Discipline: dance

charles gao

When I (Charles Gao) moved to Montreal in 2018, my goal became to develop my method for creating more narrative-based work from my perspective as a breaker. The idea was to use the artistic tools I had developed in my years as a breaker in tandem with the theatrical tools I was studying, to discover my form of Hip Hop theatre. 

In 2019, I started working on what would eventually become “Welcome to the Digital Desert”. In 2020 during the pandemic, I staged an impromptu outdoor version of the play, where I cast Johnny Abilach – an actor as well as fellow street dancer. We’ve stayed in touch since, often dancing and exchanging together. His dedication to his practice as a popper as well as an actor mirrors my practice as a b-boy and playwright, where both disciplines feed each other. This has given us our common artistic language when working together.

Photo credit: Vickie Grondin

cai glover

Cai Glover is the recipient of the CAM+MAI Joint Support Fellowship 2023-2024.


This work will investigate our expressions of movement as they are tasked with turning the complicit actions of spacial language, the mastery of gesture, into the trance of a dancing body. The research will see us manipulate language to pass from the literal to the abstract and back again. What does the word “identity” look like in my signed hand? And now what does it look like in my dancing body? Is there somewhere in between where I might recognize an identity that feels authentic?  Here we apply the science of discerning the way one body makes another body feel as we reorient the subject and object to be in a constant relation devoid of the violence of identity marking that removes the “other”. The creation is here situated in the politics of disability and in passing through the creative act, procures an aesthetics of disability. A decentering of a body that is itself already off-centre. 

Bio: 

In an ever-going discovery and study of dance, Cai Glover has been training, performing and creating in the art form for over 25 years. From 2012 to 2022 Cai was working as a dance interpreter and choreographer for Cas Public and has been a part of 8 creations for the company. Most recently Cai has been developing his expression in poetry and a language of movement putting the dancing body to task in a search of an embodied expression of poetics through the transposition of language into movement under the name of his company, A Fichu Turning. 

Photo credit: Sasha Onyshenko

gabriela jovian-mazon

As a child, Gabriela Jovian-Mazon started with Mexican folklore dance in her hometown town Mississauga, Ontario and competed in jazz, ballet and musical theatre dance. When she moved to Montréal to study, she discovered street dance and transitioned towards hip-hop, house, and break and now specializes in whacking. Fascinated by the different dance styles, she trained on her own to pursue a dance career after completing her Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering. She has since performed for commercials, music videos, theatre, musicals and festivals. She also loves the battle scene and was a finalist at the 2021 Creative Boost battle at Place des Arts.

Her work as a choreographer is characterized as quirky, theatrical and funky and is proof of her diversified training. In 2020, Gabriela choreographed for MOON an outdoor digital art installation for the city of Montreal. She also completed #dailygabyj, where she created 365 dance videos between 30 – 60 seconds. In 2021, she presented her first short dance video ‘Playtime’ for Bouge d’Ici and co-choreographed ‘Seul.e.s Ensemble: Club Edition’ as part of the Montreal Fringe Festival.

In her work, she explores mental health and the representation of self with the use of space and objects through characters, humour, storytelling and the dance style whacking. Gabriela is an original, versatile and theatrical emerging artist, and she is excited to continue discovering the world of creation.

INNOCENCE

Innocence is a whacking dance short film project, inspired by board games and ‘murder mystery’ films. It aims to highlight the story-telling, drama and individuality of the characters of Whacking, a late 1960s club-culture style inspired by the Golden Age of Hollywood, cartoons and disco music.  

My research explores character interaction and narration through whacking and creating a live game, where dancers and audience members follow rules to find out who is ‘the culprit’. As in a game of chess, each character has their way of moving, and their mannerisms, actions, poses and whacks. There’s tension, drama and a bit of humour.

In 2022, in collaboration with up to 7 dancers, I created a 2-minute dance video, presented a 3-minute piece at Articien and a 15-minute piece at the Art-fullness Whacking Festival on this same theme. Through Alliance, Innocence will benefit from mentorships in vernacular jazz, mime and filmmaking techniques to enrich my whacking and choreographic practice for this project. This support provides access to the desired level of skill and artistry to bring this film to life. 

Credit photo: David Jouary

mara dupas

Mara Dupas is the recipient of the CAM+MAI Joint Support Fellowship 2023-2024.

Mara Dupas is a queer multidisciplinary artist of Martinican descent. He relocated to Montreal with his family at a young age, where he took up dance training. Mara perfected his classical ballet and contemporary dance techniques, first at the Académie du Ballet Métropolitain, then at the École de danse contemporaine de Montréal (2019-2022). Concurrently, he began learning urban dancing and Haitian folk dances by following workshops. Mara collaborates as a performer with Louise Bédard (choreographic research), Charlie Prince (states of body produced by an emergency) as well as Rhodnie Désir (Symphonie de coeurs).

His choreographic works, which explore the themes of métissage, the Afro-descendant body and Caribbean culture, have been presented in Montreal at Danses Buissonnières (Tangente Danse), the Vue sur la Relève Festival and the OFFTA. His personal writing practice has resulted in the publication of several texts, notably by Éditions Bruno Doucey (Poésie en liberté, 2018), in Zinc magazine (2022) and in the Moveo dance magazine (2023).

Photo credit: Bianka Pierre

melinda yeoh

Melinda is the recipient of the 100LUX+MAI Joint Support Fellowship 2023-2024. Melinda will take part of the annual 2023-2024 Les Soirées 100Lux programming.

Born in Singapore, and growing up in the prairies of Calgary, Alberta, Melinda “Melofunk” Yeoh has trained in Locking for 12 years. A member of the LockUnity collective and Ingenious Lockers crew, she fell in love with Locking when she went to the Elite Locking Camp in Las Vegas in 2011. There, she had the opportunity to learn from pioneers and first-generation Lockers such as Scoo B Doo, Damita Jo, and Fluky Luke who were present in the scene when it was created in the late 60s/ early 70s. From then on, she returned to Calgary and tried to grow the local Locking scene little by little through performances, classes, and sessions. In 2014, she moved to Montreal to train with LockUnity and grow as a Locker, and since then, she’s competed in various Locking jams locally and internationally such as Bust A Move, Under Pressure, Unlock The Funk, Vancouver Street Dance Festival, Lock City, and KOD. In addition to competing, she taught Locking classes in Montreal, and choreographed and performed in Locking performances in jams and on stages like 100Lux Festival and Breakin’ Convention.

Melinda seeks to consistently develop and find ways to grow her Locking expression and artistry by training in other dance styles such as Tap Dance and Lindy Hop while at the same time continuing to train with the LockUnity collective.

Tangente thanks the Caisse Desjardins de la Culture and the SAQ, two great heroines who faithfully contribute to the success of Tangente’s activities.

Photo credit: Melika Delz

natsumi sophia bellali

Natsumi Sophia Bellali was born in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, and raised by a Japanese mother, and a Moroccan father. She graduated from The Ailey School in New York, where she
cultivated her love and respect toward modern dance, amongst other styles the city showed her. She has performed with MICHIYAYA Dance and Ping Chong + Company,
and has been an understudy for the Mark Morris Dance Group. Bellali utilizes every platform directed her way as a vessel to share the wonders of her roots; from short works for competitive events, to large entertainment productions, to her own solo work Salam Tata currently in creation. She further shares her practice, and her passion to make people feel empowered in their bodies, by teaching in different settings such as wellness centers, yoga studios, pre-professional schools, and by supporting athletes of other disciplines through dance training. What is it to be a child of immigrants in Montreal? Salam Tata illustrates this unique and complex identity through telephone conversations with an aunt living in Morocco. The work addresses the themes of beauty standards, marriage, religion, and womanhood, through dance and theater.

mona el husseini

Open to professional choreographers from culturally diverse backgrounds, the joint support is offered annually in partnership with the CAM,Conseil des arts de Montréal. This support aims to foster the development of a dance artist living in the territory of Montreal and to support them in a process of research, creation, and production of work. The selected artist will be offered the opportunity to present their work in the MAI spaces as part of the official program during the 23-24 season.

Mona El Husseini is an Egyptian Contemporary Dance artist based in Tiohtià:ke / Montreal. She completed her dance education at the Cairo Contemporary Dance Center in Egypt and studied International Business and Contemporary Dance at Concordia University. She teaches barre, Pilates, and contemporary dance in Montreal and Cairo. Mona is currently working on Monday or Tuesday: a solo search, and a mother-daughter duet titled Creatrix. In her creative process, Mona goes beyond the dance and traces the thread that weaves the different art forms she practices including Martial Arts, painting, and writing. In un-layering questions of personal identity and heritage, Mona is interested in how stories are transmitted, shared, and told through the body across generations. She finds the dance in the place where the inner and outer meet, the traditional and the contemporary converse, and in the encounter between the intimate and the collective. 

Creatrix started as an invitation to co-create a dance duet with her mother, Hala; a doctor, science teacher, and a mother of three who is not trained in dance. In this process, they dance through their genealogy in an attempt to get to know themselves and each other by meeting those who preceded them. Using tokens, photos, and letters passed down through generations, they reflect on their past; where they come from, and where they now find themselves. Mona and her mother visit home in their fluid memories and vivid childhoods. Mona tries to touch all that is fleeting and step on the intangible rhythms that animate their heritage. They bring their opposing worlds to one another and search for the common denominator in art and science, motherhood and girlhood, past and present. Her mother always wanted to write her memoirs, in return, this dance may count as a prelude to achieve this goal. 

nicole jacobs

Member of Curve Lake First Nation and Tiohtià:ke/Montréal based dance artist, Nicole Jacobs trained in ballet, jazz, tap, acrobatics, and musical theater prior to graduating from Concordia University with a BFA in contemporary dance, and a minor in psychology. Nicole is an experienced contact improvisation dancer and facilitator, having studied the dance form intensely through traveling, teaching, and assisting in the organization of contact improvisation festivals in India, Thailand, Portugal, and Germany. Nicole has participated in numerous projects both as a performer and facilitator throughout Quebec with Theatre Junction, St. Ambroise Montréal Fringe Festival, Take Up Space Dance, Chantiers Jeunesse, and Le Gros Orteil. Her teaching repertoire includes developing workshops that she has facilitated at BIGBANG, Extravadanse studio, Collège Sainte Anne, and private training. She also develops accessible dance classes for neuro-diverse populations that she has shared across Canada and England. Nicole’s current research is focused on the meeting points between contemporary dance, floorwork, acrobatics, and interpretation. She is interested in the merging of disciplines and drawing from her training in theater and circus arts to create work that is experiential and poetic in nature.

Photo credits: Robert-Majewski

marbella carlos + chloé seyrès

Marbella Carlos and Chloe Seyrès, are the queer performing arts collective Kozmic Joy –a collective which focuses on merging interdisciplinary practices, elevating marginal art forms and marginal artists.

Marbella Carlos is an interdisciplinary artist who was born in Manila, Philippines. In her practice, she uses burlesque to explore her experience as a racialized Canadian. Her work has led to multiple awards and performances including Bagel Burlesque Festival, Fierté Montreal 2019, Teaser Festival in New Orleans. She was the winner of the Best Debut category at the top burlesque competition in the world, the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas.

Chloé Seyrès is a French queer roller dancer. A former high-level athlete, 4-time world champion, and ex-member of 2 national teams, she is now a movement artist and coach. She has performed in a variety of cabarets, corporate events and festivals, on-screen doing motion capture for the Rollerchampion video game, as a support dancer for TVA’s Les Chanteurs Masqués, and in music videos for The Sloe Gin Fizz, Raphaël Dénommé and Mike Clay. Most impressively, she has been contracted to showcase her skills in performances with Cirque Éloize, Montréal Complètement Cirque, and Fierté Montréal 2022.

sophia wright

Sophia Wright (she/her) is a dancer, choreographer, and creator based in Tio’tia:ke / Montreal and currently works in a collective with dance and theatre artist, Alida Esmail. Sophia’s artistic practice is fuelled by the desire to bring diverse practices and communities together. Originally hailing from Calgary, Sophia obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Contemporary Dance from Concordia University and continued her studies in Cultural Mediation at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris, France. In Paris, Sophia became an active member of the collective La Main, a multi-disciplinary collective of artisans, artists, and technicians. It was also in Paris that she first engaged with the Deaf community through the arts, an intercultural and multilingual collaboration that she continues to this day. Parallel to her dance career, Sophia is developing her skills in metalwork with the goal of bringing elements of sculpture and set design into future projects.

Photo credit: Alexandre Quillet