Interrarium- The Participants

The Schedule | The Monitors | The Participants

Amir Amiri (Calgary, Montreal) Amir was born in Tehran, Iran, where he studied the santur, a 72 string hammer dulcimer. He specialized in the radiff system of Persian classical music and graduated from the University of Tehran with an honors degree in composition. His principle teachers included Meheran Ghalaee, Majeed Kyanee, and Parviz Meshkatiyan. He also studied Indian classical music (Regas) with teachers Ravi Shankar and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Since arriving in Canada six years ago, Amir has received numerous scholarships from the Banff Centre for the Arts, and has welcomed the opportunity to work with western classical musicians from around the world. He has also been awarded the 2003 Artist of the Year from CBC Galaxie Rising Stars Program.

Tom Andriuk (Calgary) Tom Andriuk is a media artist who has developed a diverse range of work
including installation, video art, film, performance, and new media. Tom graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 1993 and in 2005 completed a MFA in media art at the University of Calgary. His work exhibits internationally and was featured in the 2005 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art and recently at FILE Electronic Language International Festival in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Themes in his work address an experimental approach to issues about technology and vary from commentary to social satire.

Jennifer Clarke (Vancouver) Jennifer Clarke is a dance artist based in Vancouver. Lately her movement practice has been focused on the study practice and performance of improvisation, contact improvisation and contemporary dance. She improvises, collaborates and performs extensively with live musicians in various venues such as bookstores, bars, theatres, galleries and gardens.

Shelly Catherine Guhle (Calgary/Vancouver) An interdisciplinary artist whose installations and multimedia works have been exhibited in Canada and internationally. Graduating with a Bachelors degree of Design from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design (Vancouver), she began a career creating interfaces for Microsoft. Her background in gymnastics and study of various dance forms, combine in ways to touch and affect others visually in how we inhabit space and physical reality.

Helen Husak (Calgary) A graduate of the University of Calgary Dance Program in 2002, Helen has emerged in the Alberta community as a versatile performer and unique choreographer. She has worked with accomplished artists Serge Bennathan, Robert Abubo, Tonya Lockyer, Davida Monk, and Nicole Mion, to name a few. In 2004, her insatiable apetite for exploring choreographic development was nourished by a mentorship with renowned choreographer Tedd Robinson. This experience left her wanting more... which has brought her to the Interrariun Project where she is excited to continue to explore the creative process with artists of mixed disciplines.

Amy Kubanek (Ottawa) Amy's dance practice in Ottawa happens mostly in public spaces; which began out of necessity and grew into a social movement (Grasshoppa Dance Exchange). She prefers to work in the grey area between dance theatre and performance art and recently received an award from the City of Ottawa to build a Dance Machine.

Lisa Pijuan-Nomura (Toronto) Lisa Pijuan-Nomura is a multi-disciplinary artist who lives and works in Toronto. Her current projects include "She Said Saffron" at Harbourfront as part of HATCH: emerging performance projects, curating the popular RED:A Night of Live Performance as part of the Free Fall Festival 2006 and working on her storytelling repertoire. For more info about her work go to www.girlcancreate.com

Jennifer Roberts (Calgary) Most recently Jennifer was caught red-nosed in a clown cabaret Clowntown Volume I. Prior to that she was dancing with The Momo Project-a mixed ability dance group-  as part of the Disability Arts Festival. This past fall season she was also commissioned by OYR ensemble member David van Belle in a project called Beard - 3 artists commissioned to write 3 different shows with the one starting word. She is thrilled to a part of the Interrarium project.

Carrie Schiffler (Calgary) Carrie is an actor, writer and yoga instructor. She loves sushi, shopping, starbucks and all other yummy things that start with an s.

Holly Schmidt (Calgary) Holly Schmidt received her B.FA with distinction from the University of Calgary in 1997. She was recently an artist in residence at the USF Verftet in Bergen, Norway where she exhibited her installation Inside Outside at the Visningsrommet. Schmidt lives in Calgary and maintains a studio with the Untitled Arts Society.

Aaron Talbot (Edmonton) Aaron Talbot is an Edmonton-based multi-disciplinary artist specializing in the collective creation process. Aaron is the lead performer and a co-founding member of the Etcetera Theatre Collective (ETC), and last performed in Calgary during the 2004 Mutton Busting Festival in the first version of his solo work PAUSE. The finished version ended up nominated for a Sterling Award and toured across Canada on the Fringe Festival Circuit.

Mike Unrau (Calgary/Toronto) Mike has performed over the last ten years, including running a theatre company in Toronto, and working with The Shaw Festival . He is also a photographer, poet, painter, singer,/ songwriter; recording and producing several CD's. He is now engaged in an MFA at University of Calgary studying physical movement's impact on acting, through performance creation.