Margarita Team

**Natasha Powell** - Choreographer
Natasha Powell is a Toronto native who has been working in the dance industry for 17 years. Her soulful approach to movement that transcends genre can be seen and felt in her dancing, choreography, and teachings. In 2016, she founded her Dora-award winning company, HOLLA JAZZ as a forum for developing and presenting artists that work and improvise together, to create harmonious and transformative experiences. The company aims to reinvigorate jazz dance with its sister dances including hip hop and house, as innovative and important vehicles for expression, while showcasing freedom and one’s own identity through the spirit of jazz.

**Sabine Ndalamba** - Composer, Music Director and Guitarist
Toronto-based composer/musician Sabine Ndalamba is always on a quest to establish the musical heartbeat of a compelling story. An enthusiastic collaborator across mediums, she contributes her writing and playing to a diverse range of projects locally and beyond.
With a compositional style that fuses elements of jazz harmony, evocative melodies, ambient textures and groovy repetitive structures, her works have found homes across a variety of mediums such as games, art installations, string orchestras, jazz clubs, folk festivals, churches and dance stages. Also a seasoned songwriter, you can find Sabine taking custom song commissions between larger projects.
Keep up with Sabine’s latest experiments at www.sabinendalamba.com/join

Performers

**Ashley ‘Colours’ Perez** - Dancer
Ashley Perez is a Teacher, Dancer and Choreographer. She is the Co-Artistic Director of Mix Mix Dance Collective. Mix Mix has showcased work at Fall For Dance North (2017), Contemporaneity 3.0 (2019), and represented Canada at the Jeux de la Francophonie (2017) in Abidjan. Ashley was awarded the 2018 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Performance, Ensemble in the Dance Division for Floor’d presented by Holla Jazz in 2018. Ashley has recently completed her MA in Dance at York University. .

**Caroline ‘Lady C’ Fraser** - Dancer
Known internationally by her stage name ‘Lady C’, Caroline Fraser is a unique artist with a diverse background and skill set. Her main focus is in Street Dance culture and although she has made her mark in this global community, her training includes a background in Ballet, Contemporary and Tap Dance and over the past 6 years now extends into Jazz Dance forms with Holla Jazz Dance Company.
Caroline was the recipient of 2 Dora Mavor Moore Awards as well as the Gadfly Canadian Dancer of the Year Award. She is also a recording artist under the same pseudonym on Catch the Ghost Records, CA.

Chenise Mitchell - Dancer

Chenise Mitchell considers herself a Jazzer; an all around performing artist driven by rhythm and social connection. With 16 years of professional experience, Chenise has toured across North America, appeared in commercials (Hasbro, Rogers, MMVAs), and performed in festivals (Fringe, Ignite!, Provocation, Particle and Wave, Fluid Fest, MADbeatz, Calgary International noChildren’s Festival and more), concerts (WE Day, Fenulla Jiwani), music videos (Witch Prophet and others), musicals (Nunsense), plays (Streetcar Named Desire, inVISIBLE and others) and has created with: Dance Matters, Toronto History Museums, Nuit Blanche, SummerWorks, Toy Guns Dance Theatre, EveryBODY On Stage, Downtown Disney, Wildseed Centre for Activism and Art and many others. Chenise believes that Jazz ignites a connection to the rhythm of life like no other. Chenise feels belonging with Jazz because it is healing, it is social, it is connection, it is community. Chenise is passionate about emphasizing the revolutionary nature and Black origins of Jazz and this rhythm and connection is infused in her education, creation and performances.

**Eric West -** Drums
Eric West grew up in a musical household. At the age of 5 his uncle donated an old drumset to him, and at 12 years old, he began formal training at Humber College's Community Music Program. It was there he fostered his love for jazz under the mentorship of Kirk MacDonald, Cathy Mitro, Barry Romberg, Steve Mancuso, and Don Palmer. Eric went on to continue his studies at Humber College where he received a Bachelors Degree in Music. Since then, he has been an active member of the Toronto jazz community, also branching out to pop and indie rock scenes. He has toured throughout Europe, USA, and Canada, with notable acts such as, *The Tenors*, *Banners* and *Pram Trio*. In 2012, he was awarded the *Sabian Cymbal Award* by Humber College for outstanding achievement and in 2014, was awarded the prestigious *Grande Prix de Jazz* at the Montreal Jazz Festival as a member of co-led group *Pram Trio*. In 2022, Eric was nominated for a Juno in the category of Vocal Jazz Album Of The Year for playing on *Your Are The Light And The Way* by Alex Bird And The Jazz Mavericks. Most recently he has taken on the roll of booking Toronto's newest Jazz Club 'Poetry Lower West Side'

**James Hill** - Keys
James Hill is an award-winning Toronto-based pianist, composer and producer, most well-known for his work as keyboardist for the jazz and hiphop sensation Badbadnotgood. As a leader, he has produced 6 long play studio albums and numerous singles. Hill’s latest release is an album called REMOTISM, which is the second full-length album he has released with his band Local Talent (featuring Canadian musicians, and long-time collaborators, Rich Brown and Ian Wright). With seven plus years of experience performing and recording professionally, Hill has played and worked in over 35 countries at some of the world’s most prestigious festivals including Glastonbury, Montreux Jazz, Sonar, SXSW, Newport Jazz and many more. Over the last two years, Hill’s snowballing interest in electronic music production has led him to create music in a new way. Hill will be debuting this new work under the moniker Projectwhatever.

**Jeff LaRochelle** - Saxophone and Clarinet
Jeff LaRochelle is a woodwind specialist, composer, arranger, and producer. He has performed throughout Canada as well as in Europe and South Korea, with the chance to work with many renowned musicians from abroad (Danilo Perez, Brian Blade, Chris Potter) and in Toronto (Andrew Downing, Roberto Occhipinti, Rich Brown). Jeff has released 5 full-length albums as a leader or co-leader including his latest release of “Lenses Extend”, a blend of contemporary jazz and chamber music. He is a co-leader of Autobahn Trio that was nominated for the 2016 Grand Prix du Jazz (Montreal).

Julian Anderson-Bowes - Bass

Julian Anderson-Bowes is an acoustic and electric bassist, improviser and composer hailing from Toronto, Canada. He loves to collaborate with artists across a range of musical styles from traditional jazz and free improvisation to experimental/indie pop, as well as frequently composing and performing his original music. He's been fortunate to perform numerous times all across Canada, as well as in the U.S. and around the world in places as far reaching as China, Bangladesh, Italy, Mexico and several countries in South America. Currently he is focused on composing and workshopping music for his new project called Moonbliss, which he dreamed up with an imaginative group of improvising musicians based in Toronto.

**Madelyn Miyashita** - Dancer
Madelyn Miyashita (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist from Kelowna, BC. She is a recent graduate from Sheridan College’s Honours Bachelor of Music Theatre Performance program and is now based in Toronto. Her artistic avenues beyond dance include her work as an actor, singer, musician, and choreographer. She is very honoured to be a part of this new jazz piece. When not in the studio, you can find her scouring through old sheet music at the reference library or tooting her French horn.

**Tereka Tyler-Davis** - Dancer
Tereka T. / T is a passionate, Toronto-based performing artist. Combining her training in dance, theatre and music she is constantly looking for avenues to explore and tell diverse stories.
Working in various Afro Diasporic forms, Modern, Contemporary and Burlesque she has had the opportunity to tour and perform in North America, the Caribbean, the UK and Nigeria. She is an advocate for comprehensive arts education for youth and has worked with the TDSB and various non-profit arts programs as an instructor, mentor and choreographer. She is most recently the recipient of a Dora Moore Award for Best Ensemble (Dance) with the cast of Holla Jazz *Floor’d* and dancer in Esie Mensah’s Dora nominated *Shades*. She is currently working towards a Pilates teacher certification with a goal to support physical wellness & injury prevention in dancers and working on collaborative theatre projects with a focus on choreography, editing, set design/staging and assisting.

Production and Creative Team

A.J. Morra - Production and Stage Manager

Based in Toronto, A.J. is a graduate of the Technical Theatre Program at Toronto Metropolitan University, and has enjoyed an active career as a Technical Director, Production Manager, and Stage Manager for contemporary dance, circus, and theatre. Selected credits include three seasons with Toronto Dance Theatre, and assorted projects with Dreamwalker Dance Company, Groundling Theatre Company, Zero Gravity Circus, Kaeja d'Dance, Soundstreams, and Signal Theatre. Margarita marks A.J.’s third project with Holla Jazz