taanshi/shalom/hello

I am a theatre/performance artist, educator, and scholar. I am Red River Michif (Métis) with Logan, Dease, Dupuis, and Vandal ancestry. My ancestors were present at the establishment of the Red River Settlment. ni mooshum lived in the historic Métis community of Rooster Town. I am Jewish, with my ancestors arriving on Turtle Island in the early 1900’s escaping the pogroms in Russia. They established and found community in Treaty 1 territory (Winnipeg, MB).

As we go forward, I’d like to take a moment to honour the land and our matriarchs that have carried us and nurtured us into this moment.

My current practice is focused on decolonizing a storytelling process by listening to and dialoguing with ancestral and cultural knowledge. My practice includes land-based creation, circular storytelling, and destabilizing hierarchical power structures in the rehearsal process, with a focus on anti-oppressive/anti-racist modalities.

I am a SSHRC funded Master of Fine Arts Directing graduate from York University, a top 30 under 30 York University Alumni, and a Ken McDougall Award recipient for promising emerging director. As a storyteller I have worked across Turtle Island (colonially known as Canada) as an actor, director, dramaturg, producer, clown, creator, and community worker with companies and festivals including Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Native Earth Performing Arts, Indigenous Arts Knowledge Exchange, Stratford Festival, Theatre YES, Gwaandak Theatre, Toronto Metropolitan University,  Centre for Indigenous Theatre, Made in Exile, Citadel Theatre, Nextfest, Play the Fool Festival, Edmonton Fringe Festival, and Paprika Theatre Festival. I am a graduate of the BFA Acting Program at the University of Alberta. Although, more importantly, I learn from all the incredible relations – human and more than human – I have the fortune of visiting with.