Dancer, Yoga Teacher

After his studies at Hull University and several travel initiatives around the world, Julien began dancing at the age of 21. During his studies at the Conservatoire de danse de Montreal , he received a bursary from Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal that allowed him to participate in a pedagogical residency at L'Académie internationale de musique et de danse du Domaine Forget (Charlevoix). Another bursary led him to study at the prestigious National Ballet School of Canada. During his dancing career Julien has had the opportunity to perform with Ballet Ouest, The National Ballet of Canada, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal and The Banff Center for the Arts Dance Festival. Drawn by the wisdom of oriental spirituality, Julien has also worked to become a certified yoga instructor. His previous studies allowed him to enrich the athletic rigor of the yoga discipline with the specific principles of dance. Paralleling his career as a yoga instructor Julien works as an administrator for ezdanza, a company that he co-founded in 2006.

Dancer

Karissa was born in Edmonton, Alberta and began her dance training at age 7 at Marr Mac Dance and later studied at the Edmonton School of Ballet, Cecchetti Dance Theatre, The Banff Centre, Ballet BC's mentor program, and the Impulstanz workshops in Vienna, Austria. Aside from classical ballet, she has trained in many different styles of dance such as modern, jazz, tap, and African. Karissa started her professional career in Vancouver and has worked with Amber Funk Barton, Alison Denham, Marla Eist, Movent Enterprises, Science Friction, the Vancouver Opera, and spent 5 seasons with Wen Wei Dance. Also working in TV and film, Karissa has performed in Showtime's Reefer Madness TV musical , as well as other various TV commercials. She has also choreographed works for Cecchetti Dance Theatre, Dance Explosions, Dancestreams junior company, Twelve Minutes Max, Ballet BC 's Mentor Program, Brief Encounters, and the music video "Time Breaks Down" by Vancouver talent Bend Sinister. Presently Karissa is based out of Montreal , working with Sylvain Emard Danse and ezdanza.

Dancer

Born in Bécancour (Québec), Eric first encountered dance at the age of 16 when he made his performing arts debut in a student musical comedy show. After graduating from l'Ecole Supérieure de Danse du Québec, he participated in many productions with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Le Jeune Ballet du Québec and The Banff Festival Ballet. In 1994, upon receiving the "du Maurier prize for promising young talent", he left for Europe where he became a member of the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe and later the Stadttheater Moenchengladbach in Germany . From 1997 to 2004, he danced with Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal with whom he has performed works of more than fifteen choreographers including Mia Michaels, Dominique Dumais, Patrick Delcroix and Crystal Pite. In 2002, at the Défi de l'excellence Mondor, he won the "Prix du Jury" and the "Prix du Public" for interpreting a duet by Edgar Zendejas. In 2004, he became an independent artist and has had, since then, the privilege of performing with La Fondation Jean-Pierre Perrault, Paul-André Fortier, Sylvain Emard Danse, Lina Cruz, ezdanza, Aszure&Artists, Dadadanse, Proartedanza, Kidd Pivot and Louise Lecavalier. Eric has also taught classical ballet and improvisation to both professional dancers and students in dance centers such as Regroupement Québécois de la danse, Winnipeg 's Contemporary Dancers, The School of Dance in Ottawa and Halifax Dance. He has also recently worked as artistic assistant for Kidd Pivot's new creation presented at the 2008 Canada Dance Festival.

Dancer

Though a native to Toronto, Danielle is of South African heritage. It was this multicultural upbringing that led her to explore a wide variety of dance styles in her training process.

She studied Limon technique with Donna Krasnow of York University and has received other modern training from Peggy Baker, Darryl Tracey, Pat Baker, Michael Trent, Robert Desrosiers. She was initially trained as a classical dancer and graduated from the Professional Program of the National Ballet of Canada in 2002 where she worked with a variety of teachers including Bob McCullum, Lindsey Fischer, Martine van Hamel and Jeanne Yves Esquerre.

Danielle has been performing as a contemporary artist for the past 8 years, having had the privilege to perform works independantly by: Holly Small, Michael Trent, Frank Augustyn, Andrea Nann and Tedd Robinson, she also performed independantly for and as a member of Robert Desrosiers dance company for 2 years following the completion of her training.

In 2002 Danielle was engaged by Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal with whom she remained for 3 seasons during which time she performed premieres by Aszure Barton, Rodrigo Pedenerias of Groupo Corpo and Crystal Pite. Between 2003 - 2007 she was a member of ProArteDanza under the direction of Roberto Campanella and since 2006 Danielle has been a member of ezDanza, where she works as an interpretive artist as well as collaborately as Artistic Assistant with director Edgar Zendejas. She continues to dance in Canada and abroad having performed in North and South America, Asia, and Europe.

She has taught ballet, jazz, and contemporary dance internationally and is presently studying to become a registered holistic nutritionist. Danielle approaches her art with a passionate honesty, constantly striving to explore her own potential and the cross cultural mediums of communication that exist between the artist, the audience and movement itself.

Dancer

Versatile interpreter, pedagogue and choreographer, Yannick has made dance the focal point in his life now for over twenty-two years. His carer has been atypically eclectic considering the classical formation he received (he studied the french technique with renowned teacher Daniel Sellier and the Vaganova sylabus with Max Ratevosian himself a pupil of  Pushkin). Pedantic and free spirited: these are the two traits of character that are primordially responsible for the shaping of his career and teachings. Aside from working as a classical and contemporary dancer with the Alberta Ballet and Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal respectively he has had the privilege to worked with many of our contemporaries including Aszure Barton (ASzURe&Artists), Battery Opera, Benoît Lachambre (ParBLeux), Crystal Pite (Kidd Pivot), Dominique Porte (Système D), Day Helesic (Movent), Edgar Zendejas (ezdanza), Karen Jamieson, Robert Battle (Battleworks), The Holy Body Tattoo and Wen Wei Wang. Yannick just came back from a residency in France where he worked with choreographers Su-Feh Lee and Benoît Lachambre on Body-Scan a piece that was presented at the Festival des Antipodes. Presently of no fixed address this Montreal native will remain on the road for at least another year touring North America, Europe and the Middle East with Body-Scan, Kidd Pivot and Rubberbandance Group.

Dancer

Drew was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. He started his dance training at the age of 8 at Summit School of Dance. After graduating from the Perpich Center Arts High School in Minneapolis he went to Juilliard, where he performed works by such notable choreographers as Dwight Rhoden, Jirí Kylián and Nacho Duato. While attending Juilliard, Drew also had the opportunity to dance with Neil Young and in honor for the Prince and Princess of the Netherlands. Upon receiving his BFA, Drew went on to dance for Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal [bjm_danse] from 2005-2007 and has been with ezdanza since it's conception in 2006. Aside from dancing, Drew works for an organization in Uganda called In Need Home Foundation, which helps street children and people living in "internally displaced people" refugee camps.

Dancer

Soula started dance at the early age of three at L'Academie de ballet classique de Montr é al. She then joined L'École sup é rieure de danse du Qu é bec where she expanded her knowledge and experience in all styles of dance. In 2000, she integrated Le Jeune Ballet du Qu é bec where she danced under the direction of many acclaimed choreographers such as Hélène Blackburn, Jane Mappin, Ginette Laurin, Louis-Martin Charest, Estelle Clareton, Lina Cruz, Christophe Garcia, Dominique Porte and Frederico Tavernini. She began her career in 2003 and danced with compagnies Création Caféine, La [parenthèse], Rubberbandance Group, ezdanza, Fila 13, Liberamæ as well as Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montr é al. This is Soula's second collaboration with ezdanza.

Lighting Designer

He has been involved in performance art as Lighting Designer and Technical Director for more than 25 years for such artists and  groups, amongst others: La Compagnie de  danse Entre-Six, Le Théâtre Populaire du Québec, Japan's Grand Kabuki, Les Ballets jazz de Montréal, Pat Metheny, The Peking Acrobats, Les Sortilèges, Catherine Lara, The Kiev Ballet, Ondekosa Japanese Demon Drummers, Angèle Dubeau et la Piétà, Le Gala des Étoiles, Les Films Rozon Inc.

He is currently Production Manager and Lighting Designer with [bjm_danse] and has recently collaborated with rising young choreographers such as Crystal Pite and Edgar Zendejas. Daniel has been the lighting designer for ezdanza since it's conception in 2006.