As part of the Art Gallery of Ontario's exploration into COVID-era performance possibilities, we partnered with our perennial collaborator The National Ballet of Canada to host an open rehearsal led by artist and choreographer Kevin A. Ormsby. Mr. Ormsby is creating new work for the Ballet's Spotlight Series set to premiere later this year. As part of AGO Live's online program, he will be joined by one of his collaborators, Tanya Howard, The National Ballet of Canada's First Soloist, to talk about the genesis of this work, COVID realities in performance making and presentation as well as manifesting his artistic output in digital form. Please join us for this unique opportunity to see a new work in progress, and perhaps sense the first glimmers of live programming possibilities to look forward to when public health restrictions ease.

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Kevin A. Ormsby, Artistic Director of KasheDance, works as a dancer/choreographer and Arts Strategies Consultant. He is the Program Manager for Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario (CPAMO), Professor of Dance Performance at Centennial College and an Adjunct Artist with Dance Exchange in Washington, D.C. Mr. Ormsby is a 2016 Ontario Arts Council Chalmers Fellowship recipient, OAC KM Hunter Dance Award 2016 nominee, Toronto Arts Council’s Cultural Leaders Lab Fellow, and the 2014 Canada Council for the Arts’ Victor Martyn Lynch — Staunton Award recipient in Dance. With a career that spans over 30 years, Mr. Ormsby has performed with various companies and projects in Canada, the Caribbean and the U.S. He currently sits on the Board of Nia Centre for the Arts, Dance Collection Danse and Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts.

Tanya Howard was born in Uitenhage, South Africa and trained at The National School of the Arts in South Africa and Canada’s National Ballet School. She joined The National Ballet of Canada in 1998 and was promoted to First Soloist in 2007.