Herman Lau roots his movement practice in his background as a martial artist and circus coach. A lifelong student of diverse styles spanning the spectrum from performance arts to combat sports to well-being work, he once competed on a national stage as a youth and continued tempering this education across various mats, rings, and cages to now teach and perform at various locations around Edmonton. He hopes to continue integrating creative practices and physical culture, studying movement as a form of self-expression to make and share meaning. He is excited to challenge people’s athletic and artistic sides.

Jia Jia Yong 楊佳佳 is a harpist and composer passionate about engaging and celebrating cultural art forms and heritage in contemporary performance art. She performs as a freelance musician at various events in Edmonton and area and also enjoys developing collaborative projects with other musicians and artists. In 2022, Jia Jia received a grant from the Edmonton Arts Council to learn the konghou, the Chinese harp, becoming one of a handful of konghou players in Canada.

Jose Macasinag is a queer Filipino media artist based in Mohkinstsis (Calgary, Alberta). His practice utilizes digital media, craft, and installation. Often his work explores ecological interconnectedness through themes of rhizomatic networks, organic cells, wildlife, minerals, and elemental patterns. Drawing from deep ecology and feminist theory, Jose’s art advocates and creates narratives engaging with these unique earthly embodiments. Through XR technology, and animation, he creates immersive installations that deepen ecological awareness and critiquing systems of power that threaten to harm the environment.

Jose has produced public art installations with STEPS, Chinook Blast, and Night Light Festival. In 2023, he co-produced an experimental cabaret performance during the LIVE Biennale in Vancouver. Additionally, he has exhibited work at the PARTICLE + WAVE Media Arts Festival hosted by EMMEDIA Gallery and Production Society. 

For more information, go to josemacasinag.com

Manitoba Great Wall Performing Arts Inc. is an independent non-profit amateur cultural performance organization. Its membership consists of local Chinese immigrants, Chinese Canadian citizens and student volunteers who share a common interest in the Chinese performing arts and are dedicated to community growth.

The organization has been established to achieve the following goals: 

a) communicate and promote Chinese culture and arts across Canadian multi-cultural groups.

b) enrich overseas Chinese cultural life. 

c) strengthen the Chinese ethnic identity and community; and 

d) contribute to the linkage between mainland and overseas Chinese through performing arts.  

It further aims to promote culture and art exchanges with other ethnic groups, enhance friendly relations with those groups, and raise awareness of Chinese culture and arts in the Canadian multi-cultural context. The organization also has established a dance school – Manitoba Dance Academy of Canada, Manitoba Chinese Choir and Great Wall Zither Institute. 

MOKSHA is a devotee of Shiva and a multidisciplinary artist, expressing the art of connection to the Spirit, through poetry, prose, painting and music. His art combines influences from the traditional, ancient religion of Sanatana Dharma with modern contemporary undertones. Passion, destruction, adoration and the exploration of the sacred and profane are also key themes explored in his work. 

MOKSHA firmly embodies the essence of spirituality, expressed through a unfiltered, loud and roaring rock and roll energy. Heavily inspired by artists like Jeff Buckley and Stevie Ray Vaughn as well as Indian classical musicians like Zakir Hussain and Ravi Shankar, MOKSHA is not only music, but a movement. A liberation movement.

Paul Giang 利炳坤 is an urban planner and calligrapher based in Edmonton. For three years, he studied under a Chinese calligraphy master, and the practice has become his primary medium for artistic expression and intercultural learning. He has performed and installed artworks at the Thousand Faces Festival (2022) and Edmonton Nuit Blanche (2018). He also regularly contributes to local zines as a graphic artist and writer.

Vanessa Jong is the principal drummer and one of the founders of 5 Elements Drums and Lion Dance Crew in Edmonton. 5 Elements performs lion dance and drumming, mixing traditional and modern elements into their acts. They like to think outside of the box, creating and choreographing unique and original routines for audiences to enjoy.

Zizhou Wang graduated from the Wuhan Conservatory of Music with a major in Guzheng. She is a council member of the Jiangxi Provincial Ethnic Orchestra Association. She began learning to play the accordion at the age of four and started learning the Guzheng at the age of eight. While in Montreal, she was invited to perform at the COP15 International Biodiversity Conference, the “Belt and Road” African Museum performance, and the Mid-Autumn Music Festival at the Jardin Botanique. She serves as the coach of the Guzheng team at Fo Guang Shan Hua Yan Temple in Montreal and as an instructor for the Children’s Folk Music Ensemble at the Montreal Confucius School.