Archives des performing arts — MAI | Montréal, arts interculturels

eric leong

Eric Leong (they/he) is a queer artist of Chinese-Bruneian descent who performs as Komodo. Their artistic journey began with over a decade of classical piano training through the Royal Conservatory of Music, later evolving into an autodidact dance practice spanning salsa, voguing, whacking, and burlesque. As the founder of Paifang, a queer cultural event series in Montreal’s Chinatown, their artistic practice is deeply rooted in community, exploring themes of intergenerational connection, queerness, and diasporic identity.

Queer Diasporic Movement: Blending Whacking & Chinese Folk Dance to Taiwanese Campus Folk Songs is a dance project that reimagines Taiwanese Campus Folk Songs (校園民歌) through the lenses of memory, queerness, and intergenerational connection. Bringing together Chinese-speaking seniors and queer diasporic youth, the work fuses Chinese Folk Dance with Whacking—a queer dance style born in 1970s Los Angeles—to create a vibrant dialogue between tradition and self-expression.
Originally written by Taiwanese university students during the martial law era, Campus Folk Songs blended poetic lyricism and folk-inspired melodies. They became deeply rooted in the Mandarin-speaking diaspora, carrying stories of love, longing, and migration across generations. For many Chinese Canadians, these songs embody a bridge to homeland and family memory.
This project aims to explore these nostalgic melodies via embodied storytelling through the intersection of the elegance and symbolism of Chinese Folk Dance and the expressive flair of Whacking. The envisioned result is a choreographic exploration of belonging, identity, and the possibility of new cultural futures—honouring ancestral aesthetics while amplifying queer diasporic voices that resonate across generations.

stella lemaine

Stella Lemaine is a Montreal-based interdisciplinary artist of Haitian descent whose practice lies at the intersection of performance, dance, and documentary film. Her work explores the body as a site of memory, resistance, and transformation. By weaving together archives, movement, and storytelling, she seeks to make visible the invisible traces of colonialism and to open spaces for collective healing.
Graduated in acting from UQAM’s Theatre Department, Stella first presented her debut documentary at the Montreal Black Film Festival. Documentary filmmaking became a medium through which she refined her gaze on intimate and political narratives. Her practice later expanded to the stage, performing in various theatre productions such as L’Ombre, directed by Marie Brassard and presented at Canada’s National Arts Centre, and to dance, through her training in Haitian folkloric dance at the Nyata Nyata Center.

Her project Corps Noirs, initiated in 2023, marks a turning point in her artistic journey: a documentary performance rooted in research on Black bodies, their invisible wounds, and their resilience. Inspired by somatic practices and decolonial thought, the work explores the possibility of rewriting memory through movement and embodied presence.

As an Afrofeminist and socially engaged artist, Stella envisions creation as an act of resistance and repair. Her work is nourished by a deep quest for humanity, a poetic relationship with reality, and a constant desire to build bridges between the personal and the political.

kalun leung

Kalun Leung is a Hong Kong–born, Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montreal-based performer-composer and trombonist whose transdisciplinary practice navigates the intersections of sound, movement, architecture, and cultural identity. His work prominently features the mubone—an augmented instrument he developed with creative technologist Travis West—as a tool for exploring embodied sonic performance through space and gesture. During his Alliance residency, Leung will develop Love Letters to a Third Culture Kid, an interdisciplinary solo audiovisual performance exploring his Hong Kong-Canadian immigrant identity through personal archives, movement, and spatially processed sound. The third work in a trilogy of autobiographical performances, Love Letters continues Leung’s research-creation practice that weaves together memory, diaspora, and intergenerational narratives.

Leung holds a Master of Music from McGill University and a Professional Studies Diploma from The New School in New York. He has collaborated with artists including Meredith Monk, Anthony Braxton, George Lewis, Sunny Jain, and the Experiential Orchestra (Grammy Award, 2021). His interdisciplinary work spans sound and movement duo ék with Émilie Fortin, live foley and mime performance, and sourdough sound installations with Felix Del Tredici. He co-leads the mobile experimental marching band Ambient Parade, performs in the improvising trio Williwaw, and has worked with the Martha Graham Dance Company, Orchestra of the Americas, and Ratchet Orchestra.

His work has been presented at festivals and venues including the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV), Carnegie Hall, Guelph Jazz Festival, Cologne Jazzweek, UNHEARD Music Festival (Hong Kong), and NYC Winter Jazzfest. He was awarded the Kranichstein Music Prize at the Darmstadt Summer Course in 2025 and has received support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Conseil des arts de Montréal.

mithra (myth) rabel

Mithra (Myth) Rabel, a passionate performer, choreographer, and teacher of Haitian origin, has been enriching the Tiohtià:ke/Montréal dance scene for over 20 years. Her artistic journey began on the salsa scene, where she perfected her technique and distinguished herself among her peers. Her passion for movement led her to house dance, becoming a leading figure in the street dance community. For over a decade, she has set dance floors alight and passed on her passion through teaching, learning from the biggest names on the international scene to shape her art with grace and innovation.

Her project “Speakeasy” is a profound introspection inspired by house dance, harmoniously fusing dance, music, and poetry. In this work, I question body memory and its role in shaping the future. I invite the audience to plunge with me into the essence of existence and artistic expression, offering a captivating and emotional experience. The first stage of this project, lasting 10 minutes, was presented at Tangente’s Soirées 100lux last March. It was received with great enthusiasm and left the audience wanting more.

nicolas fattouh

Nicolas Fattouh is an emerging theatre artist, visual artist, and animation director who recently relocated from Monsef, Lebanon, to Montreal, Canada. He has participated in over 30 local and international art exhibitions and auctions with his paintings, sculptures, and installations, including at Bonhams (London) in 2016.

Nicolas’s love for theatre began at the age of 8 when he directed small plays with the help of his sisters and school friends, performing them for parents and neighbors in his backyard. Passionate about storytelling and drawing, he pursued his education in 2D/3D animation at the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts, graduating with a master’s degree (first in his class) in 2017.

In 2021, Nicolas made his theatrical debut with his first professional hybrid play, “Living with a Piece of Furniture”, which aimed to make history by helping his 95-year-old grandmother become the eldest president of the Sorority of the Immaculate Conception in her village. The play was selected in many festivals including the Zoukak Sidewalks Festival (Beirut) in December 2022 and the Zürcher Theater Spektakel (Switzerland) in August 2023.

transpacific express

Meeting in China through a McGill language exchange program, Elsasoa Jousse and Frantz Lin created Transpacific Express (TE) over their mutual interest in Asian and African American solidarity movements of the 60s and Asian-language hip-hop. TE continues the spirit of these historical predecessors in celebrating and building linkages between global BIPOC youth cultures. The collective launched its first music curation event in Fall 2019 with inaugural keynotes from scholars of global Asian media, showcasing its sincere and serious approach to pop culture deeply informed by media and cultural studies.

Transpacific Express are El, Frantz, and Celia Benhocine, lifelong musicians trained in classical, jazz, and r&b. In the five years since its inception, TE has integrated into the Montreal cultural milieu with commissioned works in music curation and performance for MAI, Festival Accès Asie, YATAI MTL, POCHA MTL, Korea And The Youth Culture Festival, and the RIDM International Documentary Festival. These performances have taken the form of DJ sets with MCing and singing, as well as artist talks on music history. In events produced by the collective, TE pushes for sonic-visual integration through simultaneous DJing and VJing with anime-style figurative visuals.

Currently, TE aims to further develop its capacity for embodied visual expression to build a more interdisciplinary media practice, on top of music as its core discipline. By doing so, the collective aims to amplify its unique approach to global pop culture that emphasizes the mutual convergences between Black Atlantic music & dance and East Asian visual culture, seeking to break from silo-ed perceptions of its work as serving any single demographic community.

riley palanca

Riley Palanca (alias: Revan Badingham III) is a playwright, producer, and director. Their play Would Virginia Woolf Contemplate Suicide if She Were Filipino? premiered at the 2022 Montreal Fringe Festival, earning the Playwrights Guild of Canada’s “Most Promising English Text” award. It has since been recognized in other competitions and performed at festivals across Canada. The inaugural recipient of Geordie Theatre’s Mike Payette Mentorship in Artistic Direction, a commissioned playwright for Theatre of the Beat’s Emerging Producers Festival, and the librettist for a song cycle that debuted at New York’s MISE-EN New Music Festival, Badingham is also a spoken word artist, novelist, and cultural worker.

Badingham’s work is unapologetically gay, known for charming characters, sharp wit, fast pacing, and raw explorations of intimacy. Their passion for queer romantic comedies reflects a commitment to visibility, subversion, and the celebration of queer joy.

catch step

Catch Step is the recipient of the CAM+MAI Joint Support 24.25.

Catch Step is a semi-recently formed group (2022) of artists: Anais Chloé Gilles/RISE, Delande “Junior” Dorsaint/Djüngle, and Victoria Mackenzie/VicVersa. They are a group that represent multiple interests and experiences in the street dance scene. Collectively they are well-respected dancers within the Break, Hip-Hop, House, and Ballroom scenes. Following their performance of Never Not Moving, their win at the Montreal Hip Hop Games, and performance at the International Hip Hop Games in Lille, France, Catch Step was invited to perform a full-length show at Theatre La Chapelle for their 2024/2025 season.

For their upcoming full-length work entitled “Catch Step HYA remix feat. Lunice” Catch Step will work with guest choreographer Handy Yacinthe/HYA and compser Lunice. This project supports the interests of various artists from the haitian diaspora as performers and creators. The dance practices of the artists involved are anchored in afro-descent dance forms, particularly from street dance cultures.

manon scialfa + alice jackson

Manon Scialfa is a BIPOC dancer, poet and artist who moved to Montréal in 2021. She started her dance training in Modern, Neoclassical, and Contemporary techniques at the New Orleans Ballet Association (NOBA). Due to her exposure to a broad range of artistic processes and repertoires, her style is defined by fusion and versatility, especially influenced by working with Ron K. Brown/EVIDENCE’s afro-contemporary style and an initiation in afro-cuban dance with Rebecca Bliss. She continued her dance education in Montréal, where she joined the École de danse contemporaine de Montréal cohort of 2021-2024. Her art reflects her multicultural identity, love of sharing stories, and belief in radical happiness amid the social and political climates we live in.

Alice Jackson is a Hispanic-American multidisciplinary artist based in Montreal. She trained in Jazz, Tap, Ballet, Modern and Theatre at the Performing Arts Factory in Maryland. She was exposed from a young age to jazz music, film, and history, which inspired her bold, expressive style and developed her rhythmic sensibility. In 2014, she moved to Montreal and received mentorship in Popping from Bibiman, training in House under Dazl – masters in their crafts – and competing in street dance battles. She continues to develop her versatility, always acknowledging the creators and founders of the art that inspires her, and a commitment to artistic integrity through proper education and guidance.

Fourth Culture is a natural extension of their teamwork, wherein Manon brings creative storytelling vision and Alice pushes physical and technical expression. Bonded though similar dance styles, performance experience, and cultural backgrounds, they share a curiosity and appreciation for dance history and the contributions of black culture to art. Witnessing and supporting each other, their mission is to study Vernacular Jazz, Swing, House, and Dramaturgy in order to develop a creative signature which crosses boundaries of contemporary dance, social dance, and storytelling with deep historical understanding and socio-political consciousness.

Ülfet sevdi

Ülfet Sevdi is the recipient of the Joint Support Fellowship with Playwrights Workshop Montreal (PWM)+MAI for 2023-2024.

Ülfet Sevdi is a writer, theatre director, dramaturge, visual artist, and Theatre of the Oppressed practitioner based in Montreal. She graduated in Fine Arts and Theatre in Türkiye in 2001. She holds a Research and Creation Master in the INDI program at Concordia University. She is now a PhD candidate in the INDI program at Concordia University. Her work deals with oral history and social narratives. Her approach is highly conceptual, and experimental, and is theoretically grounded in the critical social sciences. She was the co-founder and artistic director of nü.kolektif (2008-2014), an Istanbul-based collective of multidisciplinary artists involved in performances dealing with political topics. She continued this line of work with Thought Experiment Productions (2015-) since coming to Montreal, a production company she also co-founded and that she co-directs. Her past work has been funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Montreal Council for the Arts, and the Cole Foundation. It has been presented in Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Ireland, Türkiye, and the USA.

Motherhood, by Ülfet Sevdi

In the moment of my artistic and academic mid-career, less than two years ago, I became a mother. I had just finished a Master’s thesis. It was still during the Covid pandemic. They say having a child changes your life. But you do not understand it until it happens to you. It is a deep, advantageous but also very demanding existential state. How do we continue, what can be done? When will we be able to regain our normal artistic life? Our performer’s body? Our capacity to focus on reading and writing? After almost a year of pregnancy follows the first months, the first year. The body has changed; physical, emotional, and psychological constraints are everywhere. Time flows outside, and life continues. This performance will be based on the technique I developed in my last performance, Numbers Increase As We Count…, a technique I have called “Performative Acting”. It is a technique that involves specific tasks and dramaturgically framed open structures. I have sketched the framework for this technique in my Research and Creation Master Thesis in the INDI program, and am currently developing it further in my current PDH studies in the same program. For this project, I intend to carry this work with different artist-mothers/mother-artists from different performative artistic disciplines.

Credit photo: Mustafa Hacalaki