Brandy is a uniquely versatile choreographer who creates image- based dance theatre with a visceral physicality and experimental daring. Her diverse artistic background and career spans continents and cultures integrating techniques and viewpoints from cross- genre and trans- cultural perspectives to support the creation of dance works with immense accessibility and high artistic quality.

Brandy's unique choreographic viewpoint is one that could only develop in the fertile cultural environment of her home country,Canada, and city, Toronto. This landscape has long supported a unique global cultural that has always encouraged exposure to, awareness of, and experimentation with the many performance vocabularies that make up its cultural atmosphere. Brandy is a choreographer from a new generation of creators who have grown up in an artistic environment that has blended global perspectives of performance into their cultural pallet. This effect is seen in her work, not as collage or fusion, but as a distinctly new voice that is the product of Canada's innovative cultural matrix.  

Brandy holds a BA Honours in Theatre with a specialization in Direction and Asian Theatre from York University's Theatre Program. She attended the program with the support of the Ken and Ann Watts Memorial Scholarship (1994) and graduated in 1998 as a member of the Dean's Honour list. This training has strongly contributed to Brandy's creation approaches, specifically in her use of Sceneography and Dramaturgy for the development of choreography. Following graduation Brandy moved to India to continue studies and artistic explorations in a non traditional setting, living for long periods of time in small semi tribal villages to study dance and martial arts. This move provided the groundwork for a decade plus artistic journey that has deeply explored the spaces between eastern and western performance perspectives and continues to experiment with the integration of traditional and modern artistic expressions in a contemporary context.

In India Brandy engaged in the study of Chhau dance (Serakella and Mayurbhanj), Kalarippayattu (South Indian Martial Art) and Mallakhamb (Indian Aerial Rope). She is the last student of Padamsri Guru Kedar Nath Sahoo and trained in the Royal Lineage of the dance form. While in Seraikella Brandy gave a private performance under the instruction of her Guru for the King and Queen of Seraikella in the Royal Palace (2000). These dance forms are based in the aesthetic of angik abhinaya (expression through the limbs of the body for communication) and narrative abstraction rather than a focus on codified facial (abhinaya) and hand expressions ( hasta mudra) found in the traditional Indian dances and lend themselves to being malleable and expressive vehicles for choreography, transcending boundaries and cultural frameworks.

Brandy received two Shastri Indo Canadian Fellowships for her work with Chhau (2003 and 2005). Both her fellowships focused on learning, documenting and analyzing the vocabularies of Serialkella and Mayurbhanj Chhau for the goal of utilizing these versatile languages for contemporary choreography.

Since 2004, Brandy has trained, performed and created work that explores and integrates aerial elements drawn from traditional circus arts into her multi- dimensional and multi- cultural work. This unique element of her choreographic voice draws strongly from the distinctly Canadian tradition of the aerial arts that has been pioneered over the last 25 years in her country. The exploration and integration of aerial work seeks out new ways to re interpret the body's relationship to gravity; liberating it for a myriad of choreographic possibilities, freedoms and expressions with new explorations of body and space.

In 2005 she began her exploration of Kalarippayattu, the South Indian Martial of Kerala, working with the esteemed Hindustan Kalari in Calicutt, the Shaji John Kalari in Chennai and the CVN Kalari East Hill in Calicutt. In 2010 she included Mallakhamb (Indian Aerial Rope) into her performance languages. She has been awarded a senior Shastri Indo-Canadian Fellowship (2010/11) to continue her exploration of Kalarippayattu in contemporary choreography.

Brandy's work has been presented in New York, New Delhi, Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Ahmedabad and Calcutta. Her choreography has been called "soulful and sensuous" by the New York Times, "fascinating" by NOW Magazine, and "more than thrilling" by the Times of India. In addition to being a triple Shastri-Indo Canadian Fellow (2003, 2005,2010), her work has received support from the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council and The Canada Council for the Arts. She was short listed for the KM Hunter Award in 2009 and received the Chalmers Award in 2010. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Anandam (www.anandam.ca) since 2002.

Marie has created works that have been presented in: Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, Montreal, Quebec City, New York City, Shanghai and Kolkata.  In the last year she created and produced Nucleus, as part of DanceWorks CoWorks 2006-7 and has been re-invited to be part of the CoWorks programming for 2007-8 with a new production.  Marie has also worked as a performer for several choreographers and taught modern technique at McMaster University.  She has directed and performed extensively with the Canadian based company KOBA (Children’s dance theatre productions) in Dubai, UAE, Beirut, Lebanon and across Canada and the USA.  She is a member of the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists, Dance Ontario and DTRC.

Her performance credits include LDP productions (Back to X/09, Caution/07, SHINJIRU/06, Stript Bare/05), Illuminite/10, Beats Breaks and Culture/09, Nuit Blanche/07/08, Confluence/08 and Dans/cekapital Festival/07 (Anandam Dance), Fringe Shanghai/06, TIDF/06, Wintercity Festival/06, fFIDA/04/05/06, and commercial work. Jennifer was a featured choreographer on the Gemini nominated documentary series Freedom which airs on Bravo. Presently, Jennifer teaches at Alyona Dance Studio, U4Change, and resides as the guest adjudicator on the entrance jury to St. Elizabeth Secondary School's Regional Arts Program. She leads countless workshops in the city as part of Larchaud Dance Project, and is involved with youth programming and intiatives. Jennifer is a member of Dance Ontario. 

Emily Molnar, Stepĥen Pier, Tino Segal, Robert Glumbek, Roberto Camaplella, Meneka Thakker, Darryl Tracey, D.A Hoskins, Darcey Callision. Ryan has also been able to work with such companys as Proartedanza, Toronto Dance Theater, Keaja d'Dance, Anandam, Larchaud Dance Project and The Chimera Project. Ryan is an in demand teacher throughout the Greater Toronto Area and his work as a choreographer has taken him to Western Canada and parts of Northern Ontario. . 

She was introduced to the art of dramaturgy while attending the National Theatre School of Canada. Since graduation in 2001, she has been working with companies such as Canadian Stage, Factory Theatre, Volcano Theatre, Obsidian Theatre, bcurrent, Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People, Roseneath Theatre, Second City, Stratford and other theatres across Canada and throughout the United States. She was also the Associate Artistic Director of Nightwood Theatre under Kelly Thornton (Artistic Director) and Maja Ardal (Interim Artistic Director) where she developed her dramaturgy and leadership skills from 2007 to 2008.

Audrey has always had a deep appreciation and respect for the world of dance. She studied African and Caribbean dance during her childhood and teen years and applies this sensitivity when working with members of the dance community. In 2004, she became the Resident Dramaturge and Process Director for the Anandam Dancetheatre. Audrey is continually asked to work with aerial artists and dancers across Toronto due to her skill of bringing character development, story creation to movement pieces in order to give dancers an edge in their work.

She is presently working alongside Governor General Nominee, Lisa Codrington on her new piece, The Aftermath, which will be featured at Nightwood Theatre’s Groundswell Festival in 2009. She was formerly the Assistant Associate Director of Write From The Hip, a writing group founded by Nightwood Theatre, that teaches young women playwrighting skills. She recently directed The Apology by Darrah Teitel, which premiered to sold out houses at Toronto’s Next Stage Festival.

His paintings are found in national and international collections both in private and corporate holdings. In the mid nineties Prashant was invited to teach at the National School of Drama in Delhi, India’s premiere institution for theatre training.  As Visiting Faculty he has taught Design and Composition for Set, Costume and Prop Design as well as Mask and Puppet Construction. Prashant has worked with Anandam since its inception.  He has provided research support and documentation for all of Artistic Director Brandy Leary’s work with Seraikella and Mayurbhanj Chhau in the Villages or Jharkhand and Orissa and he has Designed Puppets, Costumes and Sets for her productions of “Le Cirque Burlesque” (2001), “Devi”(2004) , “Frida and Herself” (2004-06), “relative gravity” ( 2005), Angikam (2007), “Tirtha” and “Anchored”(2008).

Other recent lighting design credits include:  The Famous Remains of Piggie Palace (18 Hands Productions), In Akbar’s Palace (Bageshree Vaze), Bluebeard (GromKat Production Ltd.), Fat Pig (Geek Girl Productions), Disciples (DMT Productions), Bye Bye Birdie (South Simcoe Theatre), Anowa (AfriCAN Theatre Ensemble) and King Lear (Toronto Art Theatre).  For Nuit Blanche 2008, Siobhán collaborated with New York based artist Brendan Fernandes, designing the lighting score for his exhibit entitled Future (…---…) Perfect.  Siobhán has also worked two seasons as Assistant lighting designer at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival on numerous productions including Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, To Kill a Mockingbird and My One and Only.  Siobhán is a graduate of the York University Theatre program.

A professional in visual arts, his talents are in developing creative approaches and solutions for communications in photographic media. He embraces challenging projects and enjoys sharing the perspective from his viewfinder with all of his audiences.