Show # 5
Thursday, July 29, 2021

Show # 5

Featuring: Gary Varro, Graham Kotowich, Katherine Semchuk, Mac Findlay, Marcus Merasty and Meghann Michalsky.

Tickets:
Adult: $20.00
Child: $10.00
Free for children 6 years and under

Show Times:
7:00 PM (CST)

Show Dates:
Thursday, July 29, 2021

Show Location:
NDH Secret Garden Summer Stage
New Dance Horizons Backyard, ​2207 Harvey St, Regina, SK

Please note shows are planned to be held outside weather permitting. If weather conditions are challenging the shows will be moved inside to New Dance Horizons studio where we have a limited capacity per show.

A confirmation email will be sent to you for your tickets. Please bring this confirmation to the Show.
For more information email info@newdancehorizons.ca or call us at (306) 525-5393.

Show Program

• Marcus Merasty — Monument
  
  
• Graham Kotowich – Valeur
  
  
• Gary Varro and Mac Findlay – Gulliver
  
  
• Marcus Merasty — & (excerpt)
  by Edward Poitras and Robin Poitras
  
  
• Katherine Semchuk and Meghann Michalsky — Rigorous Connections
  
  
• Gary Varro and Timothy Hopfner — Adonais
  Adonais poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley

About Artists

Gary Varro is a curator and visual artist based in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada where in 1996 he established and continues to present Queer City Cinema Festival and Performatorium Festival of Queer Performance. Since the mid 90’s, Gary Varro’s visual art practice has proposed critical relationships with the architectural and social spaces they occupy and reference. Areas of interest include: queer identities; public/private domains; self humiliation and vulnerability; spectacle and transgression; humour and pathos, endurance and the creative process itself.

Photo credit: Christopher Mann

Graham Kotowich was born and raised in Regina and his career has taken him across the globe. Currently, Graham lives and works as a resident company member of Opera Ballet in Metz, France. In this piece, Graham is dancer, choreographer and composer and it is being prepared for entry into the September 2021 Tremplin choreographic competition in Biarritz, France.

Photo credit: Kendra Epik

Kathrine Semchuk is a dance-based collaborator, performer and instructor currently based in Tkaronto (Treaty 13 Territory). She is a graduate of Victoria School of the Arts and The School of Toronto Dance Theatre where she was the recipient of the Kathryn Ash Leadership Award. Katherine has had the pleasure of working with Good Women Dance Collective (GWDC), Kaeja d’Dance, Kylie Thompson, Mateo Galindo Torres, Meghann Michalsky, Mile Zero Dance, Nostos Collectives, Peggy Baker Dance Projects, Sasha Ivanochko, and Naishi Wang. She feels liberated when she is able to act as a physical portal for her own and other collaborator's stories, ideas and sketches.
 
She continues to investigate her own creative practice and has presented her work through numerous festivals and platforms including Feats Festival of Dance, Mile Zero Dance, and Expanse Festival. Katherine’s artistic work has been supported by Edmonton Arts Council and Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

Mac Findlay is an artist from Regina, Located on Treaty 4 Territory. He received acting training as a cast member of Globe Theatre’s Young Company in the 2018-2019 season, which culminated in the Sandbox Series show Concord Floral. He is now pursuing studies in Music and Theatre performance and interdisciplinary social studies. He is curious and inspired with the ways that young people are using the creative arts to mobilize around important social issues. He would like to thank Robin Poitras for her mentorship, his family for their ongoing support and New Dance Horizons for the opportunity to be part of their 35th season.

Photo credit: Neil Sawatzky

Marcus Merasty is a dance artist from Pelican Narrows, Saskatchewan and is of Cree descent, Assin’skowitiniwak meaning “People of the rocky area”. His interest in dance began with learning traditional Métis jigging in 2013. A year later, following the invitation to perform in a contemporary dance work by Edward Poitras and Robin Poitras he began to pursue a life in dance. This was also the beginning of an on-going mentorship with artists Robin Poitras and Edward Poitras. Since then Marcus has received training in theatre from the Gordon Tootoosis Nīkānīwin Theatre and participated in the Indigenous Dance Residency (2016) and the Indigenous Choreographers Creation Lab (2019) at The Banff Centre, and has toured across eastern Canada with The Dancers of Damelahamid. Marcus recently completed the 4 year Professional Program at The School of Contemporary Dancers and is working toward his BA. (Hons) in Contemporary Dance from the University of Winnipeg. He is currently employed with New Dance Horizons with a major focus on archiving the organization’s 35 year history.

Meghann Michalsky is a dance artist working in Alberta. She is the co-creator of Project InTandem and YYC Contemporary Technique Training, two programs that offer opportunities to emerging artists in Canada. She was awarded the 2019 RBC Emerging Artist Award at the Mayor’s Lunch for Arts Champions - she is the first
Dancer/Choreographer to receive this award.

Since graduating the University of Calgary dance program, she has rigorously pursued her dance technique training in Canada as well as in Israel, Portugal, Sweden, the U.K., the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria.

She creates highly visceral works that combine intense musculature and athletic physicality with subtle internally driven flow-based movements. Her movement signature has been described as vigorous, raw, and interknit. Her knowledge of Hip-Hop and Krump movement principles has influenced her development of isolated, rhythmic, bound, and fast-twitch movement qualities into her contemporary choreographies.

Her most recent choreographic works have been presented at Project InTandem, Fluid Festival, Stream of Dance Festival, Annual Alberta Dance Festival, Convergence, and abroad in Finland. She will be presenting her work Deep END in Vancouver and Camrose this coming November.

Timothy Hopfner is an alumnus of the University of Regina, with a BFA in Theatre Performance. After completing his degree, he worked professionally and independently in Canada, several times on stage at the Globe Theatre as well as numerous Fringe Festivals, with original and adapted works. From 2005-2012, he was a core member of The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards, based in Italy and with which he travelled extensively, performing throughout Europe. Since 2012, Tim is living and working in Berlin; currently he’s working behind the scenes at the world-renowned Berliner Ensemble.