MILE ZERO DANCE SEASON 2024-25

Originally from rural Saskatchewan, Gerry Morita (BA Dance/ MFA Theatre. She has lived and worked in Vancouver, Montréal, and Tokyo as a dancer, choreographer, performance artist and teacher before moving to Edmonton and becoming Mile Zero Dance’s Artistic Director in 2006. Her work has toured Poland, Turkey, Estonia, Canada, and Japan.  

Morita’s body of work involves continuous inquiry into new ways of seeing movement, the body, and the spaces between us. She studies and teaches contact improvisation, Noguchi Taiso and other somatic-based and improvising techniques, working with artists from all disciplines in a vast array of both conventional and site-specific venues. She has received the Mayor’s Award for Innovation in Artistic Direction, the Edmonton Salute for Excellence, Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund and was one of Alberta’s 25 Influential Artists recognized in 2016.

Lexi Pendzich is a lens-based artist whose work focuses on documentary photography and portraiture. She’s inspired by the power of images to tell stories, personal narratives and capture moments that wouldn’t otherwise be documented.

Lexi is a communications strategist with experience working at the intersection of marketing, social media, media relations, and web for arts and culture.

Katrina Smy has been living and dancing in amiskwacîwâskahikan, Treaty 6 Territory, all of her life. Her early training grounds include the Edmonton School of Ballet, Alberta Ballet School, and Grant MacEwan Community College, where she graduated from the Dance Program in 1992. She has performed extensively with KO Dance Projects, with Mistress Nancy Sandercock, and with Mile Zero Dance, where she held the position of General Manager from 2008-2014. Across her artistic career, she has enjoyed co-creating with New Music Edmonton, BEAMS, Jen Mesch Dance Conspiracy, Don Ross, Allison Balcetis, Jeannie Vandekerkhove, Theresa Dextrase, Izumi Kuribayashi, Dave Wall, Michelle Milenkovic, naming only a few from a gorgeous array of artists she has been fortunate to work with. She gravitates toward improv-based performance, site-specific, and installation work, and is able to specialize in eccentric or unusual roles. Katrina holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Eastern Philosophy and Drama.

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 10 years as a Lighting Designer, Production Manager, Technical Director, Entertainment Programmer, Site Manager, and Theatre Technician.