PERSPECTIVE

Kelsey is a contemporary dance performer based in Fredericton, New Brunswick. A graduate of York University’s Bachelor of Fine Arts program, she has developed an extensive performance career spanning the Maritimes and Ontario. Kelsey’s versatility is showcased through collaborations with renowned choreographers and companies, including performances in Stephanie Lake’s Colossus at the Meridian Arts Centre and featured roles in the Saint John Contemporary Dance Festival.

Liam Caines performed with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet for 16 seasons, rising to the rank of Second, where he was known for his powerful and charismatic presence on stage. Since returning home to New Brunswick, Liam has been exploring his potential in the Maritimes as a teacher, choreographer, and coach, while still occasionally taking the stage.Description goes here

Description goes hereMarcia Dysart is a dancer, choreographer, collaborator, and educator based in Saint John, New Brunswick. Her artistic practice spans contemporary dance, film, and interdisciplinary collaboration with musicians, visual artists, filmmakers, and dancers. Recognized as a senior artist in New Brunswick, Marcia has received multiple creation grants from artsnb. Her work has been presented throughout Atlantic Canada at venues and festivals including Imperial Theatre, Contact East, IMPACTfest, the Saint John Contemporary Dance Festival, and Connection Dance Works’ PERSPECTIVE. Her recent work includes We Walk Invisible, a collaboration with filmmaker Michael Mohan that was showcased at the Atlantic Dance Film Festival and featured on the Canadian Dance Assembly’s website. She is currently developing The Self in Shadow, a collaborative project with artist Deanna Musgrave, filmmaker Michael Mohan, and Inuk soprano and artist Deantha Edmunds. As a performer, Marcia is a member of the cast of Still Buffering, a multidisciplinary project produced by Connection Dance Works, and most recently performed in Liam Caines’ Come All Ye and Dance. A versatile choreographer and experienced educator working across ballet, jazz, musical theatre, and contemporary dance, Marcia is also an advocate for accessible arts education. She is a trained teacher with Dancing with Parkinson’s Canada and in Boston Ballet’s Adaptive Dance Approach. She is the owner and Artistic Director of First City School of Dance Inc., where she also serves as Creative Director of its pre-professional and professional Companies.

Sydney Hallett (She/Her) is an actor/choreographer/dancer based in Fredericton, New Brunswick. She has a BA in Fine Arts and English (Drama) from St. Thomas University, has trained in physical theatre with Solo Chicken Productions since 2017, and has recently trained at The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity as part of their New Play Actor Training in 2026. She has worked with various New Brunswick based companies as a dance/theatre-maker such as Theatre New Brunswick, St. Thomas University, Solo Chicken Productions, Rogue Productions, Bard in the Barracks, and Saint John theatre Company. Recent acting credits include Anybodys in West Side Story and Columbia in The Rocky Horror Show (Rogue Productions), Sue in Fruit Machine and a player in Fresh Mix (Solo Chicken Productions). Her dance works have been featured around New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in Connection Dance’s Perspective, The Saint John Contemporary Dance Festival, Kinetic Studio’s Open Studio Series, and Carte Blanche Acadie.

Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Liz Legacy is a Fredericton-based choreographer and performer with a lifelong passion for movement and storytelling. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Contemporary Dance with Distinction from the University of Calgary in 2017, and was selected for Dancers’ Studio West’s Emerging Artist Program in 2019. Since moving to Fredericton in 2022, Liz has expanded her practice to include musical theatre, working as both a performer and choreographer. Her most recent choreographic works include: Branch Out Productions’ Footloose (June 2025) Birch and Teal’s Heather’s (March 2026), and she was Associate Choreographer for Rogue Productions’ The Rocky Horror Show (October 2025). Her most recent work as a performer was the role of principal dancer in Rogue Productions’ Guys & Dolls (May 2026). Liz is excited to continue collaborating with local artists to bring dynamic theatre and dance works to the stage.

Jan Martin is a genre-defiant Mi’kmaw sorcerer whose songs are spells cast to protect the earth and its people. They make experimental music for the post-apocalyptic generation that will captivate and enthrall your spirit, empowering it to face the realities of life and build a better future.

Lily Matheson-Wood is an emerging dance/movement artist and choreographer based in Mi’kma’ki. With a background in highland dancing, Lily grew up competing and performing across Canadian provinces. She also travelled to Scotland and more recently, to Germany and Belgium for performance opportunities. Over time, her interest expanded into ballet and contemporary, seeking joy in creative processes and exploratory movement. She currently trains in Halifax with The Dance Institute and Mocean Dance while attending Dalhousie University as a double major student in Sociology and Psychology. She continues to expand her education and has recently taken classes at Henny Jurriens Studio (Amsterdam) and Open Studio with the Nederlands Dance Theatre. Additionally, she was grateful to attend intensives at Orsolina Art Institute (Italy) and SHARE (France). In the future, she is eager to explore dance as an accessible healing modality and combine it with her academic psychological and sociological research.

Photo: Memo Calderon

Stéfanie began her dance training in 1982 at The Cumbrae School of Dance in Ottawa and was later accepted into the intensive contemporary dance program at École secondaire publique De La Salle. There, she immersed herself in rigorous training, mastering modern dance techniques, dance history, and choreography development.

Stéfanie has taught movement and modern dance classes across both Ottawa and Saint John. As a choreographer and performer, she has showcased original works in Ottawa, Montreal, and Saint John.

Complementing her artistic path, Stéfanie holds degrees in Early Childhood Education and Specialized Education from La Cité collégiale in Ottawa, as well as a business degree from the University of New Brunswick (UNB). She proudly manages an Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) funded Language Assessment Centre for Newcomers, overseeing services across all Atlantic provinces. Helping Newcomers thrive in their adopted Maritime home is a cause close to her heart. She also serves as a dedicated board member for the Saint John Newcomers Centre, which provides vital resources and networking opportunities for the greater Saint John community.

Believing that dance is a lifelong passion, Stéfanie continuously learns, evolves, and shares her craft. She currently facilitates weekly "Meditation in Movement" sessions, offering a safe, free-dance space for women that promotes community, self-care and nervous system regulation.

Her piece Incomplet is part of a series of works created over a decade ago. Alongside her other creations—Pour maman, Qui bouge qui, Bad Girl and three works in progress—she intends to present a full-length showcase in the fall of 2027. Stay tuned!

Andrew Reed Miller is a bass player, composer and improviser living in Saint John Canada. Andrew is principal bass of Symphony New Brunswick and is artistic director of Resonance New Music Inc., which has organized new and experimental music in and around NB since 1998.

Originally from New York, Andrew studied in Ottawa and Toronto and toured with The Canadian Opera Company, the National Arts Centre Orchestra and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

Andrew has performed at many venues, including Open Ears Festival (Kitchener), New Music Calgary, Sound Symposium (Newfoundland), the Scotia Festival of Music, Ensemble Kore (Montreal) The Music Gallery (Toronto), Western Front (Vancouver),  and Tonic (New  York). 

Miller has written music for orchestra, dance, chamber music, film, television, and theatre. 

“Miller is a superb player, a master and a creative inventor......” 

-Stephen Pedersen The Chronicle Herald (Halifax) Jan 10, 2011

Originally from Saint John, Sarah has been working as a professional independent dance artist and teacher since graduating from Toronto Metropolitan University in 2001. She is a founding member and current Artistic Director of Connection Dance Works.

Her career has included collaborations with musicians, dancers, filmmakers, play writes, designers and visual artists. She has received grants for Professional Development, Residencies and Creation projects through the Canada Council for the Arts and artsnb.

Sarah is an Associate Teacher with Cecchetti Canada and certified in the American Ballet Theatre National Training Curriculum Levels Pre-Primary through Level 5. She is the Director of the Intermediate and Senior Ballet School at First City School of Dance. Sarah’s teaching philosophy centers on creative movement, age-appropriate anatomical alignment, and healthy self-image.

Sarah continues to learn and develop work through her practice of Authentic Movement, a way of discovering movement inherent in the body instead of inventing it.

I’m interested in intuition itself and how it can unfold. For me, it is a process of witnessing and waiting for something to happen. I see it as sitting in the middle of the creative experience, paying attention.

Photo: Michael Mohan

Laura began her career in puppetry with Bread and Puppet Theater in 2016 and has since created, produced, performed and toured puppet spectacles with Bread and Puppet Theater, North Barn Theatre and It’s Gonna be Great Theatre. Her puppets, props and set designs have been featured by Villains Theatre, Gale Force Theatre, Highland Arts Theatre, Mulgrave Road Theatre, Théâtre Gauche, Halifax Theatre for Young People, the River Clyde Pageant and Festival Antigonish Summer Theatre. She currently lives and makes art in Mi’kma’ki.

Holly Timpener (they/them) is a queer, non-binary performance artist working with themes of resistance and transformation. Timpener’s works investigate issues related to gender, intimacy, trauma, and the body, while “The Personal Is Political” is embodied in a modern sociopolitical context. They have presented work for Month of Performance Art Berlin, The Art Gallery of Ontario, SummerWorks, The Bronx Museum, Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, La Centrale, Venice International Performance Art Week, among others. Timpener is honoured to have worked several times with La Pocha Nosta at Montreal Arts Interculturels, the Taos Paseo Festival, and Encuentro in Mexico City. Most recently, they performed for the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and have been the recipient of two Canadian Council Grants.

Photo: Kim Wichera

Winluck can't imagine how his life would have turned out without access to nature.It was on his first hike ever to a mountaintop where he penned his first poem that eventually set him on the path to performance art. Nature allowed him to believe he was capable of creativity and for that, he's eternally grateful. May everyone's own story with nature inspire them to do what they can to preserve this shared home of ours.

There is a vulnerability and rawness to interpretive dance and Kelli Wray has shared this art of storytelling in street performances and on stage. She has collaborated with artists of all genres and was the facilitator of Meditation in Movement for over 10yrs offering freedom of barefoot dancing and body awareness to other women. Her work is greatly influenced by nature, industrial and social impacts, and finding the heart of human experience.

Photo: Kelli Wray