Sex Dalmatian | Alyssa Martin | Rock Bottom Movement (Toronto)
Sex Dalmatian is a playfully feminist, short-form episodic, dance theatre glam drama. It follows the adventures of a canine business-mogul, her too-eager assistant Amalia, and her psychosexually charged arch nemesis Mr. Meeks. The titular character will be played by all five members of Rock Bottom Movement who will be rotating parts each episode, to decentralize a single identity as a lead character.
Sex Dalmatian places heavy feelings into bizarre containers, shining a humorous light on some of the darker corners of the collective consciousness.
Featured Artists
Rock Bottom Movement (Toronto) · Company
Rock Bottom Movement is an absurdist dance company founded and led by choreographer Alyssa Martin. Based in Toronto, the group has spent the last decade blurring genre boundaries of dance, theatre and comedy, launching irreverently from their shared modern dance training. Initially founded as a busking company, the group has since grown to share work for stage and film nationally. With an affinity for homemade spectacle, their recent acclaimed works include Sex Dalmatian, DINO and hollow mountain. Through creative residencies at art centres including The Banff Centre, Canadian Stage, The Stratford Festival Lab and CreativAction’s Open Space Programme at The National Ballet of Canada, they've built a working atmosphere prioritizing play and collective support. Rock Bottom Movement has been recognized with multiple Dora Mavor Moore Awards and the Canadian Stage Award for Direction. Every project they undertake is driven by high-energy mischief, functional friendship, and deep consideration for their audiences.
Alyssa Martin (Toronto) · Creator
Alyssa Martin (she/her) is a choreographer and director working in Toronto. She uses an absurdist approach to understand the pickled psyche through homemade spectacle. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Rock Bottom Movement, where she and her collaborators spin irreverent anti-patriarchal commentary through a blend of contemporary dance, theatre and comedy. She’s recently created new works for Toronto Dance Theatre and The National Ballet of Canada’s Apprentices, and collaborates often in the realms of film, opera, musical theatre and theatre including three seasons at The Stratford Festival. Her work has been awarded multiple Dora Mavor Moore Awards, The Bulmash-Siegel Award for New Creation at Tarragon, The Jack McAllister Award and the Canadian Stage Award for Direction. In all her work, she hopes to offer unbridled romps that make your strangest psychological gremlins feel welcome to the party.
Brayden Jamil Cairns · Creator
Brayden Jamil Cairns (he/they) is a Toronto based artist and member of Alyssa Martin's company, Rock Bottom Movement. He left rural Ontario in 2015 to train at Toronto Metropolitan University’s School of Performance. Since his training, Brayden has worked with the likes of Rodney Diverlus, Anne Plamondon and many of his peers in collaborative processes. Brayden is interested in movement that can be enjoyed by people from all walks of life. He binds dance and lived experience to create challenging works of art, utilizing different media such as writing and film. Many of these ideas come from a powerful need to uplift the queer and BIPOC communities. Brayden will often be found researching what it is to feel pleasure and what can come from self-exploration.
Drew Berry · Performer
Drew Berry is a multidisciplinary artist and educator based in Toronto with expertise in dance, photography, videography, and classical piano. Drew joined Rock Bottom Movement in 2016 and has since performed in 8 full-length works with the company. Other collaborators include: Brodie Stevenson, Jaberi Dance Theatre, Portal Dance, Emma Kerson, Alias Dance Project, and Kaeja d’Dance. Alongside her performance career, Drew has found immense passion for dance photography and videography. Having collaborated with various independent artists, dance companies and institutions, Drew’s fascination lies in documenting artistic processes and on-stage moments. She holds a post-graduate degree from Quinte Ballet School of Canada and a BFA (Honours) from Toronto Metropolitan University's Performance Dance program.
Pony Nicole Herauf · Performer
(She/They) is a queer creator and performer originally from Calgary, Alberta. She graduated from the Toronto Metropolitan University: School of Performance Acting program in 2018. Pony works as a writer, director, actor, and dramaturge. Her filmic work has been programmed and awarded at festivals such as the Vancouver International, Whistler, TIFF, TIFF Next Wave, Chattanooga, Forest City, Myrtle Beach, the Los Angeles Independent Short Awards, and now streams on CBC Gem.
Sam Grist · Performer
Originally from Winnipeg Manitoba, Sam Grist is a Toronto based contemporary dancer and collaborator. Sam has been a performer for Rock Bottom Movement since 2012, winning the 2020 and 2023 Dora Mavor Moore Awards for both “Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble” and “Outstanding Production” for their works "hollow mountain" and “Sex Dalmatian”. In addition to her work with Rock Bottom, Sam has performed with choreographers including Hanna Kiel, David Earle, Susie Burpee, Shannon Litzenberger, Julia Aplin, Anisa Tejpar, and Clare Preuss. Sam has been a guest teacher with Rock Bottom Movement, Cawthra Park Secondary School, Etobicoke School of the Arts, Unionville High School, and the Toronto Metropolitan University Dance Program.
Tia Ashley Kushniruk 亚女弟 (Edmonton) · Make Me Cry | a practise: Misinterpretation (a performance)
Tia Ashley Kushniruk (亚 女弟) is a Queer Woman of mixed-race heritage from Treaty 6 Territory of Edmonton AB. Straddling sincerity and mockery, her artistic milieu swings wildly from honesty to parody, indelicately proclaiming the hypocrisies of what it really means to be a person living today. Kushniruk’s adaptable artistry is crafted through an encyclopedic lens of current pop-culture, high risk/high reward style theater making, and her dynamically magnetic stage presence and poetic physical vibrancy.
Make me cry is a solo work inspired by/in response to the durational group work ‘make banana cry’ by Andrew Tay and Stephen Thompson. An existential exploration into the psyche of our titular artist (tia), the audience is delved into the horror and ambiguity of what it means to be the end result of a fetish versus
participating in one, and the minstrelsy that accompanies BIPOC artists creating ‘valuable’ work for the consuming public.