About the Rossland Emerging Artist Residency
The 2025 Rossland Emerging Artist Residency is a 12-day residency in Rossland, BC, developed and facilitated by Lofty Goal Project. The residency hosts a cohort of three early emerging dance and/or theatre artists (early emerging is defined as 5 years or less out of post-secondary or equivalent training) to create new work. This year’s residency is set to run August 1 – 12, 2025.
The aim of this residency is to provide early emerging artists with the uninterrupted time and space to dive into research for a new work in a new environment that is free of day-to-day distractions and full of fresh inspiration. Each artist will come to the residency to focus on their own work and research, but will move through the program as a cohort with the support of fellow artists in residence, residency facilitators, and the wider community.
2025 Cohort
Inès Chiha is a self-taught Franco-Tunisian performer based in Tio’tia:ke/Montreal. With a background in martial arts (judo, karate, MMA), she discovered street theatre and later, dance as tools of expression rooted in resilience. In 2024, she began creating her first solo through the Big-Bang program, with support from Danse à la Carte, mentorship by Alexandra “Spicey” Landé, and residencies at Circuit-Est. Her artistic approach is rooted in the relationship we maintain with different forms of discourse and our constructions of identity. She specifically explores the dynamics between discourse and rumor, as well as our desire for free will. She co-founded the Molokhia Squad with Bashir Almahayni (aka Beasho) to explore collective practices through dance and movement. Since 2018, she has also worked in youth intervention and peer support. Her goal is to develop community-rooted art and education projects with and for marginalized youth.
Elizabeth Fehr (she/her) is a performer, director, and writer residing on the unceded territories of the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations (also known as Victoria, BC). With a Performing Arts Diploma and Certificate from the Canadian College of Performing Arts, Elizabeth has spent the past few years immersed in the local theatre, film, and choral scene. Her first short play, Rose Petals, received the Fowler Family Award for Playwriting (Runner-Up) in 2021, and, under her direction, the award for Outstanding Production at the Victoria One Act Play Festival (2023). Her numerous written works for stage and screen highlight societal issues and accountability through passionate and vibrant language, and she hopes that her past, present, and future works open audience’s eyes to what is ignored or unnoticed.
Samantha Walters is an emerging interdisciplinary performer, writer, and arts administrator based in Vancouver. She mostly works between experimental theatre, installation, and directing. Their most recent works examine ecological relationships and post-human spiritualities, with a heavy favour towards the weird, the dark, and the camp. She grew up in England and Hong Kong and holds a BFA honours in Theatre Performance from Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts. Her work has been featured by companies such as Rumble Theatre, UNIT/PITT Society for Art and Critical Awareness, Vines Art Festival, the Evergreen Cultural Centre, What Lab, and IGNITE! Youth-Driven Arts Festival.
Donate to the Rossland Emerging Artist Residency
The Rossland Emerging Artist Residency is developed and delivered in partnership with The Rossland Council for Arts and Culture, The Wild Turkey Inn, and Kootenay Danceworks.
The program is made possible through our funders and sponsors – Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance, Nelson and District Credit Union, Trail and District Arts Council, TECK, Wheelwright Cylinder Exchange, Shauna Ullman Photography, and Rossland Beer Company.
To learn more about the Rossland Emerging Artist Residency, visit loftygoalproject.com or follow us on Instagram @loftygoalproject.