Mike Dubue is a composer, arranger, musician, producer and audio engineer. He studies and plays a wide variety of music. He composes for film and theatre and is the principal songwriter in the bands HILOTRONS. Mike Dubue was born and raised in Ottawa. www.hilotrons.com
This youth circus troupe is a group of kids, 10 to 15 years old, who have been training with circus professionals and who have created a pre-professional circus show. The show is a blend of skills and acrobatics with choreographed group numbers and solos created in collaboration between the kids and local circus artists. Our featured performers will be Tyler, Bastienne, Gabrielle, Valerie, Melanie, Alison and Anna.
Monty Reid has published 14 collections of poetry, most recently A Poem That Ends With Murder (Apt 9 Press), The Luskville Reductions (Brick) and Lost in the Owl Woods (BookThug). His Disappointment Island (Chaudiere) won the Lampman-Scott Award for Poetry in 2007. He has won the Stephansson Award for Poetry, a National Magazine Award, and has been short-listed for the Governor-General’s Award on three occasions. He lives in Ottawa, and plays songs in his band – Call Me Katie.
Nadia Ross is the artistic director for STO Union, a company founded in 1992 and dedicated to the creation of new theatre for the stage. Under her direction, the company presents original Canadian theatre at festivals and theatres around the world. Now located in Wakefield, Quebec, the company had its beginnings in Toronto, Canada. The company had its international premiere at Montreal’s International Theatre Festival (FTA) and STO Union productions have since been presented in numerous countries including: Germany, Sweden, the United States, Australia, Russia, Hong Kong, Austria, Norway, Belgium, Ireland and The Netherlands. Nadia is a Dora and Chalmers’ award recipient.
Local artist and yoga instructor owen tuf will be flexing her many muscles at Yogapalooza Sunday morning, as she leads us through asanas.
Pasha Malla is the author of three books: The Withdrawal Method, a collection of short stories, won the Trillium Book Award, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize and longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize; All Our Grandfathers are Ghosts (poems); and Why We Fight > Quran Neck, a transliteration of Frank Capra’s War Comes to America. His first novel, People Park, will be published in fall 2012.
Pixie Cram is a filmmaker from Ottawa. The format of her work includes stop-motion animation music videos, live soundtrack performances, installation, documentaries, and experimental narratives. She is a founding member of Ottawa’s Windows Collective, a group of six filmmakers who create free, outdoor installation projects using celluloid film as the basis. Her films have screened at festivals across Canada, in Eastern Europe and in Russia. Two of her shorts, The Bathers and Bones, will be featured Friday night in The Minute Film Fest screening on the Wakefield Covered Bridge. http://artengine.ca/pixiecram .
Sophie has been performing and teaching performing arts since the age of 15 in 1990. Her journey began with her love of dance, training extensively in many different forms, and ultimately dancing professionally for 2 years. While taking a break from the dance world, she travelled for three years throughout the Americas, meeting several circus troupes who made lasting impressions. Catch Sophie and Mini Cirque at the Wakefield Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning.
Stephen is a recovered graphic designer based in Montreal. He relapses each year to design many of the festival posters (see the Photo Gallery section). He studies art therapy, works as a certified massage therapist and dreams of a life in the country.
Tatiana Ishwari Nemchin is a certified and registered yoga teacher. Her nourishing and loving classes cultivate joy, calmness, peace, connection and community. She holds space for self-exploration and physical, spiritual, mental and emotional development. She is the co-creator of Elaborhythm; a unique exploratory movement and percussion practice. A Coaches Training Institute (CTI) trained Life Coach, Tatiana lovingly supports clients to live authentically, joyfully and On Purpose. www.ishwariyoga.com
Thaddeus Morden was born and raised in Ottawa, he has studied with Donald Whitton and Amanda Forsyth as well as Yegor Dyachkov and Matt Haimovitz at McGill University, where he earned a B. Mus in performance. Thaddeus is currently principal cello of the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra and freelances in the region with various ensembles including the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Thirteen Strings and the Orchestre Symphonique de Gatineau. Thaddeus has recently begun teaching privately, as well as at La Petite Fanfare school in Chelsea.
Thea Pratt is a filmmaker, gardener and musician that works out of Montreal and Farrellton, Quebec. She has been working internationally as an animator since 2000 in both the commercial animation circuit of animated television series as an independent filmmaker and consultant.
Two Little Birds is a theatre collective committed to crafting original and high-quality work that bring together diverse styles and genres of art, theatre and performance, and to exploring the possibility of different kinds of audience-performer relationships in all phases of creation. Founded in 2009 by Sarah Conn, Two Little Birds’ inaugural production, ‘Good People,’ was produced at the 2009 Ottawa Fringe Festival and was chosen as a Top Ten Pick of the Fringe by Metro. Two Little Birds’ next project was ‘Six: At Home,’ a site-specific production produced at the 2010 Ottawa Fringe Festival. This participation-based performance met with sold out audiences, received the Fringe Festival’s “Outstanding Concept” award and won the “Outstanding New Creation” and “Outstanding Fringe Production” awards at the 2010 Rideau Awards. Our interest in intimate theatrical experiences that invite audience members to become active participants inspired us for our 2011/2012 project, ‘and then it happens.’ Part one of ‘and then it happens’ is ‘The Lab,’ a research installation that was first produced as part of the Great Canadian Theatre Company’s 2011 undercurrents festival. The results of The Lab are currently being developed into ‘and then it happens,’ scheduled to premiere in 2012. Two Little Birds is thrilled to be the inaugural participant in STO Union’s company mentorship program.
Like most things she does in life, Wendy dove into Yoga head first over 5 years ago. In October of 2009 she completed her Yoga Teacher Training on an ashram in India and she has plans to return there soon to learn more that can be passed on to her many students. www.windhorse-yoga.ca
