The Magpie Collection: A Dance Festival

The Magpie Collection A Dance Festival returns this July! The two-week festival (July 13-26) includes exciting short dance pieces from near and afar, a tri-city collaboration, dance intensives, festival opening and closing parties, a bike tour and more.

TICKETS
Festival Pass | $120 all inclusive pass

$15 for single classes
$25 for single performances/$20 MZD Members
$20 for opening party
$20 for closing party
$20 for bike tour

FESTIVAL LOCATION unless otherwise noted
Mile Zero Dance
9931 78 Ave NW, Edmonton

Festival classes will all take place at Sugar Swing Studio located at 10019 80 Ave NW (approx a 5 minute walk from MZD!).

FESTIVAL ARTISTS INCLUDE
Ralph Escamillan/ FakeKnot (Vancouver)
RELAY CanDance artists: Camille Huang (Montreal), Kait Ramsden (Vancouver), Stephanie Cumming and Chris Bullough (Edmonton/Montreal)
Claudia Kulay
erψn temp3st
Janita Frantsi
Genelle LaBrie
Cui Jinzhe
Amber Borotsik
Cai Glover (Montreal)
Ivan Touko
Jocelyn Mah (Calgary)
Richard Lee
Tia Ashley Kushniruk (亚 女弟)
Tha’er Askar
Fanny’s Follies
Brasstactics
and more!

CLASSES
Classes will run Monday through Friday throughout the Magpie Collection Festival! Featuring a variety of dance styles and class offerings, all classes are included with the festival pass and are FREE for pass holders.
Schedule of classes coming soon!

MAGPIE FESTIVAL WEEK ONE EVENTS | JULY 13-19

Jacquelyn Cardinal of Naheyawin will be kicking off the Magpie Collection with a welcoming to the land as well as activating our lobby space via an interactive arts installation. The piece will be a meditation on the symbiotic relationship between the bison and the magpie, and we encourage you to bring something you think a magpie would like to collect!

Friday, July 17 | Festival Launch
7:30 PM RELAY: Kait Ramsden, Stephanie Cumming, Chris Bullough, Camille Huang
an artist talk will follow the performance with moderator James Gnam

RELAY is a joint initiative (Mile Zero Dance (MZD), Studio 303 and Plastic Orchid Factory (POF)) that nurtures artistic creation, fosters local dialogue and exchange, and expands touring opportunities across Canada. RELAY mirrors the natural flow of an artistic process—researching, creating, and producing—each phase unfolding in a different city at a distinct moment.

RELAY is made possible with the support of the CanDance Network’s Creative Exchange Project program. Audiences can check out these new works at Mile Zero Dance’s Magpie Collection Festival in July 2026, taking place after Left of Push (Vancouver) and Spark at Parcours (Montreal).

RELAY Artists

Stephanie Cumming & Chris Bullough | Edmonton
Fort. Raised in northern Alberta during the 1980s and 1990s, Chris Bullough and Stephanie Cumming met as teenagers. Thirty years later, they have reunited to explore memory and the value of artistic work through a performed stream of consciousness that reflects on their shared ambivalence about their origins, as well as their personal histories, and enduring connection.

Camille Huang | Montreal
voracious (working title) begins as an inquiry on contact between the gendered body and the ‘puncture and pull’ of the sewing machine. Objects, sound and dance converge to explore attributions surrounding gendered and invisible work, the cyborg and transformation. A hybrid girl magician obsessed with time travelling proposes something vicious and devouring.

Kait Ramsden | Vancouver
Do You Love Me? is an interdisciplinary performance that explores the intersection of female desire and its censorship. Through live video mixing, contemporary dance, datamoshing, and sound, “Do You Love Me?” lays pervasive, objectifying images bare, allowing them to glitch, smear, fail, and collapse into one another.

Friday, July 17 | VOGUE CLASS + OPENING PARTY
9:30 PM | Ralph Escamillan is teaching a Voguing Class and then the night will roll into the Magpie opening party with DJ Worldwidewind.

Ralph, aka Posh Gvasalia Basquiat, will share their knowledge of Vogue Femme – a style of dance birthed by the Femme Queens (Trans Women) of the Ballroom Scene. Their inclusive teaching style coming from a multitude of practices helps folks learn Vogue Femme fundamentals: Hands, Catwalk, Duckwalk, Spin/Dips, and Floor with ease – great for beginners and folks new to dance!

Posh is the Pioneer/Trailblazer and first Kiki Legend of the Vancouver Kiki Ballroom Scene,  founder of Ballroom Non-Profit Vancouver Ballroom Arts Society, the Mother of the Kiki House of Gvasalia and the Canadian Mother of the Undeniable Haus of Basquiat. Posh continues to share their knowledge of Ballroom Culture around the country helping grow the new scenes throughout the rest of Canada. They continue training by making annual trips to the birthplace of Ballroom (NYC), and continuing his dialogue and mentorship with Icons, Legends and other Ballroom leaders across the globe.

Posh makes a cultural acknowledgment to the Black, Latinx, Trans and Queer folks who founded and continue to uphold Ballroom culture – which we have the privilege of being guests within today. He continues the need to question and reflect on how we navigate practicing Ballroom Culture locally with care and reverence for the community it comes from.

Saturday, July 18 | Performances
7:30 PM | Site Specific performances featuring Claudia Kulay and erψn temp3st

Sunday, July 19 | Bike Tour
2-5 PM | Join us for the Magpie bike tour of site-specific performances along the route!

Performances by:
Cui Jinzhe with Branden Cha and musicians Clint Hoekstra, Yiqi Wu, and Roger Helfrick presents Tài Mò • I
Tài Mò • I is a ritual — an aspiration into our inherent nature of awakening, evoked through the original cosmic emptiness as it manifests within each participant’s actions and inner space. The artists and the audience flow together in collective breath and creative presence — where form is emptiness, emptiness is form.

Genelle LaBrie with Kim Rackel presents She Feels, She Knows
She Feels, She Knows is the debut dance work by Genelle LaBrie inspired by an active listening to the body’s whispers while in communion with the environment. Born out of the primal urge of a body to move to a beat, the work continues by asking: what other urges are innate? What does the body know that the thinking mind cannot yet grasp? In collaboration with drummer Kim Rackel, this piece remains focused on the discoveries of presence, when we allow the mind to take a back seat to the body.

Janita Frantsi with Will Scott presents Tre(e) / T(h)ree

A dancer, a musician, and a tree. (*tre means three in Swedish). Roots and feet, branches and arms, trunks and torsos. Trees, wood, and paper. This piece explores how things evolve from natural sources to their “final products.” From trees to paper, from wood to rhythms, from the body to dance. Through this piece, we want to invite the audience to take time and join us in nature, as we create in relation to the environment.

MAGPIE FESTIVAL WEEK ONE CLASSES | 11:30 AM-1 PM

Monday, July 13 | Amber Borotsik, Of Time, Tempo, Rhythm, Groove

Tuesday, July 14 | Mpoe Mogale, Jazz Community Workshop

Wednesday, July 15 | Stephanie Cumming, Happy Together — Contemporary Practice

Thursday, July 16 | Molly McDermott, Contemporary Dance Practice

Friday, July 17 | Marynia Fekecz, Body Image 360

MAGPIE FESTIVAL WEEK ONE CLASSES | 7-8:30 PM

Monday, July 13 | Gerry Morita, Contact Improvisation

Tuesday, July 14 | Camille Huang, Listening to Dance

Wednesday, July 15 | Busyrawk, Intro to Breaking & Rocking

Thursday, July 16 | Tha’er Askar, Dabke Steam

Friday, July 17 | Ralph Escamillan, Voguing Class at 9:30 PM * this class is part of the festival opening party and will take place at Mile Zero Dance, 9931 78 Ave NW

MAGPIE FESTIVAL WEEK TWO EVENTS | JULY 20-26

Friday, July 24 | Performances
7:30 PM | Performances featuring:

Ivan Touko presents Body Knows Before Mind Does / Le corps sait avant l’esprit
Body Knows Before Mind Does / Le corps sait avant l’esprit is a 10-minute solo work integrating live DJ performance, movement, and video projection. The piece opens with sound and groove, the body finding its way through music before words arrive on screen. As projected text becomes a living score, six audience volunteers are invited to form a circle at the heart of the space. What unfolds is not demonstration but relationship: the body discovering what it already knows through community, rhythm, and intentional sound. Rooted in Afrodiasporic movement traditions and Ubuntu philosophy, the work asks: what does the groove reveal that language has not yet said?

Amber Borotsik presents Bad Liar
People experiencing pregnancy loss are expert liars. Or this one is anyway. Or maybe none of this is true and she’s a terrible liar. A fleshy missive for the post-truth era, Bad Liar explores truth, fiction and spaces of speechlessness. It will evolve into a larger, full-length work premiering in May 2027.

Tha’er Askar presents The Story We Dance, a series of short dance pieces, each carrying a different chapter of the Palestinian story. Through Palestinian dabke and contemporary movement, every piece reflects a moment, feeling, or memory.

Tia Ashley Kushniruk (亚 女弟)

Jocelyn Mah (Calgary) presents Right Hand Woman. “Deftly traversing the boundaries between dance, theatre, and puppetry”, Right Hand Woman follows Tony Tamponi, Nurse Speculum and Aida IUD as they take a wild ride up the vaginal canal on a journey of everyday struggle and empowerment in the menstruating body.

Creator and Performer – Jocelyn Mah
Dramaturg – Linnea Swan
Voiceover -Tia Ashley Kushniruk (亚 女弟), Jocelyn Mah, Juanita Dawn and Mary Lou Ditta
Puppet design and construction; costume design and construction – Hannah Fisher
Puppet design and construction – Juanita Dawn of Long Grass Studio
Outside Eye and Project Support – Ezgi Türker
Stage Manager – Darya Ivanova
With generous support from Calgary Arts Development, The Festival of Animated Objects’ Incubator Program, Springboard Performance and Decidedly Jazz Danceworks.

Saturday, July 25 | Festival Performances + Closing Party
7:30 PM | Performances
with Jacquelyn Cardinal offering a closing ceremony

Lakota Tootoosis presents Hoop Dance

Richard Lee presents The Winter Arc, a duet for 150 pounds of sand and 150 pounds of man. What happens when you combine the strongman practice of heavy sandbag lifting with release-based postmodern dance? Through overlapping and contrasting modes of muscularity, this work grapples with physical and psychological narratives related to acts of lifting, carrying, and releasing weight.

Cai Glover (Montreal) presents Oh Mother, oh brother
We become ourselves from within the influential presence of the people who surround us. There are dear and beloved figures inextricable from the make-up of our individuality, from the make-up of our conception of what love is. Sometimes this is wonderful. Sometimes this is terrible.

9 PM | Festival Closing Party
Celebrate with a festival closing party, featuring Fanny’s Follies and Brasstactics!

July 26 | CIRCUS ROYALE with New Roots Studo and iHuman
1-5 PM
FREE
All ages welcome
Live street art, Emcee Josh Karney and DJ Catfish & prizes!

One of the festival highlights includes a Mile Zero Dance collaboration with New Roots Breaking Studios, local collectives, and local performing artist(s) to make this event come to fruition. Circus Royale is a street style dance exhibition and showcase. The event is free to participate in or watch. We can’t wait to see you at Circus Royale!

MAGPIE FESTIVAL WEEK TWO CLASSES | 11:30 AM-1 PM

Monday, July 20| Richard Lee, Movement Lab — Selective Tension

Tuesday, July 21 | Busyrawk, Intro to Breaking & Rocking

Wednesday, July 22 | Richard Lee, Movement Lab — Selective Tension

Thursday, July 23 | Tia Ashley Kushniruk (亚 女弟), Floorwork Basics

Friday, July 24 | Ivan Touko | Afrobeats and Afro-Groove Fusion

MAGPIE FESTIVAL WEEK TWO CLASSES | 7-8:30 PM

Monday, July 20 | Birkley Wisniewski, Lindy Hop

Tuesday, July 21 | Sekou (Mr. Kou), You Know The Drill — House Dance Lab Session

Wednesday, July 22 | Lin Snelling, Walking into Dancing

Thursday, July 23 | Cai Glover, Poetry in Motion

Featuring

Ralph Escamillan

Ralph Escamillan is an award winning queer, Canadian-Filipinx performance artist, teacher and community leader based on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh Nations - on so called Vancouver, BC. Starting at age 14, Ralph trained first in Breakdancing then explored a multitude of other street dance styles such as HipHop, Popping, House, Waacking and Locking. His passion for dance expanded to include training in Vogue, Ballroom, Ballet, Modern, Jazz and was a graduate of Contemporary Training Program Modus Operandi in 2015. With his company @fakeknot he creates work that strives to understand the complexities of identity using sound, costume, technology and the body.

Camille Huang

Guided by diasporic experience, autoethnography and the heart, Camille Huang is a performer making physical works unfolding between the realms of dance, scenography and performance. They explore shifting the center of attention, the social and political experiences of the body and the visceral, intimate and playful. Camille also holds a BA in Anthropology and graduated from L'École de Danse Contemporaine de Montréal. They are an asian diasporic settler in Tiohtiá:ke / Mooniyang / Montréal.

Kait Ramsden

Kait Ramsden is an interdisciplinary artist playing at the intersections of dance, sound, and new media. She is a settler living on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and Sel̓íl̓witulh Nations. Her performances create empathetic and contemplative spaces that prioritize attention and sensation as a means to connect with ourselves and those around us.

Stephanie Cumming

Stephanie Cumming is a Canadian dancer, choreographer, and actress based in Montreal. Active across contemporary dance, theatre, film, and visual art, she spent over two decades in Vienna, co-founding Liquid Loft and touring internationally. Her award-winning career includes acclaimed stage works, film roles, teaching, and interdisciplinary collaborations worldwide.

Chris Bullough

Chris Bullough is an award winning actor, director, creative and Community Animator based in Edmonton/Amiskwaciwaskahikan. Chris has an MFA in Directing from the University of Alberta where he created (with Michael Peng and wishbone theatre) OR THE WHALE, an original adaptation of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. His newest play, UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY, was an official holdover at the 2025 Edmonton Fringe. Chris is currently working as a Community Animator with Sage Seniors Association, helping older folks re/connect to their communities, and supporting senior led initiatives, events and activities.

Cai Glover

Cai Glover is a Montreal-based dance artist, choreographer, and artistic director whose work foregrounds the poetics of movement, language, and embodied identity. He has been developing his creative practice for over 25 years, and for more than a decade worked as a performer, interpreter, and choreographer with Cas Public, contributing to multiple company creations before expanding his independent practice.

As the founder and artistic force behind A Fichu Turning, Glover explores how language and gesture might be transformed into an embodied movement vocabulary, using the dancing body to probe questions of meaning, perception, and social dynamics. His work investigates the politics of disability, Deaf culture, and sensory experience as sources of artistic poetics and identity.

A Deaf artist, hearing differently has shaped both his creative approach and aesthetic voice, giving rise to performances and research that unsettle conventional sensory hierarchies in dance. Over his career, he has worked with a wide range of collaborators and continues to present choreographic work that invites audiences into movement practices at the intersection of expression and inclusion.

Claudia Kulay

Claudia Kulay is a queer, Ukrainian and francophone playwright/producer/multidisciplinary performance artist, based in Amiskwaciwaskahikan, colonially known as Edmonton, AB. At the center of their practice is a curiosity for cross-disciplinary collaboration and utilizing philosophies of surrealism and clown as driving forces for creation. Select works include, Headhole (Found Festival, 2025 and the Edmonton International Fringe Festival, 2023), The Hubble Space Telescope Dance (Connections//Collisions Cabaret, Mile Zero Dance, 2025, Expanse Festival, 2025 and Nextfest, 2024) and happy now (Wildfire Playwriting Competition Winner, 2020).

erψn temp3st

erψn temp3st is a sound, new media artist, and dancer whose work reimagines embodied practices through technological, sonic, and sculptural intervention. They have performed across so-called Canada and internationally in Europe and the United States. They recently obtained an MFA in Art & Technology/Sound from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Tha'er Askar

Tha'er Askar is a Palestinian dance artist based in Edmonton with experience in dabke, contemporary movement, choreography, and performance training. He specializes in building dancers’ technique, rhythm, stamina, posture, coordination, stage presence, and group formations, creating performances that merge Palestinian dance roots with contemporary movement language.

Jacquelyn Cardinal

Jacquelyn Cardinal is a sakāwithiniwak (Woodland Cree) storyteller and entrepreneur from Sucker Creek Cree First Nation in northern Alberta, and the Founder and CEO of Naheyawin, an Indigenous-owned storytelling and education social enterprise based in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton). Her work weaves Indigenous knowledge together with the everyday life of organizations, and as a playwright she co-wrote Lake of the Strangers with her brother Hunter, which won the 2019 Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award for Outstanding New Play. She is guided by a single vision: to realize the promise of the Treaties by building spaces where diverse ways of knowing come together.

Amber Borotsik

Amber is an Amiskwaciwâskahikan based dance and theatre artist. As a creator, she focuses on interdisciplinary performance (Scythe, The Moon at Midnight, No Guesses Found). Her work has been presented across Canada at Neighbourhood Dance Works, Studio 303, Centre de Création O Vertigo, Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, New Dance Horizons, The Fluid Festival, as well as various places and spaces here in Amiskwaciwâskahikan, including the BWDC and the amazing Mile Zero Dance.

Richard Lee

Richard has danced across Canada in works by Gerry Morita, Alida Kendall, Ainsley Hillyard, Troy Emery Twigg, Mélanie Demers, Mélanie Kloetzel, and Amber Borotsik, among others. His own works have been presented by Mile Zero Dance, Good Women Dance Collective, New Dance Horizons, Springboard Performance, and CanAsian Dance.

Genelle LaBrie

Genelle LaBrie is an Edmonton-based movement artist & abstract painter. Her practice is rooted in self-trust as she employs improvisation & gut instinct to investigate the edges of her physicality. A passion for dance sparked in the early-00s rave scene evolved into self-inquiry through yoga, qigong, & somatic education which eventually led to her taking her first contemporary dance workshop at MZD in 2024.

Tia Ashley Kushniruk (亚 女弟)

Tia Ashley Kushniruk (亚 女弟) is a dance performance artist based in Edmonton AB. She works primarily with dance improvisation and tableau, seeking idiosyncrasies and humor within highly virtuosic presentations that blend performance art and hyper performativity. 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 mentee of Toronto-based Performance Artist Bridget Moser.

Lakota Tootoosis

Lakota Tootoosis is plains Cree from the Poundmaker Cree nation. Lakota has been hoop dancing for over ten years, he’s performed in Taiwan, Alaska and travels extensively throughout North America entertaining audiences at various venues. The hoop dance is a formation storytelling dance, you will see formations like the butterfly, eagle and the world to name a few. You can use your imagination to see a variety of images transform throughout his performance. 

Marynia Fekecz-Mangan

Marynia Fekecz-Mangan is a Polish-born and educated (Poznań School of Social Sciences in Poznań, Poland) dancer, performer, choreographer, teacher, and producer based in Edmonton. She has collaborated with several dance ensembles and festivals including Kokyu Studio of the Grotowski’s Institute, Calgary’s W&M Physical Theatre, Alberta Dance Festival, Edmonton’s Good Women Dance Collective, Mile Zero Dance and Harcourt House Artist Run Centre (project “Transportation” for the Harcourt House’s Alberta Culture Days 2022 with Kate Stashko, Tatiana Warszynski, and Shawn Pinchbeck), as well as individual artists and choreographers: Justine A. Chambers, Linnea Swan, Nicole Charlton Goodbrand, Davida Monk, Melissa Monteros,

Mpoe Mogale

Mpoe Mogale (they/them) reigns from Lebowakgomo, South Africa and splits their time between amiskwaciywâskahikan and moh’kínst’sis, in the colonial state of Canada. Their primary artmaking form is dance, with over 5 years of teaching and choreographing mainly styles created by Black folks. Mpoe is committed to go beyond steps, and instead offer the knowledge, culture, and historical aspects that accompany dance forms such as Afrobeats, Jazz and Hip-Hop.

Birkley Wisniewski

Birkley began Lindy Hop in 2002 and founded Sugar Swing in 2005, making dance his full-time career in 2009. With expertise in Lindy Hop, solo jazz, tap, and Balboa, he has built one of Canada’s leading dedicated swing dance schools as an instructor, choreographer, performer, DJ, coach, and owner.

Jocelyn Mah

Jocelyn Mah is a Canadian contemporary multidisciplinary artist and relentless creative. Drawing from the fantastical worlds of Bouffon, puppetry and mask theatre, and the virtuosity of the music-movement connection, her work lives in the tension between satire and sincerity, reality and absurdity.
Jocelyn is a graduate of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre (Dance Arts Institute) and holds her MA in Contemporary Dance Performance from the London Contemporary Dance School. Her expansive practice in dance, puppetry, mask and interdisciplinary collaboration has led to professional creations, performances and touring throughout North America and Europe.

Ivan Touko

Ivan Touko (Amöûgįvan) is a Cameroonian-born dancer, DJ, and community builder at the intersection of movement, music, and collective memory. Rooted in Afrobeats, Amapiano, and Capoeira, his practice has reached 5,000+ students across Western Canada. He has performed internationally at TEDx University of Alberta and San Francisco's African American Art & Culture Complex.

Branden “Busyrawk” Cha

Branden “Busyrawk” Cha is a South Korean breaker based in amiskwacîwâskahikan, Treaty 6. Shaped by nearly two decades of experience in breaking, he remains rooted in the Bronx (New York) foundations of breaking and rocking. He approaches movement through music, centering groove, bounce, and connection with the drummer as fundamental principles. As a member of Ready to Rock, he emphasizes cultural authenticity, rhythm, and the deep connection between dance and music.

Mr. Kou

Mr. Kou is an Edmonton-based House dancer, educator, and community builder focused on freestyle, musicality, and cultural transmission. Through Bridge The Gap and You Know The Drill, he creates spaces where dancers practice foundations, cypher etiquette, rhythm, and collective growth while honouring the roots and future of street dance culture.

Molly McDermott

Molly McDermott is a dance artist based in amiskwaciy-wâskahikan. She works as a performer, choreographer, and teacher. Molly has been a collective artist with Good Women Dance Collective since 2023 alongside her independent projects. Her choreography has been performed at Fluid Festival, Mile Zero Dance, New Dance Horizons, Vines Art Festival, 12 Minutes Max., Nextfest, the Magpie Collection, Connections//Collisions, and Expanse Festival. Her work continues to tour, with presentations coming up in fall 2026 and spring 2027. Molly is interested in dance that explores specific physical states, creating definitive worlds in which audiences can have personal responses that are often visceral and difficult to put into words. This season 2026/2027, Molly is thrilled to be transitioning into an exciting new role, as the incoming artistic director of Brian Webb Dance Company (BWDC). Alongside dance, Molly is a mother of two small humans and welcomes the gentle chaos that comes with balancing motherhood and everything else.

Janita Frantsi

Janita Frantsi is a contemporary dance artist from Finland and now based in Amiskwacîwâskahikan. During her time in Edmonton, Janita has worked as a dancer with several companies, such as Mile Zero Dance, KO Dance Projects, and Edmonton Opera, and created works for festivals in Western Canada and internationally, most recently the Czech Republic. Janita loves to explore site-specific dance: most recently, she did a dance residency at the McMullen Gallery at the University of Alberta Hospital to bring more movement, dance, and colour to the hospital and gallery environments. Janita has a Master of Arts (Dance) that continues to inspire her to find new spaces and ways for dance to exist in our world.

Will Scott

Will Scott is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, sound artist, music teacher, and recording engineer residing in Edmonton, AB, Canada. He currently performs in local experimental improvisational act Pigeon Breeders, psychedelic jazz group Whiling, and the Will Scott Band. He also sits on the Board of Directors for Mile Zero Dance. His previous credits include Brazilian Money, The Wicked Awesomes!, MS DOS, and the University of Alberta’s improv collective XiME. He has collaborated/improvised with many musical artists, including Scott Smallwood, Smokey, Jung People, as well as various dancers from Mile Zero Dance, Good Women Dance Collective, and KO Dance projects.

Cui Jinzhe

Cui Jinzhe, whose pen name is Qiu Shi, is a painter, poet, and multidisciplinary artist who has been painting, writing and practising music since her childhood. Jinzhe was born and raised in Dalian, China, where she earned a BA (Visual Communication) at School of Arts Design from Dalian University of Foreign Languages and a MA (Mixed Media) at Dalian Polytechnic University. In 2008, Jinzhe moved to Canada to continue her studies and work as an independent artist in Edmonton. Her work explores the integration between visual art, poetry, and interdisciplinary practice, often within an interactive public context.

Roger Helfrick

Roger Helfrick’s foremost instrument is his beautiful baritone voice which he showcases either a cappella or accompanying himself on Celtic lever harp, medieval harp, guitar, or psaltery. He performs music gleaned from the last 800 years of northern and western Europe, interspersed with his own nature-inspired compositions and improvisations. In the last 32 years, he released 4 CDs, receiving national and international radio play, and was a featured performer with many groups including 7 years with Vancouver based Winter Harp Ensemble. His latest performances have included the Nickelodeon Folk Club, and the Confetti concert series in downtown Edmonton. You can discover more at his website: www.rogerhelfrick.ca

Lin Snelling

Lin Snelling is a dancer whose artistic practice brings the qualities of improvisation into dance, theatre, writing, visual art, somatic and site-specific practice. She toured the world with Carbone 14 and danced with many improvisation ensembles. She teaches dance, experiential anatomy and composition at the University of Alberta and is coordinator of the Theatre Practice MFA program.

Amorena Bartlett

Amorena Bartlett (she/her) is a queer Deaf consultant and ASL coach from Amiskwaciy Waskahikan, colonially known as Edmonton. Some productions she has been involved with include Songs My Mother Never Sung Me (Concrete Theatre, 2019 and 2024); Deafy (Citadel Theatre), The Hive, The Swarm (CRIPSie, 2026); and Binding (Calla Wright, Fringe Festival 2026). She has also had the honor of working with SkirtsAFire for the past three years. Amorena is grateful for the opportunities to have worked with so many amazing individuals and would like to thank those who have put their trust in her to provide rewarding and inclusive theatrical experiences for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community.

Sean "B-Boy Pharush"

Sean is a multi-disciplinary artist who specializes in the original street dance known as breaking. He is a support for many performing artists in Edmonton, and has been a frontline RSW supporting Edmonton's most vulnerable.

DJ Worldwidewind

Wind (Worldwidewind) is a DJ and organizer based between Edmonton & Montreal, known for blending electro, techno, and ballroom beats with pop soundscapes. As a co-founder of Gallop, a local rave, and a voguer from the international house of Gvasalia, Wind’s roots in the underground rave and ballroom scenes have developed their sense of clairaudience and electricity, groove.