Mentors 2023

Kay Kenney - Dāstān - The Journey Of...

Kay Kenney is a professional contemporary dance artist from Kingston, ON, where she began her journey in 1994 at the Kingston School of Dance, studying Cecchetti Ballet.  In 2009 she decided to pursue dance as a career and was accepted to the Professional Contemporary Dance Program at The School of Dance in Ottawa, where she was trained by many great national and international dance artists. Kay's professional dance career has led her to work, teach, create, and perform across Ontario, Quebec, and Europe, working with youth, pre-professional, emerging and professional artists. A company dancer of Ottawa Dance Directive since 2013, collaborating with artists like Tedd Robinson, Chick Snipper, Andrew Turner, Mélanie Dermers, Harold Rhéaume, Jocelyn Todd, Jesse Stewart, and artistic director Yvonne Coutts. Kay is also a company dancer for Social Growl Dance (Toronto) and is the rehearsal director for the company.

Kay moved back to Kingston permanently, where she stands as the only Fletcher Pilates instructor.  In 2016 she founded Movement Market Collective, a group of pre-professional and professional artists that come together to support and celebrate local, professional dance in Kingston.  Through the collective, Kenney has choreographed and presented three evenings of professional local dance works, numerous pops up events, and opened her own studio space in YGK.

In 2019 she was selected as a Youth Arts Ambassador representing Ontario Culture Days and was a recipient of the 2020 Kingston Mayor's Arts Award. Most recently, was awarded for Best Dance Film in the Shortwave Film Festival in Munich, Germany for a film project created in collaboration with Josh Lyon & Rachel Shaen.  Kenney has collaborated with amazing local festivals, such as The Skeleton Park Arts Festival, The Reel Out Queer Film Festival, The Juvenis Festival, The Kick & Push Festival, AnArch Theatre, The Cellar Door Project, Calliope Collective, and many other talented independent artists in YGK.