Robert Abubo is enjoying his fourth season with Dancemakers and Michael Trent. Prior to Dancemakers, Rob worked with Le Groupe Dance Lab from 1994 to 2006. Under Artistic Director Peter Boneham, Abubo participated as an interpreter, choreographer and monitor in an average of eight new creative processes a season.

As an independent dance artist he has worked with Tedd Robinson, Sylvain Émard, Lynda Gaudreau, Shannon Cooney, Bill James, Luc Dunberry, Heidi Strauss and Kate Hilliard. Rob’s own choreographic works have been presented by the Canada Dance Festival, Tangente and Dancer’s Studio West. Abubo graduated from David Moroni’s class of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School's professional division.

Amanda Acorn is a dance artist and emerging choreographer based in Toronto. She is a graduate of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre’s Professional Training Program and the Canadian College of Performing Arts. In Toronto she has worked independently with Meryem Alaoui, Susie Burpee, Kaeja d’Dance, Lady Janitor, Andrea Spaziani, Cara Spooner and Heidi Strauss. She joined the DSW Dance Lab in Calgary in the spring of 2010, developing works with Helen Husak and Jason Stroh.

Amanda has created two dance films with filmmaker, Yoann Malnati including Shiva, a Bravo!fact short directed by Zachary Finkelstein. In June 2012, she will be adapting her solo piece, unchained, into a short film through a residency at Hub14. She is also the co-founder of the Toronto Dance Community Love-In. Amanda is thrilled to be joining Dancemakers.

A member of Dancemakers since 2007, Kate Holden is a graduate of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and Etobicoke School of the Arts. Concurrent with her professional training, she performed frequently with PBJ Dance and Gabby Kamino. An award winning dance artist, Kate has had the pleasure of interpreting the works of many esteemed Canadian choreographers, including Peggy Baker, Roberto Campanella, Robert Desrosiers, David Earle, Sylvain Emard, Sasha Ivanochko, James Kudelka, Andrea Nann, and Yvonne Ng; with performances across North America, France, Britain, Holland and Singapore. She has also been a dancer with the Danny Grossman Dance Company for two seasons. Kate is a member of the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists, and was on the board of directors from 2003 - 2008.

Kate is Co-Artistic director of firstthingsfirst productions with Kate Franklin, founded to commission and produce new contemporary dance works by Canadian choreographers. The company made its successful debut in January of 2007 with its sold out run of Namesake, and has since produced the critically acclaimed Namesake:three at the Enwave theatre, as part of DanceWorks Mainstage, in September of 2009. To date, ftfp has brought 7 new dance works to the stage, by choreographers Kate Alton, Marc Boivin, D.A. Hoskins, Laurence Lemieux, Emily Molnar and Matjash Mrozewski.

Bonnie Kim (Associate Director) began dancing at Claude Watson School for the Arts and continued training at Toronto Dance Theatre. Throughout her career, she has performed with an impressive array of companies and independent artists including the Randy Glynn Dance Project, Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers, Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault, Nightwood Theatre, Autumn Leaf Performance, Bill James, Marie-Josée Chartier, Linda C. Smith, Peter Chin and Claudia Moore.

Bonnie has been recognized with multiple Dora Award nominations for Outstanding Performance Ensemble and was named one of Toronto's top 5 dancers by Eye Weekly. She is also the recipient of numerous grants for training, choreography, writing and film studies. In 2003, Bonnie joined Dancemakers as Rehearsal Director and became Associate Director in 2008.

In addition to teaching, coaching and facilitating creative process, she is also a freelance writer with a Magazine Publishing certificate from Ryerson University. Her writing has been published in The Dance Current, Eye Weekly, The Toronto Star and Toronto Life magazine. Bonnie has been a juror for the Canada Council, Toronto and Ontario Arts Councils, Dora and Gemini Awards, and has served on the Steering Committees for the On the Move and Keep on Moving dance conferences. She currently sits on the Board of the Actors’ Fund of Canada.

Simon Renaud is a graduate of The School of Dance’s contemporary dance program in Ottawa where he had the chance to work with choreographers including Serge Bennathan, Yvonne Coutts, Emmanuel Jouthe and Ginette Laurin.

Since graduating, Simon has worked for with Caroline Barrière and Darryl Tracy and as an intern with Toronto Dance Theatre had the privilege to be part of company works created by Deborah Hay, Christopher House and Alban Richard. For the past four summers, he has worked as a dancer in the improvisation project Dancing in the Street. Simon most recently presented his first choreographic work this summer for the Ottawa Dance Directive: Series Dance 10 Variation d'une couleur.

Jeff Wilson has a wide range of experience as a musician. He has worked extensively as a percussionist/ multi-instrumentalist in a variety of genres. He presently co-leads a “new world music” project known as The Liquidaires. He also works for or has worked with Maza Meze, David Buchbinder’s Brass Band, Sultans of String, Jaffa road, Patricia O'Callaghan, Kevin Quain and numerous others.

Jeff’s proficiency with a variety of instruments has also made him a popular accompanist for ballet and modern dance classes in Toronto. The National Ballet, York University, Dancemakers, and Toronto Dance Theatre are all clients. He has also served as a musical interpreter in dramatic productions for Clay and Paper Theatre, Shadowland Theatre Company, Dusk Dances, Dancemakers, Out of the Box Productions, Convergence Theatre, and Patricia O’Callaghan’s The Gypsy Wife to name a few.

Since 2005 Jeff has been branching out into composition and production. He has written music for modern dance, composed songs and written arrangements for various projects and has recently composed a series of percussion pieces. And there's all his work on the other side of the microphone producing/engineering/mixing recordings for his own projects as well as those of other artists, including; the Jeremiah's, the Liquidaires, Anima Fado, the Huppah Project, Carey West jazz project, Drumhand, Marcel Aucoin, Bernardo Padron, Roger Gibbs and Shak Shak, David Anderson, Jeff Ossouren and others.

Jeff is also learning to play the tenor banjo and composing songs for solo saw.

Jeanne Holmes, Producing Director of Dancemakers and the Centre for Creation joined the company in 2010 following a long and successful career in the arts during which time she developed her wide ranging abilities, showing an intuitive awareness for the creative culture of dance. She comes to Dancemakers after an extensive career at Harbourfront Centre, working in various departments in key leadership roles before assuming the position of Dance Programmer in 2001. During her tenure at Harbourfront Centre Jeanne was responsible for the dance programming in the World Stage international performance series, the coordination of NextSteps – a series that showcases Canadian-based dance artists and the Artistic Direction of the annual contemporary dance series.

Jeanne is entering her fifth year on the board of directors for the CanDance Network, an association of specialized dance presenting organizations from across Canada, and is President of the Board of Directors for Dusk Dances, an outdoor dance festival that brings contemporary and traditional dance to public parks.

Terry Raininger is a fundraising professional with 12 years experience working with Toronto dance and theatre companies. Terry comes to Dancemakers having worked with Young Peoples Theatre, Nightwood Theatre, Factory Theatre and Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre. Freelance positions held include CanDance, DanceWorks, Dance Ontario and Esmeralda Enrique Spanish Dance Company.  She is currently the board Chair of Nightswimming, having held volunteer roles with Theatre Columbus, humdancesoundart, and the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition.  Terry is mad about Italian Renaissance Art and loves to go camping.

Bradley Kulay, Administrative Manager of Dancemakers and the Centre for Creation, was born and raised in Edmonton, has had the pleasure of being an Artist and Arts Manager in Britain for 5 years, and as of 2006, has carried on his career here in Toronto.

Working at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 2002-2004, Bradley was a member of Senior Management for C Venues. Splitting time between Edinburgh, Scotland and London, England, Bradley acted as the company’s Operations manager in 2003, and then as their first ever Special Events Programmer & Producer in 2004.

In the autumn of 2005, Bradley began his undergraduate degree in Arts Management at the University of Toronto. During that time he was Station Manager for Scarborough Fusion Radio, University of Toronto Scarborough’s campus radio station, for two and a half years before graduating in 2009.

Before joining Dancemakers, Bradley was a Programming Assistant with Harbourfront Centre, working on the 2009 World Routes Festivals, and an Associate Producer with the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival. He continues to explore the creation of music and film with the Toronto based artistic collective Haus of Whaps.

Alaina Perttula is now in her third year as Head Studio Technician for the Dancemakers Centre for Creation. Since receiving her BFA in Theatre - Technical Production from Ryerson Theatre School in 2006, she has kept busy wearing many different hats in the worlds of dance, theatre and corporate live entertainment.

In dance, Perttula has most recently been working as the Production Stage Manager/Lighting Designer/Technical Director for Kaha:wi Dance Theatre presenting many of their repertory works, touring Canada, USA, Mexico and Australia. In the corporate live entertainment industry, Alaina works full time as a lighting technician for Westbury National Show Systems Ltd. Recent theatre credits include Lighting Designer for Swoon, nation.theatre (Patron's Pick Factory Theatre Fringe Festival)

Benjamin Kamino is an independent artist living and working between Montreal and Toronto. He makes work under the company moniker “do what you can”. His work has been shown in Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Austria.

He is a participant in the international nomadic encounter “interferencias” and plays an editorial role of its publication. In addition to his own projects, Benjamin performs as a guest artist regularly with Compagnie Marie Chouinard, Pigeons International and Dancemakers.

Pierre-Marc Ouellette is a graduate of LADDMI - L'école de danse contemporaine in Montreal. Since receiving his diploma in 2005, he has worked for Louise Bédard Danse, Fortier Danse-Création and Le Carré des Lombes. With Le Carré des Lombes, he performed in Play It Again! and was a collaborator in the work Là où je vis. Pierre-Marc also has performed in several projects with a new generation of choreographers, most notably Erin Flynn, Frédéric Marier and Karine Ledoyen. Pierre-Marc’s practice is influenced by other techniques including yoga and butoh.

In 2009, he received a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to attend the ImPulsTanz Festival in Vienna, Austria. Most recently, Pierre-Marc collaborated with Danièle Desnoyers in Hozhro, a multi-disciplinary performance set to a score by Michel Gonneville. His first creation, Le show-off, was presented in 2010. Pierre-Marc will be participating in Le Carré des Lombes next creation to be presented at Festival TransAmériques in 2012.

Jacob Zimmer (Dramaturge) is a director, writer, dramaturge and performer who has shown work across the country. Born in Cape Breton, he grew up in Halifax and now lives in Toronto. Jacob is the founding director of Small Wooden Shoe, a (mostly) theatre company bent on relieving alienation by proving that good ideas are entertaining and that pleasure and critique require each other. Jacob works in dance as a dramaturge with Dancemakers and in an on-going collaboration with choreographer Ame Henderson/Public Recordings. He is the inaugural Toronto Fringe Research Chair looking into a “Populism we can stand behind." He has given talks at Performance Creation Canada (Halifax 2008, Caravan Theatre 2010), the Glenbow Museum (Calgary 2010) and at several universities. With Misha Glouberman, he organizes the UnConference on the Future(s) of Toronto Performance (a partnership with Canadian Stage, Small Wooden Shoe and Dancemakers.) Jacob studied theatre at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts, was an intern with The Wooster Group and studied Viewpoints, Suzuki and Composition with Anne Bogart and the SITI Company in New York. Jacob received the 2008 Ken McDougall Award for emerging directors.