DRSD Experience Performance Group

The DRSD Performance Group strives to connect dancers of all different backgrounds and histories. Check out our Dancer Biographies below!

Sneak Peak Videos

“Everything Has Rhythm, Everything Dances”

Maya Angelou

Alison Lambert

Principle Dancer

Moving and grooving has always been an essential part of Alison’s life. Beginning with ballet at 3, her youth dance career exposed Alison to many forms, including modern, tap, jazz, african, and caribbean. Trained at Alberta Ballet, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, and MacDonald Wilson Dance Academy. Past performing companies including, Dit.co and Youth Dance Unlimited. At the age of 21, Alison moved to BC to pursue a ski and yoga career. Having missed dance dearly, she recently returned home to Calgary to see if there still was groove in her path. She has resumed training and is stoked to join the DRSD performance group.

Janira Moncayo

Born in Ecuador, Janira started dancing at age 14. Training in ballet, lyrical, jazz and tap at Clap Danza, Janira’s passion for dance started with an improvisation workshop, during the summer at her studio. The workshop created a personal connection to her dancing, and she realized dance could be emotional and tell stories. Deciding to expand her technique and add to her personal practice, she joined En Avant’s ballet training program, once she graduated high school. However, determined to gain an international higher education, she moved to Calgary, Canada, and currently trains with DRSD Experience as a Performance Group Member.

Nina Rojkovskaia

Nina has been on a journey through many dance styles in her life. Starting with ballet at age 3, she has had a restless heart trying to find its home in different genres such as tap, jazz/funk, breakdance, Latin ballroom, dancehall, vogueing, Latin American folkloric dances, samba and other Afro-Brazilian styles, Afro-Cuban dances, and West African styles. She has performed in many festivals in Calgary and Alberta with various groups, won medals in Latin ballroom, and is part of a collective that is trying to revive the vogueing scene in Calgary. Through DRSD she has found a place to solidify her technical foundation and hone the vibrant mix of styles that brought her here. She credits her audiophile parents, Gipsy Kings, James Brown, and the pantheon of Cuban music as the ones that started it all for her.

Norah Wardell

Norah’s passion for dance was ignited when she found that training her body brought her both a sense of community, strength, and artistic practice. After a few years of jumping from style to style and city to city, she longed for a focus and discipline that she found when she joined a performance which De Ann Weekes choreographed. She has since performed in several pieces, and plans to develop her performance capabilities as her next chapter.

Seigred Cortez

A late bloomer. Seigred began her professional dance career at 16. Her ability to be diverse through dance is uncanny. From Afro Caribbean to contemporary, she shows consistency in her technique. Seigred has trained with Deann for over 16 years honing her dance skills and is in constant search for new fabs in dance and throughout the art world.

Tina Fedun

Tina’s introduction dance began with her grandmothers love of Ukrainian folk dance and the first fiddle strains of the polka heard as a young child. From then and for decades to come dance became a central part of Tina’s life. With training in ballet and competitive gymnastics taking over the teenage years, dance played a central theme to daily life. Over the years Tina continued performing and competing across Western Canada. Music and movement plays a critical role in Tina’s life and she has studied many genres of dance from traditional ballet and jazz to modern and contemporary. Tina has studied extensive folk dance styles from all over Europe and the Middle East. Tina loves to explore the art of connection in partner dance ranging through all the latin dance styles, Brazilian salon dance as well African based styles of semba, kizomba and Urban Kiz. Tina spent many months in the Caribbean during her university years completing work study programs and there began her love of Afro-Caribbean music and dance. Tina is a firm believer that movement of the body can change one’s life.

Teneika Deennie

As a toddler Teneika Dennie began bouncing while her father made DJ mixtapes. She would mimic choreography from music videos by Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson and Bobby Brown. At the age of 7 she began entering street dance competitions and would dominate every one of them. In High school she joined the dance team and would battle against different schools across the GTA. And was often hired to perform at local events. Just when she thought her dance life had come to an end, DeAnn Weekes discovered her dance ability and asked her to join forces and take the Calgary dance community by storm with the DRSD Experience Performance Group.

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