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JoDee
JoDee Allen (Choreographer/Dancer/Co-Artistic Director) earned a BFA in Contemporary Dance at Concordia University and in 2000 she was inducted into the all female Breakdance crew, Dysfunkshn and became a founding member of Solid State Breakdance. JoDee has done hundreds of performances with the company including shows in London (England), Lausanne (Switzerland), Swansea (Wales), and across Canada. She has performed on stage with DJ Premiere, Antibalas, Common, KOS and more. In 2004, she was selected to attend the prestigious Redbull Beatriders Street Dance camp where she trained with street dance legends. Her short film credits include, choreographer/dancer,“Transfert” music by Kid Koala, directed by Guillaume Paquin. She was choreographer for the video game Boogie Superstar by EA and JoDee is the owner of Studio Sweatshop, one of the only dance studios in Montreal dedicated to Urban Dance.
Helen
Helen Simard (Choreographer/Dancer/Co-Artistic Director) has been breakin’ since 1998. As a founding member of 'DysFunkShn' crew, she competed in breakdance events across Canada, as well as in Miami, Los Angeles, San Diego, and New York. Helen received a BFA in Contemporary Dance from Concordia University in 2000. She has worked as an interpreter for Cirque du Soleil, Wants and Needs, MMHOP, Lauren Degilio, and Tusket Dance, and as a rehearsal director for several independent theatre and dance companies. Aside from her life as a bgirl, Helen draws her artistic inspiration from clowning, burlesque, butoh, zombie movies, her son, her dog, and the general absurdity of life; she has presented her work at Espace Tangente, Studio 303, La Sala Rosa (Montreal), Dancemaker’s (Toronto), the Dance and Song Festival (Kingston), and the Gender Bent Cabaret (Winnipeg).
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"JoDee Allen and Helen Simard are vocal and articulate about (their) cross-referencing, and what they do creatively evades the commercial exploitation that is often found in the popular growth of urban dance."
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