Sasha Ivanochko biography
Sasha Ivanochko is a Toronto based dancer, teacher and choreographer. An intense and intuitive performer, Miss Ivanochko has charmed audiences and critics with her explosive physicality and dramatic presence since she began her career in 1991.
A significant presence with Toronto Dance Theatre from 1994-2003, Miss Ivanochko performed and originated many major roles in the company repertoire, and in her final years in the company, acted as assistant to Artistic Director Christopher House. She has also graced the stage in works by Tedd Robinson, Peter Chin, Peggy Baker, Denise Fujiwara, James Kudelka, and Michael Trent, among others.
As a choreographer, Miss Ivanochko is regarded as “a mover and shaker” (The Globe and Mail, 2001) with a body of work that is defined by its economy, passion and beauty. Since her choreographic debut in 1997, presentations of her work include DanceWorks, the Canada Dance Festival, Spring Rites, Dusk Dances, Tangente, Dancing on the Edge Festival, Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers and commissions by Toronto Dance Theatre, TILT sound+motion, and DanceOntario’s 2004 DanceWeekend. In the fall of 2002, her acclaimed duet with dancer Michael Moore, The King and Queen of Ruins toured across Canada as part of a CanDance exchange Danse tout-terrain. It also marks the beginning of the long term, provocative collaborative relationship with composer Catherine Thompson.
In January of 2005, Miss Ivanochko founded blackandblue dance projects. Past company projects include the June 2005 premiere of her critically acclaimed solo Is this love? as part of her two-program season at The Winchester Street Theatre in Toronto. Also featured was The Suite of Black Miniature Dances danced by Susie Burpee, Kate Holden, Julia Sasso and Michael Trent, some of Canada's most talented performers. In July 2006 she made her international choreographic debut with Cold Night, at the Aichi Arts Centre in Nagoya, Japan. In November 2006 Miss Ivanochko premiered her first full-length piece Heaven at the Harbourfront Centre Theatre, DanceWorks Mainstage Series. In December 2008, Ivanochko unveiled her latest solo, The future memory heartbreak junction, a dramatic tour de force that has garnered critical acclaim and audience appreciation across the country.
Miss Ivanochko is a highly sought after teacher, and she has worked with students and professionals at universities, schools and festivals across Canada and in Japan. She has been on the faculty at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre since 1996 and is a regular teacher at LADMMI, l'école de danse contemporaine, The 509 Collective and with Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre where she was Artist in residence in 2006. A warm and generous teacher, her highly physical and technically challenging classes reflect her own deep love of dance.
As the propelling force behind blackandblue dance projects, Miss Ivanochko believes that dance has an important and positively influential status in society. It is a non-violent way of stimulating thought and discussion. It seeps into the body through “the back door”. That is, its contents penetrate the viewer abstractly via images, viscerally and emotionally, inspiring reflection. An energetic advocate for the health and status of dance artists, Ivanochko is current Chair of the Ontario Chapter of the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists and The Canadian Dance Assembly's Independent Artists Standing Council Chair.
Miss Ivanochko is the recipient of the the 2005 and 2008 Chalmers Family Fellowship, the 2007 K.M. Hunter Award and was recently profiled in a Bravo documentary Freedom Series.
Sasha Ivanochko currently teaches Interprétation IV to LADMMI 3rd-year students. The piece created during this semester will be presented on May 27, 28 and 29 at la Maison de la culture Frontenac.