Meet Brianna Lombardo

Brianna Lombardo’s work is part of the Arts Encounters Programming. Her photographs will be on display throughout the festival in the lobby of the Betty Oliphant Theatre August 13-16.

More on Brianna:

I live in…. a gorgeous old 71/2 in petite patrie Montreal.

I live with…. my boyfriend and co pilot Christian Bélanger, my vinyls, my walls covered in art, posters and random garage sale finds.

My favorite way to get around… bike or my feet.

Favourite spot/thing to do in Toronto….. a pizza at Terroni is always a must.

When people ask what I do I say…. usually say contemporary dancer, which is followed by professionally? Yes.

My first artistic influence was…. hard to say what the very first one was but a strong one was Serge Bennethan’s work and the strong kick ass women at Dancemakers.

The seed for my piece came…. the idea of how to present the photos became apparent when looking at what Andrew and I had done together. The portraits were strong and demanded a certain grandeur. I wanted to exaggerate the size to highlight the progression and the change of state of his eyes throughout the shots. I find it very revealing.

Before I perform I…. depends on the show, for the last tour of Usually Beauty Fails with Frédérick Gravel and company it was a shot of Zubrowska.

To relax I… do yoga, read, bike, nap, walk, sit.

When I’m not dancing/choreographing….. taking pictures and/or drinking coffee.

If I wasn’t an artist I would be…. working with people in the social spectre somehow.

Few people know….. this is hard, I feel like a pretty open book. My first time onstage was playing the lion in the wizard of oz. I lost my voice from roaring to loud and had to lip synch the part as someone backstage made the sounds.