Dyana Sonik-Henderson (she/they)
Dyana was born at home on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak and Attawandaron peoples. She is a choreographer, dance instructor, Executive/Artistic Director of the Victoria-based dance company Broken Rhythms and style creator of Rhythmical Contemporary. Dyana is a staple in the local dance community with weekly classes at the iconic Raino Dance studio, Victoria Academy of Ballet, Canadian Collage of Performing Arts and is a popular guest instructor at many studios across Canada. She has been nationally recognized for her choreography, community work and artistic direction with nine Pick of the Fringe awards, nominations for the inaugural Pro Arts Regional award, finalist for Monday Magazine’s Best Dance company, awarded the LOLA Project International, working with Gabi Beier from Berlin, Germany and was most recently presented with the title of B.C Cultural ambassador due to her work with community engagement and recognition of artistic excellence.
Dyana has been commissioned to set choreography on local and national companies, received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council and the CRD, and has been invited to lecture at universities about creativity, dance and gender performance. Her productions and choreography have been performed nationally, including Halifax, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and toured all across B.C. She has studied and performed widely, including at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (London, England), Decidedly Jazz Danceworks (Calgary), and One Immigrant Productions (Toronto). She is continuously collaborating with artists across the disciplines, while simultaneously working with her company on creative projects with featured work in Dance Current Magazine and Boulevard Magazine and her touring shows named as one of Toronto Star’s “can’t miss shows”. Dyana continues to engage in contemporary multi-disciplinary areas of study and performance, most recently completing her Masters thesis in Sociology at the University of Victoria with a focus on movement and bodies through the lens of gender, race, history, and ballet/contemporary dance works.
Broken Rhythms 