Gina Lori Riley Dance Enterprises

05/24/2025

05/18/2025

We are just ONE WEEK away from a night of Fantasy, Movement and Motion happening at the historical School of Creative Arts Armouries Theatre on Saturday May 24, 2025!

Tickets are 50% sold! Get yours today while they are still available below:
https://www.zeffy.com/ticketing/gina-lori-riley-dance-enterprises

Just a side note:
There's an option to support the ticket host Zeffy, as a dropdown box. If you select it; you can select: Custom Amount > and input $0 and the original ticket price will be shown.

Theme Of The Night: "Movement, Fantasy and Memory"Three Award Winning films celebrating Gina Lori Riley Dance Enterprises career in Dance and Movement.The evening will involve a visual menagerie with the screening of our three short films; display of several originally designed costumes, masks and h...

04/10/2025

We are a month away from a night of Fantasy, Movement and Motion happening at the historical School of Creative Arts Armouries Theatre on Saturday May 24, 2025.

Tickets are 25% sold! Get yours today while they are still available below:
https://www.zeffy.com/ticketing/gina-lori-riley-dance-enterprises

Just a side note:
There's an option to support the ticket host Zeffy, as a dropdown box. If you select it; you can select: Custom Amount > and input $0 and the original ticket price will be shown.

02/13/2025

Saturday May 24th from 6PM - 9PM there will be a short film showcase. Featuring Award Winning "Comedia Fantasia", "I AM HERE" and "One of Those Nights".

Food and Drink will be available, a Q&A Panel and all three films will be shown at the historic School of Creative Arts building.

Tickets are limited. Here is a Link to purchase tickets:
https://www.zeffy.com/ticketing/gina-lori-riley-dance-enterprises

02/13/2025

KAREN RODD

Mask Designer

Karen Rodd is a freelance theatre artist specializing in masks, puppets and special effect costume elements. Ms. Rodd operates her own studio in Toronto. In 1992 Ms. Rodd was the recipient of the Pauline McGibbon Award for Outstanding

Theatre Craftsperson. She has created work for Livent, Phantom of the Opera, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat, Ragtime, Miss Saigon, The Lion King, The Lord of the Rings. Additionally, she has created works for numerous productions for The Canadian Stage Company, Young People’s Theatre, The National Ballet Company, Gina Lori Riley Dance Enterprises, Soulpepper Theatre, Opera Atelier, Theatre Beyond Words, Twyla Tharp Dance Company, Canadian Opera Company and the Metropolitan Opera Company, NYC. Her film and TV work include, Leather Worker on Defiance 2 and Costume Breakdown Artist on The Strain 2.

When time permits, Ms. Rodd teaches Maskmaking in her studio and has also created and taught Maskmaking workshops for Theatre Design students for University of Toronto and York University.

02/13/2025

Here are a few artists that Gina Lori Riley Dance Enterprises has worked with in the past.

MEAGHEN QUINN

Performing Artist

Meaghen is a theatre artist who has been studying, instructing, and performing internationally for the past 10 years. She holds a M.F.A. from Pennsylvania State University and a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from the University of Windsor where she is currently working as an instructor. Meaghen’s most memorable roles include: Singer/Ensemble in Vox Animae (Gina Lori Riley Dance Enterprises), Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Chicago Shakespeare Company), Maria/Antonia in Twelfth Night (Driftwood Entertainment), Miss Frizzle in The Magic School Bus Live! (Hummingbird U.S.A./Canadian Tour), Lady Macbeth (The Classical Theatre Project), Mother/Cousin in (Toronto Fringe) and Frances in Frances and Marybeth, by Neale Kimmel, which had its world premiere in 2013.

In addition to her work as a professional artist, Meaghen is a long time advocate for youth theatre. She devotes her summers to devising theatre with "at risk" youth for Windsor's Changing the Odds Program.

02/13/2025

Gina Lori Riley
Artistic/Creative Director/Movement Designer/Writer

Originally from Windsor Ontario, Gina Lori Riley received her B.Sc. in Dance-Kinesiology from the University of Waterloo, her B.Ed. from the University of Windsor and her M.F.A. with movement specialization from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has studied and trained with major dance artists in England, the United States, and Canada. She founded Gina Lori Riley Dance Enterprises in 1979, an award-winning professional dance company, where she acts as producer, writer, director, and choreographer of original creative projects in movement, dance, and physical theatre.

The recipient of numerous awards and grants, Gina has professionally directed and choreographed over fifty major original productions. She has organized and implemented tours across Canada and parts of the United States including an unprecedented six week tour of the Arctic's Keewatin and Baffin Regions. She has been commissioned by Canadian professional artists and organizations and has designed and executed dance and movement programs for teachers, students, and professionals in all levels of education and training. Her film project "Commedia Fantasia", has won multiple awards and screened everywhere from New York, to Monaco. Her large scale creation, "Vox Animae" (2004 and 2007) played to sold out audiences.

Gina has been guest artist-in-residence across Canada and parts of the U.S. and has been movement coach and choreographer for numerous stage productions. She has also been creative director and movement designer for several special gala fundraising projects. Gina remains active as an arts advocate and activist. She is a Professor Emerita and is a retired Associate Professor in the B.F.A. in Acting Program of the School of Dramatic Art at the University of Windsor. Her creative process continues to question and explore movement as a dramatic vehicle for expression and communication in cross-disciplinary explorations.

02/13/2025

Artistic Vision

I have long demonstrated a fascination with the capacity for humankind to endure incredible and even horrific circumstances. I view humankind as having a profound determination to survive and to emerge.

The main body of my work underscores this artistic vision particularly in works such as "Round And Round We Go"; "Mabel – Two Nights At the Bowling Alley and We Can Do That"; "View From the Periphery"; "Lifeline"; and in "Vox Animae".

Sometimes my works are aesthetically positioned with a more fantastical point of view with extraordinary masked characters, as in "Commedia Fantasia" and "Mocojumbies". Other times my perspective is embodied in large, physical and gestural action exemplifying strong, expressionistic tendencies as in "Vox Animae".

I believe that the arts have a vital role to play in the development of a creative, cultural people and in work that challenges the audience in post modern structure. I seek to create work that engages us in the depths and heights of the possibilities of our experience and art that asks us to examine how we live and are of the world. The body of my vision is focused on continuing to create and develop new work and encouraging us in the development of an artistic and aesthetic voice.

02/12/2025

I AM HERE (2024) is an 11 Time International Award Winning Experimental Film. With wins in Canada, USA, Japan, France and Amsterdam

02/12/2025

A Brief History About: Gina Lori Riley Dance Enterprises

Based in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Gina Lori Riley Dance Enterprises has celebrated artistic activity since 1979. GLRDE has been honoured with distinction and awards, including a Civic Recognition Award for its outstanding contribution to community life. The Company is proud of the fact that it has been able to establish itself and prosper in a region of Canada that has not had significant previous history of professional dance arts activity. The Company’s tenacity and vision has advocated and has actively encouraged artistic growth in our community by providing employment opportunities to numerous artists locally, provincially, and nationally. The Company has been praised for its unique blend of wit, physical exuberance, and expressionistic style.

In 1989 the Company became the first in Canada’s history to reconstruct and produce nine contemporary dance works by the late Canadian choreographer Judy Jarvis, to form the “Judy Jarvis Dance Collection”. The Company’s pioneering efforts not only honoured a great artist, but also encouraged the process of recognizing and preserving our cultural dance heritage for new generations to appreciate and enjoy. In the 1980’s GLRDE toured throughout parts of Canada and the mid-western United States. In 1992 the Company successfully completed an unprecedented 42-day tour of five communities in the Arctic’s Central Keewatin and Baffin Regions of the Northwest Territories. This tour reflected the Company’s vision and celebrated the advancement of the art form and exchange of cultural traditions in Canada.

Most recently the company’s focus has shifted from producing a regular season of activity and touring to creating film.

GLRDE has created over five dozen works involving the talents of cross-disciplined arts professionals. Commissions, special project fundraising, and the support of our governments, individuals, businesses, organizations, and corporations have enabled the Company to continue to provide services and programs of dance and physical theatre by professional artists.