Jacaranda (Shiqi) Yu is studying Arts Management at the University of Toronto Scarborough with a minor in Art History and Theatre and Performance Studies. She has worked previously with Wavelength Music, Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, LLB Theatre, and Gallery 1265. For the Lab, Jacaranda is assisting with audience research.

Born in Changchun, China, Naishi Wang began with Chinese Classical dance and Chinese Folk dances training at Jilin College of Art. In 2004, moved to Canada to attend The School of Toronto Dance Theater. Subsequently, Naishi became a company member of Toronto Dance Theater for nine years.

From 2009 to 2010 he was commissioned by SXM studio in Beijing, China, to create concept-based contemporary dance works: “Split” and “Avatar’s Tree”. In 2017, he joined Dancemakers Peer Learning Network Program (Toronto) and had a studio showing at the Canada Dance Festival (Ottawa).

In 2015, the award-winning performer was inspired to work extensively as an independent dance artist with diverse talented artists and choreographers around the globe. Naishi started to work in a collaborative way in Germany and co-choreographed with Berlin-based Tanz-Theater artist Christoph Winkler two solos and duet projects: “Can Asian Dance?”, “Crossing Half of China to Sleep With You”, and “Tale of the Dragon and Lion”.

In 2018, at a showing in Kinetic Studio (Halifax), he premiered his solo “Taking Breath”, shown in Toronto, presented by Citadel + Compagnie, also in Montreal Art Interculturell, and followed by a German premiere at Monsun Theater (Hamburg, Germany). In 2019, Naishi had a commission work entitled “Free Steps” for Toronto/Halifax based company Nostos Collective and still touring his solo.

In 2020, Naishi is one of the residency artists at La Serre (Montreal) and in an international creative collaboration with a UK based dance artist Jean Abreu supported by the Visiting Dance Artist program by National Arts Centre and Canada Arts Council in Ottawa.

Judie Plaza is a designer and wardrobe technician. Her responsibilities at the Lab include design research, coordinating contracts, insurance and scheduling.

Farnoosh Talebpour is a theatre costumer and stage manager. She oversees the Lab’s technical production processes, including virtual studios, bookings, and events.

Over the last 4 years she has also been involved as an Associate Producer with Vanier College Productions (VCP), affiliated with York University. There she contributes to planning out the season, hiring and mentorship of the students, overseeing the production aspects to be able to bring the shows to life. Some of her favourite credits include: OIL (ARC), City Of Angels (Randolph College), Through the Bamboo (Uwi Collective), Angelique (Black Theatre Workshop), Iphigenia and The Furies (Saga Collectif), Better Angels: A Parable (Call Me Scotty Productions/SummerWorks), How Do I Love Thee? (Canadian Rep Theatre), Cyrano de Bergerac (Amicus Productions).

Claudia Arana is a visual artist, independent curator, and cultural connector who has installed her practice in the construction of artistic platforms that promote inclusion and diversity from different cultural perspectives. In Canada, she has established a career aimed at promoting a socially and politically viable artistic spectrum, where artists from different cultures are adequately represented and supported by both governmental institutions and non-profit organizations. She studied Art Theory and Critical Thinking at the School of Visual Arts and Advanced Critique at the International Centre of Photography, in New York. Currently, she is the Gallery Administrator at Sur Gallery, Toronto’s first gallery space dedicated to promote contemporary Latin American artistic practices.

lo bil is a Toronto-based settler performance artist and York University Interdisciplinary Masters student creating body-based experiments to generate intuitive “felt” research into academic concepts and risk-based performance-making.

lo’s improvisatory performances involve spontaneous utterance, impulse-based scores, object manipulation, unexpected humour, and interrelational proposals with audience.

“I work speculatively, aiming for non-repeatability to generate performances as sites of collective activation rather than trying to reveal an aesthetic to passive consumers. What happens is the aesthetic I am working on. These once-performed experiments are my best attempt to understand the strangeness of the world.”

lo bil describes her actions as ‘anti-objective’ and ‘post-clown’. She allows the psychic space between performer and audience to direct the performance, creating circumstances for failure to open up the potential for magic, letting speech affect movement and movement affect speech.

Since 2014, lo bil has created 25 unrepeatable performances. In 2015 she was awarded the FADO Live Art Award at Summerworks Performance Festival 2015.

lo bil has presented solo body-based performances in Toronto at 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art, HATCH at Harbourfront Centre, Duration & Dialogue Performance Art Festival, Rhubarb Festival, Flowchart at Dancemakers, Summerworks Performance Festival and Sick Theory Conference; in Montreal, for Victoria Stanton through Dare-Dare, curated by WIVES at Studio 303, and Words and [ ] a durational conference by School of Making Thinking; in New York at Panoply Lab Post-dance Conference, ITINERANT Performance Art Festival, and Movement Research Open Studio; in Washington at 25 Hours for 25 Years of the DC Art Centre; and in Berlin at Month of Performance Art-Berlin.

Shuhe Wang is a cultural professional educated in China and the UK, specializing in cultural re-interpretation of international cultural artifacts and artistic expressions for Chinese audiences. In China, Shuhe was the founder and curator of TEDxBUPT Beijing, and worked as Associate Project Manager for the Tianyu Culture Group in Beijing. At Tianyu, her responsibilities included: working with the Naples National Archaeology Museum to borrow objects of Pompeii for touring exhibitions through five cities in China; attending the International Council of Museums General Conference in Milan; participating in course design for an education project for the Beijing Palace Museum; and developing the ChinaMuseum.com website. As an independent cultural professional, she has co-curated the “Silk Road” exhibition from Guanfu Museum to tour through Russia, and re-interpreted the American Indian Art Exhibition for the Denver Art Museum. Currently, she is a Project Associate with the Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence, and working with a Canadian gallery on the re-interpretation and tour of Maude Lewis’ artwork through China.

Anita Agrawal, MA (Social Anthropology), PgDip. (E-Commerce) is a professor at the School of Business at Centennial College, and the CEO of the multi-award-winning Canadian jewellery manufacturing company, Best Bargains. Anita’s company has been in business for nearly 30 years, with products shipping year-round globally to 20 countries.

As a highly-recognized industry expert, Anita has been interviewed for leading Canadian and international magazines, newspapers and TV, including the Globe and Mail, Profit Magazine, the Toronto Star, Canadian Jeweller, BNN and many, many more.

Anita has served as the President and Vice-President of 8 nonprofit organizations, including serving as the President of the Organization of Women in International Trade (OWIT), Toronto Chapter for 4 years. She has also served as a key business advocate for the $15 and Fairness campaign.

Anita was awarded the Ontario Woman Exporter of the Year award by OWIT in 2012, and chosen in 2013-2014 to be one of twelve Canadian mentees for the Accenture Supplier Diversity Development program.