Lauren Runions (b. 1989) is a dance artist, choreographer, facilitator, and arts administrator based in Tkarón:to/Toronto and sometimes Kjipuktuk/Halifax.
As a dancer, they have most recently worked with Susannah Haight, pounds per square inch performance/Gerry Trentham, Christopher Willes & Adam Kinner, SLOW DANCE LAB/Sally Morgan, Jacinte Armstrong, Mocean Dance, kloetzel&co./Melanie Kloetzel & Anandam Dancetheatre/Brandy Leary, Lisa Phinney, and New Mineral Collective. Between 2012 and 2016, Lauren danced with Cadence Progressive Contemporary Ballet under artistic direction of Courtnae Bowman.
For Lauren dancing involves moving-thinking, writing, choreographic objects, community labs, performances and daily independent practice. Their work investigates the role of choreography as a reciprocal spatial practice; and with deliberate movement experiments and staged interactions they begin to expand this notion through score-reading and -writing. Scores open possibility for improvisation, sounding, observing, walking, and tending to routine dailiness. Scores exalt presence and ways to be in dialogue-with material, beings, and place. Lauren’s work questions how social choreographies shape everyday embodied awareness and inform their responsibility to living with intersectional ecologies.
Lauren has choreographed site-specific works for MOCA, Nuit Blanche, Long Winter, Radiant Rural Halls, and Nocturne. They have movement directed music videos in collaboration with Rachel Bobbitt, Fucked Up, The Weather Station, Alessia De Gasperis, Ian Daniel Kehoe, New Fries, and Jordan Hart. They are the artistic director of project I/O Movement which offers site-responsive performances, community workshops, and public residencies. In 2018, public dance residency This is Our Place was supported by The Bentway’s Community Incubation Program. As community connection increasingly drives their practice, Lauren has hosted public workshops including Movement at the Mall (Art Starts), Dancing + Drawing, Mapping Inside/Outside (Gallery 1265), and Field Guide for Performance in Public Space (Maximum City).
As an administrator, Lauren currently works with Toronto Dance Love-In and has worked closely with Ground UP Dance Festival and Dreamwalker Dance. They have coordinated for Nuit Blanche Toronto and at Artscape Gibraltar Point. They adore supporting artists to present their work and facilitate their own emergent practices. Lauren is a graduate of George Brown College's Performance Dance program and holds an MFA from NSCAD University with Oslo National Academy of the Arts/KHiO.
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As I situate myself between places in my practice, I acknowledge where I am based is on the Indigenous land and waters systems of Kjipuktuk and Tkarón:to. Tkarón:to is the territory of Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee and the Wyandot peoples. I also acknowledge the unceded lands of Mi’kma’ki and the Mi’kmaq peoples. Katarokwi, the Indigenous lands of the Anishinaabe and the Haudenosaunee, and Oslo, home to many Sámi peoples, are places that have greatly affected me as well. I am committed to living in alignment with both the Dish With One Spoon treaty and the Peace and Friendship treaty as I live on and with both of these lands; and move-with deep consideration.
cv
based in Tkarón:to/Toronto
laurenrunions@gmail.com / @laurenrunions + @iomovement
upcoming →
Kingston Youth Dance Ensemble (KYDE). [guest choreographer] Kingston School of Dance, Kingston, ON
education
2023 Masters of Fine Arts at NSCAD University, Halifax, NS
Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo/Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Oslo, Norway
2021 Community Power Mapping by Darian Razdar + Unit 2 Celestial Seeds (online)
2019 Art in Public Space at FAI-AR, International MOOC (online)
2012 Performance Dance Studies at George Brown College, Toronto, ON
residency
Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts, Mnisiing (Toronto Islands), ON | 2024
Macros Series. Eastern Front Theatre, Dartmouth, NS | 2023
New Dance, New Music. Connection Dance Works & Resonance New Music (online) | 2020
Peggy Baker Space Grant. Canada's National Ballet School & The Choreographer's Network, Toronto, ON | 2020
Open Space. The National Ballet of Canada’s Walter Carsen Centre, Toronto, ON | 2019
Artist in Residence. City Dance Corps, Toronto, ON | 2019
Collective Practice Project. Love-In & Dancemakers facilitated by marikiscrycrycry, Toronto, ON | 2018
Dawn-to-Dawn. In collaboration with ====DeRAIL and Space Animators, Toronto, ON | 2018
The Creative Gesture: Collective Composition Lab. Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, AB | 2018
Anda Residency. Transitional Forest Hill home, Toronto, ON | 2018
Dancemakers: Plug & Play. Dancemakers, Toronto, ON | 2018
The Roundtable Residency. Dragon Academy, Toronto, ON | 2017
Connection Dance Works: PERSPECTIVE. Theatre New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB | 2017
The Living Room Series. Valence Movement/Jamee Valin, Toronto, ON | 2016
research + archival projects
New Fulcrum Project. [dance artist] pounds per square inch performance, Toronto, ON | 2025
Reperformance of Kinergy. [dancer] SLOW DANCE LAB/Sally Morgan’s Diane Moore Legacy Project, Halifax, NS | 2024
Play. [dancer] Mocean Dance & Jacinte Armstrong with local community, Kjipuktuk, NS | 2022
Vines. [dancer] Melanie Kloetzel (kloetzel&co.) & Brandy Leary (Anandam Dancetheatre), Toronto, ON | 2022
McMaster Parkinson’s Dance Video Game Project. [dancer] McMaster University, Hamilton, ON | 2017
solo shows
2023 life scores. Anna Leonowens Gallery, Kjipuktuk, NS
This two week thesis exhibition asks what conditions can develop kinaesthetic sensitivity, how bodiment practices can become accessible for a public or an audience through opening the practice of sight-reading, and what modes of score-writing can archive these processes. life scores featured live performances by Julie Robert, Jacinte Armstrong, Sangeeta Raju, along with the artist, and live scoring by Alek Green, Colleen MacIsaac, Craig Leonard, Daniel Edmonds, and Maud Lili Dobbell. The exhibition closed with a sharing by Halifax Dance’s Young Company (YOCO) featuring four scores developed from their social choreography lab research series.
2021 Strategies for Wayfinding. Gallery 1265, Scarborough, ON (online)
Strategies for Wayfinding is a study of day-to-day navigational tools. It names landmarks, sensorial signs and patterns, storytelling and choreographed place-routines as information to better understand the artist’s role, and responsibility, in shared-space. Strategies of Wayfinding features work by Lauren Runions with Maryanne Casasanta, Heddy Graterol, Mélika Hashemi, Alie Lavoie, and Mary Patsiatzis in partnership with Small's Creek Ravine, Bloordale Beach/Brockton Learning Centre, and Trinity Bellwoods Park.
2019 PLACE(MEANT). Public exhibit in private house in collaboration with Space Animator, Toronto, ON
During 24 hour artist residency –Dawn-to-Dawn– the artist explores “placemeant” inside the house, while director of Space Animator Gelareh Saadatpajouh wanders the surrounding streets. They establish a form of connection -a silent language- between inside and outside through a series of photo and video documentation, live streaming, text, drawings, tastes, sound recordings and olfactory discoveries.
installation and site-specific performance
Jeff Wall Photographs 1984–2023. [choreographer/performer] with Katherine Semchuk, MOCA, Toronto, ON | 2025
Untitled (Clock-Piece). [dancer] Susannah Haight, Nocturne, Staples Parking Lot, Halifax, NS | 2025
MANUAL. [performer] Christopher Willes & Adam Kinner with suddenlyLISTEN, Halifax Public Library, Halifax, NS | 2024
Untitled (Clock-Piece). [dancer] Susannah Haight, Nuit Blanche, Factory Theatre, Toronto, ON | 2024
Dim Sum without Distance. [dancer/choreographer] Hung Keung, Nuit Blanche, Love Park, Toronto, ON | 2024
MEANDER. [artist] this town is small’s Radiant Rural Halls, Georgetown Playhouse, Georgetown, PE | 2024
stosss. [artist] Special Characters group show Horses Running Through the Field, Hermes Gallery, Kjipuktuk, NS | 2023
MEANDER/DRIFT. [artist] textile installation with Marite Kuus & sound by Lou Campbell Nocturne, Kjipuktuk, NS | 2023
MEANDER. [artist] textile installation creation with Marite Kuus, Eastern Front Theatre, Dartmouth, NS | 2023
Stories. [choreographer] Nuit Blanche, Toronto, ON | 2022
Found in Translation. [dancer] Jacinte Armstrong, Nocturne, Kjipuktuk, NS | 2022
A Growing Wave Breaks in the Shore of Time (Tomorrow I was a Plant). [dancer] Elena Boja at Matadero Madrid, Spain | 2021
Artists at Work. [artist] Summer Works, Toronto, ON (online) | 2021
Scores for Social Distancing. [dancer] Jacinte Armstrong, virtual/Kjipuktuk, NS | 2020
Quartet with ‘Net Interface’ and ‘Mimic, Lake Ontario’. [dancer] the body as a fever dream, XPACE, Toronto, ON | 2020
Intervening “A Sudden Beginning” by Carlos Bunga. [dancer/choreographer] Opening Performance, MOCA, Toronto, ON | 2020
Rite of Passage. [dancer/choreographer] Closing performance “Procession” by Carlos Bunga, MOCA, Toronto, ON | 2020
A FLOOR, A FLORA. [dancer/choreographer] Artscape with West Queen West BIA, Lisgar Park, Toronto, ON | 2020
Last Song. [turn-tablist] with Allie Higgins and Daniel Pencer, PS: we are all here, Geary Lane, Toronto, ON | 2019
Pillars Piece. [choreographer] The Pillars Picnic by Daniel Rotsztain at York and Queen's Quay, Toronto, ON | 2019
Installation Performance at Purple Nights. [choreographer/dancer] Banded Purple, 500 Keele, Toronto, ON | 2019
Please Hold. [director] I Blink my Eyes to Keep the Time by The Sixhundred, Beaver Hall Gallery, Toronto, ON | 2019
Wild Inside. [dancer] Maryanne Casasanta, Clint Roenisch Gallery, Toronto, ON | 2018
Talk. [dancer] Maryanne Casasanta, Likely General, Toronto, ON | 2018
Party Wire. [choreographer] Site responsive installation at Toronto Reference Library, Toronto, ON | 2018
Please Hold. [artist] TV Video Installation at 611 Castle Field at Anda Residency, Toronto, ON | 2018
MALLEABILITY. [dancer] Amanda Macchia, Gallery Petite, New York, NY | 2018
For the Purpose of Grounding. [choreographic director] The Roundtable Residency at Dragon Academy, Toronto, ON | 2017
How To Find Your Ideal Heal. [choreographer] Long Winter, The Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, ON | 2017
Nitty Gritty. [choreographer] Surface Art Party and Fair, Artscape Sandbox, Toronto, ON | 2016
Jazz Baby. [choreographer] New Blue Festival of Emerging Dance, Dutch Dreams, Toronto, ON | 2016
Universal Ennui. [choreographer] White Wall Studios, Montreal, QB & The Black Cat Art Space, Toronto, ON | 2015
Gibbous Sequence. [choreographer] Exaltation and The Fall at OCAD U Student Gallery, Toronto, ON | 2015
Don't Listen To Your Mother. [choreographer/dancer] Surface Art Fair and Party at 99 Sudbury, Toronto, ON | 2015
The Architecture of Us [You + Me]. [choreographer] Lab Cab Festival in Gallery 1313, Toronto, ON | 2014
stage performance dance
Retro/Future. Phin Performing Arts/Lisa Phinney Langley, Kinetic’s Open Studio Series, Danspace, Kjipuktuk, NS | 2024
Play. Mocean Dance & Jacinte Armstrong, All Nations Church, Kjipuktuk, NS | 2023
Last Song. Toronto Dance Love-In's PS: we are all here, Geary Lane, Toronto, ON | 2019
Instinct A, or Play. Cassandra Bowerman, Dusk Dances Hamilton, Bayfront Park, Hamilton, ON | 2019
Solo Z. Dave Wilson/Parahumans, Pia Bouman’s Theatre, Toronto, ON | 2019
Griko. Solo performance in collaboration with Isabel String Quartet, Isabel Bader Centre, Kingston, ON | 2019
Company Dancer with Polynomials Body Theatre, Karissa Fyrrar, Toronto, ON | 2018-2020
What Exists Here. Valence Movement/Jamee Valin, Collective Space, Toronto. ON | 2018
21 Chopin Nocturnes. Parahumans/Dave Wilson, Trinity St. Paul's Church, Toronto, ON | 2018
Please Hold. 611 Castle Field at Anda Residency, Toronto, ON | 2018
Death Cafe. Polynomials/Karissa Fyrarr, Dance Matters at Scotia Bank Studio Theatre, Toronto, ON | 2018
Little Fires. Polynomials, Toronto Fringe Festival at Factory Theatre Mainspace, Toronto, ON | 2016
Bonne Nuit. Lydia Zimmer, Live Art Dance Series at Sir James Dunn Theatre, Kjipuktuk, NS | 2016
missXrepresentation. Alysa Pires Dance Projects, with/out at The Citadel, Toronto, ON | 2016
Off The Wall. Frog in Hand/Colleen Snell & artists, Living Arts Centre, Mississauga, ON | 2016
Company Dancer with Cadence Progressive Contemporary Ballet, Courtnae Bowman, Toronto, ON | 2012-2016
The Wild in Us. REAson d-etre/Kathleen Rea, Winchester Street Theatre, Toronto, ON | 2011
stage choreography
Of Wood and Ash. collaboration with Halifax Dance’s & First City’s Young Companies, Dunn Theatre, Kjipuktuk, NS | 2023
Shell Power. Split Bill with Jamee Valin & Warehaus Collective, Pia Bouman’s Theatre, Toronto, ON | 2019
The Hierarchy of Lastingness. Open Space Theatre, Fredricton, NB & BMO Studio Theatre, Saint John, NB | 2017
Bipedal. Kalos Collectives, Citadel Theatre, Toronto, ON | 2016
Grief Point. Dance Teacher's Expo featuring Kate Houston, Toronto, ON | 2016
The Question Method. Cadence Progressive Contemporary Ballet, Dancemakers, Toronto, ON | 2015
Finish Your Collapse. Cadence Youth Ballet, Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, Guelph, ON | 2015
Jamais Vu. Cadence Youth Ballet in Summer's End at Dancemakers, Toronto, ON | 2014
The Art of Wanderlust. Cadence Youth Ballet, Summer's End at Dancemakers, Toronto, ON | 2014
Jamais Vu. George Brown Dance Ensemble, Syndicate at Dancemakers, Toronto, ON | 2014
Jamais Vu. George Brown Dance, Betty Oliphant Theatre, Toronto, ON | 2014
Finish Your Collapse. Cadence Youth Ballet, Fleck Dance Theatre. Toronto ON | 2014
Hi, my name is. Carousel Dance Company, Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, Guelph, ON | 2014
Manic Slang. Cadence Ballet, Al Green Theatre & SummerWorks Opening Party at the Great Hall, Toronto, ON | 2013
Small Memory. Kingston School of Dance Youth Company, The Grand Theatre, Kingston, ON | 2013
Humanhood. Parahumans, Winchester St. Theatre, Toronto, ON | 2013
Fantastically Rocky. George Brown Dance, Betty Oliphant Theatre, Toronto, ON | 2013
Quiet Punctuation. York University's YA! Contemporary Dance, Betty’s, Toronto, ON | 2012
Finish Your Collapse. Cadence Youth Ballet, Dancemakers, Toronto, ON | 2012
Lucid. George Brown Dance presents Unleashed, Betty Oliphant Theatre, Toronto ON | 2012
music video
Furthest Limb by Rachel Bobbitt [movement director] direction by Colin Medley | 2025
One Day by Fucked Up [movement director] direction by Colin Medley | 2022
When You Love Someone by Alessia De Gasperis [movement director] direction by Julia Hendrickson | 2022
Only Pieces of the Truth by Jordan Hart [choreographer] direction by Julia Hendrickson | 2021
Secret Republic by Ian Daniel Kehoe [choreographer] direction by Colin Medley | 2018
Impossible by The Weather Station [dancer/choreographer] direction by Colin Medley | 2018
Bring the Pressure Washer by New Fries [dancer/choreographer] direction by Maryanne Casasanta | 2017
Century by Feist [dancer/stand-in] direction by Scott Cudmore, choreography by Noemie LaFrance | 2017
film + video
What's Safe. [dancer] with M. Hashemi, M. Casasanta & H. Graterol, New Sociology: Journal of Critical Praxis (online) | 2021
A Landmark!. [director/dancer] Saint John Contemporary Dance Festival, Saint John, NB | 2021
READY-TO-ASSEMBLE. [co-director/performer] direction D. Solleza & J. Wotherspoon, Screen:Moves, F-O-R-M, Queer North Film Festival | 2020
Pleasure Prospects. [dancer] New Mineral Collective (NO), Toronto Art Biennial, Toronto, ON | 2019
If you see something, say something. [dancer] Jane Gotch, Charlotte Street Foundation, Kansas City, MO | 2019
Nesia. [dancer] direction by Mikel Guillen, choreography by Dave Wilson | 2019
ALL THINGS GROW. [dancer] direction by Francesca Chudnoff | 2018
Baseline. [co-director] with Keaton TF Evans, The Black Cat Artspace, Toronto, ON & IDF Film Festival, Berlin, DE | 2018
community events
2021 Mapping Inside/Outside with Gallery 1265, Scarborough, ON (online)
This movement-based workshop plays with ideas of mapping inside/outside. The workshop includes a warm-up series, internal cognitive mapping and tracking outdoor experience(s) through dancing and drawing. This is an open workshop for anyone looking to move and consider their own relationality to place.
2019 Field Guide for Performance in Public Space workshop with Maximum City Summer Camp, Toronto, ON
Summer camp attendees participate in a sensory walk connecting body with the area of the camp. They follow a field guide to explore site through their unique kinaesthetic, tactile, olfactory, visual, and audio capacities. The session asks how can our own embodied awareness relate to places where culture and nature meet?
2019 Dancing + Drawing, Bickford Park, Toronto, ON
This three part series offers to the public guided improvisation classes incorporating dancing and drawing techniques in an outdoor environment. Each session is supported by live DJ or curated playlists by local artists.
2018 Movement at the Mall, Yorkdale Mall, Toronto, ON
Fostered by Daniel Rotsztain, Urban Geographer and artist in residence with Art Starts at Yorkdale Mall, the workshop offers interactive pop-up movement exercises for all to join. This workshop considered our senses, proximity, “mall etiquette” and questions how people choreographically use the shopping centre.
2018 Dancing + Drawing, Bickford Park, Toronto, ON
This three part series offers the public guided improvisation classes incorporating dancing and drawing techniques in an outdoor environment. Each session is supported by live DJ or curated playlists by artists.
teaching experience
The Underground Dance Centre — ballet | 2025
Juvenis Festival [mentor/workshop teacher] — contemporary | 2025
Ground UP Dance Festival [guest teacher] — contemporary | 2024
Halifax Dance [substitute teacher/guest young company faculty] — contemporary ballet, modern, contemporary | 2023-2024 Maritime Conservatory [substitute teacher] — contemporary ballet, modern, and contemporary | 2023-2024
Mocean Dance — contemporary ballet | 2022-2023
The Railpath Arts Centre — contemporary ballet | 2020
DanceLifeX — ballet | 2020
Millennium Toronto — contemporary ballet, ballet technique | 2018-2019
Sandra Amodeo Dance Studio [guest teacher] — contemporary ballet | 2018-2019
City Dance Corps — contemporary ballet, ballet, contemporary | 2017-2020
The Underground Dance Centre — contemporary ballet, ballet | 2017-2020
The School of Cadence Ballet — contemporary, contemporary ballet | 2014-2017
Kingston School of Dance — contemporary, jazz | 2007-2022
I’ve Got Rhythm — BATD tap, jazz, and ballet | 2005-2007
residency facilitation
2018 This is Our Place: The Bentway, Toronto, ON
In partnership with The Bentway’s Community Incubation Program, five dance artists participate in a public space performance residency under the theme City Play. Over a week these dance artists craft site-responsive works. The week culminates with a free, participatory showing throughout The Bentway’s Strachan Gate.
2017 This is Our Place: Old Weston, Toronto, ON
Looking at themes of domestic space, six dance artists create/work/be in an empty house while in transition between homeowners. The artists are invited to spend as much time in the house. The residency culminates with an intimate gathering open to the public.
project management + administration
Project Coordinator, S’imbriquer by Philippe Dépelteau & Toronto Dance Theatre, Nuit Blanche, Toronto, ON | 2025
Festival Manager, Ground UP Festival, Kingston, ON | 2025
Outreach Manager, Dreamwalker Dance Company, Toronto, ON | 2025
Festival Coordinator, Ground UP Festival, Kingston, ON | 2024
Board Member [treasurer], Ground UP Festival, Kingston, ON | 2024-
Scholarship Committee Member, Nova Scotia Talent Trust | 2023-2025
Sales Coordinator, Artscape Gibraltar Point, Toronto Island, ON | 2022
Co-Artistic Director/Lover for Toronto Dance Love-In, Toronto, ON | 2020-
Project Coordinator, Eulogy by Lake Effect Projects, Nuit Blanche, Toronto, ON | 2019
Registration and Box Office Manager, Toronto Dance Love-In Summer Love-In Festival, Toronto, ON | 2019
Front of House Manager, Dreamwalker Dance Company, Toronto, ON | 2019
Project Coordinator, Wards by Andrew Finley Stewart, Nuit Blanche, Civic Centre, Scarborough, ON | 2018
Administrator, Toronto Dance Love-In Summer Love-In Festival, Toronto, ON | 2018
curation
Artist in Residence. suddenlyLISTEN, Halifax, NS | 2023
Our Streetcar // In(transit)ion. Artwork Advisory Panel Member, CityFund Foundation, Toronto, ON | 2019
This is Our Place: The Bentway. I/O Movement, The Bentway, Toronto, ON | 2018
This is Our Place: Old Weston. I/O Movement, Old Weston Road, Toronto, ON | 2017
publication
life scores, Special Characters | 2023
ants labyrinth, Dance Current (july edition) | 2022
L8NDSCAPES Online Artzine (INTERIOR edition) | 2018
This is Our Place, Dance Current (online gallery) | 2017
grants and awards
Master’s Scotia Scholars Award, ResearchNS | 2023
Dance Project Grant, Toronto Arts Council | 2021
based in Tkarón:to/Toronto
laurenrunions@gmail.com / @laurenrunions + @iomovement
upcoming →
Kingston Youth Dance Ensemble (KYDE). [guest choreographer] Kingston School of Dance, Kingston, ON
education
2023 Masters of Fine Arts at NSCAD University, Halifax, NS
Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo/Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Oslo, Norway
2021 Community Power Mapping by Darian Razdar + Unit 2 Celestial Seeds (online)
2019 Art in Public Space at FAI-AR, International MOOC (online)
2012 Performance Dance Studies at George Brown College, Toronto, ON
residency
Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts, Mnisiing (Toronto Islands), ON | 2024
Macros Series. Eastern Front Theatre, Dartmouth, NS | 2023
New Dance, New Music. Connection Dance Works & Resonance New Music (online) | 2020
Peggy Baker Space Grant. Canada's National Ballet School & The Choreographer's Network, Toronto, ON | 2020
Open Space. The National Ballet of Canada’s Walter Carsen Centre, Toronto, ON | 2019
Artist in Residence. City Dance Corps, Toronto, ON | 2019
Collective Practice Project. Love-In & Dancemakers facilitated by marikiscrycrycry, Toronto, ON | 2018
Dawn-to-Dawn. In collaboration with ====DeRAIL and Space Animators, Toronto, ON | 2018
The Creative Gesture: Collective Composition Lab. Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, AB | 2018
Anda Residency. Transitional Forest Hill home, Toronto, ON | 2018
Dancemakers: Plug & Play. Dancemakers, Toronto, ON | 2018
The Roundtable Residency. Dragon Academy, Toronto, ON | 2017
Connection Dance Works: PERSPECTIVE. Theatre New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB | 2017
The Living Room Series. Valence Movement/Jamee Valin, Toronto, ON | 2016
research + archival projects
New Fulcrum Project. [dance artist] pounds per square inch performance, Toronto, ON | 2025
Reperformance of Kinergy. [dancer] SLOW DANCE LAB/Sally Morgan’s Diane Moore Legacy Project, Halifax, NS | 2024
Play. [dancer] Mocean Dance & Jacinte Armstrong with local community, Kjipuktuk, NS | 2022
Vines. [dancer] Melanie Kloetzel (kloetzel&co.) & Brandy Leary (Anandam Dancetheatre), Toronto, ON | 2022
McMaster Parkinson’s Dance Video Game Project. [dancer] McMaster University, Hamilton, ON | 2017
solo shows
2023 life scores. Anna Leonowens Gallery, Kjipuktuk, NS
This two week thesis exhibition asks what conditions can develop kinaesthetic sensitivity, how bodiment practices can become accessible for a public or an audience through opening the practice of sight-reading, and what modes of score-writing can archive these processes. life scores featured live performances by Julie Robert, Jacinte Armstrong, Sangeeta Raju, along with the artist, and live scoring by Alek Green, Colleen MacIsaac, Craig Leonard, Daniel Edmonds, and Maud Lili Dobbell. The exhibition closed with a sharing by Halifax Dance’s Young Company (YOCO) featuring four scores developed from their social choreography lab research series.
2021 Strategies for Wayfinding. Gallery 1265, Scarborough, ON (online)
Strategies for Wayfinding is a study of day-to-day navigational tools. It names landmarks, sensorial signs and patterns, storytelling and choreographed place-routines as information to better understand the artist’s role, and responsibility, in shared-space. Strategies of Wayfinding features work by Lauren Runions with Maryanne Casasanta, Heddy Graterol, Mélika Hashemi, Alie Lavoie, and Mary Patsiatzis in partnership with Small's Creek Ravine, Bloordale Beach/Brockton Learning Centre, and Trinity Bellwoods Park.
2019 PLACE(MEANT). Public exhibit in private house in collaboration with Space Animator, Toronto, ON
During 24 hour artist residency –Dawn-to-Dawn– the artist explores “placemeant” inside the house, while director of Space Animator Gelareh Saadatpajouh wanders the surrounding streets. They establish a form of connection -a silent language- between inside and outside through a series of photo and video documentation, live streaming, text, drawings, tastes, sound recordings and olfactory discoveries.
installation and site-specific performance
Jeff Wall Photographs 1984–2023. [choreographer/performer] with Katherine Semchuk, MOCA, Toronto, ON | 2025
Untitled (Clock-Piece). [dancer] Susannah Haight, Nocturne, Staples Parking Lot, Halifax, NS | 2025
MANUAL. [performer] Christopher Willes & Adam Kinner with suddenlyLISTEN, Halifax Public Library, Halifax, NS | 2024
Untitled (Clock-Piece). [dancer] Susannah Haight, Nuit Blanche, Factory Theatre, Toronto, ON | 2024
Dim Sum without Distance. [dancer/choreographer] Hung Keung, Nuit Blanche, Love Park, Toronto, ON | 2024
MEANDER. [artist] this town is small’s Radiant Rural Halls, Georgetown Playhouse, Georgetown, PE | 2024
stosss. [artist] Special Characters group show Horses Running Through the Field, Hermes Gallery, Kjipuktuk, NS | 2023
MEANDER/DRIFT. [artist] textile installation with Marite Kuus & sound by Lou Campbell Nocturne, Kjipuktuk, NS | 2023
MEANDER. [artist] textile installation creation with Marite Kuus, Eastern Front Theatre, Dartmouth, NS | 2023
Stories. [choreographer] Nuit Blanche, Toronto, ON | 2022
Found in Translation. [dancer] Jacinte Armstrong, Nocturne, Kjipuktuk, NS | 2022
A Growing Wave Breaks in the Shore of Time (Tomorrow I was a Plant). [dancer] Elena Boja at Matadero Madrid, Spain | 2021
Artists at Work. [artist] Summer Works, Toronto, ON (online) | 2021
Scores for Social Distancing. [dancer] Jacinte Armstrong, virtual/Kjipuktuk, NS | 2020
Quartet with ‘Net Interface’ and ‘Mimic, Lake Ontario’. [dancer] the body as a fever dream, XPACE, Toronto, ON | 2020
Intervening “A Sudden Beginning” by Carlos Bunga. [dancer/choreographer] Opening Performance, MOCA, Toronto, ON | 2020
Rite of Passage. [dancer/choreographer] Closing performance “Procession” by Carlos Bunga, MOCA, Toronto, ON | 2020
A FLOOR, A FLORA. [dancer/choreographer] Artscape with West Queen West BIA, Lisgar Park, Toronto, ON | 2020
Last Song. [turn-tablist] with Allie Higgins and Daniel Pencer, PS: we are all here, Geary Lane, Toronto, ON | 2019
Pillars Piece. [choreographer] The Pillars Picnic by Daniel Rotsztain at York and Queen's Quay, Toronto, ON | 2019
Installation Performance at Purple Nights. [choreographer/dancer] Banded Purple, 500 Keele, Toronto, ON | 2019
Please Hold. [director] I Blink my Eyes to Keep the Time by The Sixhundred, Beaver Hall Gallery, Toronto, ON | 2019
Wild Inside. [dancer] Maryanne Casasanta, Clint Roenisch Gallery, Toronto, ON | 2018
Talk. [dancer] Maryanne Casasanta, Likely General, Toronto, ON | 2018
Party Wire. [choreographer] Site responsive installation at Toronto Reference Library, Toronto, ON | 2018
Please Hold. [artist] TV Video Installation at 611 Castle Field at Anda Residency, Toronto, ON | 2018
MALLEABILITY. [dancer] Amanda Macchia, Gallery Petite, New York, NY | 2018
For the Purpose of Grounding. [choreographic director] The Roundtable Residency at Dragon Academy, Toronto, ON | 2017
How To Find Your Ideal Heal. [choreographer] Long Winter, The Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, ON | 2017
Nitty Gritty. [choreographer] Surface Art Party and Fair, Artscape Sandbox, Toronto, ON | 2016
Jazz Baby. [choreographer] New Blue Festival of Emerging Dance, Dutch Dreams, Toronto, ON | 2016
Universal Ennui. [choreographer] White Wall Studios, Montreal, QB & The Black Cat Art Space, Toronto, ON | 2015
Gibbous Sequence. [choreographer] Exaltation and The Fall at OCAD U Student Gallery, Toronto, ON | 2015
Don't Listen To Your Mother. [choreographer/dancer] Surface Art Fair and Party at 99 Sudbury, Toronto, ON | 2015
The Architecture of Us [You + Me]. [choreographer] Lab Cab Festival in Gallery 1313, Toronto, ON | 2014
stage performance dance
Retro/Future. Phin Performing Arts/Lisa Phinney Langley, Kinetic’s Open Studio Series, Danspace, Kjipuktuk, NS | 2024
Play. Mocean Dance & Jacinte Armstrong, All Nations Church, Kjipuktuk, NS | 2023
Last Song. Toronto Dance Love-In's PS: we are all here, Geary Lane, Toronto, ON | 2019
Instinct A, or Play. Cassandra Bowerman, Dusk Dances Hamilton, Bayfront Park, Hamilton, ON | 2019
Solo Z. Dave Wilson/Parahumans, Pia Bouman’s Theatre, Toronto, ON | 2019
Griko. Solo performance in collaboration with Isabel String Quartet, Isabel Bader Centre, Kingston, ON | 2019
Company Dancer with Polynomials Body Theatre, Karissa Fyrrar, Toronto, ON | 2018-2020
What Exists Here. Valence Movement/Jamee Valin, Collective Space, Toronto. ON | 2018
21 Chopin Nocturnes. Parahumans/Dave Wilson, Trinity St. Paul's Church, Toronto, ON | 2018
Please Hold. 611 Castle Field at Anda Residency, Toronto, ON | 2018
Death Cafe. Polynomials/Karissa Fyrarr, Dance Matters at Scotia Bank Studio Theatre, Toronto, ON | 2018
Little Fires. Polynomials, Toronto Fringe Festival at Factory Theatre Mainspace, Toronto, ON | 2016
Bonne Nuit. Lydia Zimmer, Live Art Dance Series at Sir James Dunn Theatre, Kjipuktuk, NS | 2016
missXrepresentation. Alysa Pires Dance Projects, with/out at The Citadel, Toronto, ON | 2016
Off The Wall. Frog in Hand/Colleen Snell & artists, Living Arts Centre, Mississauga, ON | 2016
Company Dancer with Cadence Progressive Contemporary Ballet, Courtnae Bowman, Toronto, ON | 2012-2016
The Wild in Us. REAson d-etre/Kathleen Rea, Winchester Street Theatre, Toronto, ON | 2011
stage choreography
Of Wood and Ash. collaboration with Halifax Dance’s & First City’s Young Companies, Dunn Theatre, Kjipuktuk, NS | 2023
Shell Power. Split Bill with Jamee Valin & Warehaus Collective, Pia Bouman’s Theatre, Toronto, ON | 2019
The Hierarchy of Lastingness. Open Space Theatre, Fredricton, NB & BMO Studio Theatre, Saint John, NB | 2017
Bipedal. Kalos Collectives, Citadel Theatre, Toronto, ON | 2016
Grief Point. Dance Teacher's Expo featuring Kate Houston, Toronto, ON | 2016
The Question Method. Cadence Progressive Contemporary Ballet, Dancemakers, Toronto, ON | 2015
Finish Your Collapse. Cadence Youth Ballet, Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, Guelph, ON | 2015
Jamais Vu. Cadence Youth Ballet in Summer's End at Dancemakers, Toronto, ON | 2014
The Art of Wanderlust. Cadence Youth Ballet, Summer's End at Dancemakers, Toronto, ON | 2014
Jamais Vu. George Brown Dance Ensemble, Syndicate at Dancemakers, Toronto, ON | 2014
Jamais Vu. George Brown Dance, Betty Oliphant Theatre, Toronto, ON | 2014
Finish Your Collapse. Cadence Youth Ballet, Fleck Dance Theatre. Toronto ON | 2014
Hi, my name is. Carousel Dance Company, Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, Guelph, ON | 2014
Manic Slang. Cadence Ballet, Al Green Theatre & SummerWorks Opening Party at the Great Hall, Toronto, ON | 2013
Small Memory. Kingston School of Dance Youth Company, The Grand Theatre, Kingston, ON | 2013
Humanhood. Parahumans, Winchester St. Theatre, Toronto, ON | 2013
Fantastically Rocky. George Brown Dance, Betty Oliphant Theatre, Toronto, ON | 2013
Quiet Punctuation. York University's YA! Contemporary Dance, Betty’s, Toronto, ON | 2012
Finish Your Collapse. Cadence Youth Ballet, Dancemakers, Toronto, ON | 2012
Lucid. George Brown Dance presents Unleashed, Betty Oliphant Theatre, Toronto ON | 2012
music video
Furthest Limb by Rachel Bobbitt [movement director] direction by Colin Medley | 2025
One Day by Fucked Up [movement director] direction by Colin Medley | 2022
When You Love Someone by Alessia De Gasperis [movement director] direction by Julia Hendrickson | 2022
Only Pieces of the Truth by Jordan Hart [choreographer] direction by Julia Hendrickson | 2021
Secret Republic by Ian Daniel Kehoe [choreographer] direction by Colin Medley | 2018
Impossible by The Weather Station [dancer/choreographer] direction by Colin Medley | 2018
Bring the Pressure Washer by New Fries [dancer/choreographer] direction by Maryanne Casasanta | 2017
Century by Feist [dancer/stand-in] direction by Scott Cudmore, choreography by Noemie LaFrance | 2017
film + video
What's Safe. [dancer] with M. Hashemi, M. Casasanta & H. Graterol, New Sociology: Journal of Critical Praxis (online) | 2021
A Landmark!. [director/dancer] Saint John Contemporary Dance Festival, Saint John, NB | 2021
READY-TO-ASSEMBLE. [co-director/performer] direction D. Solleza & J. Wotherspoon, Screen:Moves, F-O-R-M, Queer North Film Festival | 2020
Pleasure Prospects. [dancer] New Mineral Collective (NO), Toronto Art Biennial, Toronto, ON | 2019
If you see something, say something. [dancer] Jane Gotch, Charlotte Street Foundation, Kansas City, MO | 2019
Nesia. [dancer] direction by Mikel Guillen, choreography by Dave Wilson | 2019
ALL THINGS GROW. [dancer] direction by Francesca Chudnoff | 2018
Baseline. [co-director] with Keaton TF Evans, The Black Cat Artspace, Toronto, ON & IDF Film Festival, Berlin, DE | 2018
community events
2021 Mapping Inside/Outside with Gallery 1265, Scarborough, ON (online)
This movement-based workshop plays with ideas of mapping inside/outside. The workshop includes a warm-up series, internal cognitive mapping and tracking outdoor experience(s) through dancing and drawing. This is an open workshop for anyone looking to move and consider their own relationality to place.
2019 Field Guide for Performance in Public Space workshop with Maximum City Summer Camp, Toronto, ON
Summer camp attendees participate in a sensory walk connecting body with the area of the camp. They follow a field guide to explore site through their unique kinaesthetic, tactile, olfactory, visual, and audio capacities. The session asks how can our own embodied awareness relate to places where culture and nature meet?
2019 Dancing + Drawing, Bickford Park, Toronto, ON
This three part series offers to the public guided improvisation classes incorporating dancing and drawing techniques in an outdoor environment. Each session is supported by live DJ or curated playlists by local artists.
2018 Movement at the Mall, Yorkdale Mall, Toronto, ON
Fostered by Daniel Rotsztain, Urban Geographer and artist in residence with Art Starts at Yorkdale Mall, the workshop offers interactive pop-up movement exercises for all to join. This workshop considered our senses, proximity, “mall etiquette” and questions how people choreographically use the shopping centre.
2018 Dancing + Drawing, Bickford Park, Toronto, ON
This three part series offers the public guided improvisation classes incorporating dancing and drawing techniques in an outdoor environment. Each session is supported by live DJ or curated playlists by artists.
teaching experience
The Underground Dance Centre — ballet | 2025
Juvenis Festival [mentor/workshop teacher] — contemporary | 2025
Ground UP Dance Festival [guest teacher] — contemporary | 2024
Halifax Dance [substitute teacher/guest young company faculty] — contemporary ballet, modern, contemporary | 2023-2024 Maritime Conservatory [substitute teacher] — contemporary ballet, modern, and contemporary | 2023-2024
Mocean Dance — contemporary ballet | 2022-2023
The Railpath Arts Centre — contemporary ballet | 2020
DanceLifeX — ballet | 2020
Millennium Toronto — contemporary ballet, ballet technique | 2018-2019
Sandra Amodeo Dance Studio [guest teacher] — contemporary ballet | 2018-2019
City Dance Corps — contemporary ballet, ballet, contemporary | 2017-2020
The Underground Dance Centre — contemporary ballet, ballet | 2017-2020
The School of Cadence Ballet — contemporary, contemporary ballet | 2014-2017
Kingston School of Dance — contemporary, jazz | 2007-2022
I’ve Got Rhythm — BATD tap, jazz, and ballet | 2005-2007
residency facilitation
2018 This is Our Place: The Bentway, Toronto, ON
In partnership with The Bentway’s Community Incubation Program, five dance artists participate in a public space performance residency under the theme City Play. Over a week these dance artists craft site-responsive works. The week culminates with a free, participatory showing throughout The Bentway’s Strachan Gate.
2017 This is Our Place: Old Weston, Toronto, ON
Looking at themes of domestic space, six dance artists create/work/be in an empty house while in transition between homeowners. The artists are invited to spend as much time in the house. The residency culminates with an intimate gathering open to the public.
project management + administration
Project Coordinator, S’imbriquer by Philippe Dépelteau & Toronto Dance Theatre, Nuit Blanche, Toronto, ON | 2025
Festival Manager, Ground UP Festival, Kingston, ON | 2025
Outreach Manager, Dreamwalker Dance Company, Toronto, ON | 2025
Festival Coordinator, Ground UP Festival, Kingston, ON | 2024
Board Member [treasurer], Ground UP Festival, Kingston, ON | 2024-
Scholarship Committee Member, Nova Scotia Talent Trust | 2023-2025
Sales Coordinator, Artscape Gibraltar Point, Toronto Island, ON | 2022
Co-Artistic Director/Lover for Toronto Dance Love-In, Toronto, ON | 2020-
Project Coordinator, Eulogy by Lake Effect Projects, Nuit Blanche, Toronto, ON | 2019
Registration and Box Office Manager, Toronto Dance Love-In Summer Love-In Festival, Toronto, ON | 2019
Front of House Manager, Dreamwalker Dance Company, Toronto, ON | 2019
Project Coordinator, Wards by Andrew Finley Stewart, Nuit Blanche, Civic Centre, Scarborough, ON | 2018
Administrator, Toronto Dance Love-In Summer Love-In Festival, Toronto, ON | 2018
curation
Artist in Residence. suddenlyLISTEN, Halifax, NS | 2023
Our Streetcar // In(transit)ion. Artwork Advisory Panel Member, CityFund Foundation, Toronto, ON | 2019
This is Our Place: The Bentway. I/O Movement, The Bentway, Toronto, ON | 2018
This is Our Place: Old Weston. I/O Movement, Old Weston Road, Toronto, ON | 2017
publication
life scores, Special Characters | 2023
ants labyrinth, Dance Current (july edition) | 2022
L8NDSCAPES Online Artzine (INTERIOR edition) | 2018
This is Our Place, Dance Current (online gallery) | 2017
grants and awards
Master’s Scotia Scholars Award, ResearchNS | 2023
Dance Project Grant, Toronto Arts Council | 2021