agilo arts, General Management

Jessa Agilo-Copeland, founding producer of agilo arts, is an independent producer, manager and agent currently affiliated with adelheid dance projects, blackandblue dance projects, Dreamwalker Dance Company, hum dansoundart and Kaeja d'Dance. Recipient of the Humberto Santos Award in Business and Administration, Jessa studued Music Composition & Electroacoustics (Queen's University and University of British Columbia), Fundraising Management (British Columbia Institute of Technology) and Arts & Culture Administration (John Molson School of Business). Jessa is the founder of the Ontario Dance Managers and Producers Group and is currently President of Dance for All and a member of the Toronto Arts Council Dance Committee. Her past commitments include the multi-faceted role of Arts Manager at the Dance Umbrella of Ontario.

Catherine Thompson, Composer

Catherine Thompson is a Canadian composer, musician, visual artist and instrument maker. She has composed for numerous notable Canadian choreographers including Kate Alton, Louise Bédard, Susanna Hood, Sasha Ivanochko, Susan Lee, Elena Mamais, Naoko Murakoshi, Julia Sasso, Heidi Strauss, Darryl Tracy and Eryn Dace Trudell.

Catherine is a vocalist, plays guitar and other fretted instruments, viola, percussion, various flutes (a long history within Irish flute and piping traditions) and several self-created instruments. These instruments are a major focus for Catherine in her current project – The Skuld Project – an exploration of and search for a deep and sure connection with the natural world through the motivations and perceptions of the mythical transformation character/being Skuld. Of mythic imagining and re-vision-ing, The Skuld Project is about the search and struggle to find the state where all life spoke as one, when all were as one. To resist the destruction of the wild. www.fiain.ca

Geoff Bouckley, Lighting Designer

Geoff Bouckley is a multi-faceted theatrical designer and manager who has participated in a diverse range of productions spanning the genres of visual art, theatre, music and dance across Canada. His artistry and craft have been showcased in over 100 productions to date. His designing has taken him overseas to Europe, South to the United States of America, and coast to coast in Canada with extensive tours of Eastern Quebec and Ontario. Currently he is studying architectural lighting design at Ryerson University. Mr. Bouckley is a graduate of and has taught at York University's Theatre Program.

Susie Burpee, Rehearsal Director for Heaven

Susie Burpee creates and performs works that showcase "fully human characters struggling for connection" (Toronto Star). The recipient of Dora Mavor Moore Awards and The K.M. Hunter Artist Award, she has carved a unique performance career in her own works and as a dancer for Dancemakers, Le Groupe Dance Lab, Ruth Cansfield Dance, Lesandra Dodson, Sasha Ivanochko, and Tedd Robinson. Alongside her performance work, Susie Burpee teaches contemporary dance classes for the CCDT company, for Dancemakers, and for professional training programs across Canada. susieburpee.com

Louis Laberge-Côté, Dancer

Louis Laberge-Côté is a Toronto-based dancer, choreographer and teacher. He joined Toronto Dance Theatre in 1999, and he danced with the company for 8 seasons, under artistic direction of Christopher House. "One of Toronto Dance Theatre most admired company members" (The Globe and Mail), "the hardest working man in dance" (EYE Weekly) also enjoyed an exceptionally active career as a freelance artist, working with some of Canada's most renowned choreographers including Peggy Baker, Serge Bennathan, Peter Chin, and Danny Grossman. In 2009, he joined the Kevin O'Day - Ballett Nationaltheater Mannheim (Germany) as a soloist dancer and contemporary dance teacher. His work has garnered him 3 Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations for Outstanding Performance and NOW Magazine named him "Toronto's Dance Most Valuable Player" in 2006. An award-winning choreographer, his works have been described as a "wonderfully sophisticated jewel" (Die Rheinpfalz) and a "triumph... with tremendous depth and subtext" (Classical 96.3FM).

Brodie Stevenson, Dancer

Brodie Stevenson was born in the small village of Oweekeno on British Columbia’s central coast. After studying theatre for four years in Victoria and Vancouver he discovered dance through the practice of Contact Improvisation. In 2004 Stevenson enrolled in The School of Toronto Dance Theatre and graduated in 2007.
Stevenson has recently enjoyed working with choreographers Julia Aplin, Piotr Biernat, Sylvie Bouchard, David Earle and Darryl Hoskins. He keeps busy by creating and performing with the dance collective, Octamerous, on an ongoing basis. Stevenson is also a core member of the summer festival, Dusk Dances, for which he is co-creating an original piece to be premiered at Withrow Park in August 2009. Stevenson is currently dancing with Toronto Dance Theatre and is looking forward to returning to the company for their upcoming 2009/10 season.

Tedd Robinson, Artistic Consultant

Tedd Robinson, born in Ottawa, Canada, graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from York University (Toronto, Canada), and studied at The School of The Toronto Dance Theatre and with eminent British visual theatre artist Lindsay Kemp. Robinson first rose to prominence as Artistic Director of Contemporary Dancers in Winnipeg, Canada (1984 to 1990), where he created highly theatrical ensemble works. Having returned to Ottawa in 1990 to pursue a solo career, he is now firmly established as a choreographer, educator and solo artist whose critically acclaimed, award-winning and utterly unique works have won him a multitude of commissions and an international schedule of touring and teaching. His critically acclaimed work Rokudo: six destinies in three steps received the 1998 Chalmers National Dance Award. His more recent works involve collaborations with Ottawa B-Boy Ru Padolsky and his qwod skwod (2001-02), Margie Gillis (2003-04) and Louise Lecavalier (2003-06). Robinson is Artistic Director of 10 Gates Dancing Inc., a non-profit company formed in 1998 to promote the development and performance of contemporary dance creations. His work is influenced by his six years of study as a monk in the Hakukaze soto zen monastery, Ottawa.
Tedd Robinson is a National Arts Centre Associate Dance Artist.
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