Ambitious Enterprises was founded in 2002 to produce the first installment of our Wrecking Ball Series. The AE team of Kate Franklin and Tina Fushell are now working on our fourth evening of interdisciplinary contemporary dance. Kate and Tina, both successful dance artists in their own right, have danced and collaborated with each other for over a decade.
Photo By: David Hou
Kate Franklin, Co-Artistic Director of Ambitious Enterprises
Kate Franklin was born in North Bay and received her dance training at the Quinte Ballet School in Belleville ON, the Mentor Program at Ballet British Columbia in Vancouver, and as an Intern Dancer at Toronto Dance Theatre. As an independent dance artist in Toronto she has worked with Kate Alton, Piotr R. Biernat, Tanya Crowder, Andrya Duff, Tina Fushell, Hit and Run Productions, DA Hoskins, Matjash Mrozewski, Yvonne Ng and Jonathon Osborn as well as companines Kaeja d’Dance and Pro Arte Danza. She traveled to Fringe Shanghai in the fall of 2006 to perform with T’art Dances.
Kate is the co-artistic director of firstthingsfirst productions with Kate Holden. The company’s successful inaugural production, Namesake just finished a sold-out run at the Winchester Street Theatre. Kate is the co-founder of Ambitious Enterprises, a collective committed to producing and promoting the work of emerging dance artists. Her own work has been shown at Series 8:08, Grooveform’s Mishmash, Quinte Ballet School’s Spring Showcase, Squiggfest, RED Cabaret, the AE-produced At the Wrecking Ball series, and TILT sound+motion’s 2006 Choreographic Workshop, Bottom’s Up. She is the Program Co-ordinator of Series 8:08’s Alternative Technique Class Program.
Photo By: Jess Baumung
Tina Fushell, Co-Artistic Director of Ambitious Enterprises
Born and raised in St.John’s, NFLD, dancer, teacher, producer and choreographer, Tina Fushell, lives and works in Toronto where she has been based since 1999. As a performer, she has originated roles in the works of numerous choreographers including Miranda Abbott, Leah Archambault, Tal Aronson, Andrya Duff, Jesse Dell, Alana Elmer, Kate Franklin, Jasmine Inns, Michelle Silagy, Matt Waldie, and The Grasshoppa Exchange, among others.
Tina’s own choreographies include Mecha (2002), Look In: Under the Retroscope (2003), Abundance (2004), The Things We Do (2005), sTOries (2006) and Home Word Bound (2006). Her work has been presented across Ontario and the country including performances in St. John’s Festival of New Dance, Toronto’s Hysteria: Festival of Women, the Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, the RED Festival, Dance Matters, the Moving Pictures Festival and Dance Ontario’s DanceWeekend.
Tina is co-artistic director of Ambitous Enterprises with Kate Franklin. The company produces the At the Wrecking Ball series which provides opportunities for emerging choreographic talents and their collaborators from various disciplines. In 2005, she co-produced The Violet Hour I with Lucy Rupert and Rebecca Carney.
When not creating and performing in dance works, Tina teaches modern at the Quinte Ballet School, where she’s been on faculty since 2005 and in the Ontario Public School System where she is involved with the Royal Conservatory of Music’s project, Learning Through the Arts.
