ABOUT
W&M PHYSICAL THEATRE is the professional company founded by Wojciech Mochniej and Melissa Monteros in 1994 in Gdansk, Poland, and which changed its home base to Calgary in 2000. The name of the non-profit organization is W&M Dance Projects of Calgary which encompasses all the production initiatives created and supported by the organization. These include the touring, performance, and film work of W&M Physical Theatre, the Artists in Residence program, the WildDogs International Screendance Festival and film production program, WM2 (apprenticeship), and the Surge Co (pre-professional). In the local and international community, W&M are active as artists, educators and facilitators.
Artists’ Statement
As artists, we are interested in remaining open; open to inspiration, to finding a connection between how we live and respond as humans and the political and social currents that surface in our environment, and to exploring the deeper and sometimes darker currents that lurk below the surface. We strive to use an abstract physical form to create a readable language. All of this is informed by our experiences from Poland and from Finland and influenced by European theatrical forms. The feeling is what drives the work. We try to create layers in images that stimulate thought. The artistic vision is hopefully evolving, maturing, deepening. We are trying to find a more precise, distinct voice; so that each work is a culmination of what we are discovering – to take that forward into the next process. We are looking for a sense that we have completed this era or phase, that all these layers and lines have come back to make a complete whole.
ARTISTIC DIRECTORS
Melissa Monteros — EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/ARTISTIC DIRECTOR — Performer, choreographer, dance filmmaker, and Professor Emerita (University of Calgary) whose international career spans performance, creation, and the shaping of complex contemporary works.
Monteros holds a Master of Arts in Dance from UCLA and a BFA Dance from the University of Utah. Her formative training includes studying with Bill T. Jones, Kei Takei, Ronald
Brown and extensive work in New York with Risa Steinberg, Milton Myers, Lynn
Simonson, and Christine Wright. This lineage informs a practice grounded in physical
clarity, compositional intelligence, and embodied inquiry.
Her choreographic and performance work has been presented internationally, with invitations across Europe, Canada, and the United States, including Austria, Finland, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Sweden, and Lithuania. She has created work for independent artists and companies such as Risa Steinberg, JoJo Oulu Dance, Silesian Dance Theatre, Springboard Dance Collective, and theatre director Michael Hackett, and has performed in works by Avi Kaiser, Davida Monk, Darcy McGehee, and Alpo Aaltokoski, among others.
Monteros is co-founder of W&M Physical Theatre with Wojciech Mochniej. Their long term collaboration has generated a substantial body of stage, screen, and international festival work, including Dance Explosions Poland, the International Festival of Improvisation in Poland, and the WildDogs International Screendance Festival. A Fulbright Scholar, Monteros has received honorary awards in Gdańsk and Lublin for her contributions to contemporary dance. Her work reflects a long-standing commitment to shaping performance from the inside — where structure, risk, and meaning are forged through practice.
Wojciech Mochniej — ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Mochniej is a Polish-Canadian choreographer, performer, dance filmmaker, and teacher, and the Artistic Director of W&M Physical Theatre. As Artistic Director, he brings decades of international creative leadership, a rigorous physical practice, and a deep commitment to risk-driven contemporary performance. Mochniej began his professional career as an original member of Silesian Dance Theatre (1991–1994), widely recognized as Poland’s first contemporary dance company. During this formative period, he met Melissa Monteros, launching a creative partnership that led to the founding of Gdański Teatr Tańca (Dance Theatre of Gdańsk) in 1995 and a sustained body of work presented across Europe and Canada. Their collaboration has generated stage works, screendance projects, and major international initiatives, including the WildDogs International Screendance Festival, Dance Explosions Poland, and the International Festival of Improvisation in Poland.
As a performer, Mochniej has worked with influential choreographers such as Anna Sokolow, Talley Beatty, Mark Haim, Stephanie Skura, Alpo Aaltokoski, Avi Kaiser, Davida Monk, and Darcy McGehee. His improvisational practice has been shaped by study and performance with Ray Chung, David Dorfman, Chris Aiken, and Martin Keough, alongside theatre training with leading Polish artists Jan Peszek, Grzegorz Bral, and Jacek Ozimek.
Mochniej’s solo and ensemble works have been presented at major festivals and venues throughout Poland, Finland, Germany, France, Italy, and Canada. His solo Just Po Prostu was named “Best Performance by a Male Dancer” by Dance in Europe, and his choreography Weselle became the most toured contemporary dance work in Poland. An active screendance creator, editor, and mentor, Mochniej is Associate Professor of Dance at the University of Calgary.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Melissa Monteros, Board President
Terry Bunce, Vice President
Steve Isom, Treasurer
Alèn Martel, Secretary
Laura Stiles, Director
FUNDERS
