Creative & Technical Residency Program
2023-2024 Artist announcments coming soon!
2018-2019 Artists in Residence:
Roshanak Jaberi
Roshanak is an Iranian-Canadian artist and activist based in Toronto. She creates inter-disciplinary dance works that are thought provoking, emotionally driven and politically charged. The stories and lived experiences of racialized women motivate her artistic inquiry, as do her frequent travels and unique collaborations with artists, scholars and activists. She has spent the last two decades cultivating her practice which now focuses on the intersection of art and social justice. Roshanak is interested in re-envisioning traditional dance aesthetics, integrating multiple art forms and experimenting with different avenues to creation. Her work is grounded in a research informed artistic practice that reflects her commitment to ethically and authentically share the stories, experiences and cultures she draws inspiration from. Roshanak’s work has been supported by all three arts councils, and has been presented in Canada, US, and Europe.
Brandy Leary
Brandy creates contemporary performances through the body: active as a dancer, choreographer, aerialist, writer, arts advocate, community cultivator, space maker, Artistic Director, educator and curator. Her performance works have been produced and performed in Canada, Europe, India, South Africa and the USA in theatres, urban environments, festivals, museums, art galleries and isolated landscapes.
She has lived between Canada and India for the past 17 years training, collaborating and creating (both explicitly and implicitly) in the traditional Indian performing languages of Seraikella and Mayurbhanj Chhau (dance), Kalarippayattu (martial art) and Rope Mallakhamb (aerial rope). In Canada she works with western approaches to aerial rope, the bridge discipline of Axis Syllabus, post contemporary dance/circus practices and psychic/shamanistic explorations to create performances.
She founded Anandam Dancetheatre as an umbrella structure for her performance projects (www.anandam.ca) and is its Artistic Director. She is a founder and Co-Director of Collective Space (an alternative performance and rehearsal venue in Toronto’s west end), Founder and Co-Artistic Director of CCAFT (Contemporary Circus Arts Festival of Toronto), developer of Anandam’s Audience In Residence Program and curator/co-producer of the Body Brake dance series at Theatre Passe Muraille. She is a driving force in the evolution of contemporary circus practice in Toronto as a choreographer, performer, curator and festival director working from values of experimentation, discourse development, curiosity and collaboration.
2017-2018 Artist in Residence:
Brian Solomon
Brian Solomon is of Anishinaabe and Irish descent, born and raised in the Northern Ontario community Shebahonaning-Killarney. Solomon is passionate about helping people relearn about their forgotten bodies, and take back the space those bodies occupy. Solomon’s residency was supported by Trent University and the Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies.
Nogojiwanong Rite of Spring is a site-specific dance performance created by Brian Solomon and members of the community during his residency. The performance wass a re-envisioning of the 1913 early modern ballet, Rite of Spring, via a contemporary Anishinaabeg lens, featuring Igor Stravinsky’s seminal score reimagined by Melody McKiver. It was performed by community members and professional dance artists, taught via an open rehearsal/workshop process over the duration of Brian Solomon’s six-week artistic residency with Public Energy. It took place on a downtown Peterborough parking lot that is an Anishinaabe burial site.
During Brian Solomon’s six-week residency at Public Energy, he taught a series of workshops with the Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies. He also lead an additional six movement workshops for community organizations in Peterborough, including: Nogojiwanong Friendship Centre, Yes Shelter For Youth And Families, LOFT Downtown Youth Space, and the New Canadians Centre in partnership with Voice of A Nation.
