Kathy Le, made her way to Toronto from Surrey, B.C., to become a student of the Dance Performance program at George Brown College (GBC) in 2019.
Graduating from her program in 2022, Le has worked with many reputable choreographers including Jose Carret (Danza Corpus) and Lauren Cook (Alias Dance Project). She has also worked both on and off the stage in roles such as performer, and stage manager.
Most recently, she has worked as stage manager with Rock Bottom Movement for a year, which gave her the opportunity to be part of the Sex Dalmatian team.
Sex Dalmatian, “follows the adventures of a canine business-mogul, her too-eager assistant Amalia and her psychosexually charged arch nemesis Mr. Meeks,” reads a description on the theatre’s website.
The show, choreographed by Alyssa Martin – a Canadian choreographer and director & founder of Rock Bottom Movement as a creative home – played from March 6 to 16 at Citadel + Compagnie.
“The company itself is really fun, everyone is so inviting, so welcoming, they are just the nicest people ever and such a… heart felt like environment to be a part of,” said Le.
Le first met Martin, founder of Rock Bottom Movement in 2021 when she came to the college to choreograph for Unleashed. She started exploring stage managing with Hanna Kiel as a mentor and was referred to the Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre where she shadowed AJ Morra, stage manager. Martin happened to be a choreographer in the show, recognizing Le, and reached out to offer her a position as stage manager.
Le considers herself lucky to be part of the team and describes Martin as a great director.
“As a stage manager I get to see what she is like as a director and just watching her I take mental notes of what she’s doing, how she runs rehearsal, how she runs tech, and it gives me a better understanding of what I should be doing as a choreographer.”
As she looks towards the future Le hopes to continue to have a pivotal role in putting together performances. This includes choreographing more this year, and even putting together a small show and a dance film while collaborating with other artists.
“I’ve been inspired this year, I take a little bit of everything from everyone, and that’s kind of what makes my style unique. I want to create and choreograph more [and] collaborate with artists in the industry that I come in contact with within school to reconnect with them through dance.”
Sex Dalmatian has been recipient of three Dora Mavor Moore awards (dance division); outstanding performance by an ensemble, outstanding choreography and outstanding production.
What makes this show different is the rotation of the cast member playing the main character.
So as not to tie the character to any one cast member, five members of Rock Bottom Movement will rotate through the part each episode.
More information can be found at www.citadelcie.com/event/sex-dalmatian.
