CURRENT MEMBERS
JESSICA LOWE (Artistic Director/Co-Founder)
Jessica Lowe hails from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. She started dance at the age of five at Dartmouth Dance Academy and Leica Hardy School of Dance. She is a graduate of York University’s (Toronto) BFA Dance Program. Throughout university, she was given many performance and choreographic opportunities and after graduating she went on to work with Toronto dance artists Julia Sasso, Carol Anderson, Susan Lee, John Ottman and Eryn Waltman.
Jessica is an active member of the Nova Scotia dance community and has performed with Votive Dance, Connection Dance Works and Mocean Dance.
Some of Jessica’s most recent choreographic works include: Im-perfect-ion (supported by Diane Moore Scholarship Fund & Canada Council for the Arts) and Enchantress (supported by Arts Nova Scotia).
She is co-founder and Co-Artistic Director of Nostos Collectives Dance Association, a registered non-for-profit based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and Toronto, Ontario. She is also the co-owner and operator of local dance studio Illusion Dance Arts.
ANASTASIA WIEBE (Artistic Leader : Halifax)
Anastasia Wiebe is a Halifax-based movement artist. Wiebe continued her dance training at the Peridance Capezio Centre in New York, graduating from their Certificate Program in 2015. Performance credits include Devil’s Intervals, Mercurials and Sonderlings with Lydia Zimmer, Imposters Duet with Leah Skerry, Moving Still, Standing Forward with Naishi Wang, Petite Danse with Maire-Josée Chartier, Striketone with Vanessa Goodman, and Inhabit with Kyana Lyne.
In 2022 Wiebe was an acrobatic intern with Breaking Circus, a contemporary circus troupe located in Halifax, NS. She also has many years of experience in arts administration and producing with not-for-profit organizations, such as Live Art Dance and Nostos Collectives, and was the Production Manager for Symphony Nova Scotia’s, The Nutcracker in 2022 and 2023. Wiebe has created many works across Nova Scotia, most notably Parallel Paths, an evening-length work with Nostos Collectives and The Third Mountain, a dance theatre piece studying the individual's experience with climate anxiety.
In 2020, Wiebe graduated with a BA in Psychology from Saint Mary’s and continues to work on integrating psychology principles into her creation and teaching practices. She has travelled across the Maritimes adjudicating dance festivals and competitions, as well as teaching workshops in contemporary and floor-based styles, and giving seminar talks on mental health resiliency within dance training.
SARAH HOPKIN (Collaborator)
Sarah Hopkin is a freelance dance artist from Nova Scotia. She is a company member with the Ottawa Dance Directive and has danced for Phin Performing Arts, Nostos Collectives, Mocean Dance, Votive Dance, TAKE UP SPACE and Toronto Dance Theatre. Sarah has also danced for choreographers Peggy Baker, Allison Burns, Cathy Kyle Fenton, Nicola Fridgen, Jordan Samonas, and Jocelyn Todd.
Sarah has choreographed and performed in many events including the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival and Ottawa’s Dark Horse Dance Projects. She teaches at The School of Dance in Ottawa in both the professional ballet stream and the post-secondary contemporary program, and has taught for Halifax Dance and the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts. She has taught professional classes through Mocean Dance and the Ottawa Dance Directive, as well as community and senior chair classes through Mocean Dance. Sarah is an alumna of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Performance Dance Program.
MARRIN JESSOME (Key Collaborator)
Marrin Jessome is a Halifax-based artist who studied Performance Dance at the Toronto Metropolitan University (2019). She now works as a freelance dance teacher, choreographer, adjudicator and performer throughout the maritimes.
As a trained pianist, her choreography is informed by her nuanced understanding of sound— arranging tension and release on a visceral level, to form a direct translation between the instrument and the architecture of the body.
Her work has been showcased throughout the maritimes by: FODAR, Mocean Dance, The St. John Contemporary Dance Festival, Island Fringe, Kinetic Open Studio, The Underground Cabaret, Antigonight Fest, The Youth Dance Ensemble, Halifax Young Company, and The North End Revue.
She creates exciting contemporary work that is inspired by storytelling, memory, nostalgia and relationships. Marrying classical techniques with the theatre of lived experiences, she brings forth compositions that are raw and sensual while athletic and playful. Her work features intricate partnering, floor work and flow acrobatics while maintaining an awareness of her audience. She is driven to make work that is relatable and accessible to the untrained eye, without diluting technical qualities.
MEREDITH KALAMAN (Collaborator)
Meredith Kalaman is a two time Chrystal Dance Prize recipient, dance educator and enjoys both dancing and creating new works. She has choreographed pieces about; giraffes, girl guiding, exploring constellations, superheroes, female identity and the impacts of gender socialization. She is now grateful to reside on the land of the Mi’kma’ki in Nova Scotia. Past presentation highlights include sharing the stage with the Good Women Dance Collective, Dance in Vancouver 2017, Dancing on the Edge and New Works and Island Fringe with Nostos Collective performing Enchantress outdoors . Her first full length work Femme Fatales toured to Victoria, Edmonton and was presented at Uferstudios in Berlin in 2017. Meredith also curates an immersive speakeasy performance event called, The Underground here in the city.
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SOLÈNE BERNIER (Collaborator)
Solène Bernier (she/her) is a dance artist and a graduate of École de Danse Contemporaine de Montréal (2019). After her studies, she performed in work by Bradley Eng for Festival Quartiers Danses, and in Cheline Lacroix’s dance film May the Best Loser Win (F-O-R-M Festival Vancouver). Currently based in Kjipuktuk/Halifax NS, she has worked with local companies and choreographers including Votive Dance, Mocean Dance, Emma Kerson and Liliona Quarmyne. Recent creative highlights include performances in The Devil’s Intervals by Lydia Zimmer (ZIMMERDANS) for the Live Art Mainstage series, and in Metonym Circus’ Lizard of Pause: Girly Epic, choreographed by Alyssa Martin (Rock Bottom Movement). Solène has also participated in various choreographic and research-based workshops such as Nova Scotia Masterwork’s Future Master’s Program, Mocean Dance’s CLEaR Forum, and the Creative Music Workshop in association with the Halifax Jazz Festival. She has furthered her professional development at the b12 festival for contemporary dance and performance art in Berlin, with support from Arts Nova Scotia (2023) and returned in summer 2024. Furthermore, Solène will be completing a Bachelor of Arts from Dalhousie University this fall.
EMILY SPEARING (Key Collaborator)
Emily Spearing (she/her), from London Ontario, received her education at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre. Upon graduating, Spearing worked as a freelance dancer for various companies, collectives and independent choreographers in Toronto and Halifax for several years. She then went on to attend the post-graduate International Choreographic Exchange Program at Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD). After completing the program she was invited for a year long Artistic Residency at SEAD. She worked as rehearsal director for the academy and she also toured with BODHI PROJECT as tour manager and rehearsal director for a piece by Adrienne Hod (Hodworks) to International Dance Week in Budapest.
Emily has been able to present her works at New Faces New Dances Festival, Dance Ontario’s Dance Weekend, Dance Works Co-Works, Edmonton’s NextFest, New Blue Dance Festival and London Fringe Festival.
ROSIE HALPIN (Collaborator)
Rosie Halpin is a 2024 graduate from York University, for a BFA in the Dance Choreography Stream. She is based out of Halifax and Toronto, focusing her training primarily on contemporary and modern movement. She currently works as a teacher and choreographer for Illusion Dance Arts, with competitive and non-competitive programs.
Rosie was a member of the resident company within the Department of Dance (York Dance Ensemble) under Susan Lee, for the 2023-2024 season.
Her most recent performances and collaborations include The Island Fringe Festival for her choreographic solo work “mer rouge”, video dance project by Victoria Kuronen and Megan Medeiros “W2tURA”, Bloom under DSA York and YDE’s annual showcase, ReGeneration. In 2021, she was accepted into the Nostos Residency Program as a participant in their Next Generation Program.
In 2020, she won the Young Choreographer's Award from Impact Dance Adjudicators for her solo work "Soft Music" and was an invited guest
dance performer for the NLL halftime show.
