Proximity Arts (Lab)
Proximity Arts is a process-based company that, through research and collaboration, produces embodied work across disciplinary categories. Its four core members have presented in theatres, galleries and music venues, on street corners, in bathrooms, and on mountaintops across Canada. Playful and irreverent, Proximity Arts seeks out audiences who want to venture into a landscape of physical, intellectual and emotional inquiry.
Artistic Directors & Founding Members
Board of Directors
Ross Fleming
Aliya Jackson
Jenn Hogg, Secretary
Ian McKay
Stan Shaffer, President
Marjorie Phillips, Treasurer
Anita Yufe
Joel DeStefano 
Joel is a composer and sound designer who has produced worked for theatre, radio drama, installation and film. He has studied with some of Canada's leading composers and musicians, including Jack Behrens, Peter-Paul Koprowski, Barry Truax, Oliver Jones and Phil Nimmons. His work has been performed on CBC Radio, World Urban Forum and on many stages, clubs and galleries around the Vancouver area. He was recently nominated for a Jessie award for his work on the ground breaking theatre piece Lounge. For more info, see his website at www.joeldestefano.com. Contact Joel: joel@proximityarts.com
Vera Lubimova
Vera Lubimova designs, art directs, and creates video and installation works. She has exhibited her installation work in Vancouver (Domesticity) and Edmonton (Latitude 53’s Visualeyez). Her projects include set designing for The Day Room and producing a dance video for Running Wild (Holy Body Tattoo). A former Associate Producer for CBC Television, she is currently a line producer for Paperny Films’ Glutton for Punishment. Contact Vera: vera@proximityarts.com
christine stoddard
christine’s practice draws on performance art, physical theatre, dance, video installation, clown, spoken word and she has also worked as a dramaturg and performance theorist. She ate a mountain of candy in performance/installation CARVA (HIVE 2006) and performed as Norma in The Cry Ptich Carrolls (2005). Other recent projects include: caretaker for Juliana Barabas in seamline (LIVE Biennial 2003, Visualeyez 2004), performer/dramaturg for The Bacchae: An Electronic Opera (PuSh Festival 2005), and solo performance the hospital of her becoming (Visualeyez 2004). christine will act as international liaison for Proximity Arts (Lab) while pursuing a PhD in performance art at the University of Manchester. Contact christine: christine@proximityarts.com
Heidi Taylor
Heidi Taylor is a Vancouver-based dramaturg, director, and performer. As Dramaturg at Playwrights Theatre Centre she has worked with many playwrights, including Kendra Fanconi and Eric Rhys Miller (dog eat dog), Mitch Miyagawa (Carnaval), and Jason Bryden (The Dissemblers). Currently, she is dramaturg for Caroline Liffman (choreographer) during her residency at the Scotiabank Dance Centre, and through PTC, for Leaky Heaven Circus' May production. Heidi has worked on many site-specific and community-based projects, including Final Viewing (Radix Theatre), Other Freds (assistant director, The Only Animal), Naked Oranges (Susanna Uchatius, Theatre Terrific), and The World: an Odyssey in six or more parts (Part IV) (Michael Counts, GAle GAtes et al., New York). Heidi holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Contemporary Art from Simon Fraser University, where she occasionally teaches acting as a sessional instructor. Contact Heidi: heidi@proximityarts.com