Little Pear Garden Dancers

Annie Cassar

Born in Kingston, Ontario, Annie received her dance training there before moving to Toronto. She holds a B.F.A in Dance (Specialized Honours) from York University and is an Associate member in the B.A.T.D syllabus with teaching certificates in Jazz, Ballet and Stage. Annie recently performed pieces in Little Pear Garden Collective's Phantom Rose and Toronto's Harbourfront Centre's Dim Sum and World Rhythms Festivals. She choreographed and performed in Toronto's Nuit Blanche 2007. Other performances include pieces in York's Fine Art Festivals and York Dances 04-06. She has had the privilege to work with artists such as Emily Cheung, Danny Grossman, Gary De Matas and Rina Singha. This is her second season with the LPGC!

Masuyo Higashide

Masuyo Higashide was born in Osaka, Japan. After completing her Bachelor of Arts degree (Physical Education), she taught in a high school and a fitness studio. She is presently working with Little Pear Garden Collective. While at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre she had the opportunity to work and perform with many notable teachers and choreographers. She co-founded her own dance collective, cube3. Cube3 is a collective of three dancers and choreographers, Masuyo Higashide, Emily Law and Jennifer Lecuyer. And she is member of Octamerous dance project.She is also an instructor of Mitzvah Technique(Level 2); an innovative body work. She has found that even across language barriers we can communicate with each other through dance and music. www.cube3dance.blogspot.com

Sze Yang Lam

Sze-Yang Lam was born and raised in Vancouver. At 13 he began training in Wushu Chinese Martial Arts under renowned teacher Sifu Zhang Peng. He graduated from secondary school with the highest achievement in visual arts. To find a medium between his love of athleticism and self expression he found dance. Sze-Yang is a recent graduate of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre and has had the privilege of dancing with inDance and The Little Pear Garden Collective. Sze-Yang has admiration for many movement styles, from Wushu to ballet, hip hop to vogueing to capoeira, because he moves to this movement and it moves him. He has recently begun training ballet with Xing Bang Fu.

Grace Ching Lin

Graduated from York University with Specialized honors degree in Dance. Since year 1998, Grace has been a full time member of Echo Dance Association as a dancer, teacher, as well as choreographer. Grace also enjoys participating individual project performances with Little Pear Garden Collective to promote aesthetic of Chinese folk dance. As an active member of the Taiwanese overseas community, Grace has toured and performed in many cities outside of Toronto such as Sudbury, Hamilton, Oakville and more, to educate the general public the beauty and culture of Chinese and Taiwanese folk dance.

Hiroshi Miyamoto

Hiroshi K. Miyamoto has performed nationally and internationally in the numerous choreographies in diverse styles including in his own choreographies. He is a co-founder and collective member of Green Tea and also a collective member of 3M Dances in Toronto. He is a company member and rehearsal director of inDANCE / Hari Krishnan.

Alison Mockler

In 2008 Alison Graduated from the contemporary dance program at York University, where she studied classical Ballet and Modern under the facilitation of teachers such as Carol Anderson and Karen Bowes-Sewell. Many styles influence her movement due to her multifaceted training experience. These influences include her training in Capoeira (the fight/dance/game of Brazil), her membership in the Chinese Dance Company The Little Pear Garden Collective, as well as her experience with Brazilian and African dance forms. In the summer of 2007, Alison performed with The Little Pear Garden Collective at the Harbourfront Centre Theatre during the Dim Sum Festival. In February 2008, She will perform at the Al Green Theatre in a piece called Phantom Rose in collaboration with artistic director Emily Cheung and Gary De Matas, both MA graduates from York University. Alison hopes to further studies in dance theory by attending York University's Graduate program in fall 2008.

Masumi Sato

Masumi is currently dancing with InDANCE, a South Asian and Western contemporary dance company based in Toronto under the artistic direction of Hari Krishnan. Prior to joining InDANCE, Ms. Sato has danced professionally for over fifteen years both in Canada and Japan. While in Canada Ms. Sato has performed and collaborated with The Green Tea Project as a founding member since it's inception in 2002. Both a graduate of the Tokyo Communications Art School and from the School of Toronto Dance Theatre, Ms. Sato would like to continue her dance career through both performance and the education of future dancers.

Brigitte Tsang

Brigitte began her dance training in Hong Kong, where she danced in the production of The Pied Piper with the magician and children's entertainer, Harry Wong. After moving to Canada at a young age, her movement vocabulary broadened to include: ballet, jazz, modern, and contact improvisation. In 2004, Brigitte was accepted into York University's dance program. Since then she has had many performance opportunities, including: York Dances 2005 - 2007, Dance Innovations 2005, and Project Dance 2007 (New York City). Brigitte is in her first year with the Little Pear Garden Collective, and will be completing her dance studies at York this year.

Melissa Yang - Rehearsal Director

Receiving a BFA Dance Specialized Honours from York University, Melissa is also Captain of the York Dance Team. She has had the opportunity to choreograph and perform in Nuit Blanche 2007 and is blessed to have worked with renowned artists Emily Cheung, Gary De Matas, Rina Singh, and Danny Grossman. Her love of metal music has led her to be choreographer and dancer with the band Man the Destroyer. Additionally, she dabbles in circus arts. Other credits include Toronto Lynx Dance Team, Toronto Rock, Mean Girls, and Bedouin Soundclash. Melissa is ecstatic to be dancing with Little Pear Garden Collective and honoured to be Rehearsal Director.

Jasmine Zhang

Jasmin joined the LPGC in 2005. She began dancing at age 6 and by 12 was professionally trained in Ballet, Modern dance, Chinese Classical and Chinese Folk dance from the Arts College of PLA China. Currently she is finishing her Bachelor of Human Resources Management Honors degree at York University. Her dance specialties include (but are not limited to) Chinese folk, Chinese classical and other famous Asian styles. She performed as a leading dancer in the Opening Ceremonies for the Far East and South Pacific Games for the Disabled in Beijing, and has danced in more than 200 performances internationally.