"The Cledon" Artistic Team

Kayla Henry is the founder and Artistic Director of Noble Riot Dance Theatre (2021). Kayla has been choreographing since she was 8-years old, professionally since 2013. Her works have been presented by Dance Victoria (Victoria), Good Women Dance Collective (Edmonton), Impulse Theatre (Victoria), Constance Cooke Dance (Victoria) and Springboard Performance (Calgary). Her creative processes have been supported through grants, awards, residencies, and mentorships. 

Kayla has performed in hundreds of professional works across Canada, USA, and Europe. Choreographers include Christina Medina (Austria), Rachel Browne (Winnipeg), Sasha Ivanochko (Toronto), Paras Terezakis (Vancouver), Menaka Thakkar (Toronto), to name a few. 

Christina Medina is a Filipino-Canadian contemporary dance artist originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Medina is on faculty at The Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna (MUK). Christina has performed the works of Dance Collective/Ruth Cansfield, Trip Dance, Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, Serge Bennathan, Peter Bingham, Rachel Browne, Rosemary Butcher, Catherine Guerin, Davida Monk, Roger Sinha, Tom Stroud and Tedd Robinson. Prior to moving to Vienna, she was the Director of @tendance/C.Medinadance (Graz, Austria). Her choreographic works have been shown in Canada, Europe and Brazil. Medina’s pedagogical experiences includes master classes/workshops in Canada and Europe.

Finley Rose is a musician and performing artist from Vancouver Island, BC. Finley grew up among the arbutus trees, echoing their song. Their music draws on the darkness and light of human experience; a soaring vocal line over a resonant violin phrase, a heartfelt song, spun from the piano. Influenced by genres such as traditional folk, alternative rock and neo-classical music, elements of these styles support the intricate soundscapes they create. Finley began studying music at age 4, learning classical violin and voice under the tutelage of Arthur Petrie, Sharon Wishart and Trish Horrocks. At age 16 Finley attended the Canadian College of Performing Arts where they furthered their studies and graduated with an Enriched Performing Arts Diploma.

Nicole Mandryk is Anishinaabe, Irish and Ukrainian and her traditional name is Niibinobinesiik. Her name translates to Summer Thunderbird, and its physical representation is the loon. Her ancestry on her mother’s side of the family comes from Oka. Her mother was raised in Ottawa disconnected from community as a result of the Indian Act. Her father’s side of the family are Ukrainian. These ancestors settled in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Nicole and her sister were born and raised on the on the traditional territory of the lək̓ wəŋən , Esquimalt, and W̱SANEĆ nations. She is a grateful guest on these territories and raises her hands to the caretakers of the land, skies, and waters. 

Nicole is a visual artist who is dedicated to Anishinaabe art practices. She is inspired by Anishinaabe stories, art, land, language, and songs. Nicole has been engaged in performative arts through Indigenous showcases and has been asked by community to compose and share songs. These songs have been sung by The Wildflowers, ANSWER, and the Lafayette String Quartet for the project B.K Weigel/Lafayette String Quartet Legacy Project. She is also an emerging beadwork artist since 2014. Nicole’s mentors are Lindsay Delaronde (Mohawk), Jessica Gokey (Anishinaabe) and Lynette La Fontaine (Métis). Her work was featured in the exhibition On Beaded Ground (Legacy Art Gallery, 2021).

Valerie Salez is an anti-disciplinary artist whose practice includes performance, video, photography, sculpture, installation, and collage. Often relying on provisional materials, her work has been framed as arte povera and/or situationist in nature. Her social art projects deal with inequality, oppression, and destruction at the hands of colonial resource extraction. Her solo works dive into mystic and spiritual realms in the face of colonial imbalance. Salez has exhibited extensively at university art galleries, artist run centers, alternative spaces and city-wide, outdoor festivals. 

Her large-scale collage works and sculptures are in private collections, provincial permanent collections and the Canada Council Art Bank. Valerie is Catalan, Polish/Hungarian and has lived most of her life in the Yukon on Southern Tutchone, Tlingit, and Han traditional territories and currently dwells on unceded Coast Salish territories around so called Victoria, B.C.

Kemi Craig is a dancer and visual artist living in the unceded lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Territories (Victoria,BC). 

Through her lived experience as a woman of African descent, Kemi's work moves through dance as well as analogue and digital visual technologies to center futures for people with raced and gendered bodies. She creates multi-sensory, site-specific installations and performances, embedding community and audience engagement.
 

Elya Grant is a graduate of contemporary dance program Modus Operandi. She also attended Rubberbandance Group’s Domaine Forget, École de Danse Contemporaine de Montréal and the Eastman/Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s Intensive in Antwerp. Elya has worked with artists and companies such as the response, Company 605, Heather Laura Gray and Karissa Barry. She interned with Out Innerspace from 2014-2016 and has been performing, touring and creating with the company since. In 2020 Elya moved to Victoria BC, on the unceded Coast Salish Territory of the Lekwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ nations.

Rick Laird is a Victoria-based sound engineer specializing in on-location recording, with a focus on folk and ambient music. Notable projects include the soundtrack for the James Beard award-winning documentary film "Modified", recordings for the High Quadra Ramblers, and a touring album for OQO featuring Nightingale. Their meticulous approach prioritizes capturing the authenticity and raw beauty of each performance, evident in their collaborations with these emerging Canadian artists.

Constance Cooke (she/her/they) is a Victoria based, queer Canadian dance artist. Her choreography includes works for stage, dance on film, and site-specific work; she is an educator of contemporary dance, screendance and somatic movement; a mentor and curator. Cooke’s work has been presented in Canada, The United States, Mexico and Europe. She has created over 60 professional works, including 10 self-produced full-length works. “Kairos” marks Cooke's much anticipated return to the Victoria stage since 2015.

Originally from Edmonton (amiskwaciy-wâskahikan), Alberta, Karissa has been a professional contemporary dance artist for 24 years, working throughout Canada, Asia, and Europe. She has worked with choreographers and companies such as Action at a Distance (Vancouver), Anne Plamondon (Montréal), Les Productions Figlio (Vancouver), Out Innerspace Dance Theatre (Vancouver), Raven Spirit Dance

(Vancouver), Sylvain Émard Danse (Montréal), and Wen Wei Dance (Vancouver), among others.

Her choreographic work extends to festivals and companies such as Ballet Edmonton, Dancing on the Edge, Dance Deck Cinq, Dusk Dances, Expanse Festival, Fluid Festival, la petite scène, Modus Operandi, Project Intandem, Small Stage, and her self-produced evening STRATEGY THREE. She has created dance on film projects that have been presented on various platforms in Canada and Europe. In 2018, she became Rehearsal Director at Ballet Edmonton for three seasons under the Artistic Direction of Wen Wei Wang. During that time she choreographed three original works for the company, and assisted choreographers Gioconda Barbuto, Josh Beamish, Serge Bennathan, Shay Kuebler, Rachel Meyer and Wen Wei Wang. Currently based on Vancouver Island (Snaw-Na-Was First Nation), Karissa continues to pursue choreographic and performance endeavors for both film & live performance, as well as instructing various contemporary dance techniques.