Transfixation Collective (12 Members)

Project Synopsis

Transfixation is an Interdisciplinary performance featuring Contemporary Dance, Live Music, and Song. The project has been in development for 5 years and is finally ready for public performance

ONE NIGHT ONLY - SATURDAY APRIL 11, 2026

Why We Need Funding Support?

This unique project supporting diversity in its many aspects, as well as the voices of multi-generational women, in a brazenly hostile world – was not successfully funded by arts councils. We submitted several written comments from the audience who attended our Informal performance, as well as comments by 3 dancers about the personal value of the project to themselves. We are seeking financial support of any amount, to cover expenses for the Transfixation Collective.

Collaborative Collective (Biographies at end of Document)

Performers

Annalise Grammacione (Choreographer/Dancer)

Amy Lee (Piano)

Viv Moore (Choreographer/Dancer/Performance Coach)

Olivia Okonkwo (Choreographer/Dancer)

Grace Quinsey (Singer)

Rosemary Stehlik (Choreographer/Dancer)

Rebecca Hope Terry (Choreographer/Dancer)

Soraya Lee Wo (Choreographer/Dancer)

Designers

Gaby Alcazar (Social Media)

Mikel Guillen (Concept)

Dave Wilson (Choreographer/Movement Scores)

Carmen Zavislake (Make-Up)

Project Details

Transfixation focuses on the lives and experiences of 6 women, ranging in age from 21 to 74. The multi-generational production includes emerging dance artists as well as experienced and senior artists. The short (4-6 minute) dances are accompanied live on grand piano to Beethoven Sonatas in the Music Room of Hart House, University of Toronto.

This Avant Garde project consciously seeks to create collisions between the beautiful and clear creations of Beethoven and the raw emotional dancing of the women. At times they ‘go along’ with the perfectly placed classical notes, but also resist, ignore, enter darkness, and dance with no boundaries – rising like a phoenix in triumph. Ultimately, the Artist’s own voice becomes the victor.

Viv Moore (Choreographer/Performance Coach) and Dave Wilson (Choreographer/ Movement Scores) – 46 years Dance/Life partnership – worked with each dancer to generate dance material with a focus on stylization and narrative. Each dancer then used these initial prompts to integrate the material into the dances they have generated for performance. The sonata for each dancer was chosen after experimenting in the studio.

The Creation So Far

One year ago, Viv and Dave worked with 4 female dancers in a workshop setting, experimenting with the performance concepts noted above. After 4 workshops each dancer presented choreography to an informal audience of 15 friends, family and dance artists at Pia Bouman School of Ballet & Creative Dance. The dances were filmed and 3 (max allowed) were later submitted to Toronto Arts Council and Ontario Arts Council for grant applications. The audience wrote comments that were studied later by the Collective. This feedback proved to be invaluable moving forwards. During December 2025 and this January, the cast was finalized and workshops continued to fulfill our early visions of what the production could be. A pianist and singer have also been engaged for the performance.

Informal Performance – Audience Comments:

Subversion, contrast, multidimensional, beauty – rage.

Love the breath work – visceral.

Internal struggle, escape, knowledge of the world, finding oneself, finding a way, breaking free, independence within oneself.

Such powerful movement, it was very impactful.

Dancers Comment On Their Workshop Experiences:

Dancer 1 – The strength that I carry as a woman today comes from the challenges that have taught me the importance of speaking up, the strength of my morals, and the intensity of healing through difficult circumstances.

Dancer 2 – My ancestors are with me in this piece. My intentions in this work manifest our coauthored rage, extending through centuries.

Dancer 3 – This project has been an opportunity to gather every version of the woman that I have been, and piece it together with the woman that I currently am.

How Will The Funds Be Used?

Budget:

Performers Rehearsal fees – 1200

Performers Performance fees – 1400

Designers fees – 1750

Hart House (U of T) Rental – 1500 (paid)

Studio rehearsal rental – 750

Videography – 150

Photography – 150

Promotion costs – 750

TOTALS: $7650 + 10% Contingency – $765 = $8415

Background

While some of the artists have recently been added to the project, there are many connections in the cast and production team that go back a long time. Rebecca Hope Terry (Choreographer/ Dancer) performed on the same program as Viv Moore at the inaugural fFIDA (Fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists, Toronto) in 1991, and later in Denise Fujiwara’s Conference of the Birds (2006). Rosemary Stehlik (Choreographer/Dancer) hosted Dave Wilson’s Hamilton Dance company at her art studio in 1997. Viv acted in a film by Mikel Guillen (Conceptual Design) – Volumnia, and Dave created choreography with Lauren Runions for Mikel’s award-winning film – Nesia. The Parahumans’ dance production 21 Chopin Nocturnes (2018) – 21 Dances/17 Dancers/2 hours Length/Performed In-The-Round at Trinity St Paul’s – was an event that initially inspired what the Transfixation Collective is offering here.

Meet & Greet

All patrons in attendance and donors are invited to stay for a reception with food provided by elite Mexican catering Santo Pecado. All Collective members will be available for feedback, chats, and photo ops.

Collaborative Collective (Biographies)

Performers

Annalise Grammacione (Choreographer/Dancer)

Annalise Grammacione is an emerging dance artist from Toronto, whose practice centers on movement, choreography, and improvisation. She trained at Etobicoke School of the Arts and studied dance at Toronto Metropolitan University, where her first vernacular jazz class sparked a lasting devotion to jazz dance. She completed the Decidedly Jazz Danceworks Professional Training Program. In 2021 and 2022, she performed with Frog in Hand Dance Company, engaging with site specific choreography and theatrical performance. In the summer of 2025, Annalise attended the Creating in Jazz program at The School at Jacob’s Pillow led by LaTasha Barnes, where she received the Professional Advancement Award in Dance. Now based in Toronto, she begins her first season performing with Ballet Creole, where her jazz foundation continues to inform her engagement with Afro Cuban rhythms and musical expression. Besides performing, Annalise is committed to teaching, choreographing, and sharing the cultural and historical roots of jazz.

Amy Lee (Piano)

Amy is a 2nd year Piano Major at the University of Toronto – Faculty of Music. She began her journey at age 5, studying piano and voice with a strong foundation in classical music. Currently, Amy is broadening her artistic scope to include musical theatre. She has worked as a Music Director for the musical Rent at Hart House Theatre, and performed as Keyboard II for the musical Chess at Isabel Bader Theatre. She is studying piano with Emily Chiang and is particularly focused on developing her collaborative skills with singers and instrumentalists. Playing and making music is one of the biggest joys of her life!

Viv Moore (Choreographer/Dancer/Performance Coach)

Born in England. Ballet age 4, Music Hall, Jazz, Butoh and Ballroom. Viv has danced, choreographed and acted as collaborator, solo artist, outside eye, movement coach, teacher (Community Dance, England, Sweden, Australia; Humber College in AFTV & Theatre) curator/presenter, (60x60, Nuit Blanche), Artistic Director (Body Percussion Festival, Worcestershire Saucy, Pull Up Your Socks). Viv was Nationals Coordinator - Fight Directors Canada; received Paula Citron fFIDA Award and nominated for a Dora Award several times; Chalmers Arts Fellowship. www.vivimoore.com.

Olivia Okonkwo (Choreographer/Dancer)

Olivia Okonkwo is a biracial Nigerian-Canadian multidisciplinary artist, with a creative practice based in dance creation, performance and choreography. She graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University’s (formerly Ryerson) BFA Performance Dance program in 2024. She has performed in both stage and film works by Robert Glumbek and Roberto Campanella (ProArteDanza), Vicki St. Denys, Guillaume Côté (Côté Danse), Lua Shayenne (LSDC), and several others. Olivia has worked closely with Vicki St. Denys and Peggy Baker as a demonstrator/assistant at TMU and Canada’s National Ballet School. As an emerging choreographer, Olivia’s works have debuted with Fall for Dance North and TO Live’s: Innovative Ballet Theatre and the LSDC YENSA Festival. Currently, Olivia is working with Ballet Creole as an apprentice dancer and is teaching at GOH Ballet Bayview.

Grace Quinsey (Singer)

Canadian soprano Grace Quinsey is recognized for her vivid stage presence and expressive musicality. Opera Canada praised her Josephine in HMS Pinafore as “delightful… her laser-sharp upper register was impressive,” while her Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus was described as “captivating,” with “high notes [that] popped like champagne.” Recent engagements include Rosalinde with Abridged Opera and the Windsor Symphony Orchestra, Dorabella (Così fan tutte) and Josephine (HMS Pinafore) with Opera York, and Mařenka in Prodaná nevěsta, where she was praised for her “rich tone” (Ludwig van Toronto). Her repertoire also includes Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Norina (Don Pasquale), and Zerlina (Don Giovanni), and she has appeared as a soprano soloist in Haydn’s The Creation. Born and raised in Windsor, Ontario, Grace has extensive Cecchetti ballet training. When not on stage, she is a software developer and a video game aficionado.

Rosemary Stehlik (Choreographer/Dancer)

Rosemary is a multi-dimensional Artist of Sound, Movement and Vision. Practicing Dance since childhood, she transitioned into the Martial Arts while engaging occult philosophy, ritual performance, and witchcraft as the language of her Dance, athletic discipline and Spirituality. She is an International Athlete slated to compete at the Zhengzhou Wushu Olympics in China in October 2026. She approaches movement as spell work - intentional, and transformative. As an international fine-artist and musician, she also invokes work that merges esoteric symbolism with introspective shadow work. Rosemary Stehlik is a High Priestess, Witch and a visionary Alchemist whose voice of dance is reflected through power, initiation, and the sacred architecture of womanhood. Holding the devotion of a 36th Generation Disciple of Shaolin Kung Fu and teacher of women’s self-defence, she integrates martial rigor with metaphysical and magical focus. Her work stands at the intersection of fine art, magickal praxis, and embodied sovereignty.

Rebecca Hope Terry (Choreographer/Dancer)

Hope’s 35+ year multi-disciplinary performance career holds many dear memories: Performing her one-woman show, Weather in Edinburgh at the Traverse Theatre, working with choreographers from Vancouver to Toronto, traipsing the globe with Dancemakers under the direction of Serge Bennathan, choreographing operas with director Tim Albery, cherished moments with choreographer Jennifer Mascall, Lola MacLaughlin, Denise Fujiwara (16 years) and her dance family. Defying definition, Hope’s unique life intersects with business activities, sculpting, writing and healing.

Soraya Lee Wo (Choreographer/Dancer)

Soraya attended Cawthra Park Secondary School’s Dance Program. She trained at the Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre in Toronto as a company dancer, performing in various contemporary works by esteemed choreographers. Soraya graduated from the Arts and Science program at McMaster University and is an alumnus dancer/choreographer for McMaster's competitive dance team. Soraya’s undergraduate thesis, Dancing Through Migration, explored how to navigate the silences and absences within family archives and was presented at Aeris Korper’s Prospects. Soraya is an adaptive dance teacher for children with different abilities and older adults. She recently completed a role as Artistic Associate with Aeris Körper Contemporary dance and is currently a Master of Science student at McMaster University in Occupational Therapy. She previously danced with The Parahumans on stage and in film.

Designers

Gaby Alcazar (Social Media)

Gaby is a Human Resources Manager and Project Planner focused on building strong teams and efficient processes. She supports digital strategy for The Parahumans and has coordinated projects such as Euphoria, and Networking Party, Dark Side Photo Shoot - with strong organisation and attention to detail, as well as coordinating online meetings between Canada and Mexico. She is committed to teamwork, structure, and community impact.

Mikel Guillen (Concept)

Mikel is a Toronto-based film director, conceptualist artist, curator, represented in Paris by agent/curator Miquel Escudero who calls the two filmmakers of the collective, of the post avant-garde film collective Obscuritads, “Les enfants terrible” Mikel’s films have been screened around the world for the last 17+ years from film festivals to art Galleries and Museums. Currently, his collective and curator are working on a traveling exhibition of his collective Obscuritads, starting at the Georges Pompidou Museum in Paris - an homage to their mentor, well known American avant garde film artist Phil Solomon.

Dave Wilson (Choreographer/Movement Scores)

Dave’s dance company, The Parahumans, focus on interdisciplinary, experimental, and collaborative projects, blending contemporary dance with everyday actions, theatre, novel movement, and semi-structured performance presentations. The company was founded in 1992 (33yrs) with ‘Parazone Future.’ He has an M.A. from York University and recently retired from McMaster University after 30 years in the Department of Kinesiology. Innovative past projects have included – ‘Boy Dancer’ - a 47-minute documentary film - Fan’s Choice Award, 2011 New York – Long Island film festival’; Plato Was A Raver (2001/2011); ‘New Jazz Dance Improvisations;’ Reconstruction of two 1880s dances from Hokusai’s ‘How To Teach Yourself Solo Dances’ book; ‘Nesia’ - a Holocaust dance film. This year, Dave’s, ‘The Fiery Wind’ was screened in 5 film festivals and received 5 Experimental/Dance-Movement Awards.

Carmen Zavislake (Make-Up)

Carmen has always been drawn to the arts: film, photography, painting, storytelling and sculpture. Her educational specialties were visual arts, mixed media, ceramic sculpture, creative writing, literature, music, and art history. Carmen began her Indie film carer as a production assistant videographer, dolly grip, camera assistant and graphic artist. Self-taught in SPFX Make-up and sewing costumes, Carmen soon put her sculpting and creative skills to use making props and wardrobe. Carmen began working with Mikel Guillen in 2016 on Volumnia, where her duties were: atmosphere, wardrobe, hair/make-up, and SPFX bruise makeup.