Born and raised in Victoria, BC, Alysa Pires began working with The National Ballet of Canada as part of the Choreographic Workshop. Over the course of two seasons, Alysa developed In Between, which premiered as part of Five Creations in 2018 and was subsequently performed at the MAD HOT BALLET Gala. Alysa was commissioned to create a new work for The International Competition for The Erik Bruhn Prize and was appointed Choreographic Associate in 2019.

 

Alysa has created works for Ballet Kelowna, Ballet Edmonton (Citie Ballet), Ballet Jörgen, Ryerson University, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre and more. She participated in the Spring 2019 Session of New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute.

 

Her first commission for Ballet Kelowna, MAMBO, was presented as part of the 2018 Fall for Dance North Festival in Toronto and the China Arts Expo in Beijing. Alysa was one of the 2017 winners of Northwest Dance Project’s International Choreographic Competition. Her company, Alysa Pires Dance Projects, made its critically acclaimed full-length debut with Exterminating Angel at the 2016 Toronto Fringe Festival.

 

Alysa provided choreography and movement direction for The Women and War Project, a series of new plays by Judith Thompson, Velina Hasu Houston and Timberlake Wertenbaker that toured through Greece in 2012. Her work in theatre also includes choreography for 10 musicals as well as the first workshop of a new commission for the Los Angeles Opera. In 2014, she represented Canada in Glasgow, Scotland as part of the Tin Forest Theatre Festival in celebration of the Commonwealth Games.

 

Alysa has remounted two works for the Emerging Artist Intensives in Toronto: Valkyria (2013, 2016, 2018) and …keeping in mind they may be behind you (2014). She was one of four choreographers selected from a pool of international applicants for DanceEast’s ChoreoLab in Ipswich, England. There, she developed i am vertical, which received its Canadian premiere as part of the 2015 dance:made in Canada Festival.

Alysa is an Honours BFA graduate from the Ryerson School of Performance and was the recipient of the 2015 Jack McAllister Award, which recognizes alumni accomplishment in the professional world.