Ruin Road
SummerWorks Performance Festival | August 4-13
The Theatre Centre/Franco Boni Theatre (1115 Queen St. West)
Friday, August 4, 7:45 pm
Sunday August 6, 8:15 pm
Monday August 7, 9:15 pm
Wednesday August 9, 6:15 pm
Friday August 11, 6:15 pm
Saturday August 12, 3:45 pm
Sunday August 13, 6:30 pm
tickets available @ summerworks.ca/artists/ruin-road/
Ruin Road collaborators:
Jane Alison McKinney is an independent dance artist, a four-time recipient of the artsnb Scholarship and a graduate of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre. In 2012 she worked with Ismael Ivo and performed in Italy and Brazil. Independently she has worked with Sharon Moore, Common People, Rondos Dance Theatre, Stand Up Dance, and Blue Ceiling. McKinney’s choreographic work has been presented in Toronto, Edmonton, and Saint John. In 2016, she was awarded a Metcalf Foundation Internship in Artistic Direction with adelheid under the mentorship of Heidi Strauss. She is grateful to be presenting her first full-length work Ruin Road at the SummerWorks Performance Festival in 2017.
Naishi Wang was born in ChangChun, China and received his professional dance training from JiLin College ofArt and furthered his dance studies with the BeiJing Dance Academy. In 2004, Wang moved to Canada to continue his dance journey at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre and was a member of TDT for nine years. Wang has also worked independently with Allison Cummings, Paul-André Fortier, D.A Hoskins, William Yong, Hanna Kiel and Heidi Strauss for several collaborate projects and performance. Wang is also a member with freelance dance choreographer Christoph Winkler in Berlin, Germany. In 2013, Wang worked for Ai Weiwei’s exhibition in Toronto showcase. In 2015, He was part of the Toronto PanAm game opening ceremony as a dancer.Wang was nominated for the Dora Mavor Moore Awards in 2013 for the Outstanding Performance in Different Animals created by Hanna Kiel, and won in 2017 for Outstanding Ensemble in what it’s like by Heidi Strauss.
Originally from Montreal, Kathia Wittenborn began professional training at Le Conservatoire de Danse de Montréal and Ballet Divertimento. Upon graduation, she moved to Toronto to further her training at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre where she was the recipient of the inaugural Kathryn Ash Scholarship Award. Wittenborn has participated in various workshops and professional development projects in Montreal, New York, Amsterdam, Lucca, San Sebastián, and Vienna including ImPulsTanz, The Movement Invention Project, and Springboard Danse Montréal. She has had the opportunity to tour works by Gioconda Barbuto, Sonya Stefan, and Edgar Zendejas in France and Spain. In Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, she taught and performed in a movement workshop, which she produced for their annual Aqpik Jam Festival.
Based in Toronto, Wittenborn has had the privilege of working with Robert Abubo, Amanda Acorn, Susie Burpee, Jane Alison McKinney, Sharon B. Moore, Kevin A. Ormsby, JD Dance, Red Sky Performance, The Go To Company, and Tribal Crackling Wind under the direction of Peter Chin. Tribal Crackling Wind’s work Woven, performed in Toronto and Mexico, was awarded with a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Performance as an ensemble. She is currently working with Aria Evans, Marie Lambin Gagnon, and Shannon Litzenberger.
Dancer/choreographer Heidi Strauss is also the artistic director of adelheid, which she began in 2008. adelheid’s work looks at interaction between different people and groupings of people, with a specific interest in the situation of performance and how we consider each other (audience & performer) within that construct. She was dance artist in residence at the Factory Theatre (2008-2012) and a resident artist at the Theatre Centre (2013-16). Her award-winning work has toured nationally. Heidi has choreographed for Toronto Dance Theatre, The Frankfurt Opera, The Canadian Opera Company, Volcano theatre and the Stratford Festival, and given workshops across Canada, and in the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy and Singapore. She has worked as artistic advisor for senior dance artists Peter Chin, and Marie-Josée Chartier, and recently as mentor/outside eye for The Throwdown Collective, Kaeja Dance, Kate Hilliard, Michael Caldwell, Form Collective. Heidi received the KM Hunter Award for Dance (2012), and her recent work what it’s like recently received three Dora Mavor Moore Awards, including outstanding production. www.adelheid.ca
Noah Feaver is a lighting designer originally from Vancouver, now resident in Toronto. Recent credits include: The Maid (Bridge to Artists), Rent (Mainstage Theatre Company), Cendrillon (The Royal Conservatory), Ruby Red Burlesque (Concrete Vertigo Productions), Treasure Island, Dances 2016, Arranged Marriage (Ryerson University), MANICPIXIEDREAMGIRLS (Rock Bottom Movement), Verve 2016, Momentum 2016 (The School of Toronto Dance Theatre), Crush (The Banff Centre). Assistant credits include: Unholy (Nightwood Theatre), It’s a Wonderful Life (Soulpepper), Fall For Dance North (Sony Centre), Still (The Banff Centre), Program 2 2016 (Ballet BC), A Little Too Cozy (Against The Grain Theatre).
Lyon Smith: Recent Selected Sound Credits: Hamlet, All’s Well That Ends Well, Taming of the Shrew and Liv Stein(Canadian Stage), Morro and Jasp 9 to 5 (Factory Theatre), The Last Donnelly Standing and If Truth Be Told (Blyth Festival), Elle (Theatre Passe Muraille), Venus’ Daughter(Obsidian Theatre), Beaver(Storefront Theatre), Sheets(Veritas Theatre), the Millennial Malcontent (Tarragon), A City (Necessary Angel). He has received a Dora Award and multiple nominations for his sound work.
Helin Gungoren is a Toronto-based Production Manager and Stage Manager. She is going into her third year of Performance Production at the Ryerson School of Performance in pursuit of her BFA. Helin was the Assistant Stage Manager for Emerging Voices (Toronto Dance Theatre) and Death of Mrs. Ghandi and the Beginning of the New Physics (Everything But The Bard/Next Stage Festival); Stage Manager for Operation SUNshine (Toronto Fringe Festival), #7Love (Froth Productions/SummerWorks), and D Cup (New Ideas Festival); and Production Manager for re:Lewis (Piss & Vinegar Collective/OpenOpenOpen).
Video producers, Sinéad Wills and Rob Jarvis have developed and produced digital experiences for Boat Rocker Digital, formerly the Media Ventures arm of Temple Street Productions. Past projects include Evolve, a content partnership with Rugby Canada, two original online series for AOL Canada, and digital games and video experiences for Temple Street’s television shows, such as X Company, The Next Step, and Lost & Found Music Studios. Boat Rocker Digital also engages in charitable community work, supporting organizations such as TIRF and EMPWR. They support independent artistic projects by merging their cultural interests with their skill-set in video production to create unique, layered visual experiences.
