integrated dance artists collective

Hailing from Melville, Saskatchewan, Shannon Litzenberger is a Toronto-based dance artist and arts manager. She is the co-founder of the Integrated Dance Artists Collective, and the Manager of Operations for the Canadian Dance Assembly (CDA). She holds an honours BFA in dance from Ryerson University, and an MA from York University where she undertook research in the area of artistic and creative mentorship. Shannon has guided the development of IDAC since its founding in 2001, and has been instrumental in establishing a working model that supports and nurtures the development of young professional artists. Through IDAC, she has most recently performed commissioned works by David Earle, DA Hoskins, Heidi Strauss and Darryl Tracy and participated in a creative collaboration with dance-theatre artist Meagan O’Shea and guests.

Tal Aronson is an independent dancer, teacher, and choreographer and holds a BFA in Dance from Ryerson University. As a performer, Tal had the privilege of dancing for the OMO Dance Company (Debbie Wilson, artistic director) for 5 seasons. She toured with the company to Macedonia, performing in the critically acclaimed ‘Planetarium’ alongside members of the Macedonian National Ballet. She was a featured dancer in the Dora nominated ‘Homo Office Sapiensis,’ and ‘Diary of an Exile.’ Tal is a founding member of the Integrated Dance Artists Collective(IDAC) a repertoire-based collective, where she performs as well as creates work. With IDAC, Tal has performed in work by choreographers Heidi Strauss, Darryl Tracy and Meagan O’Shea. As a choreographer Tal’s work has been featured in ‘On The Verge’ by IDAC, ‘At The Wrecking Ball’ by Ambitious Enterprises, and in OMO Dance Company choreographic workshops. Tal recently traveled to Vienna to participate in workshops at ImpulsTanz, working intensively with mentor Angelique Willkie and others. Upcoming work includes a new IDAC commission by Canadian dance icon David Earle and performances in a Fallen Rock’s production of ‘Joseph and The Amazing Technicolour Draemcoat’ to benefit the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario (POGO).

Lauren Cook is an independent dancer, administrator and choreographer and is a graduate of Ryerson University’s Dance Program. Upon graduation, Lauren danced in works choreographed by Allison Bryan, Geordan Coupland, Catherine Murray and Andrea Spaziani and were presented at the Toronto Fringe Festival 2005 and 2006, The Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival 2006 and 2007 and the Montreal Fringe Festival 2007. Over the last year, Lauren has been enjoying an active performance career with the Integrated Dance Artists Collective, performing in works by David Earle, Darryl Tracy and Heidi Strauss. Most recently she had the opportunity of working with multi disciplinary artist and choreographer, Meagan O’Shea in How To Be. Lauren’s recent choreographic credits include Under the Mulberry Bush, performed at the Montreal Fringe Festival in 2007 and Decoded, a fusion of Contemporary and Urban Dance Styles.

Alicia Grant is a recent graduate from York University’s dance program. Since then she has danced at TransformationDanse (Montreal), EDAM (Vancouver), ImPulsTanz (Vienna) and LaborGras (Berlin). She collaborated on The Residents, a dance/video installation at Casa Loma that was voted #1 Greatest Hit of Nuit Blanche by the Toronto Star. In June, Alicia will premiere the new work Rest or Rant at the Festival of New Dance (St. John’s) in collaboration with Cara Spooner.

Andrea Spaziani is a choreographer, teacher, dancer and member of Toronto’s Integrated Dance Artists Collective. An honours grad from Ryerson University in 2005, Some of Andrea’s choreographic credits include Red Letter (2007) recently performed at Hitch, Torque & Twist and the Montreal Fringe Festival, The Stand (2006) for the Toronto International Dance Festival’s Emerging Artist showcase, choreography for Always Lost, Never Found (2005): written and directed by Mike Hughes for Montreal’s New Classical Theatre Festival, and Jane (2005) a self-choreographed solo work for the Montreal Fringe that was nominated for the Studio 303 choreography award. Andrea recently choreographed and performed in the music video production of The Flood by The Acorn and directed by Juno Award winner Christopher Mills. Andrea’s recent performance work with IDAC includes side [a]ffects (2007) featuring choreography by David Earle, D.A. Hoskins, Heidi Strauss and Darryl Tracy, and a current project with Toronto interdisciplinary artist Meagan O’Shea entitled How to Be.