associate artists
The talented team that composes AP&A.
Associate Artists + Collaborators
Our associate artists are the pillars and the foundations of AP&A. They are agents of creation, thinking, reflection that accompany, negotiate and challenge the vision of AP. From 7-3 years the artists below have dedicated their artistry and humanity to what AP&A is today.
Nos artistes associés sont les piliers et les fondations d'AP&A. Ils sont des agents de création, de pensée, de réflexion qui accompagnent, négocient et défient la vision d'AP. De 7 à 3 ans, les artistes ci-dessous ont consacré leur art et leur humanité à ce qu'est AP&A aujourd'hui.
ERIN O'LOUGHLIN
Originally from Calgary/Treaty 7 Territory, Erin O’Loughlin(She/Her) is a Montreal/ Tio’tià:ke- based dancer, choreographer, teacher, and founding member of LA TRESSE. O’Loughlin holds a BA in Dance and International Relations from the University of Calgary and her training includes the Ailey School, San Francisco Conservatory of Dance and attendance at workshops including ImPulsTanz, Gaga USA&IL, and residencies at the Banff Centre (Creative Gesture with Alan Lucien Øyen, Dance Artist in Residence with AP&A, and Final Tuning with LA TRESSE, Program Director Alejandro Ronceria).
She currently dances with Andrea Peña & Artists, Sylvain Émard Danse, and Sinha Danse. In 2016, she worked for Bollywood choreographer Shiamak Davar in Mumbai, India. Alongside her co-creators Laura Toma and Geneviève Boulet, she has created and performed in numerous works with LA TRESSE since 2014 winning prizes such as the “Prix Coup de Coeur du Public” from FQD, and the “Gibney Company/Springboard Emerge Award.
FRANCOIS RICHARD
Born in New Brunswick, François Richard is now a freelance independent dancer based in Montreal; post an extensive professional career. Trained at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet his career has led him across Canada, to the United States, and Europe, where he danced for several companies including the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Les Grands Ballet Canadiene, Atlantic Ballet Theater of Canada, José Navas / Company Flak, EZ Danza, Sinha Dance, Virtuo Dance and as first dancer at Ballet Ouest Montréal. During his current independent career he works for several choreographers including: Jose Navas, Sylvain Emard, Shawn Hounsell, Andrea Peña, Edgar Zendejas, Victor Quijada, Roger Sinha, Igor Dobrovolsky. François’ practice includes teaching to professionals at Concordia University, DancEast Dance Center, Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, and Dance à la Carte.
JONTAE MCCRORY
Jontae McCrory, originally from Detroit, Michigan, started his training at Western Michigan University at the age of 19. In 2017, McCrory attended the year-long Dancers Course with BalletBoyz in London, England. Throughout his training, he has had the privilege of learningworks by Kyle Abraham, James Gregg, Frank Chaves, and Azure Barton. As a filmmaker and choreographer, McCrory has had works featured in the 2017 American College Dance Association Gala Concert, Festival Chéries-Chéris-Paris Film Festival, Cinema Quebec, and BBC Network London. McCrory started working with contemporary company RUBBERBAND in 2018, while guest performing with Decidedly Jazz Dance Company later in 2020. Currently McCrory has been working with Andrea Pena and Artist, while freelancing in Montreal, QC.
FRÉDÉRIQUE RODIER
Frédérique Rodier is a movement artist whose work is shared between the professions of creator and performer. She carries out interdisciplinary collaborations by joining forces with several research groups bringing together artists from different backgrounds including visual artists, videographers, choreographers, directors, photographers, scenographers and composers. In 2017, she created the FRAM collective with visual artist Andréanne Martel.
Through her personal practice, Frédérique explores the different dimensions of the psyche and the unconscious through the use of improvisation, active imagination and different somatic approaches.
She perceives her personal practice as being her process of individuation, deeply colored by the Alchemical philosophies of transmutation of being and the psychoanalytic theories of Carl Jung.
Frédérique Rodier graduated in interpretation at the Montreal Contemporary Dance School in 2014 and has since accumulated various training and explorations (creative workshops, various training, somatic techniques and several others). She works as a collaborative performer with several creators including the company Andrea Peña & artists by Andrea Peña and with the company Empire Panique by Philippe Boutin.
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NICHOLAS BELLEFLEUR
(fluid pronouns)
Dance artist designing and embodying situations that engages with the chaos of the world and the chaos within. From a ballet training to now multiplying into distinctive sensuous states and aesthetics, Nicholas Bellefleur is infinitely transformed by context. Thanks to recent incarnations of LFDT’s prompt-based neopunk choreographies, the brutally poetic physicality of Virginie Brunelle, Dave St-Pierre’s challenging ideas and practices, and the athletic and conceptual works of Andrea Peña & Artists. Founder of performance lab A SAFE(R) SPACE, co-director of LFDT, associate artist with Cas Public are all postures and relations facilitating the pursuit of Bellefleur’s research. Enchanted by pattern emergence and plural spontaneity, Nicholas finds solace in the study of creative entanglements involving notions of spatial justice, resonance, conflict, responsibility, liberation and care. Nicholas also guides bodies of all types, genders and capacities with choreographic tools and technologies of improvisation inspired by the somatic logics of Wynn Holmes, Gioconda Barbuto, Tilman O’Donnell.
JEAN BENOIT LABREQUE
His initial passion for urban dance, combined with his training in contemporary dance, gives Jean-Benoit Labrecque a versatility of interpretation sought after by many creators. Since graduating from the École de danse contemporaine de Montréal in 2014, he has collaborated on the creation of works and short films with choreographers Danièle Desnoyers, Riley Sims and Andrea Peña. Jean-Benoit has also had the privilege of performing on international stages the choreographic universes of Catherine Gaudet, Daniel Léveillé, Frédérick Gravel, Justine A. Chambers, Alan Lake, Jacques Poulin-Denis, Sébastien Provencher and George Stamos. At the same time, he is developing a solo project that he is maturing in sedimentary layers, starting with the emblematic work DUOS POUR CORPS ET INSTRUMENTS by Danièle Desnoyers. Starting in fall 2023, Jean-Benoit will be a lecturer in the dance department at UQAM, as well as guest choreographer for graduates of the École de danse contemporaine de Montréal. He will be featured in Andrea Peña's REPLICA, to be presented in Montreal in spring 2025.
VÉRONIQUE GIASSON
Véronique Giasson is a graduate of École supérieure de ballet de Montréal. She has worked for nearly fifteen years with renowned cultural organizations, including Cirque du Soleil, Ballet Preljocaj (France), Ezdanza, Sinha Danse, Donlon Dance Company (Germany), Compagnie Marie Chouinard, Les 7 doigts, Compañia Tania Pérez Salas (Mexico), Les Ballets Jazz and Cas Public. Recently, Véronique has been involved in several projects as a performer, but also as a teacher and choreographer. She teaches ballet and contemporary technique to students at the École de danse contemporaine de Montréal and to professional dancers with the organization Danse à la Carte. In 2020, she choreographed a short film entitled Engrenage³ and in 2021, she created two pieces for the Festival Quartiers Danses: the quintet Sculpter le dehors and RESET_Duo which won the jury prize for best choreographic work. In 2022, she danced and co-choreographed the Cirque du Soleil show Vive nos Divas and choreographed four numbers for the show Révolution en tournée. Véronique has been dancing AP&A since 2017.
GABRIELLE KACHAN
Originally from Kjipuktuk (Halifax), Nova Scotia, Gabby has been training and performing in contemporary dance in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal) since 2018. Gabby graduated from École de danse contemporaine de Montréal in 2021, where she had the opportunity to collaborate with choreographers James Viveiros, Darryl Tracy, Charles Brecard and Andrea Peña among others. A versatile and expressive dancer, after graduating Gabrielle was invited to work professionally with both Andrea Peña and Artists and Le Carré des Lombes. Since 2021, she has been performing live in Canada and Europe and appeared in the film adaptation of 6.58: Manifesto with AP&A.
CHARLIE PRINCE
Charlie Prince is a Lebanese dance & performance artist. His interests are rooted in the intersection of the political and the poetic body, and the many profound resonances this may create. His trandisciplinary choreographic work and installations have been presented in several major festivals and theatres– including SPRING Festival(NL), Dansmakers Amsterdam (NL), Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis (FR), Vancouver International Dance Festival (CA), Oktoberdans (NO), and BIPOD (LB). He has collaborated among others with artists such as Benoit Lachambre, Olivia Tapiero and Omar Rajeh. Charlie also holds a Bachelor of Music from McGill University, and continues to nourish his practice through the study of sound and composition. In 2018, he received the Boghossian Foundation Prize for Dance and Performance awarded by Villa Empain in Brussels.
JO LAÏNY TROZZO-MOUNET
After completing her diploma in choreographic studies at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Rennes in 2018, Jo Trozzo-Mounet wished to open herself to new artistic landscapes and so emigrated to Quebec that same year. She began a DEC in Dance-Interpretation at École de Danse de Québec, which she completed in 2022. Today, Jo is an emerging artist who contributes to the development of the contemporary dance scene in Quebec City and Montreal by working with companies such as AP&A, Alan Lake Factori(e) and Tentacle Tribe. Influenced by encounters, exchanges and knowledge sharing, her artistic practice is built on a foundation of crossbreeding and creating a dialogue between genres. Her artistic signature is impregnated with contemporary, urban and classical movements, while leaving the door wide open to all possible fluctuations.
CHI LONG
Chi Long was born in Australia and grew up in Canberra, an overly quiet city where she discovered her passion for dance. At the age of 19, she set off to explore the world, determined to pursue a career in dance, however short. Settling in Montreal, she joined her heartthrob company, O’Vertigo Danse, where she spent the next 11 years performing each of the company’s creations, from La Chambre Blanche in 1991 up until Luna in 2001. In 2002, she joined Compagnie Marie Chouinard (dream come true) where she dove into an antipodal universe, performing the vast company repertoire and participating in the creation of bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS in 2005. In 2006, she glimpsed the meaning of life when her daughter was born. She stepped away from dance to make space for other life revelations, but soon realised she was missing something essential. As fate would have it, she came back to O’Vertigo, for the re-creation of La Chambre Blanche in 2008, 17 years later. She now knows that dance is her lifeline, the medium where she feels closest to her potential. She presently works as a freelance dancer, grateful for the opportunities to explore creative complicity with a range of choreographers such as Ariane Boulet, Caroline Laurin-Beaucage, Martin Messier, George Stamos and Isabelle Van Grimde, to name the most recent. She continues to perform and collaborate closely with Compagnie Virginie Brunelle as well as with Melanie Demers for MAYDAY.
COLLABORATORS
ERIN LINDSAY
Erin Lindsay is a writer/performer and interdisciplinary dramaturg with ten years of training in classical voice who is interested in art rooted in collaboration, interdisciplinarity, healing, hybridity and collective/individual transformation. Inspired by formal innovation and digital storytelling, Erin holds an MFA in Creative Writing (UBC) specializing in hybrid and multi-genre forms and has a background in Theatre, Ethics and Communications. Erin is currently working on a new creation with experimental theatre company, The Other Theatre, and is developing her play, another word for care, with Playwrights' Workshop Montreal which addresses the ethics of technology Canadian healthcare contexts. Her other live performance work, Liz- which looks at the impact of poverty and loneliness among the elderly- is in development with new creation company Odd Stumble Theatre. Erin is the Blog Editor for literary magazine, carte blanche, and is a member of the VR/mixed reality art collective Something Magic. She has worked in artistic planning for Montreal non-profit arts organizations, mostly notably the feminist theatre company Imago Theatre, for 9 years. You can see more of Erin's work at www.crowlake.space or you can follow her Instagram writing account @crowlake.
REBECCA GRAY
Rebecca Gray is a soprano, composer and improviser passionate about performing and creating fresh, complex and inclusive new works. As a soprano, she has performed with Pacific Opera Victoria, Esprit Orchestra, Tapestry Opera, Opera Q, and is a member of FAWN chamber creative. She loves contributing to Canada's queer opera scene as a performer and composer, and has presented interdisciplinary work at the Atlantic Music Festival, the Banff Centre, Westben Centre and Chateau La Napoule in France. She participated in the Canadian League of Composer’s PIVOT mentorship program, and participated in Soundstreams’ Young Composer Workshop in 2021. Together with her sister Rachel, she won the Mécénat Musica Prix 3 Femmes and will compose Raccoon Opera, a fable of the housing crisis, for 2023.
BOBBY LEON
coming soon..
JONATHAN SAUCIER
Canadian multidisciplinary artist, Jonathan Saucier works primarily as a set and costume designer for dance and circus. His artistic approach is centered around creating scenic ecosystems, performative spaces oscillating between reality and fiction, acknowledging the human, its inner conflicts and social behaviors. Since graduating from École Supérieure de Théâtre de l’UQAM in may 2014, Jonathan is privileged to create with many of Montreal's innovative contemporary dance scene figures. His work can be experienced through the shows of Alexandre Morin, Sébastien Provencher and Andrea Peña with whom he collaborates closely since 2022. By exploring the complexities of the identity and the ways it can be shaped by cultural norms and by juxtaposing elements in close proximity in order to
create dynamic and contrasting effects, his designs aim to nurture environments that allow for new ways of thinking and feeling. Through these techniques, he is encouraging the audience to question their assumptions and beliefs by fostering a greater understanding of the relationship between space, culture and identity. Lately his work has been on stage at the Venice Biennale with Bogotà by Andrea Peña & Artists and part of the Montreal FTA festival with Floreus by Sébastien Provencher.
MARC BARTISSOL
HUGO DALPHOND
Hugo Dalphond questions synergy between body, space and light through elaborating and building scenographic devices. It is principally by making viewers and performers coexist within a same space, and by modulating their perception of that space that it creates alternative sensory experiences. This distinction is made in different co-presence qualities, and thus, the gain of our interactions and relationship with others.
Since 2015, he tackles these issues in a PhD. His work is related to space and its potential to become a refuge where it is permitted to experiment with the world under other sensorial modalities.
HELEN SIMARD
Helen Simard is a choreographer, rehearsal director and dance dramaturge. Originally from Kingston, Ontario, she has lived and worked in Tiohtiá:ke/ Montréal since 1996.
Simard collaborates with musicians and dancers to create visceral interdisciplinary shows. Her work uses repetition, complex spatial patterns and techniques of sensory overwhelm to create hypnotic, dreamlike performances that blur the boundaries between conscious and subconscious spaces. Past works such as NO FUN (2014), IDIOT (2017), Dance Side of the Moon (2018), REQUIEM POP (2019), and PAPILLON (2020) are joyfully chaotic and complex in their simplicity, walking a fine line between the real and the imaginary.
Simard holds a BFA (Concordia University, 2000) and MA in Dance (Université du Québec à Montréal, 2014). Her research explores themes relating to loss, memory, nostalgia, and intergenerational exchange. She is currently artist-in-residency in the Department of Contemporary Dance at Concordia University.
DEBBIE DOE
Debbie Doe is a composer and electronic musician. As they study electroacoustics at Concordia University, their practice includes a variety of disciplines such as film music, music for choreography, and live performance. They are developing a compositional approach in which sound in space and its movement plays a central role. They enjoy improvisation with instruments to create new worlds, employing various sampling techniques to create a mesmerizing atmosphere while ensuring that the experimental sounds harmonize with one another using electronic hardware, analog gear, field recordings, and voice.