DUO Arts Education 2007/2008

Please contact Julye at 416.504.6429 x 23 or julye@danceumbrella.net for more information.

CLICK HERE to download the
2007-2008 Dance Education Guide

Other Artists available for workshops/small performances in schools:

Company Blonde

Company Blonde is committed to bringing the language of dance to children. Through interactive workshops, the concepts of movement, rhythm and composition are taught. The structure is such that students are given the building blocks to eventually develop and perform their own creation.

Santee Smith / Kaha:wi Dance Theatre

Santee Smith is a member of the Mohawk Nation, Turtle Clan from Six Nations, Ontario. Santee works as a choreographer, dancer and pottery designer. As an artist, she is committed to sharing traditional and contemporary stories of her indigenous culture. Santee holds a Masters Degree in Dance from York University. She was a guest teacher for Six Nations Community Youth Outreach, Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre, The Iroquoian Indian Museum, NY, York University- Dance Department and Red Roots Theatre, and George Washington University.

Sasha Ivanochko

Sasha Ivanochko is a dancer, teacher and choreographer. A performer with Toronto Dance Theatre for nine seasons, Miss Ivanochko created and performed many major roles in the company’s repertoire and, in her final years with the company, worked as assistant to Artistic Director Christopher House. An intense and intuitive performer, she has charmed audiences and garnered critical acclaim with her explosive physicality and dramatic presence.

In addition to her performing activities, she is on faculty at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and considers teaching there one of the most satisfying aspects of her career. A warm and generous teacher, her highly physical and technically challenging classes reflect her own deep love of dance.

Michelle Silagy

Since graduating from The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, Michelle has been active as an independent choreographer, dancer and teacher. Previous to her studies at the School, she completed a Bachelor of Art Degree in Drama at San Diego State University, California (Honours). Michelle’s on going creative growth is stimulated through studio exploration with members of the Independent Dance Community primarily Sarah Chase.

Michelle began teaching at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre’s Young Dancers’ Program in 1989, and was Program Director from 1994 to 2005. Her experience with children at The School sustains her desire to discover creative origins within artists of all disciplines through collaboration in dance. She has taught dance to children at The Canadian Opera Company, Toronto Arts for Youth and through The National Ballet School’s “Creating Dances in the Schools Program”. She is a recipient of Artist in Education and Residency Grants from the Ontario Arts Council.

Her choreography, considered as “intimate and carefully crafted” (Globe and Mail) has been presented at The Art Gallery of Ontario, The DuMaurier Stage through DanceWorks, Spring Rites, Dusk Dances, fFIDA, fringe festivals throughout the country, and at Series 8:08 which she co-founded in 1993. Michelle is the inaugural recipient of The Toronto Dance Award in 1999 (for Choreography) created by the Toronto Community Foundation. Recent Choreographic and Performance Projects include 14 Remembered (a Memorial) music direction by Ahmed Hassan at Massey Hall and Four Movement Responses to Original Hand Woven Treasures at The Textile Museum of Canada as part of their 25th Anniversary.

Michelle is active meeting a wide spectrum of requests for bringing movement to educational settings. She has designed alternative approaches of bringing a dance experience to people with special needs through Creative Force Cross Over Projects. As a member of the Royal Conservatory of Music’s LTTA program she develops projects that integrate movement and core curriculum as an expression that compliments multiple learning styles. Through the Conservatory, Michelle has developed incentives at The Bloorview MacMillan Center Lab School where children with Cerebral Palsy are integrated into a classroom setting. Her work there is regarded as a model project and has been noted by specialists as being the most inclusive and innovative approach to movement expression that the Lab has been exposed-to to date. Other workshops in education include: The Music Garden Project (June 2000) in collaboration with photographer Lise Beaudry, a dance and photo day trip for children throughout Ontario (at Yo Yo Ma’s Music Garden in Toronto at the Harbourfront) and We Dance at Lakefield Public School, a workshop created for the inclusion of the Ojibwa Community at the school. Her extensive exposure in schools in the Toronto District School Board, Separate School Board, and Peel District fuels her commitment to bring dance to learners of diverse influences.