Helen Husak

The young woman and death

Helen husak (Calgary), Lori Duncan (Toronto), Sasha Ivanochko (Toronto)

Helen will premiere a commissioned duet work by Toronto based choreographer Sasha Ivanochko. This original 20 minute duet “The Young Woman and Death” (working title) will be performed by Helen Husak and her colleague Lori Duncan (formerly a Calgary based dance artist and now based in Toronto), with a music composition by Catherine Thompson.

Helen acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.


Helen Husak graduated from the University of Calgary Dance Program in 2001, and has studied with a variety of dance artists from Alberta and abroad including Davida Monk, Darcy Mc Gehee, Tonya Lockyer, Tedd Robinson, Serge Bennathan, Robert Abubo, Peter Boneham, Susie Burpee and Sasha Ivanochko. She has explored artist residencies at the Banff Centre, and Ottawa’s Le Groupe Dance Lab and participated in two collaborative ensembles: VIA (2002) and Raw Gloss Collective (2005). Her solo works have been presented in six years of Alberta Dance Explosions Festival of Choreography (2002-2009), at the National Arts Centre’s Alberta Scene Festival (2005), the Canada Dance Festival (2006), Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival (2008), Victoria’s Romp! Festival (2008), and Edmonton’s Feats Festival (2009). She has been awarded numerous grants for dance creation, and is a recipient of the Enbridge Emerging Artist Award at the 2008 Mayor’s Evening for Business and the Arts in Calgary.

Lori Duncan is a Toronto based dance artist and a graduate of the Ryerson University Theatre/Dance Program. As a former company member with Le Groupe Dance Lab in Ottawa (2005-2009), under the direction of Peter Boneham, Lori had the opportunity to work with many exceptional choreographers from Canada and abroad including Susanna Hood, Tedd Robinson, Louise Bédard, Ame Henderson and Lionel Hoche. Before Ottawa, Lori lived in Calgary and danced for Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, and as an independent artist. There, she performed in Nicole Mion’s “I was looking at the ceiling and THEN I SAW THE SKY” as part of  One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo, and was also a founding member of the Raw Gloss Dance Collective performing in works by Serge Bennathan, Robert Abubo and Helen Husak.  Recently, Lori has performed in Tedd Robinson’s “The Reins” at his Barn in Litchfield, Quebec, as well as in Susie Burpee’s “Dead Philosophers’ Limbo” as part of Toronto’s Nuit Blanche Festival.

Sasha Ivanochko is the artistic director of blackandblue dance projects, a Toronto based company dedicated to making art happen. For more information on this artist, please visit www.blackandbluedanceprojects.ca Catherine Thompson Catherine is living a somewhat nomadic existence mostly in the west of Canada. Through The Skuld Project, her work is devoted to creating a deep & deepening connection with the wild natural world, in part, by helping to bring modern industrial civilisation to it’s knees. Catherine is a composer, vocalist, musician, instrument maker, visual & material artist. www.fiain.ca