her free time, Ainsley runs her own dog care business, Bumblebear Doggy Care and reads as much feminist sci-fi as she can.
Tia Ashley Kushniruk (亚 女弟
Tia Ashley Kushniruk (亚 女弟) is a dance performance artist based in Amiskwacîwâskahikan, Treaty 6 Edmonton AB. She has performed the works of Jocelyn Mah, Antony Hamilton (CHUNKYMOVE), Benjamin Kamino, Heidi Strauss (adelheid), Christopher House (TDT), Shay Kuebler (Radical System Art), Alyssa Martin (rockbottom movement), Celia J. Green, Susannah Haight and Christianne Ullmark touring Nationally and Internationally since 2013.
Kushniruk is a conservatory trained dancer with a background in street dance (breaking, house, animation), modern (Graham, Limon, Horton), theatre improv, clown & bouffon and post-modern dance training. Her work stretches the limitations of “dance” and “theatre” by drawing on theories of new-materialism and interculturalism alongside mixed-race and queer dissociative parallels equipping the entanglement of “cringe” acts within the real and the digital realms. She works primarily with dance improvisation and tableau, seeking idiosyncrasies and humor within highly virtuosic presentations that blend performance art and hyper performativity. Dance as a method, a process, a performance, a community, and a philosophy for life are all integral to her career in Western Canada.
Her work has been presented by Festival Internacional Nomada, the Beijing International Dance Festival, the National Arts Centre, Dancing on the Edge, Fluid Festival, commonGround Arts Festival, Found Festival, Expanse Festival, Mile Zero and the New Dance Arts Institute with upcoming premieres at Tangente and OFFTA with theatre artist Philip Geller in Spring 2026. Kushniruk is a 2023 EATF award recipient and the inaugural 2020 Confluence Fellow. She holds an MA in Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Toronto (2025) and is a proud mentee of Toronto-based Performance Artist Bridget Moser.
Phany Peña
Phany, an Edmonton-based artist, immigrant, and member of the BIPOC community, is determined to immerse herself in her dancing skills and artistic creation. She has practiced several dance techniques, prominent among them are: Polynesian dance, classical ballet, and a few contemporary styles. She understands art as a communication channel that artists use to express themselves, make a point, or encourage the audience to wonder about a topic. Having said this, she is committed to using her artistic knowledge and talents to tell stories and draw attention to topics that are important to her in today’s context.
Max Hanic
Max Hanic is a queer Amiskwaciwâskahikan raised actor, dancer, singer and instructor who graduated with distinction from the University of Alberta Fine Arts Acting program and studied contemporary dance at La Faktoria Choreographic Centre in Pamplona, Spain for the 2021/2022 period after being awarded grants from the Edmonton Arts Council and the Canadian Council for the Arts. Max has been given training scholarships by EDAM (Vancouver), The Good Women Dance Collective (Edmonton) and Circuit-Est (Montréal) as well as trained at Tic Tac Art Centre (Brussels), Espacio Tiempo (Madrid) and at the One Body One Career Countertechnique intensive in Amsterdam. He has performed with the Edmonton Opera, Firefly Theatre and Circus, Amoris Projects, Catch the Keys Productions and in his own choreographies; as well as worked with Molly Mcdermott, Francesca Frewer, Lin Snelling, Alexis Fletcher, Minggao Zhang, Susanna Hood, Jennifer Mcleish-Lewis and more.
Jason Romero
Jason Romero is a Latin American dance artist recognized nationally and internationally currently based in Amiskwacîwâskahikan. Working both in stage and film Jason’s successes span a multitude of audiences and mediums. Spending his formative years training in Vancouver, Jason later returned to so-called Edmonton and established himself as a staple in the city’s dance scene. With a passion for musicality and experimental movement Jason strives to create unique experiences for his audiences. Drawing inspiration from a diverse palette of influences— Jason works to create a dialogue between the body and the space it inhabits. Using movement as a bridge to connect with audiences on an intimate level. Apart from his personal projects Jason is also the Artistic Director of Romero Dance Collective. Jason’s most recent notable works include dancing in Jen Mesch’s 2022 work “Go Where Light Is” Choreographing the play “El Funeral” written by Marina Mair presented at the 2023 Found Festival. Jason has also presented his own works, such as his solo “Pattern Screamer” and “Espacios Vacios” presented at the 2024 Magpie Festival for Mile Zero. Jason has also presented work in Vancouver, Victoria, Montreal, Calgary, Portland and Seattle.
Simone Atenea Medina Polo
Simone Atenea Medina Polo (aka. pseudo-antigone) is a philosopher and interdisciplinary artist based out of amiskwaciy-wâskahikan (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada). As pseudo-antigone, Atenea explores audio engineering through experimental pop and hyperpop. Her sound design is detailed and meticulous, leaning into metallic synth textures, loud fuzzy basses, and punchy beats. Her work often blends playful irony and heartbreaking earnestness informed by her psychoanalytic scholarship, such as in her album Melancholic Melodrama (2025). Atenea has published articles and book chapters in philosophy, psychoanalysis, and Marxism with collaborators and editors such as Nicol A. Barria-Asenjo, Slavoj Žižek, Julie Reshe, Vanessa Sinclair, and Todd McGowan. Most recently, her article in Studies in Gender and Sexuality’s special volume on cisteria titled “How I Hacked My Gender and Music Using Psychoanalysis and Accelerationism” bridges her academic and creative work by making explicit the technological supports of the psyche found in experimental electronic music.
T. Erin Gruber
T. Erin Gruber is an award-winning set, lighting, costume and projected media designer. She is an Assistant Professor in Theatre Design (Lighting) at the University of Alberta and works professionally across Canada and around the world. In June 2019 her work was featured at the Prague Quadrennial International Design Exhibition. In 2021 she co-curated “Level UP” an online symposium presented by the Associate Designers of Canada that attracted hundreds of participants from around the world. Selected Award-winning projects: Cycle (Thou Art Here Theatre, Sterling Award for Multimedia Design), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (Citadel Theatre and RMTC, Sterling Award for Lighting Design). For more information visit her online: eringruber.com, levelup.designers.ca your card.
Elisa Marina Mair-Sánchez
Elisa Marina Mair-Sánchez (she/her) is an immigrant performer/creator originally from Mexico, where she began her artistic practice as a dancer. She immigrated toEdmonton to pursue her BFA in Acting degree from the University of Alberta. Since graduating, she has had the pleasure of being a part of the Edmonton theatre community as a performer for various companies. Most recently, she has been exploring her artistic expression through creation, writing and dramaturgy. Examples of her work include her bilingual movement-based productions Frida y Su Reflejo (“Frida Through the Looking Glass”), and “Ecos” (formerly developed as “El Funeral”). She is incredibly honoured to have the opportunity to dramaturg Deviani’s production, which is such a timely piece, and a story that needs to be heard and deserves to be told. Injustice can only keep growing if we remain silent.
Natasha Bennett
Natasha Bennett is a costume coordinator with a diverse background spanning contemporary dance, musical theatre, and stage productions. Her work with Ballet Edmonton has included collaborations with acclaimed choreographers and dance artists such as Cyril Baldy, Marie Gyselbrecht, Béatrice Larrivée, and Kirsten Wicklund, supporting the realization of each artist’s distinct creative vision through costume.
Beyond dance, Natasha has contributed her costuming expertise to numerous musical and theatrical productions, bringing a thoughtful understanding of character, movement, and storytelling to her work. She values the collaborative nature of the creative process and the unique role costume plays in shaping a performer’s presence onstage. Natasha is delighted to bring her experience and passion for costuming to this new project.
Trent Crosby
Trent is an Edmonton based artist and arts enabler with a specialty in activating non-traditional performance spaces. A graduate of Grant MacEwan’s Theatre Production program and The Banff Centre for the Arts, Trent has spent the last 16 years as a Lighting Designer, Production Manager, Technical Director, and Entertainment Programmer.
Galen Hite
Galen Hite (any pronouns) is a queer theatre technician and stage manager based in Amiskwacîwâskahikan/Edmonton. They are a proud member of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association. They want to thank their partner, friends, family, and cat Paintbrush for always being there for them. Notable recent stage management credits include Convergence (Good Women Dance Collective), Brick Shithouse (fenceless theatre) and Cycle (Thou Art Here). Enjoy the show!
CONTENT WARNING
Please note: FRACTURA contains allusions of violence, very loud music and sudden noises. Spoken word sections in Spanish contain themes of torture, death, decay, loss, and grief. Evening performances have a scene with partial nudity. Translation of text in English is available here.
PLEASE NOTE, there are tickets available for at the door for the September 26, 7:30 PM show!