Artistic Director/Choreographer/Performer

A professional dancer, choreographer and instructor in Toronto, Elizabeth is the Artistic Director and founder of Artists’ Play Dance Theatre school and company. Having curated a cabaret for five years consecutively, Elizabeth was introduced and artistically inspired by many artists of different disciplines.

As a performer/choreographer Elizabeth has created over thirty small works and produced four larger productions which premiered at festivals and showcases such as Series 8:08, Festival of Independent Dance Artists (fFida), Atlantic Fringe Festival, Squiggfest, Toronto Fringe Festival 2008 and 2009, LABCAB Festival and her own productions, Artists’ Play…a Cabaret!. Elizabeth has performed with Corpus, Parahumans Dance Theatre, The International Tango Festival, and with independent choreographers in the GTA. She has also acted in various theatre shows as well as independent films within Toronto. Elizabeth often draws on her ability to improvise in dance and storytelling as she performed with an improve comedy troupe for over two years.

Hailing from Manitoba, Elizabeth was trained classically at the Brandon School of Dance, The Royal Winnipeg Ballet and was mentored by Arnold Spohr. After training in Jazz, Modern and Contemporary at JazzArt, Grant MacEwan and the Banff Center of Fine Arts, she then went on to graduate from the George Brown Dance Diploma Program where she studied under Ballet Jorgen.

Elizabeth has toured England with Parahumans Dance Theatre, lead by Dave Wilson, where she facilitated workshops for children in public schools. She has also worked for Arts for Children in public schools and was the dance instructor in the AFC Arts Adventure camp in 2007, besides creating and directing her own performing arts summer school. She has choreographed many musicals in high-schools and created in-depth performances for her students to perform at community events such as public school fun fairs, the Riverside BIA’s events and large scale year end performances for her own school.

Having been in the Riverdale/Leslieville area for the past 6 years, she is thrilled to be sharing her love and knowledge of dance training and performance with children and adults alike. Elizabeth is excited to maintain working within various schools and communities aiding with the introduction of professional dance and creative movement to children and youth.

Composer/Sound Design/Performer

A professional dancer, instructor and musician, Jason is the Co-Artistic Director of Artists’ Play Dance Theatre school and company.

Jason co-choreographed and performed with Artists’ Play at The Atlantic Fringe Festival, fFIDA, Toronto International Dance Festival and various cabaret improvisations and performances. Other performances include the Fritz Helder and the Phantoms and Parahumans Dance Theatre. In television, Jason was aired on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation as an opening credit hip hop dancer.

Jason studied jazz, ballet and modern at Ryerson University and had the opportunity to work with David Earle, D.A. Hoskins, Mark Christman and Nadia Potts. He was chosen to show work in the Ryerson Choreographic Works 2002 with his piece “Lost & Calling”. Having trained at various schools in the west since the age of 5, Jason acquired many styles which lead him to flourish in contemporary, hip hop and jazz.

Musically, Jason writes, plays and produces his own music for dance productions and for his own band, Along the Lines. His first piece for stage, ‘A City Reflection’ was showcased as part of Artists’ Play’s “Love & Life” in the 2007 Atlantic Fringe Festival. Since then Jason has created music for larger productions such as “The Reservation and “HeartSurge”.

Jason has choreographed various musicals for high schools and communities across Canada and continues to create work for dancers of all ages. He has taught creative movement at various schools in the GTA. Jason is thrilled to be sharing dance with children and adults as the instructor of Mighty Moves, Hip Hop and Modern Movement at Artists’ Play Dance Theatre.

Instructor – Jazz

Robin Calvert was born and raised in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and graduated with honors from the Ryerson Theatre Dance Program. She has been performing, teaching and choreographing professionally for over 10 years.

Favorite performance credits include; Schwartzy in 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Drayton Entertainment); Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, The Mayor’s Wife in Seussical, Zaneeta in The Music Man (Theatre Aquarius); Eugene Onegin (Canadian Opera Company); Joseph… (Stage West, Drayton Festival Theatre, Huron Country Playhouse, and the King’s Wharf Theatre); Swing in Anne of Green Gables (Confederation Centre for the Arts); Disco Cirque, British Invasion 1 and 2, Canada Rocks, Something Wonderful (CCFA); and a soloist in CJ8 (Harbourfront Centre – tour of Canada and Japan).

Robin is the assistant director and choreographer for the Charlottetown Festival Confederation Centre. She was also the assistant to Max Reimer (Stage West and Theatre Aquarius). Her recent choreography credits include; “25^th Annual… Spelling Bee” (Drayton Entertainment); “Pippin” (Sheridan College); “Let It Be”, “FNUGG”, “The Blower’s Daughter”, “Roxanne”, “Manson”, and “Trouble” (Confederation Centre for the Arts); The Music Man (Sheridan College); The Falsettos (Sheridan College); In Brief… (Harbourfront Studio Theatre); Emotional Cigarettes (fFIDA); Rocky VI (fFIDA); and Trane of Thought… (id Danse).

Robin is co-creator and choreographer for a new rock musical called “Livin On The Edge”. Robin is on faculty at the Sheridan College Musical Theatre program, she has taught for the Randolph, Ryerson and George Brown dance programs and for the York University Teacher’s Training program. She is also a proud member of “Creative Habitat”, a dance company in honor of her dear friend Leah Jackson, dancing alongside Siona Jackson and Neesa Kenemy.

Collaborator/Performer

“A marvelous dancer with wonderful control” (Globe and Mail), Tanya Crowder has had the pleasure of working with many talented choreographers over her 13 years as a professional dance artist. Tanya spent four years with Newton Moraes Dance Theatre and is currently a company member of Kaeja d’Dance. Independently Tanya has worked with Karen Kaeja, Claudia Moore, Lin Snelling, Eryn Dace Trudell, Allison Cummings, Darcey Callison, Denise Duric, Anh Nguyen, and Kate Alton, among others.

A critically acclaimed choreographer, Tanya’s work has been described as a “tour de force” (Toronto Star) and as “ambitious both in theme and execution.” (Globe and Mail). Her work has been presented at fFida Late Night, fFida Off-Site, r-base Arts Platform, The Canada Dance Festival (Ontario showcase), Step 4, Kaeja d’Dance Lab, Before During After 2002 and 2003, CRAVE, 6 Women, 6 Solos, Dance Matters, Studio 303, Falling to Grace and The Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival.

Tanya is a dance teacher and creative movement workshop instructor. She has taught dancers at the professional and pre-professional level at the 509 Dance Collective, DanceTeq and CCDT. Her creative movement workshops have been taught at Cawthra Park Arts High School 2006 and 2007, these workshops culminated in a creative process which led to the building of 2 pieces(each year) for the Grade 9 classes for the school’s Spring Showcase. In July of 2008, Tanya taught her worshops and had a creative residency with the children of Arts Explorer Day Camp. In addition to her own work and her own workshops, she is also an Express Dance Workshop instructor through the Kaeja d’Dance company. Tanya has taught the Express Dance format at many different Toronto public and catholic schools, as well as across the country and around the world. These workshops include one-time workshop material for classes or long-term creative residencies with the children for the purpose of building a dance with the group using movement built by the children.

Recently, Tanya has begun directing a group of professional dancers in a laboratory company that she has started in the Fall of 2008. The lab is a pilot project aimed at offering aspiring choreographers an opportunity to play, create, and experiment with a group of skilled dancers, and for dancers to have an opportunity to be given challenges and to grow as interpreters.

Tanya is the Program Manager for Series 8:08′s Choreographic Performance Workshop. Other production/co-production credits include Warm-up, A moment of INERTIA, CRAVE, Before During After-annual festival of duets 2002 and 2003. She is the Artistic Director of HOWDARESHE Productions under which she has developed and produced her own Dance Series and forum called Dance Matters which is now in its’ third season, and a solo commissioning project called HOWDARESHE (xchange) which is for professional choreographers to create solo work for her for the purpose of presentation, touring, and education. The first of the xchange projects featured Tanya and choreographer Julia Sasso, with works by both artists in a full evening DanceWorks CoWorks event called Falling to Grace in May 2008, produced and presented by HOWDARESHE Productions.

Collaborator/Performer

Tyler has just graduated with a B.A. Honours in Theatre at York University in the Devised Performance stream.  Tyler appeared in the Aurora dinner theatre production of Suitethearts, and most recently in York’s productions of Not Wanted on the Voyage, Comedy of Vanity and Raisin’ the Spirits.  Tyler has studied dance intensively for fifteen years, has taught at national dance conventions and is now a principal dancer with Combustion! The Young Company, appearing at venues such as Premiere Dance Theatre, Hummingbird Centre, The Mod Club and Elgin Theatre.  He is currently a fourth year member with the J Force, a promotional dance team for Toronto Blue Jays’ live entertainment.  Tyler’s recent film work includes Feist’s 1234 music video and an ItalPasta commercial for national T.V.  At York, Tyler assistant directed with Miroslaw Polatynski on Lynda Barry’s Comeek Theatre 7 Deadly Monsters, and directed Treespeak for Playground Festival at York.  Tyler performed in Hairspray’s You Can’t Stop the Beat for a Canon Christmas Gala and York’s Devised Ensemble site specific.  For his graduating performance, he collectively wrote and performed Lifeline, chronicling the lives of everyday people living through extreme circumstances in a hospital setting.  Tyler is excited to be collaborating with Artists’ Play Collective for the 2008 Fringe Festival.