​​ARTISTIC COLLABORATORS 

Writer/Choreographer/Performer: Gerry Trentham 
Sculpture: Kaersten Colvin-Woodruff

Music/ Composition: John Mark Sherlock & Federico Siksnys

Technical Direction and Projection Design: James Kendal 

Lighting Design: Gabriel Cropley

Costume Design: Ann Emo

Dance Dramaturge and Butoh Coach: Denise Fujiwara 

Voice Coach: Katherine Duncanson  
Film and Video: Rafael Roy, Kelin Verrette, Prince Brooks

South American Producer & Armando Centre Residency Director: Franz David Toro

CAN Producer and Rehearsal Director: Oriana Pagnotta

US Producer and Kaats Cradle Residency Director : Marisa Caruso 
 

COLLABORATOR BIOGRAPHIES

 

Gerry Trentham
Gerry Trentham's (he/they) life-long dedication to the art of performance has created their own cannon of over 40 original works for stage and screen, garnered international performance acclaim and more recently international film awards. As a performer he has originated roles in works of some of Canada’s most renowned choreographers including during a seven-year tenure with Serge Bennathan’s internationally acclaimed Dancemakers. Seven works in which he has originated roles have been nominated for and/or received Toronto Dora Awards most recently as cast/voice director in Denise Fujiwara's hit EUNOIA. Beyond his own creations Gerry, after four decades, continues to be a sought-after performer in new works by the renowned choreographers Tedd Robinson, Claudia Moore, Peter Chin, Maxine Heppner, Denise Fujiwara and Zab Magoungou. With an MFA in theatre, voice and speech they teach, mentor and coach synthesized voice/body practice and creation process internationally.​

 

Mobile Visual/Sculptural Design by Kaersten Colvin-Woodruff

Kaersten Colvin-Woodruff is a multimedia sculptor and visual artist who has been exhibiting and lecturing on her artwork in national and international settings for more than thirty years and currently lives and works in the United States. She received her MFA from Arizona State in 1994, and her BFA from SUNY Purchase in 1991. Since 1994 she has been teaching in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at PennWest University. She is affiliated with Pounds Per-Square Inch Performance (lbs./sq”), based in Toronto. Here she served as a collaborator on two bi-national interdisciplinary creative projects, The Art of Peace II/Arrivals, and The Apology Project. Each venue was a collision of performance, visual, and media art, and was exhibited and performed at Silo City in Buffalo, New York, the Canadian Contemporary Dance Theater and at Harbourfront Center Theater in Downtown Toronto. Kaersten creates mixed media three-dimensional artworks constructed from a combination of organic and industrial materials. Her work is fueled by her interest in American folk medicine and folk magic. The works are not narrative interpretations of these practices; rather she combines materials such as hair, beeswax and feathers, and techniques such as casting, and fabricating base metals to suggest or echo American folkways.

 

Technical Construction and Digital Integration by James Kendal

James Kendal began in the performance world as a dancer and musician from a young age. James’s career has since shifted to technical end of the spectrum with recent projects including Really Big World, Sousatzka, Steer by Zata Omm Dance Projects, In/Future festival with Peggy Baker Dance Projects, Comfort by the Red Snow Collective. They are a multi-disciplined technical director whose interest and expertise bridge into virtual spaces. For over a decade they have collaborated on many lbs/sq” productions bringing essential real construction for live interaction integrated with projected or live feed events.

 

Dramaturgical Support by Butoh soloist Denise Fujiwara 

Denise Fujiwara is a powerful internationally renowned Butoh soloist in a direct line from its founder through the first female of the company Natsu Nakajima. To date, her six solo dance concerts, Spontaneous Combustion, Vanishing Acts, Sumida River, Elle Laments, Brief Incarnations, and Komachi have garnered praise across Canada and have toured to festivals in the United States, South America, Europe, and Asia.  “Over 15 years I have been mentored by her, taught with her, created butoh/voice practice and philosophy and toured with her company.  She has produced my work and most importantly been a dramaturg refining and simplifying my wide inter-arts interest into seamless and direct potent moments of interaction with my audience.” Gerry Trentham  

 

Music Composer John Sherlock

John Mark Sherlock studied composition at the University of Western Ontario with Jack Behrens, Arsenio Girón and David Myska. His works have been played by many of Canada’s finest performers and ensembles including Arraymusic, the Burdocks, Critical Band, The Ergo Ensemble, Eve Egoyan, Linda Catlin Smith, the NUMUS Ensemble featuring the Penderecki String Quartet, Richard Sacks , Stephen Clarke and Ensemble KORE. Also, he has written original music for dance or had works used for choreography by Marie-Josée Chartier, Heidi Strauss, Darryl Tracy, Allen Kaeja, Sylvain Émard, Gerry Trentham, Jessica Runge, Meagan O’Shea and Shannon Cooney for Dancemakers. With composer eldritch Priest, he formed the ensemble, neither/nor. John has, at various times, received the kind support of the Toronto Arts Council, Laidlaw Foundation, Canada Council for the Arts , Ontario Arts Council and the Chalmers Foundation and thanks them all, sincerely.

Sherlock’s work is remarkable for its use of electro-mechanical keyboards dating from the ’60s and ’70s. He is very likely one of the first composers of his type of abstract aesthetic to use so extensively Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric pianos, Hohner Clavinet and Hammond organ, particularly in ensemble.

 

Canadian Producer and Rehearsal Director Oriana Pagnotta

Oriana Pagnotta is a Toronto-based dance artist. Formerly based in Calgary and raised in BC, she creates, performs, facilitates, and produces with a unique depth of experience across arts. Her choreography and performance credits include Springboard Performance, W&M Dance Projects, Toronto Love-In, and Dancers’ Studio West. She was Artistic Director of Dance Montage (University of Calgary), Artistic Associate with Momo Movement and W&M Dance SURGE Company, and Co-Artistic Director with Toronto Dance Community Love-In. She is rehearsal director with pounds/square inch,  and past production and management work includes Peggy Baker Dance Projects (awarded Metcalf Foundation grant), Fujiwara Dance Inventions, and Canadian Dance Assembly. Oriana is a DanceAbility® International certified teacher and certified Pilates Instructor. She brings her multi-faceted, creative, and nuanced care toward all her endeavours.

US Producer and Documentation support by Marisa Caruso

Marisa Caruso is a multidisciplinary theater artist whose work alternately places her in the titles of producer, performer, manager, director, teacher and writer. Her collaborations span a wide range of theater styles from classic works to abstract contemporary performance to filmed/live sketch comedy. Marisa is the Managing Director of the avant-garde theater company, Torn Space Theater and has worked with award-winning companies in residence, including 600 HIGHWAYMEN and Temporary Distortion. Now based in the Catskills region, Marisa has developed new original theater works and project collaborations, notably with companies such as lbs/sq” (Gerry Trentham - Open Body, 2024), Neon Caviar (Lemons 2022, Neon Nights 2021), The Party Theater (Proof, 2024, Microcosm 2024), and an original performance residency project, Kaats Cradle.

​

This Kaats Cradle Residency in the Catskills of NY was made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by Arts Services Inc.​​​