Having enjoyed considerable success in Toronto during the 80’s, Driedger moved back to the Peterborough area in the 90’s, which began a steady association with cultural activities in the area. In addition to maintaining half a dozen or so musical collectives at any given time, Driedger is continuously involved in bringing people together over music, from seniors to children. Possibly most notable is the Zippity Doo Dah Community Soul Chorus, which has enjoyed a ten year run, now in hiatus only due to Covid 19. 

Driedger has been involved in local dance productions from the beginning. Projects have included ones with Bill Coleman, Bill James, Old Men Dancing, Anne Ryan, and most frequently, with Kate Story, more recently including Ryan Kerr. A versatile instrumentalist and singer, Driedger has proved himself adaptable to almost any performative situation, and is looking forward to discovering what is next over the horizon, in these profoundly altered times.

Ryan Kerr is the owner/artistic director of a small black box theatre The Theatre on King (TTOK) in Peterborough. In the eight years TTOK has been open, it has become Peterborough’s hub for new and risk-taking performance creation and presentation, and a home for arts presentations of all kinds. TTOK supports the creation and presentation of work by regional independent artists, and provides production facilities and services dedicated to regional art production. Ryan has overseen over 500 productions and events, and has trained five new technical personnel in the process. With the opening of TTOK Ryan began an annual Playwright’s Festival, bringing over a half a dozen brand new scripts to production and presentation. He also began an annual dance festival, “small dance for a small space,” which has seen over forty new pieces of choreography created and presented. Ryan is a co-founder of Peterborough Dance Works and has been technical director of Public Energy for over a decade. He is the alumni representative on the board of Theatre Trent, and is a member of the newly-formed Peterborough Performing Arts Recovery Alliance, formed in response to the Covid crisis. 

Inspired by the idea that dance begins when words fail, Ryan founded Fleshy Thud in 2008, a performance production company bringing a number of independent artists together over several projects, including multidisciplinary festivals A Certain Place: the Bernie Martin Festival and the biennial Precarious: Peterborough ArtsWORK Festival. Ryan has created nearly twenty original dance works over the years in both theatrical and site-specific settings, working with both trained dancers and non-dance artists and community members. In addition he has worked as a dancer with Bill James, Anne Ryan, Kate Story, and many other choreographers, and has taken may workshops over the years, notably with Denise Fujiwara (Butoh) and Kaeja Dance (elevations). His most recent dance works include Dazzle Ships (2016) and Big Science (2019).

Ryan was introduced to theatre in high school where he went on to win awards in the Sears Drama Festival. Moving to Peterborough in 1992, he won the Union Theatre’s First Playwright Competition and was introduced to dance/movement at the age of 24. He has created or co-created many dance works, many of which have been performed at Public Energy’s Emergency Festival and Toronto’s Ffida. He has also been commissioned as a playwright by local theatre companies including 4th Line Theatre and Arbor.

Kate Story is a writer, performer, director, and choreographer. She is a recipient of the Ontario Arts Foundation’s K.M. Hunter Artist Award in theatre, and as part of Peterborough’s centennial celebrations she was named one of the region’s 100 most important performing artists. Kate is a core artist at The Theatre on King, Peterborough’s hub for new and risk-taking performance. Artistic director of three month-long multi-arts festivals themed on precarity in Peterborough, Kate works with a wide array of arts and non-arts community partners to deliver the bi-yearly Precarious Festival, which includes workshops, learning and mentorship opportunities for youth, panel discussions, and original performance, music, visual art, and media works. She has been the director for Public Energy’s Alternating Currents program for the past 4 years, facilitating creative processes for wildly diverse artistic projects. She was also one of the participants in the innovative Navigating Home: NL Dance Project, bringing together Newfoundland dance artists for an innovative 3-year process with choreographers Christopher House and Anne Troake. Along with Ryan Kerr and Victoria Mohr-Blakeney, Kate co-founded Peterborough DanceWorks with the mission to increase the profile and quality of local contemporary dance. Since forming in 2016 PDW has originated 7 original dance works involving 30 dance artists, presented as part of Artsweek Peterborough, Precarious Arts Work Festival, Emergency Festival, and Small Dances for a Small Space Festival. In partnership with Public Energy, PDW is currently running a series of workshops for local dance artists featuring Karen Kaeja, Propellor Dance, Tedd Robinson, and Denise Fujiwara. 

Kate is vice-chair of Peterborough’s arts council the Electric City Culture Council, and chairs the advisory committee and Board of The Theatre on King. She also sits on the Theatre Trent Executive, and is a member of the newly-formed Peterborough Performing Arts Recovery Alliance, formed in response to the Covid crisis.

Kate has co-created and/or worked with diverse theatre and dance artists, including The Theatre on King, 4th Line, DNA Theatre, Caravan Stage Company, R. Murray Schafer, Bill James, Chartier Danse, The Nervous System, Ker Wells, and many others. Her own works cross boundaries between theatre, performance art, and dance, and have been featured in festivals and mainstage performances in Peterborough, Toronto, and St. John’s. 

Kate’s first novel Blasted received the Sunburst Award’s honourable mention, and her third novel This Insubstantial Pageant was tipped by the Toronto Star as a top SF pick: “Exotic, funny and very sexy . . .” 2018-19 saw the publication of her first young adult fantasy, the Antilia duology. Her short fiction has been published in World Fantasy Award and Aurora Award- winning collections, won honourable mention for the Sunburst Award, and has been shortlisted for the CBC Literary Awards.

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Bill created Hymn To The Universe performed with the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra, Inverted Mountains with John Oswald and Emile Morin in Banff National Park and OutSideIn, a 3D film by Anne Troake with Carol Prieur, which was screened at the 2015 Venice Biennale. Bill’s collaboration with Gordon Monahan – Dollhouse – has been presented in Toronto, Hong Kong, Poland, Edinburgh, and across Canada. Currently Bill is collaborating with writer Lee Maracle and touring an interactive work entitled FELT.

Bill received the 2018 Walter Carsen Award for Lifetime Achievement in dance. Bill has performed in Peterborough more than in any other City. Bill and Curtis have collaborated several times including Glory Days, a full length dance production presented at Market Hall and Winchester street Theatre in Toronto, Duets presented by Toronto Dance Theatre, People for Education Fundraiser CBC Glen Gould Studio, Toronto and several times for Public Energy fundraisers and other gatherings. Most recently Bill tap dance with Curtis’s Cajun Band.

Curtis Driedger is a prolific composer, multi-instrumentalist and gardener. He has collaborated with numerous artists in Peterborough for over 30 years, creating original soundscapes and songs for dozens – too numerous to count – dance, theatre and interdisciplinary projects. All this in addition to leading community-based mandolin and choral ensembles.

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Elchuk currently manages the Peterborough Academy of Circus Arts(PACA), a non-profit  organization dedicated to teaching and creating circus arts locally. She has been part of PACA since it was  founded in 2014 instructing youth and adults, performing, and producing shows. Holding degrees in both Fine  Arts and Education, Elchuk is also a graduate of Circus Instructor training at the National Circus School. She  performs aerial arts, fire dancing and stilt walking with Trellis Arts and Entertainment and Uncommon  Entertainment.  

Jeremy Pastic

Jeremy Pastic was born in this lovely town of Peterborough, and  continues to work, play and perform here. He developed a passion for movement  from a young age – probably from watching Power Rangers – which led him into  martial arts and gymnastics. Combining these disciplines with a more recent  passion for circus arts, Jeremy has pursued performance more seriously in the last  3 years. You may have seen him display his talents and tricks on stilts and/or with  fire as a soloist recently with Trellis Arts & Entertainment at Belleville Multicultural  and Waterfront Festival (2019), Picton Firelight Lantern Festival (2019) and in their  virtual Canada Day Programming (2020), or in productions with Peterborough  Academy of Circus in Circus Screamland (2019) and Cirquelesque (2018/2019). He  last performed fire with a fire trio at Picton’s IceBox Festival and Havelock Fire &  Ice Festival (2020). He hopes to expand his professional performance portfolio,  and continue to learn from those around him. While not performing, he makes nice  things out of wood for The Little Building Company. Jeremy loves dogs.

Tegan Moss

Professional circus artist performing primarily in flow arts disciplines with additional works  in aerial arts. Over 10-years performing with hula hoops and poi that are illuminated with fire,  LED lights, or static colours. Over a decade of experience choreographing original works as a  soloist or in duet, and more recently for groups of up to five circus artists.

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Irèni(Irene) Stamou is a Canadian choreographer and dance artist. For over three decades, Irèni has created and performed a body of work consisting of 30 choreographies. A graduate of Concordia University/Montreal: Bachelors of Fine Arts in Contemporary Dance in 1989, Irèni received the award for outstanding achievements in choreography. She directed her dance company Métaspora Danse (beyond dispersion) from 1994 to 2004, performing as a soloist and creating group choreographies presented in Canada, Europe, New York City and Costa Rica. Her first performances started at Tangente Danse Actuelle where she performed the core of her work for 16 years. Irèni also performed at The Canada Dance Festival, Festival de la Nouvelle Danse, the Multicultural Festival in Ottawa, Dancing on the Edge, Vancouver, Guelph Dance Festival, L’Agora de La Danse, Montreal, and the Ottawa Dance Collective. Irèni received Artist in Residence projects in Lille France (Danse a Lille), Le Usine C, Montreal, Estudio Los Almendros, and Nosara Retreat in Costa Rica.

Irèni received between 1994 and 2004 project-based grants from The Canada Council, The Montreal Arts and letters, Multiculturalism Canada, and The Montreal Arts Council. In 2004 at 40 years old, Irèni decided to start a family and moved to join her partner in Southern Ontario. Irèni performed Tenfold (for peace) at The Art Gallery of Windsor in 2005.

Between 2006-2017 Irèni lived mostly in rural Costa Rica, being a mom, practicing sustainability and studying the Healing Arts. Irèni has received numerous certifications in somatics, yoga therapeutics, aerial yoga and bodywork. In her Costa Rica residencies, Irèni researched somatic improvisational movement for sustainability and longevity, a process that helped her with spinal issues and identifying blockages in the body-mind. Following this exploration, Irèni was one of the winners at The Choreographers festival for her choreography Mia Zoi “One Life,” a solo for Daniel Marenko, a cancer survivor. She travelled to Nicaragua, where she performed and taught workshops for homeless children at La Casa de Tres Mundos. Irèni taught somatic seminars at the University of Costa Rica for the Theatre and Dance departments. Recent choreographies include Body stories; Quartiers Danse Festival Montreal 2015. Oresteia, the Spanish adaptation of the ancient Greek play by Aeschylus with The National Theatre of Costa Rica 2017.

Irèni relocated to Peterborough /Nogojiwanong, Ontario, in 2018 with her family. Irèni participated in the 25th anniversary of Public Energy ‘s community project Transdance a choreography by Bill Coleman. She created new choreographic work and collaborated with local dance artists, Anne Ryan and Janette Fronz: SoulStories 2019, and Bonestories with the dancer Dreda Blow 2020, presented at The Theater on King Small Dances for a small space festival / Public Energy production.

Dreda Blow is a dance-theatre artist, choreographer and arts educator now based in Peterborough, ON. Dreda returned to Canada in 2018 after a 15-year international career as a ballet dancer in Dutch National Ballet, (Amsterdam) and Northern Ballet (Leeds, UK) where she performed a wide range of classical, contemporary and narrative work, including roles like Juliet, Jane Eyre, and Daisy in The Great Gatsby. She now teaches dance, drama and creative movement to all ages, choreographs her own solo work and collaborates with local actors and dance artists. She is delighted to be working with Ireni again after performing in her work, Bonestories, at the Theatre in King earlier this year.

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The Triangle Collective comprises of Edgardo Moreno (Hamilton, Ontario), Coman Poon (Toronto, Ontario) and Olga Barrios (Santa Marta, Colombia). As a collective of im/migrants from Chile, Hong Kong and Colombia, we conjoin the movements, aesthetics and sonorities of a seasoned choreographer, a visual/performance artist and a musician/composer. Since 2020, we have embarked on a new research and development for a digital artworks platform entitled Triangle Project: Art & Life in Times of COVID.

[ field ] is an ongoing series of performance and installation collaborations between architect-installationist Brian Smith and performance artist/live art researcher Coman Poon. As a site for numinous research and a death meditation on intergenerational, queer and cross-cultural sites of love, 1+1+0: performances in preparation for death premiered at Dances @ MuCCC, Rochester (2018); closed The Gathering (2018) with Mohawk Elder Danny Beaton (Tkaronto), Su-Feh Lee (Vancouver), Charles Koroneho (Aotearoa), Tedd Robinson (Bristol), Sylvie Tourangeau (Sainte-Agathe-de-Lotbinière) & was featured at Pi*llOry, an LGBTQ+ performance art series in Toronto (2020).

Inspired by a maternal ancestral lineage in Feng Shui | 風水 (Chinese geomancy), his performance and visual art practice currently explores the ‘ritual body’ in relationship to natural and built environments. Aside from current studies of biofield tuning and toning with Eileen McKusick, his collaboration with dancer/choregrapher Naishi Wang offers an interdisciplinary platform for this embodied research and life/art practice.

He writes about live art, dance and performance and profiles diverse artistic practices as a journalistic act of re-centring on the margins.

Naishi Wang

Born in Changchun, China, Naishi Wang began with Chinese Classical dance and Chinese Folk dances training at Jilin College of Art. In 2004, moved to C

anada and joined Toronto Dance Theater for nine years. In 2015 the award-winning performer was inspired to work and develop as an independent choreographer. With a belief that performing arts create an imaginary perspective and push the form of what dance could be in the 21st century. His creative drive started with a solo work entitled Taking Breath, a work about using air as a form of communication. From the beginning to the present, he received much support and many invitations across Canada and had a German Premiere in Hamburg. In 2020, Naishi is one of the residency artists at La Serre Montreal and international creative collaboration with a UK based dance artist Jean Abreu.

Besides his own projects. Naishi is focusing on how to share his personal nature perspective with colleagues throughout different communities. He is a guest choreographer for Nostos dance collective and co-founder of 3+ collective, Returning River Collective and Temporary Collective. http://www.naishi.dance/

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Returning River is a collaborative effort between dance artists Jen Hum, Naishi Wang, Emily Law, and Pam Wong- Shoebottom with support from videographer Henry Mak and outside eye Andrea Nann.  Each dance artist has over 10 years of separate performance experience and together we are creating work that is thoughtful and theatrical, virtuosic yet subtle, and connected to both our ancestry and to the present day. The well-spring of our inspirations are fed by our different experiences of being Chinese Canadian and the idea of a river is the representation of how we work. The work is to move forward, replenish ideas, envelop blockages and find new passages in order to present performances rooted in movement and accentuated by images and sound that create empathy with diverse audiences. The word return is symbolic because a river can never return back to its exact self just as people can go back to a place or position, but never back in time. As a collective, shaping our artistic vision includes returning to our ancestry, returning to significant locations, reflecting on past personal and societal events, re-imagining viewpoints and the usage of space and in general: returning back to recognize the past in order to move into the future.

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Lee Bolton

Recently I returned to Peterborough after more than three decades working as a theatre maker, teacher  and curator. I have worked from sea (Artistic Director, Yukon Educational Theatre) to sea (Artistic  Director, Silk Purse Theatre Vancouver) to sea (Executive Director, Imperial Theatre Saint John) and also  across the sea in Leeds & Glasgow, UK.  

Peyton Le Barr

Peyton has been a professional actor for over a decade. She is a masters graduate from England’s East 15 Acting School and has performed on such highly acclaimed stages as Shakespeare’s Globe. In 2018 Peyton was a guest artist at Humber College teaching the art of site-specific theatre, a style of  performance that she has an extensive background working in both as a performer and a producer. She  is currently a Peterborough resident. 

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