Amélie Mah is a Chinese Canadian performer, creator, and collaborator. She began her training in Edmonton, AB in ballet, contemporary, and jazz. Amélie has trained across Canada with the Goh Ballet (BC), H/W Ballet (Alberta), and Ballet Divertimento (Quebec). Since coming to Toronto to study dance, she has expanded her training in modern, contemporary, vernacular jazz, and street styles including house and hip hop. Amélie has had the privilege to work with many choreographers including Yvonne Ng, David Norsworthy, Raoul Wilke, Hanna Kiel, and Ryan Lee. In her own works, Amélie explores through a multidisciplinary lens how combining spoken and physical expression with her movement practice can serve to create compelling stories. Since working as a dance steward in the 2025 dance: made in/fait au canada festival, Amelie has continued working with Tiger Princess Dance Projects, serving as a performer and arts educator in various ongoing projects and arts programming. This summer, she is excited for a summer of frogging fun across Mississauga! Amelie Mah is a 2025 graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University with a BFA in dance.

Averil Dubois (She/Her) is a dancer, maker, and choreographer based in Western New York and Toronto. She is trained in Contemporary, Improvisation, Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Voice, Musical Theatre, and Acting. She is a multidisciplinary artist who works with painting, sculpture, photography and film creation. In her practice, she explores how these disciplines relate to each other. She has completed a BFA in performance dance from Toronto Metropolitan University. Averil is super excited to join summer company this year! 

Natasja Jordan (she/her) is a versatile dancer, emerging choreographer, and multidisciplinary artist based in Tkaronto/Toronto. Natasja grew up in local dance studios in Burlington, Ontario, where she fell in love with many different movement styles. Now, her favourite way to express herself is through dance fusion. After graduating from the Performance Dance BFA program at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson), Natasja is working to continue developing her interpretive, artistic, and choreographic practices. Last season, Natasja joined Ballet Creole; training and performing in contemporary Cuban, Latin, and Afro styles, including company repertoire. She also performed and competed with 2.0 Dance Company under the co-direction of Shane Tubog and Carl Mandac. During a choreographic residency last year at Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, Natasja made significant progress on her first full-length show, and has since been exploring a growing fascination for physical theatre and acting. As an emerging artist, she is excited to explore many arts and culture pathways, and looks forward to any opportunity to share her passion with the community. Natasja cannot wait to spend the summer with Frog in Hand, and to continue learning and performing among such a phenomenal company of creatives.

Julia Mak is a second-generation Chinese-Canadian performer and multidisciplinary dance artist, who has performed internationally and across Canada. As an interrogative, contemporary movement artist, she often works in experimental, immersive, and interdisciplinary mediums that combine film, projections, sound, and visual art. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Performance Dance with Distinction from Toronto Metropolitan University, and has had the pleasure of working with prominent choreographers and dance companies such as Gioconda Barbuto, Alysa Pires, Guillaume Côté, Hanna Kiel (Human Body Expression), Colleen Snell (Frog in Hand), Emily Cheung (Little Pear Garden Dance Company), and Kevin Ornsby (Kashe Dance). She has also performed in works presented by Dance Ontario, Wind in the Leaves Collective, Aeris Korper, Paprika Theatre Festival, Common Grounds Dance Festival, Seen TO, Citadel + Compagnie and Fall for Dance North in recent years. Julia is excited to continue her passion for storytelling through dance, in diverse and accessible modes with Frog in Hand!

Petra Toop is a Palestinian-Canadian dance artist whose practice encompasses professional performance and work in TV and film. She has collaborated and toured with Toronto-based contemporary company, ProArteDanza, and continues to perform with them as a company member. Her repertoire spans projects with Tara Butler’s Dust and Soul Dance Company and Emily Cheung’s Little Pear Garden Dance Company. Internationally, she appeared in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Danzarts Festival in Sicily, Italy, under the direction of Ermanno Sbezzo, where she also had the privilege of working with internationally recognized choreographers such as Dominique Dumais and Giovanni Insaudo.
Her film and television credits include the Peacock original series Copenhagen, Hallmark’s A Nutcracker Christmas, The Next Step Live tour, and Season 2 of Backstage on Family Channel.
Alongside her artistic career, Petra is completing a degree in Biomedical Science at the University of Guelph, where her studies in biomechanics and kinesthetics enrich her understanding of the body in motion and the creative process. She is equally passionate about sharing her knowledge with others as a dedicated teacher, while continuing to train and evolve within her own artistry. She is thrilled to join the Frog in Hand 2026 Summer Company, to explore new creative processes and building meaningful artistic collaborations.

Raxel Kempenaar is an agender, Canadian dancer, choreographer, and artist.  They graduated from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, earning their BFA in Contemporary Dance Performance and minoring in psychology in 2024.  Raxel studied and worked with HumanBodies Dance Program at ArtGarage in Napoli, Italy.   They excel in various disciplines including floor work, improvisation, contact and partnering, physical theatre, and more.  They have worked with and performed works by choreographers such as Emma Cianchi, Aszure Barton, Francesco Vecchione, Ilya Vidrin, and Jennifer Archibald and have presented multiple of their own choreographic works, including an evening length project.  They are excited by the idea of play, and their movement and choreographic style is heavily influenced by the six senses.  
Raxel can't wait to be a part of Frog in Hand's 2026 Summer Company!  They look forward to creating and dancing with everyone and performing in so many new works.  They are incredibly excited for what's to come and and hope you are too!

Samantha is a dedicated dancer who is committed to grow and learn within the field of artistry towards her professional journey. She began her dance training at The Dance Institute studying styles such as ballet, concert jazz, hip hop and contemporary. Samantha has developed a technical foundation through determination and hardwork over her 16 years of learning, while also adding movement and emotional quality. 
She trained under Julia Cratchley, Tori Mehaffey, Johanna Bergfelt, Andrew (Pyro) Chung within her years at TDI performing in competitions, community events and participated in multiple media events. Further into her university training, Samantha trained with Tanya Evidente, Vicki St. Denys, Louis Laberge-Cote, worked with Lauren Cook amongst the performance show RISE and performed in multiple works amongst TMU's Choreographic Works series. She is moving towards her learning more within the realm of repertoire, improvisation, leadership, and self-choreography. 
Being her second year in a professional company, Samantha is extremely excited to see the creative process from a different lens and to collaborate with an amazing cast. She yearns to learn more from each artist and to be a part of an amazing piece for many to enjoy!

Shelby Nilsen (she/her) is a multidisciplinary, movement artist, performer, raised on Vancouver Island BC, and based in Tkaronto/Toronto. She earned her BFA from the Performance Dance Program, with distinction, from Toronto Metropolitan University. Shelby's practice centers movement and theatre as tools to cultivate curiosity, explore new perspectives, experience catharsis, engage in research, build community, and foster play! She has had the opportunity to be a part of creation and performance processes with choreographers such as Hanna Kiel, Ryan Lee, Colleen Snell, David Norsworthy, Francesca Chudnoff, Raoule Wilke, Esie Mensah, Susie Burpee, and Emily Duckett. A few of her performance credits include The Mayor's Evening for the Arts, Dance Ontario: Dance Weekend, NIGHT/SHIFT at the Citadel Compagnie, Ripe Fruit Dance Festival, and the Insitu Multi Arts Festival.

Shelby is ecstatic to be joining the summer company for her second season, and cannot wait to create, perform and dance with such a wonderful team of artists!

@shelby.nilsen