PAST SEASON: 2022-2023

Jolene Bailie

Choreographer

Jolene Bailie is a choreographer, director and producer of contemporary dance. Her work reflects on humanness, soul and self-discovery to express a deeply human experience that is honest, complex and thorough.

Producing shows annually since 2000, Bailie has created 13 full-length works, 30+ shorter works and toured her work to national and international critical acclaim. Her work has been presented on over 500 occasions and in various venues locally, nationally, internationally and online – including theatres, museums, art galleries, outdoors, festivals, site specific, and for video.

Select credits: Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers (2006 and 2019-present), Today Art Museum (Beijing), Xi’an Art Museum (Xi’an), Joyce SoHo’s Inbound Festival (NYC), Performance Mix Festival (NYC), National Gallery of Canada, National Arts Centre’s Prairie Scene, International Solo Dance-Theatre Festival (Stuttgart), in/future (Toronto), Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s New Music Festival, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Canadian Museum for Human Rights, collaborative projects with Visual Artist, Wanda Koop, dance: made in Canada, Dancing on the Edge, Femfest, Studio 303, Stream of Dance Festival, Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, numerous Canadian tours, 216 fringe festival performances, hundreds of self-produced performances, and online.

Appointed Artistic Director of WCD fall 2019, works performed by WCD since appointment include: retuning, in between here and now, Covid Sonata, Body & Light, Modulations, The Space In Between, Last Schema, Anthem and An Aspect of Alterity. Bailie’s choreography has also been presented for Flight Paths, Calibrations of Flux, Up Close and disDANCING and Reconnect for WCD’s Emerging Artist Initiative and online.

Bailie holds a Masters of Fine Art in Dance through The American Dance Festival/Hollins University, where she focused on choreography, receiving fellowships for three consecutive years and presenting   her thesis performance at The American Dance Festival. Bailie is also the Founding Artistic Director of Gearshifting Performance Works, a company that successfully operated for 19 years, producing full seasons of programming, national and international tours, and premiering over 30 original works.

Bailie’s career began with over a decade of touring solo performance; highlights include performing works by Jose Limon, Anna Sokolow, Marie-Josee Chartier, Joe Laughlin, Denise Clarke, Deborah Dunn, Marc Boivin, Bill Evans and Rachel Browne.

In 2004 her focus began to shift to choreography and then it shifted again in 2009 to focus on creating for an ensemble of dancers. Since 2009, she had mainly created ensemble work.

As an emerging dancer Bailie earned a Teacher’s Certificate with Distinction from The Royal Academy of Dance and a Bachelor of Arts Honors degree and the Gold Medal Award for Academic Excellence from The University of Winnipeg.

Bailie trained at institutions, intensives and with Master Teachers all over North America. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Bailie is also a graduate of The School of Contemporary Dancers.

Photo by Kristen Sawatsky

Hugh Conacher

Lighting

Hugh Conacher is a lighting and multi-media designer, and a photographer. He has collaborated with choreographers, directors, visual artists, and dance and theatre companies throughout Canada and around the world, in venues large and small. His multi-disciplinary process, the foundation of which is over 30 years as a lighting designer, straddles the worlds of lighting design, new media technologies, projection and photography, using whichever media form best serves the vision of the project.

Originally from Toronto, Hugh has a long association with WCD, having worked as Resident Lighting Designer at WCD from 1983-2007, and with WCD Artistic Directors Bill Evans, Tedd Robinson, and Tom Stroud. Hugh was a long time collaborator with WCD founder Rachel Browne, as well as current AD Jolene Bailie, having worked with Bailie on over 450 performances.

Hugh has been a member of the Associated Designers of Canada since 1982 and is a member of l’Association des professionnels des arts de la scène du Québec.

Photo: Leif Norman

Emma Hendrix

Original Sound

Emma is a sound designer, composer and artist focused on creative technology. Through sound, Emma builds visceral and expressive environments that explore the inherent qualities of sounds – particularly field recordings, found sounds, and ‘machine languages’ of everyday things. Emma creates installations, performances and creative experiences as part of Manufacturing Entertainment (manufacturingentertainment.com) with Julie Gendron, and composes for theatre, dance, video, film and new media installations and performances.

This is Emma’s second collaboration with Bailie and WCD, having previously created original sound for in between here and now (2022). Their work can be explored more at emmahendrix.com and at soundcloud.com/emmahendrix

Photo:  Unknown

Megan LaTouche

Costumes

Megan LaTouche is thrilled to be working with WCD this season as it is the first time since the 1980s that she has made costumes for the company. This season Megan also created costumes for WCD’s production of Looking Glass, by Guest Artist Idan Cohen.

In recent years, Megan has been making costumes for Bolero Dance Theatre having learned the art of Spanish dance costume construction from Carmen Cano de Infante. She has also been making costumes for The School of Contemporary Dancers.

Megan LaTouche learned to sew at the young age of 6, and put her sewing skills to good use throughout high school making clothes. She began making costumes for various dance performances in the 1980s. She spent a year in Montreal studying and working for Claire Nadon, who was instrumental in teaching Megan about pattern drafting and operating industrial machines. It was with Claire that she constructed the costumes for the Can-Can, a dance very dear to her heart, and providing her with a lifelong appreciation for ruffles!

Photo: John Gurdebeke

Ridge Romanishen

Stage Manager

Ridge is a recent graduate from the University of Winnipeg’s Theatre and Film Department with Honors in Stage Management. Ridge loves to be involved in all forms of performing arts and is thrilled to add contemporary dance to his repertoire. Over the pandemic he has been lucky to Stage Manage: Shakespeare’s Will (SIR), TRIGGER WARNING: Cassandra (Sick + Twisted Theatre), In Time (TPM/End of the West Collective) and Dance Spectrum (RWB School). He also Apprentice Stage Managed on Calpurnia (RMTC). Some of Ridge’s other Stage Management credits include Manitoba Underground Opera; Growing Op and It’s Fine, We’re Working on It (Winnipeg Fringe); A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Arcadia (University of Winnipeg). He has worked as Apprentice Stage Manager on Kiss of the Spider Woman (Dry Cold Productions), The Golem’s Might Swing and Narrow Bridge (Winnipeg Jewish Theatre).

photo: Nicholas James Sears

Carol-Ann Bohrn

Dancer

Carol-Ann grew up in Brandon, Manitoba, WCD performance credits include: retuning, in between here and now, Body & Light, The Space in Between, Modulations, Last Schema, An Aspect of Alterity, and Anthem (all by Jolene Bailie), Begin Again (by Jera Wolfe) and Looking Glass (by Idan Cohen). Carol-Ann also danced in WCD: Class at Home, WCD’s Guest Artist in Residence project with Ralph Escamillan, remixing choreography by Tedd Robinson, and participated in a creative process with Melanie Demers, all for WCD.

Additional: Four seasons and 47 performances with Gearshifting Performance Works (Bailie, Chartier, Browne), By Grand Central Station (PTE), Sick + Twisted Theatre, Odette Heyn, Ming Hon, White Birch Ballet (Williams, Barbuto, Beamish), television commercials, music videos and film. Carol-Ann participated in Cartae Open School (aceartinc) and Foundation Mentorship Program at MAWA, is a graduate of The School of Contemporary Dancers and trained at Ryerson University and RWB’s Teacher Training Program.

Photo: Jenna Wilder

Reymark Capacete

Dancer

Reymark Capacete performs in retuning after recently making his debut with WCD in in between here and now (also by Bailie).

Versed in many styles of dance, he first developed his dancing through watching Hip-Hop YouTube videos. In high school, he found his love for dance which led him to The School of Contemporary Dancers, from which he is a graduate. Through SCD, Reymark had the opportunity to dance at the Stream of Dance Festival in Regina (in work by Robin Poitras) and in works by many renowned choreographers.

Reymark is grateful and appreciative for all the opportunities he’s had and continues to receive to work with such amazing and different teachers and choreographers. Reymark also dances with NAfro Dance Productions and Chai Folk Ensemble.

Photo: Reymark Capacete

Julious Gambalan

Dancer

Julious Gambalan returns to dance with WCD for a third season with WCD with retuning. Previous performance credits for WCD include: in between here and now and Body & Light (also by Bailie).  Julious also danced in WCD’s Guest Artist in Residence research project with Ralph Escamillan, remixing choreography by Tedd Robinson; in WCD’s Emerging Artist Initiative shows Calibrations of Flux and Up Close and disDANCING; and previously for Verge: Remembering Rachel Browne. Born in Winnipeg, Julious is a 2020 graduate of The School of Contemporary Dancers and has a BA Honours in Dance (2020), and a BSC (2016). Through SCD, Julious had the opportunity to tour to the Stream of Dance Festival in Regina, New Blue Festival in Toronto and internationally to Vienna, Austria. Julious also performs with NAfro Dance Productions.

photo: Mark Dela Cruz

Andrés Felipe Jiménez Mejia

Dancer

Andres made his WCD debut in Bailie’s in between here and now (2022) and recently performed with WCD for Looking Glass by Guest Artist, Idan Cohen (2023). Andres previously danced in WCD’s Emerging Artist Initiative for three seasons, performing the shows Up Close and DisDANCING, Reconnect and Flight Paths and in the works Covid Sonata, Aspects of Alterity, Dancing through Uncertainty, The Space In Between and Proximity (all by Bailie).

Andres comes to Winnipeg from Bogota, Colombia. Moving to Winnipeg to train at The School of Contemporary Dancers, from which he is a recent graduate.  Through SCD, Andres had the opportunity to dance at the Stream of Dance Festival in Regina (in works by Jolene Bailie and Robin Poitras) and in works by many renowned choreographers.  As an independent dancer, Andres performed at Manitoba 150 in choreography by Stephan Azulay.  Andres dances because he believes “…it is the best way to get into people’s souls.”

Photo: Carley Hungerford

Shawn Maclaine

Dancer

Shawn Maclaine was born in Halifax and grew up in Toronto. Performance credits for WCD include: retuning, in between here and now, Last Schema, Covid Sonata, Body & Light, Anthem (all by Bailie), Looking Glass (by Idan Cohen) and COMMENTARY ON/OFF (by Ming Hon). Shawn also worked with WCD as a Rehearsal Director and Assistant Stage Manager for WCD’s Emerging Artist Initiative show, RECONNECT. Previously Shawn danced under the direction of Bailie at Gearshifting Performance Works for 26 performances and in works by Jolene Bailie and Marie-Josee Chartier.

Shawn is a graduate of The School of Contemporary Dancers where he performed in projects with Odette Heyn, Gaile Petursson-Hiley, GPS Dance Collective (in Leon, Mexico) and as an emerging dancer for WCD’s Verge. Shawn started training at the National Ballet School’s professional program, where he trained for 4 years. After additional training at The Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, Professional Division, his focus shifted to contemporary dance.

Photo: Fiona Witherell

Warren McClelland

Dancer

Warren danced with Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers for the productions: GORGE (2015), For the Turnstiles (2016), As Though I Had Wings (2017) and as an emerging dancer in Verge (2014-2016). Warren returned to WCD in September 2019, and performing the works retuning, in between here and now, Last Schema, Modulations, The Space in Between, Anthem and Body & Light (all by Bailie) and Looking Glass by Idan Cohen.  Warren also worked with WCD as a Rehearsal Director and Assistant Stage Manager for WCD’s Emerging Artist Initiative, Flight Paths (2022) and for the Guest Artist in Residence Project with Ralph Escamillan, remixing choreography by Tedd Robinson (2021).

Prior to returning to WCD, Warren danced under the direction of Bailie at Gearshifting Performance Works for 16 performances, in several works, in Winnipeg and on tour. Warren has worked with many choreographers both locally and internationally. Additional credits: Weather Parade Dance Theatre, Alex Elliot and Johanna Riley. Originally from Brandon, Manitoba, Warren is a graduate of the School of Contemporary Dancers.

Photo: Leif Norman

Shayla Rudd

Dancer

Shayla is delighted to be returning to dance with WCD for retuning. Shayla recently performed with WCD for in between here and now (choreography, Jolene Bailie) and previously danced in WCD’s Emerging Artist Initiative for three seasons and in the works Lost, Myriad Beings, Feedback, Bell/Anti-Bell and Dancing through Uncertainty (all by Bailie). Shayla also dances in “WCD: Class at Home 2”, a free online class available for dancers to train at home during the Covid pandemic. Shayla is a graduate from The School of Contemporary Dancers.

Shayla comes to Winnipeg from Oakbank, MB. When we asked her why she dances, she told us, “Because nothing else pushes me physically, mentally, and artistically like dance does!”

Photo: Jasrin Manalo