Artist - Bios
Mia Pelayo is an emerging contemporary dance artist from Delta, BC, and a recent Modus Operandi graduate under the direction of David Raymond, Tiffany Tregarthen, and Kate Franklin. She has had the pleasure of researching for Alexa Mardon, Khoudia Touré, and Margaret Dragu, and performing in, on the cosmic shore by Erika Mitsuhashi at Dancing on the Edge (2022). In 2020, she premiered her dance film, Risk, and performed in Madeleine Cruz’s dance film, Where To? at the Modus Operandi Sunset Screening.
Mia Pelayo
Yuha is originally from Japan where she grew up and started dancing. She came to Vancouver in 2018 to join the Post-secondary graduate program at Arts Umbrella directed by Artemis Gordon. After graduating, she has joined Lamondance Company located in North Vancouver under the direction of Davi Rodriguez. Currently she is learning more and deepening her artistic voice for this art form at Modus Operandi under the direction of David Raymond and Tiffany Tregarthen. Yuha is an individual artist who is excited to develop more of her own vision for dance in the art community that exist here.
Yuha Tomita
Daria Mikhaylyuk is a Canada-based freelance dance artist and creative director. After relocating to Canada from Russia, she got to deepen her practice through working with companies like Dance Victoria, Vision Impure, MascallDance, Kinesis Dance Somatheatro, FakeKnot, Wen Wei Dance, Dance//Novella, artists like Anya Saugstad, Diego Romero, Hiroaki Umeda, as well as through her solo projects. Daria is a founder of the Venus Art Gallery - a project exploring the intersection of movement, video, and new media arts. Her works were presented through the Shooting Gallery Performance Series, FORM festival, Body+Camera festival, Remington Art Gallery, DOTE Festival, and Vernon Public Art Gallery.
Daria Mkhaylyuk
Born in Vancouver, Kiera completed her professional training at Arts Umbrella under the direction of Artemis Gordon. She was a proud recipient of the BC Arts Council Scholarship Award for excellence in dance in 2011. After graduating in 2012 she apprenticed with Ballet BC for one season under the direction of Emily Molnar. In 2013, she joined Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal under the direction of Louis Robitaille. For four years she toured extensively with BJM, performing in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Slovenia, China, Israel, Mexico, USA and across Canada. Kiera returned home to Vancouver to join Ballet BC from 2017-2020. In 7 years of professional touring, Kiera has had the privilege to teach workshops for students all over the world.
Kiera Hill
A dance artist, creator, and producer, Alexis has danced with Ballet BC for 14 years and subsequently has been a guest artist and Artist in Residence. Now independent, she holds the position of Artist in Residence at Vancouver’s Chutzpah! Festival, Dance Victoria, and Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. Alexis is a member of the Creative Hub at Presentation House Theatre. As a dance artist, Alexis is fascinated by how exploring the movement potential of the human body becomes a way of accessing the inner landscapes of our spirits and psyches, and this is the primary motivation behind my own physical practice and choreographic interests. She believes that dance is a unique vehicle with which to share, research, and discuss our humanity. Alexis acknowledges, with gratitude, her privilege to be working and creating on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish Peoples: Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.
Alexis Fletcher
Bryn trained with Lamondance from 2020-2022, under the direction of Davi Rodrigues and the mentorship of Racheal Prince. Bryn performed works by Dance//Novella, Noam Gagnon, Yoshito Sakuraba, Richard Walters, Kirsten Wicklund and others. Bryn also worked with Dance//Novella on their show "When the Walls Come Down,” presented by the Vancouver International Dance Festival in 2022. Bryn is now with GibneyPRO under the direction and mentorship of Alexandra Wells, Gilbert T Small II and Bret Yamanaka. She has shown works by Rena Butler & Maleek Washington, Laja Field and Elia Mrak - while training with faculty; Alexander Anderson, Adam Barruch, Francesca Dominguez, Zina Zinchenko and others.
Bryn Bridgen
Nancy Li is a ballet and contemporary dancer originally from China. She graduated from the Simon Fraser University with a bachelor degree in dance and currently working professionally as a member of Lamondance Company. Nancy has a good grasp on many styles of dance forms such as Chinese dance, ballet, and contemporary dance because of the many cultures she has encountered. During her career of dance, she earned many awards from local and international competitions for her exemplary technique skills and performance. She also performed works by Alexis Fletcher,Joshua Beamish, Nicolas Ventura, Vanessa Goodman, and more. She is seeking a way to combine elements from multiple cultures to create a dance form that can be appreciated by the public.
Nancy Li
Nasiv Sall is a Canadian-Punjabi dance artist residing in Vancouver on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and səlil ̓ilw̓ ətaʔɬ nations. Raised on a blueberry farm in Pitt Meadows, BC, Nasiv is heavily connected to her ancestry and the ground beneath her. She is driven by her curiosities and is always eager to learn from whoever comes into her path. She completed her formal dance training in 2020 with the Arts Umbrella Dance Post-Secondary Program under the direction of Artemis Gordon. Since graduating, Nasiv has been bicoastal having the privilege of working with companies Anne Plamondon Productions and La Tresse in Quebec and with Out Innerspace Dance Theatre and Mascall Dance in Vancouver. She has also been involved in ongoing independent creations under the direction of Anya Saugstad, Kirsten Wicklund, Isak Enquist and Jenna Mazur. A versatile dancer, actor, choreographer, movement coach and intimacy coordinator, Nasiv has spent time in Hollywood North on several TV and Film sets. Her recent acting credits include Nickelodeon’s Monster High where she plays fan-favourite Abbey Bominable.
Nasiv Sall
Oksana began dancing at the age of 12 with Slava Doval’s DanceFusion, in her hometown of Nelson, BC. There, she experienced a variety of styles such as Contemporary, Hip Hop, House, Afro, Bellydance, Folk, Bollywood, and more. In 2016, she moved to Vancouver where she trained for two years at Lamondance, directed by Davi Rodrigues; she has since been a dancer for the Lamondance Company, mentored by Racheal Prince. Throughout her years with Lamondance, she has had the pleasure of working with many artists such as Yoshito Sakuraba, Wen Wei Wang, Nicolas Ventura, Alexis Fletcher, Brandon Lee Alley, Racheal Prince, Lara Barclay, Kirsten Wicklund, Heather Laura Gray, Vanessa Goodman, Alysa Pires, Heather Dotto, and Shauna Elton. Oksana’s recent projects include understudying for the opera Orfeo ed Euridice (December 2021), choreographed by Idan Cohen, director of Ne. Sans Opera & Dance. As well as performing in the video web series Transformations by Jobel Art for Earth, alongside dancer Calder White and choreographer Ziyian Kwan.