Pilot Episodes: Open Rehearsals

Friday December 1 at 4:15-5:30 PM ET with Tavia Christina and Sze-Yang Ade-Lam
Friday December 8 at 4:15-5:30 PM ET with Kwasi Obeng and Lukas Malkowski
Friday December 15 at 4:15-5:30 PM ET with Blessyl Buan and danielle Mackenzie Long Winchester Street Theatre, 80 Winchester Street, Toronto ON (VIEW MAP)

Accessibility Info: Unfortunately the Winchester Street Theatre is not currently wheelchair accessible. There are three steps outside of the front entrance, a small platform, and then three more steps to the lobby (a straight hallway that then leads you to the theatre). To access the private gender-neutral restrooms, there are five additional steps at the end of the lobby. The seats in the theatre are on risers with stairs; please contact info@tdt.org if you have any questions regarding accessing our space. For full details about the building's physical access, visit https://tdt.org/your-visit/accessibility/.

Curious about Pilot Episodes and the creative ideas and questions that spark during these residencies? Folks are invited to join us in the studios to get a glimpse of the artists working and to hear the choreographers speak about what they have been focusing on during their time at TDT.

As this is an informal open rehearsal, finished work will not be presented. These gatherings are great for those who are intrigued by the creative process seen in residencies and the artistic questions that arise, while learning more about the choreographer and their own practices. There will be an opportunity to share reflections with the choreographers or ask questions from what’s observed in the rehearsals.

Please arrive 15 minutes early

In person at the Winchester Street Theatre, 80 Winchester Street.
Attendees will visit two studio spaces.
Accessibility Info: Unfortunately the Winchester Street Theatre is not currently wheelchair accessible. There are three steps outside of the front entrance, a small platform, and then three more steps to the lobby (a straight hallway that then leads you to the theatre). To access the private gender-neutral restrooms, there are five additional steps at the end of the lobby. The seats in the theatre are on risers with stairs; please contact info@tdt.org if you have any questions regarding accessing our space.

About Pilot Episodes

Six choreographers will have their first experience collaborating with TDT company dancers as well as guest dancers, in this fourth edition of Pilot Episodes. An immersive residency series at TDT, each creator has one week to experiment in their practices, receive mentorship from Andrew Tay, and take artistic risks in the studio without any pressure of producing a finished work.

About the Choreographers

Photo Credits: Audrianna Martin del Campo

Tavia Christina

Tavia Christina is a multi-hyphenate artist. They embrace their ethereal nature as a driving force in both their artistic expression and research. Their work touches genres between dance, theatre and performance art. As the Artistic Director of Near & Far Projects, their choreographic research and development are informed by improvisation, voice work, and a deep connection with their surrounding ecology. Their practice is based in somatic movement, improvisation, and spiritual endurance.

Photo Credits: Dahlia Katz

Sze-Yang Ade-Lam

Sze-Yang Ade-Lam is a queer asian nonbinary dancer, martial artist, actor, advocate, and community developer. They share stories for love, liberation, representation & empowerment, as an independent artist, and as part of @illnanadcdc. Since 2011 Sze-Yang has created more accessible affirming dance education and performance opportunities for QT2SBIPOC communities, advocated for change in the arts, is the force behind the Dora Mavor Moore Awards shift to gender neutral categories, and was the recipient of the Dirt Underneath Actors’ Space: Artistic Resident Programme.

Photo Credits: Amanda Lee

Kwasi Obeng

Kwasi Obeng-Adjei is a Canadian dancer, choreographer, and instructor born and raised in the Greater Toronto Area. After being accepted into the regional arts program at St. Roch Secondary School, Kwasi was able to expand his knowledge training in various styles that include ballet, jazz, hip hop, and modern and traditional African dance. Kwasi’s professional credits include the Pan-American Games, Lua Shayenne Dance Company’s Kira, The Path | La Voie, Esie Mensah Creations, the Raptors half-time show, and more.

Photo Credits: Alvin Collantes

Lukas Malkowski

Lukas Malkowski (he/they) is a CODA(Child of Deaf Adult), performance maker and Aquarius based between Canada/Germany. He has performed in John Wick 4, CTM Festival(Berlin), Babylon Berlin, Rodeo Festival(Munich), FestivalTransAmérique(Montreal), and the Schrittmacher Festival(Holland). Lukas’s work is shaped by the embodiment of physics, voice, and Sign. He’s choreographed ambient sets, music videos, and films for Sam Slater(Joker OST), LBT, and 7th Plain(Luke Slater). Flowmentum: his teaching practice, is driven by social dialogue and physics embodiments through sight and touch. He’s taught and performed at festivals/companies/schools in Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Berlin, Kassel, Munich, Slovakia, and Mexico City. Since attaining his BFA in Dance Performance at Toronto Metropolitan University, he’s worked with Naishi Wang, Ceren Oran, Toronto Dance Theatre, Wang Ramirez, Staatsballett Berlin, Sasha Waltz & Guests, Jasmine Ellis, Diane Borsato, Adelheid, Kate Hilliard, Mocean Dance, and Deaf Spectrum.

Photo Credits: Blessyl Buan

Blessyl Buan

Blessyl Buan is a multigenerational, multidisciplinary artist whose expressions span from healing, visual and dance arts. Since 2005 she built a chiropractic practice for performing artists and has four decades of performance experience. Her choreography re-weaves Philippine diasporic narratives through the interplay of natural objects and the land, while reconciling with the biopsychosocial impacts of colonization and assimilation. This work informs her motherhood to her four children and influences future generations to embody authentic expression.

Photo Credits: Jaime Hewat

danielle Mackenzie Long

danielle Mackenzie Long, a queer emerging interdisciplinary artist, resides on the stolen and unceded territory of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh, and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm nations. They seek to use new media/film to liberate gender non-conforming dance artists to create work that surpasses gendered bodies through various means of visual presentation and audience access. Currently their creative practice is being expanded through engagements with Vanessa Goodman, Shion Skye Carter, Festival of Recorded Movement, and Co.ERASGA. Occasionally danielle studies Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia with the aspiration to infiltrate and challenge the academic world by navigating it with an emphasis on curiosity, refusal, and rest.