Tia Ashley Kushniruk 亚 女弟
Image by Naomi Caulfield
Tia Ashley Kushniruk (亚 女弟) is a dance performance artist based in Amiskwacîwâskahikan, Treaty 6 Edmonton AB. She has performed the works of Jocelyn Mah, Antony Hamilton (CHUNKYMOVE), Benjamin Kamino, Heidi Strauss (adelheid), Christopher House (TDT), Shay Kuebler (Radical System Art), Alyssa Martin (rockbottom movement), Celia J. Green, Jake W. Hastey (Toy Guns), Susannah Haight and Christianne Ullmark touring Nationally and Internationally since 2013.
Kushniruk is a conservatory trained dancer with a background in street dance (breaking, house, animation), modern (Graham, Limon, Horton), theatre improv, clown & bouffon and post-modern dance training. Her work stretches the limitations of “dance” and “theatre” by drawing on theories of new-materialism and interculturalism alongside mixed-race and queer dissociative parallels by equipping the entanglement of “cringe” acts within the real and the digital realms. She works primarily with dance improvisation and tableau, seeking idiosyncrasies and humor within highly virtuosic presentations that blend performance art and hyper performativity. Dance as a method, a process, a performance, a community, and a philosophy for life are all integral to her career in Canada.
Her work has been presented by Festival Internacional Nomada, the Beijing International Dance Festival, the National Arts Centre, Dancing on the Edge, Fluid Festival, commonGround Arts Festival, Found Festival, Expanse Festival, Mile Zero and the New Dance Arts Institute with upcoming premieres at Tangente and OFFTA with theatre artist Philip Geller in Spring 2026. Kushniruk is a 2023 EATF award recipient and the inaugural 2020 Confluence Fellow. She holds an MA in Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Toronto (2025) and is a proud mentee of Toronto-based Performance Artist Bridget Moser.
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