Sasha Ivanochko is a performer, choreographer and educator with 30 years professional experience in the field of Contemporary dance. She is the founder of Ivanochko in Company, an ad hoc company dedicated to the production and presentation of her own work. From 2018- 2021, she was the artistic director of Dancers’ Studio West, a resource and production organization dedicated to the evolution of Contemporary choreographic practices in Alberta.
Sasha first developed her powerful physicality competing for ten years on the Canadian National Gymnastics Team. At the age of 14 she began training in Ballet and Modern dance at the Etobicoke School for the Performing Arts, and in 1991 she graduated from The School of Toronto Dance Theatre. She has an MFA Interdisciplinary Studies from Simon Fraser University. A virtuosic and multi-talented interpreter, she performed in the works of many outstanding choreographers, including Michael Trent, Peter Chin, Susie Burpee & Linnea Swan, Toru Shimazaki, Denise Fujiwara, DA Hoskins, Peggy Baker, Tedd Robinson, with Citadel & Compagnie, and for nine seasons with Toronto Dance Theatre.
Sasha made her choreographic debut in 1997, and since then has created a body of work renowned for its dramatic physicality, unflinchingly candid performances and detailed craftsmanship. Alongside her choreographies for Ivanochko in Company, she has been commissioned by Toronto Dance Theatre, Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, Via Salzburg, TILT sound+motion, Toronto’s Crazyfish Collective and independent artists Jillian Peever (Toronto), Helen Husak (Calgary), and Naoko Murakoshi (Kobe, Japan). Sasha’s work has been presented by the International Theatre Festival of Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), the Dance Meeting (Nagoya, Japan), The 2007 IETM (Montréal), The Canada Dance Festival (Ottawa), The Fluid Festival (Calgary), The Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival (Guelph), Dancing on the Edge (Vancouver), New Dance Horizons (Regina), Dancers’ Studio West (Calgary), DanceWorks (Toronto), The Festival of New Dance (St. John’s), Tangente (Montréal), Mile Zero Dance (Edmonton), La petite scène (Québec), Studio 303 (Montréal), Quartiers Danses (Montréal), Public Energy (Peterborough), the School of Contemporary Arts, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts (Vancouver) and at the visiBle festival (Los Angeles).
An educator since 1996, Sasha has developed a training methodology that is specific to the demands of her choreography. The class supports participants developing a kinetic and interpretive understanding of her movement vocabulary, but as well encourages a broader range of skills that has applications towards many performance avenues. Sasha has taught at multiple conservatories and universities across Canada, including The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, École de danse contemporaine de Montréal, The Ottawa School of Dance, The School of Contemporary Dancers (Winnipeg), Modus Operandi (Vancouver), The School of Alberta Ballet (Calgary) and The University of Calgary. She has guested at Ballet Mannheim (Mannheim, Germany), Kobe Jogakuen University (Kobe, Japan), and Simon Fraser University (Vancouver.
A passionate advocate for the health and status of artists and the position of the milieu in greater culture, Sasha served as Chair of the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists, East Chapter, from 2006-2009 and Chair of the Independent Standing Council with the Canadian Dance Assembly from 2009-2011.
Throughout her career, her artistic contribution to the Canadian dance milieu has been acknowledged through a variety of awards and bursaries. Sasha is the recipient of the 2007 K.M. Hunter Award, a two-time recipient of the Chalmers Family Fellowship, and the first recipient of The Kathryn Ash Award dispersed by the School of Toronto Dance Theatre. In 2006, Sasha was profiled in the Bravo Channel Documentary Freedom Series. Her MFA research was awarded the Joseph Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate-Masters Award and her work as an administrator has been acknowledged with the 2020 John Hobday Award in Arts Management.