NOTHING DOING

Nothing Doing exposes the tension between the instinctual nature and needs of the human animal, within the human-designed social structures that shape our everyday lives.

Framing the experience of burnout, apathy and depression from a ‘glitch’ perspective, Nothing Doing explores breakdown as a symptom of our western socio-economic context. Rather than a personal failure, these struggles are the inevitable glitching of the human element within systems that demand machine-like performance and productivity.

As these pressures bring the performers to a breaking point, the question remains: how can we resist the pull of despair, and the feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness that threaten to paralyze us? In the face of our entrenched colonial and capitalist systems, can we reconnect with our human rhythms, and rebuild our collective power towards liberation?

SAM PENNER

Sam Penner is an independent contemporary dance artist of mixed settler heritage living and working in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. A graduate of the School of Contemporary Dancers, she has performed extensively over the past decade, working with choreographers such as Peggy Baker, Brent Lott, Jolene Bailie, Susanne Chui, and Johanna Riley. Her choreographic practice explores collaborative and interdisciplinary projects for stage and screen. Recent creative highlights include performing in Susanne Chui’s improvisational work Where Dance and Music Meet (2023); Atlantic and Prairie premieres of her short screendance film Cumulus (2023); and performing in Sea Unseen (2024) a full-length collaboration between Mocean Dance and the Sable Island Institute.

SOLENE BERNIER

Solène Bernier (she/her) is a dance artist and a graduate of École de Danse Contemporaine de Montréal (2019) and Dalhousie University (2025). Based in Kjipuktuk/Halifax NS, she has worked with local and visiting companies and choreographers including Alyssa Martin (Rock Bottom Movement), Nostos Dance Collective, Lydia Zimmer (ZIMMERDANS), Rooted Dance Projects, Mocean Dance, Emma Kerson and Liliona Quarmyne among others.

MARRIN JESSOME

Marrin Jessome is a Halifax-based artist who studied Performance Dance at the Toronto Metropolitan University (2019). She now works as a freelance dance teacher, choreographer, adjudicator and performer throughout the maritimes. As a trained pianist, her movement is informed by her nuanced understanding of sound— arranging tension and release on a visceral level, to form a direct translation between the instrument and the architecture of the body. Her work has been showcased throughout the maritimes by: FODAR, Mocean Dance, The St. John Contemporary Dance Festival, Island Fringe, Kinetic Open Studio, The Underground Cabaret, Antigonight Fest, The Youth Dance Ensemble, Halifax Young Company, and The North End Revue.

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