OUR BOARD
Alison Carter - Chair
Alison has been on the board for Neighbourhood Danceworks (NDW) several times. In 2003 when NDW
had been inactive for a few years Alison chaired a subcommittee of the Resource for Centre for the Arts
board, at the behest of Robbie Thomas and Sarah Stoker, to bring NDW back to life, until 2006 when she
moved to Nova Scotia for studies. She returned to NDW in 2011 and became treasurer of the board for
several years. She has just resumed this role in September 2023.
Alison began contemporary dance and improvisation with Jo Leslie in 1986. During the 1990s and early
2000s she performed with the dance collective Louder than Words, African drum and dance group
Dzolali directed by Curtis Andrews, Gutsink collective produced by Sarah Stoker and Artistic Fraud
Theatre company directed by Jillian Keilly. She has since participated in community dance projects
convened by Neighbourhood Dance Works with Geri Morita in 2009 and Andrea Tucker and Andrea Duff
in 2020. She joined NDW’s Navigating Home project with choreographers Christopher House and Anne
Troake in 2017-2019.
Her day job is working as an Occupational Therapist, which never gets boring!
Bryan Duffett - Treasurer
Bryan joined the NDW Board as Treasurer in 2024. He's a Certified Professional Accountant (CPA) and is currently the Finance Manager of Living Lakes Canada, an environmental charity based in British Columbia. Bryan grew up in Bonavista, Newfoundland and is a graduate of the Business program at Memorial University (2010). He is currently a masters student at Memorial, studying in the Masters of Employment Relations (MER) program. Bryan published a book of poetry, The Blades Beneath My Feet, in 2023. He's a proud NDW zombie; and is passionate about Newfoundland, non-profits, and numbers.
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Robert Azevedo - Secretary
Robert Azevedo has been living in Corner Brook, NL since 2020. Born in Moncton, they began dancing on the East Coast before moving to Vancouver, BC to receive their BFA in Contemporary Dance and English Literature at Simon Fraser University. Following that they also graduate from Douglas College with a Diploma in Sign Language Interpretation.
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Robert works primarily as a dance artist and ASL-English interpreter and sometimes bridges those two interests by working on accessibility in the arts. They volunteered for several years at the PuSh international festival of performing arts (Vancouver) as an accessibility volunteer and also briefly with VocalEye (Vancouver) working on creating audio descriptions of dance for blind and low vision audiences. Since moving to Newfoundland they have worked with CBNuit (Corner Brook) DanceNL on improving accessibility.
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They also sit on the board of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Visual Language Interpreters (NAVLI) serving in their second year as secretary and were a founding board member of Vines Art Festival where they sat for six years. Robert looks forward to this new board adventure and working to boost the profile of dance in Newfoundland and Labrador with Neighbourhood Dance Works.
Roshni Fiech
Roshni is an avid enjoyer of the arts. Her biggest passion being music, she is always singing at home and has now also experienced singing on the Festival of New Dance stage. Looking to join the local arts scene in some way, she contacted Calla and joined Neighbourhood Dance Works as a summer intern in 2018 and has since joined for two more summers and festival volunteering. She has volunteered at other music festivals and venues as well and has joined the student-led newspaper the Muse as a writer. She strongly believes in the positive change music, writing and the arts can facilitate as well as how the creative outlet can support mental health and expression, and wants to be a part in sharing it with the world.
Kelly Jane Bruton
Kelly Jane Bruton is a multidisciplinary artist whose innovative practice spans film & tv, dance, performance, visual art, and installation. With a profound commitment to sustainable practices and social labour, she utilizes art as a way of knowing, a powerful medium for education, justice, and capacity building. Kelly Jane has cultivated a diverse artistic portfolio that reflects a deep engagement with pressing social and ecological issues.
Kelly Jane pursued formal education in the arts, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Art Education from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1991. From a formative period in Botswana, Southern Africa, and world travel she has developed a unique artistic voice that integrates various disciplines, allowing for a rich exploration of themes related to the environment, community, and social justice. Her work often challenges conventional boundaries, inviting audiences to engage with complex narratives that highlight the interconnectedness of humanity and nature.
In addition to her artistic practice, Kelly Jane is deeply committed to social labour and community engagement. She has collaborated with various organizations and grassroots movements to promote education and justice, working directly with communities to build capacity and foster resilience. Her workshops and outreach programs focus on empowering individuals to take action in their own lives and communities and examine the possible connections between art and activism.