Our Staff

Yvonne Ng is a dancer, choreographer, presenter, producer, curator, and arts educator. From 1994 to 2005, she was the co-Artistic Director of Series 8:08 and since 2005, she remains the sole Artistic Director. She is also the Artistic Director and creative instigator behind tiger princess dance projects (since 1996). Of Peranakan Chinese decent, Yvonne was born and raised in Singapore and moved to Canada in the late 80's where she completed her Honours BFA at York University. As a dancer, Yvonne has created original roles for choreographers such as Bill James (from 1992-2002); José Navas, Menaka Thakkar; Peter Chin; Dominique Dumais and Kevin O'Day (National Theatre Mannheim Ballett); Stephanie Skura; and Tedd Robinson, to name a few. Yvonne is a certified Open Source Forms© (Stephanie Skura/U.S.A.), C-I Training™ and Ashtanga Yoga teacher and has taught in the Dance Departments of Ryerson and York University in Canada, the Theatre Department at Juniata College, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. as well as Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (college) and LaSalle College of the Arts in Singapore. Yvonne is a recipient of the K.M. Hunter Artist Award, the New Pioneers Arts Award and the Chalmers Arts Fellowship. A multiple nominee, in 2000 she was honoured with a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Performance. In 2007, Ng received the Ontario Premier's Award for Excellence in the Arts – New Talent Award; she was selected by fellow recipient and Canadian dance legend Peggy Baker. In addition to choreography and performance, Ng is the Artistic Director of Series 8:08 (since 1994) and the curator and presenter of dance: made in canada/fait au canada, both of which produce the work of choreographers from across Canada.

www.princessproductions.ca

Yves Candau has a background in science and was doing a PhD in Cognitive Sciences when he discovered dance. Gradually his interest shifted from the abstract to a more embodied research, which he has been passionately pursuing ever since. As a movement artist he is fascinated by how internal dynamics of mind and body give rise to manifested external movement; and aims to share his fascination with others through performance and teaching. As an interpreter Yves has worked with a number of choreographers in Toronto: Rebecca Todd, Eryn Dace Trudell, Malgorzata Nowacka, Newton Moraes, Holly Small, Kathleen Rea, and most frequently Peter Chin, for whom he has had the pleasure to dance over a span of 10 years and six different pieces. Yves has taught Contact Improvisation since 2001, giving classes and workshops in France, Italy, Germany, Canada and the USA. He is also an overtone singer and a teacher of the Alexander Technique.

Cara Spooner has been involved in performance related projects as a dancer, choreographer, designer and curator. She has presented work in Toronto's Nuit Blanche, XPACE Cultural Centre, The Harbourfront Centre's HATCH Emerging Performance Project, Pleasure Dome, The Art Gallery of Mississauga, The Festival of New Dance in St. John's Newfoundland and Stromereien 11 in Zürich Switzerland. She has worked with Diane Borsato, Jess Dobkin, Daniel Cockburn, Robin Lasser/Adrienne Pao, Sky Fairchild-Waller and Alicia Grant. Her interest in site-specific work and subjective mapping has lead her to create interventionist, installation-based performances which have been performed in abandoned factories, alley ways, parks, libraries, private homes and public eating establishments.

"A marvelous dancer with wonderful control" (Globe and Mail), Tanya Crowder has worked with many talented choreographers as a professional dance artist. Tanya spent four years with Newton Moraes Dance Theatre and close to eight seasons with Kaeja d'Dance. She is currently a company dancer with Sinha Danse in Montreal. Tanya has worked with Claudia Moore, Lin Snelling, Eryn Dace Trudell, Darcey Callison, Denise Duric, Anh Nguyen, Kate Alton, Pam Johnson, Blue Mouth Inc., Allison Cummings among other great choreographers. Crowder's choreographic works have been described as a "tour de force" (Toronto Star).

Tanya is a Program Manager for Series 8:08 CPW, a dance teacher and administrates her own independent projects through HOWDARESHE Productions. HDS produced Falling to Grace, a DanceWorks CoWorks Series event; an evening of solo dance featuring herself and Julia Sasso in May 2008 and co-produced Love You Longtime Collective's DWCW Series Event no guarantees / no refunds in 2010. Tanya is also the Artistic Director of Dance Matters Dance Productions and is the Assistant Box Office Supervisor at the Royal Conservatory of Music.

Originally from Alberta, Jennifer Lee moved to Toronto to study dance at York University. While completing her BFA, Jennifer had the opportunity to dance with the York Dance Ensemble for two years. While studying performance, she discovered an interest in stage management. In the last six years, Jennifer has had great opportunities working with various talented professionals both on and behind stage including, Susan Cash, Susan Lee, Françoise Sullivan, Meagan O'Shea, Yvonne Ng, Janelle Rainville, Arun Srinivasan, Michael Greyeyes and Sarah O'Brien.

Brittany Duggan is a contemporary dancer, choreographer, teacher and writer in the Toronto area. Choreographic credits include "She Moves She" (2011) for the McMaster University Dance Company, "Mayfly: stage subimago" (2011) for Creative Republic and "mountain girl" (2010) with dance artist Susan Kendal for summer festivals in Toronto. As a performer she has worked with Peggy Baker Dance Projects, Darcey Callison, Jasmyn Fyffe as well as Thomas and Guinevere. Brittany is a graduate of York University's dance program and recently co-produced, choreographed and performed in Scienceography: dances of physiology, entomoly and psychology, for the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival. She is Production and Office Coordinator at The Dance Current magazine and writes on a freelance basis throughout Toronto.

picasaweb.google.com/omer.yukseker