The PuSh International Performing Arts Society has announced that Gabrielle Martin will join Margo Kane and Jason Dubois in the newly formed PuSh Collaborative Leadership Team, which will manage the organization and lead the 2022 festival.

Martin is a cultural producer, performance curator, and arts manager whose recent career highlights include working as festival manager with the Vancouver International Dance Festival and as producer and tour manager with the aerial-dance company Corporeal Imago.

She has a BFA in Contemporary Dance from Concordia University, a Certificate in Circus Dramaturgy from the Centre National des Arts du Cirque, and an MA in Arts and Cultural Management from Rome Business School.

As a contemporary dance and circus artist, Martin--who grew up in Vancouver's Commercial Drive neighbourhood--performed over 1,400 shows internationally with Cirque du Soleil’s TORUK—The First Flight and Cavalia; participated in choreographic residencies in Belgium, Sweden, and France; and presented her work in the UK, U.S., and across Canada.

She also cocreated and starred in the aerial dance show Limb(e)s, which was presented live in Montréal and Edinburgh in 2019, and had the world premiere of its filmed version at last month's Dancing on the Edge Festival.

“As voices across the performing arts industry question a return to 'normal'," says Martin in a press release, "it is a crucial time to nurture the type of innovation and dialogue at the core of PuSh's mission. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to do so as part of a shared leadership model that exemplifies a commitment to collaboration and decolonial practices.”

The 2022 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival will take place from January 20 to February 6, and will include work presented with long-standing partners such as the Dance Centre, Theatre Replacement, Music on Main, Touchstone Theatre, the Firehall Arts Centre, and SFU Woodward's Cultural Programs.