artistic director
Heidi Strauss: I am a dance artist curious about movement, human behaviour, and shifting perspectives. The complexities of who (and where) we are keep my practice evolving. My creative work responds to current personal, social or environmental moments and plays with the reconfiguring of space and roles of audience/performer. As a maker, performer, mentor, pedagogue, co-learner, and artistic director, I believe in facilitating space for growth, thought, conversation and physical/embodied experience. As a choreographer, I consider where and how work is experienced in its relationship to site. An interest in changing perspective, in creating invitations into wayfinding and ambulatory experiences has prompted me to consider audience as participant, witness and partner. I believe interactivity is a gateway to different forms of comfort-building and inclusion. I develop live, installation and digital works for conventional and unconventional spaces, both found and dedicated performance sites - intimate and large scale. I collaborate with performers and designers to build projects we can’t build on our own. I tend toward questions and believe I have a responsibility to create around what I can’t answer – to bring attention to what might be uncertain.
I am currently artistic lead at Dance Arts, the grateful recipient of a KM Hunter Award and multiple Dora Awards. I have taught extensively in conservatory, university and professional settings, and was recently participant in an International Choreographers Retreat co-designed by c.a.t.a.m.o.n.dance group and Montreal Danse. I hold an MFA from the Transart Institute/Liverpool John Moore’s University. I am adelheid's artistic director.
artistic producer
Aliah Schwartz (they/them) is an arts and community non-profit manager with a multi-disciplinary background in dance, visual art, and puppetry. Originally from a small town in Nova Scotia, they studied at Concordia University in Montréal where they graduated with a BFA double majoring in Contemporary Dance and Studio Arts. Aliah moved to Toronto in 2019.
Aliah Schwartz (they/them) is an arts and community non-profit manager with a multi-disciplinary background in dance, visual art, and puppetry. Originally from a small town in Nova Scotia, they studied at Concordia University in Montréal where they graduated with a BFA double majoring in Contemporary Dance and Studio Arts. Aliah moved to Toronto in 2019.
artistic associate
Jeremy Mimnagh is a photographer, filmmaker, and multimedia artist whose collaborations move between still photography, film, projection, sound, and immersive performance. His work explores the spaces where memory, perception, and lived experience begin to blur, inviting audiences to sit with complexity rather than certainty. Drawn to questions without simple answers, he creates images and environments that reflect on our relationships with one another, the places we inhabit, and the changing world around us. Through acts of careful observation, his work offers opportunities to pause, look closely, and imagine what might emerge from uncertainty.
Jeremy Mimnagh is a photographer, filmmaker, and multimedia artist whose collaborations move between still photography, film, projection, sound, and immersive performance. His work explores the spaces where memory, perception, and lived experience begin to blur, inviting audiences to sit with complexity rather than certainty. Drawn to questions without simple answers, he creates images and environments that reflect on our relationships with one another, the places we inhabit, and the changing world around us. Through acts of careful observation, his work offers opportunities to pause, look closely, and imagine what might emerge from uncertainty.
social media manager
Originally from New Brunswick, Jane ,Alison McKinney is a dancer, choreographer, and producer. A graduate of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, she has performed the works of a variety of contemporary dance artists in Canada and internationally. In 2016, she was awarded a Metcalf Foundation Internship Grant in Artistic Direction with adelheid under the mentorship of Heidi Strauss, whose close mentorship has played a profound impact on Jane-Alison’s artistic development. She has also worked with adelheid as a dancer, emerging choreographer, and producer. Jane Alison’s choreography has been supported nationally by a variety of festivals and residencies; most recently her solo work ‘This Piece is Not About Motherhood, it’s About the Body' was presented by Citadel + Compagnie in Toronto. She is also co-director of the performance collective Bare Nerve with Emma Kerson.
Originally from New Brunswick, Jane ,Alison McKinney is a dancer, choreographer, and producer. A graduate of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, she has performed the works of a variety of contemporary dance artists in Canada and internationally. In 2016, she was awarded a Metcalf Foundation Internship Grant in Artistic Direction with adelheid under the mentorship of Heidi Strauss, whose close mentorship has played a profound impact on Jane-Alison’s artistic development. She has also worked with adelheid as a dancer, emerging choreographer, and producer. Jane Alison’s choreography has been supported nationally by a variety of festivals and residencies; most recently her solo work ‘This Piece is Not About Motherhood, it’s About the Body' was presented by Citadel + Compagnie in Toronto. She is also co-director of the performance collective Bare Nerve with Emma Kerson.
Board of Directors
John Dalrymple, Chair
Lee Sela, Secretary
Irma Villafuerte, Treasurer
Bradley Powell
Claire Holland
Rumi Jeraj
John Dalrymple, Chair
Lee Sela, Secretary
Irma Villafuerte, Treasurer
Bradley Powell
Claire Holland
Rumi Jeraj