ARTISTIC DIRECTOR | FOUNDER

Jennifer Mascall

“A most unique creative force”

“A fertile, iterative, gloriously unfinished practice.”

Deborah Meyer

Vancouver Sun

“Jennifer Mascall is nominally a choreographer, but she's also a poet of the ephemeral, a painter of possibilities. A performance by MascallDance is at once conceptually stimulating and gloriously, joyously corporeal: she incorporates physical theatre, kinetic sculpture, free-frame images of stunning poignancy, and seemingly impossible feats of grace.”

Alex Varty

Georgia Straight

“Choreography truly exceptional in its conceptual rigour and technical execution… a ride you won’t forget.”

Peter Dickinson

Performance, Place, & Politics

Jennifer Mascall ((she/her/hers/they/them/theirs) is a Canadian choreographer, teacher, improviser, mentor, and advocate for the art form. A first-generation settler of Norman/Celt descent, she is a ceaseless investigator and an unquenchable source of ideas. Mascall and her over 200 works have received many awards and continue to challenge dancers and audiences. As a committed dance innovator, practitioner, educator, mentor, and advocate, she encourages new generations of artists through collaboration, creation, choreographic residencies, intensives, and dialogue. Mascall’s approach is informed by studies with two American master teachers Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen and Linda Putnam.

MascallDance, founded by Mascall in 1982, has flourished under her leadership. Previous to 1982, Mascall had an international career as a solo improviser and co-founded GRID, TIDE and EDAM, all collectives. Early interests were written dances, which developed into Dial A Dance phone in dance orders and Footnotes, an anthology containing the written notes of 60 choreographers. She has received the Canada 125 Confederation Commemorative Medal, the Clifford E. Lee Choreographic Award, the Jacqueline Lemieux Prize, a Dora Mavor Moore Award, a Jessie Richardson Award, the Ann O’Connor Award, International Woman’s Day Award, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival Best Performers Award (The Brutal Telling), the F.A.N.S. Distinguished Artist Award, and an Isadora for outstanding contribution to dance in B.C.      

Photo: Yukiko Onley

MascallDance Team:

Tobias Macfarlane

frequent MascallDance performer, co-producer, production manager.

(he/him) he is a performer and producer, most recently in Blackout Theatres City of Tales and MascallDance’s The Impossible has Already Happened. He studied Theatre Performance at SFU and Business Economics at Queen’s before that. Working with MascallDance for several years on Privilege@Home, Bloom, and Lurch, he is interested in the intersection of technology and the environment in art.

Ysadora Dias

frequent MascallDance performer, co-producer, administrative assistant.

she, elu) an emerging artist based in so-called Vancouver. She began her dance journey at Escolas de Danças de Caraguá in Brazil, later joining the CBMC Dance Company and the collective Pé na Areia as a performer, where she collaborated in the creation and production of several works. Ysadora moved to Vancouver to further her artistic development with Coastal City Ballet, where she spent three seasons. In 2021, she joined Amok Project under the direction of Carol Mendes. She toured with MascallDance’s production The Impossible Has Already Happened in New Zealand and Canada in 2023, performed Privilege At Home 2024 and contributes to the company's administration. Recently, Ysa was part of the premiere of Co. Erasga’s new work What on Earth and has also presented her solo work Raiz with the support of the Dance West’s Re-cantering Margins residency 2024. She also performed in Camino y Despedida (Walking Farewells) at the recent STAND Festival. Ysa is a contemporary dance artist from Brazil trained at Escol de Dancas de Caraguá. A past member of BCMC Dance, the collective Pé Na Areia, Coastal City Ballet, she brings energy and administrative skills offstage to MascallDance as well as on stage in The Impossible Has Already Happened. Photo Credit: Caio Silva

Mario Matias

Consulting promotion director with MascallDance, and choreographer in three 2024 MascallDance residencies.

(he, they) is a Queer, Filipino-Indigenous (Igorot), choreographer, movement artist, and dance educator based in the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (Vancouver, Canada). He trained in a wide variety of dance styles including Hip-Hop, Punking, Afro and Commercial Choreography beginning in 2008 with PraiseTEAM Studio (Surrey, BC). There, within a year, he co-founded Epiphany Dance Crew and Epiphany Workshops, In 2012, Mario and Epiphany joined Studio 604 (Burnaby) as a competitive dance company; Mario led the company in many competitions, (including World of Dance Vancouver and The Canadian Hip-Hop Championships). Mario graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Leadership and a Minor in Communications from Trinity Western University, where he co-founded Agape; TWU’s first competitive dance team - the first western Canadian collegiate-based street dance team to compete in Ontario’s established university competition circuit. Leading the team in The Academy collegiate dance competition in Toronto, the university then hired Mario to lead the Spartans Dance Program. His dance studies span Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, Calgary, Auckland and Melbourne. IN New Zealand, mentored by Sunny Sun, a former member of The Royal Family Dance Crew, he trained street dance companies and studios, and in Melbourne was mentored by leading choreographer Gina Micheal.. Mario joined AfrobeatVan (2021) under Isaac (Izo) Gasangwa to train heavily in Afro dance styles, and then continued studies with Auckland’s notable choreographers and instructors in New Zealand.

Susan McKenzie

MascallDance Content Manager

(she/her) Born and raised on unceded Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw, Susan is a 3rd / 6th generation settler of Irish/Scottish descent. BFA - Fine Arts / Dance, York University, Tkaronto. She has danced, choreographed, taught, directed and written about dance, and is on the Boards of The Only Animal and The Southeast Asian Cultural Heritage Society (SEACHS).

Mascall Dance Society Board of Directors

CHAIRPERSON:

Harvey Meller

BSC. LLB. with an extended studies diploma in Dance (he/him/his) practices primarily commercial and entertainment law through his own corp, and provides advice and works in association with Vancouver litigation firm Klein Lawyers. In a prior life, Harvey studied mathematics, computer science and securities regulation. Before that he had a 15 year career as a well-respected Vancouver-based modern dance choreographer. Harvey founded two dance companies, was the recipient of commissions from numerous established Canadian companies and the National Arts Centre of Canada, and had a national tour of his work in 1993-94. Harvey is now a semi-avid curler and a co-conspirator and moral advisor to his partner, playwright/actor Jenn Griffin. Photo: Harvey Meller

TREASURER

Lien Kim Le

Born and raised in Vietnam, at age 14 Lien joined thousands of refugees fleeing their home country -- the so-called Boat People – to a better life overseas. After a year in refugee camps, she and her family arrived in Los Angeles. There, Lien finally received a proper education, completing a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from University of California, Irvine and relocating to Vancouver in 1998. Lien is a Senior Business System Analyst for Telus Corporation who has been working in Information Technology consulting for over 20 years. Lien is a successful professional and a devoted mother and wife, and works with Vietnam Education Society to build schools in remote areas.  Photo: minalumena.com

SECRETARY

Karen McKinlay Kurnaedy

(she/her/hers) A second generation settler of Scottish heritage, Karen is a dancer, writer, and educator who began her dance training in the 1960s at the Hanova School of Modern Studies in Body Sculpture and the Classical Dance (the first modern dance school in Vancouver) where she was forever imbued with the spirit of Duncan, Dalcroze, Laban, Wigman and Shankar.  She has published essays, articles and books about dance and education, most recently “Our Love Affair with Dance.  She holds a B.Ed from University of Alberta, a Master of Arts and Doctorate in Philosophy from Simon Fraser University.  Her teaching experience spans 30 years in the Coquitlam School District, and being a Faculty Associate and instructing in the Graduate Diploma Program. Her interests lie in promoting new ideas for education, the arts, dance history, dance, and dance education.   Photo: Irwan Kusdaradjat Kurnaedy.

MEMBER AT LARGE

Pearl Louie

(she/her/hers)  Pearl is a make-up and special effects artist in film and television. She is the eldest of a large Chinese-Canadian family, born in Regina on Treaty 4 land. She attended Central Collegiate Fine Arts Program, and became a founding member of Regina Modern Dance Works (1974-79). She received a scholarship to attend the Banff Centre StagecraftApprenticeship Program and in 1983 moved to Vancouver to help kickstart its’ fledgling film industry. Auntie to 16 rambunctious nieces and nephews, Pearl also excels in furniture restoration and babysitting.  Photo:  Pearl Louie

MEMBER AT LARGE:

Natalka Lubiw

(any)  Natalka is an architect in the position of Director, Facilities Development, for the British Columbia Institute of Technology.  Her group delivers a wide range of major facilities projects across the city’s portfolio, to serve the diverse needs of the many service groups. She is experienced in procuring and managing consultants and contractors, and in delivering facilities that target ambitious CHC Redictuions and, more recently, Net Zero Energy.  She is also a member of the Architectural Institute of BC Investigations Committee.  Natalka has been interested and involved in the dance world since the early days of contact improvisation in 1970s & 80’s Toronto.    Photo: screenshot

MEMBER AT LARGE

Allison Brooks

(she/her/hers)  Artist Allison Brooks has spent her life in Western Canada on various unceded First Nations Territories and Treaty 1 Territory.  Her formative training in dance began in Penticton BC and continued with the School of Contemporary Dancers Winnipeg, where her vocation as a contemporary dancer crystalized.  Allison contributed to the creation of The Impossible Has Already Happened and performed it in New  Zealand and Western Canada. A performer and choreographer, she has collaborated with Meaghan O’Shea, Constance Cook, Amok Project, Impulse Theatre, and A wide range of other local, national and international projects.  Photo:  Kendra Hope Penner

Photo Credits:

(top) Chris Randle of Lara Barclay, Billy Marchenski (collaborating performers: The Three Cornered Hat)

(mid) Milo Carbol of Allison Brooks, Justin Calvadores (performers, The Impossible Has Already Happened

(below) Chris Randle of Robin Poitras (performer, co-creator with Jennifer Mascall, Unfinished World)

Mascall Dance is a platform for movement research, creation, performance and movement education.

Our mandate is to research movement and physical motivation in relation to the world around us. We apply the results to dance creation, presentation and documentation.

We strive to pass on knowledge and history of our artform and to advocate for the performing arts.

We are currently the process of revisiting and updating our Core Values. We’d love to hear your thoughts on any aspect of the below.

OUR CORE VALUES (2009) 

Drafted by Jennifer Mascall and Susan McKenzie, guided by Jane Marsland

These shared beliefs drive how the organization operates:

Our company’s core company value is respect, both for the individual and for the work done by Mascall Dance.  We make ambitious goals, and we try to do the impossible.  We recognize artmaking and administration as creative acts.  Our work makes high demands on artists and workers, and takes participants out of their habits.  All involved make a full commitment to supporting the work through keeping the work rooms safe, maintaining confidentiality, and acknowledging sources.   

1.         All participants take responsibility for the success of the organization

2.         Mascall Dance is not a gig. It makes high demands on dancers and workers and takes them out of their habits. 

3.         In order to do the kind of research necessary for creation the dancers must trust that they will not be embarrassed.

4.         Confidentiality in studio and office is maintained during and after the work done at MD. Only if the people at Mascall Dance know that this is the case will we be able to develop the kind of work we need to do.

5.         Nothing undertaken in the work room can be discussed outside the work without the consent of all participants.

6.         Mascall Dance values politeness.

OUR WORKING VALUES:

1.         We

• engage in the relentless pursuit of results.

• make ambitious goals and try and do the impossible

• overcome obstacles along the way

• take responsibility for the success of the organization.

To this end, employees are encouraged to question: to study older works, to train when possible with JWM, and with her teachers and influences

2.         consider illegitimate any conduct which is not in the company’s best interests.

3.         value both the collaborative nature of art and the strength of a single vision.

4.         recognize the creation and the administration of a company as a collaborative act.

Creating “Us & them” is a form of disrespect.

5.         do not not accept bullying in any form.

6.         commit, fully, to making a place where development can occur.

7.         consistently honour and acknowledge sources of material.

8.         enter work prepared to be flexible and to shift according to a project’s needs.

9.         participants lacking necessary skills are expected to initiate the process of filling in those skills.

10.      Processes to make effective and efficient communication are valued.

11.      Learning, candor regarding mistakes and a sense of humour are expectations.

12.      Undermining or casting blame are unacceptable.

13.      Undermining (of leaders, peers, staff, dancers or administrators) is defined as comments, looks, indications of superiority, or anything that punctures the atmosphere of the workroom.

14.      Anyone can make the call on these negative practices; the issue is addressed at the time or if necessary, at a mutually designated time soon after the incident.  

15.      All participants strive to make an infrastructure that is as responsive as possible to the present working milieu.

16.      Mascall Dance`s commitment is to the art work.

17.      We devote ourselves to the success of our work through generosity of spirit, collaboration, discipline and humility.

18.      The performers must want to be seen by the audience.

19.      Mascall Dance expects the dancers to be in shape at the beginning of a contract and maintain that standard throughout the working period by daily training.

20.      Parallelling artistic practices, participants – administration and contract workers are, like dancers, expected to engage in on-going professional development.

21.      Mascall Dance considers reciprocity as a working process.

22.      Mascall Dance works to make dancers look fantastic

23.      Employees are accountable for raising issues and concerns that impede the success of the projects and their ability to work successfully

24.      Consistently tries to set up working methods that allow contract workers to resolves situations themselves, are then able to articulate them at group meetings and where unresolved are brought to a personnel meeting in which a Board member lends assistance. 

25.      Mascall Dance participants are expected to maintain a positive outlook and to use humour to alleviate tension.

26.      Each participant (Board member, contract worker, employee) is expected to GROW or evolve the organization as a dancer does, through participating in a creative process.

27.      Participants are expected to think critically about how the situation can be improved, to find a way to bring it up, and to develop the means to act on it.