COMMUNITY CHORUS
OPEN CALL
NUTCRACKER REMIX
what: Community Chorus Open Call
where: Online application (see below)
when: Deadline is October 23rd 2026
The Opportunity
Ghost Rooster Collective is holding an open call for a Community Chorus for our upcoming new creation, Nutcracker Remix. This production welcomes people with disabilities. No previous dance experience is required!
We want to find people who are excited by the idea of reimagining The Nutcracker. We are looking for curious, open, and collaborative people who enjoy creating with others and want to be part of an inclusive and accessible performance environment.
Joining this chorus is a chance to contribute to the creation of a new work, meet new people, experiment with movement, collaborate with other performers, and bring your own creativity to a familiar story.
About the Project
We are making a weirder, wilder Nutcracker: one that brings contemporary movement and interdisciplinary collaboration into the world of the classic.
This reimagining asks how a traditional story can be transformed to feel alive for audiences today, including people who have been excluded from or harmed by traditional approaches to classical performance.
The production will centre disability aesthetics and incorporate access into the creative process itself. In 2026, we are developing a work-in-progress featuring four reimagined scenes from The Nutcracker, exploring themes of family dynamics, dream states, absurdity, and fantasy.
The work will be presented at the Richcraft Theatre at the Shenkman Arts Centre on December 18, 2026. Rehearsals will take place In November and December of 2026.
Who We Are Looking For
No professional performance experience is required. We are interested in people who are:
Excited by the idea of reimagining The Nutcracker
Are age 10 and over
Open to experimenting with movement and performance
Curious, collaborative, and comfortable creating with others
Excited to be part of an inclusive and accessible creative environment
We strongly encourage artists with disabilities, BIPOC artists, and artists who have been traditionally excluded from classical performance spaces to apply.
TO APPLY
Please email ghostroostercollective@gmail.com with a brief description of yourself and a CV, if you have one.
Applicants will receive more information about the rehearsal schedule and process.
DEADLINE: OCTOBER 23rd 2026
About Ghost Rooster Collective
Ghost Rooster Collective is an Ottawa-based disability arts collective working at the intersection of dance, film, and performance. We are Elizabeth Emond-Stevenson, Rachel Gray and Liz Winkelaar, and founding members also include Amelia Griffin and Jess Huggett. In 2025, we premiered our first film, Dreamscapes, which received multiple international awards, including Best Film at the Cinema Touching Disability Film Festival in Austin, Texas. We have toured our films and performances across Canada and are committed to creating work that challenges stereotypes about disability and expands how disabled experience is represented on stage and screen.
Across all of our projects, we strive for the highest artistic and professional standards while developing innovative and ambitious new work. We see disability as a rich and significant part of human experience, one that offers unique opportunities for aesthetic invention, creative problem-solving, and new ways of understanding the world. Our work is glamorous, funny, heartbreaking, unsettling, and strange.
Through Nutcracker Remix, we are excited to build new collaborations, engage new audiences, and contribute to the development of a vibrant new holiday tradition in Ottawa and beyond.