About us
Latin American artists in Canada, maintaining conversation with the rest of the country and the world
Co-founder and Co-artistic Director
Norma Araiza
Norma is a multi-disciplinary performer/choreographer/instructor of Yoeme (Yaqui) descent, originally from Mexico. Her own unique style blends dance, theatre, storytelling and expressive arts with cultural and traditional themes especially from her Indigenous background. Norma has studied with international artists such as Jerzy Grotowski, Eugenio Barba, Natsu Nakajima, Tascabile di Bergamo, Kei Takei, Pol Pelletier, and Charles Koroneho, among others. She holds a master’s degree in Dance Ethnology from York University and she graduated from the Expressive Arts Therapy Program at CREATE Institute. She has a private practice as an Expressive Arts Therapist. Her work has been presented at different venues in Toronto, Ontario, Montreal, Hungary, California, Rochester, NY, New York City, Colombia, and throughout Mexico.
Co-founder and Co-artistic Director
Olga Barrios
Born in Colombia, Olga Barrios is a multi-award choreographer, dancer, arts educator, and co-founder and co-artistic director of Vanguardia Dance Projects. MFA at the York University of Toronto. Olga has collaborated with dance, theatre, musical, and multidisciplinary projects in Canada, the USA, and Colombia with diverse companies and troupes. As a dance teacher, she has worked in Montreal, Hamilton, Kitchener, Toronto, San Francisco, New Jersey, and diverse cities in Colombia. Her more recent works on the screen include: Keeping the Distance (Serie created in 2020 for Digital Originals CCA), Feminine in Tea (2020), Dreaming in Blue (Underwater Dance Film 2020), Mestiza (solo work 2019), and Hybrid Women (Vanguardia Dance Projects creation 2021). Currently, Olga works on exchange projects between Canada and Colombia.
Associate Artist
Diana López Soto
Diana Lopez Soto is an award-winning multidisciplinary Mexican/Canadian artist, mother and land caretaker. She has presented and exhibited her work nationally and internationally in France, Panama, Mexico, Costa Rica, the USA and Canada. She has produced and co-produced site-specific performances, vertical dance, art installations and experimental films for 18 years. Her interest in sustainable practices informs the direction of her collaborations and offerings. Diana’s love for material, physics and body/space connections inform her rigging designs and structures, installations and sculptural sets that come to life through her movement explorations.
Artist collaborator
Julieta Maria
Julieta María, is an artist of mixed Colombian and Palestinian ancestry who currently lives and works in Toronto. She works predominantly with video and film, incorporating performance and experimental documentary into her practice. Drawn to experiments with the body and often performing for the camera, she is interested in the tensions between inhabiting and observing landscapes and the hidden traces of history in place. While some works are rooted in storytelling, others are formed of simple, poetic gestures.
Julieta has an MFA from York University and has shown her work both in film festivals and gallery settings, including the Edinburgh International Film Festival (2021), Frauen Film Festival (Dortmund, 2021), DOXA (Vancouver, 2020), the Hamburg International Short Film Festival (2019), Rencontres (Toulouse, France, 2019), FIFA Experimental, (Montreal, 2019), Gardiner Museum, (Toronto, 2018), Sur Gallery, (Toronto, 2017), Museo Banco de la República (Colombia,)2016), Asuncion Biennial, (Paraguay, 2015), among others.
Media Development
Adriana Rosselli
Adriana Rosselli Londoño is a Colombian-Canadian arts administrator and visual artist. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Studies from Trent University and a Diploma in Arts Administration and Cultural Management from Humber College. Adriana currently works as General Manager for Guelph Dance and as the Membership & Communications Coordinator for the Media Arts Network of Ontario. As an independent arts worker, Adriana supports a variety of organizations and collectives in areas such as strategic planning, grant writing, event management, fundraising, and communications.