Sonya Stefan

Sonya Stefan is a multidisciplinary artist whose work bridges analog and digital realms, blending 16mm film, Touch Designer, contact printing, DIY eco-processing, and somatic movement. With a practice grounded in performance, experimental cinema, and the recycling of obsolete technology, she crafts visual worlds that explore energy transformation and decomposition.

Stefan’s experimental films have been screened at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, Le FIFA (International Festival of Films on Art), La Fabrique Culturelle on Télé-Québec, Air Canada’s in-flight film program, and numerous international festivals. She has been recognized for her award-winning dance documentary The Truss Arch, which earned an IRIS nomination and won Best National Medium-Length Film at both the Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal (RIDM, 2021) and Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma.

With over 25 years of experience in contemporary dance, Sonya has performed with renowned companies including the Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault, Montréal Danse, and Toronto Dance Theatre, as well as with independent artists including Dana Gingras, Nate Yaffe, and Estelle Clareton. She has curated for KidsPOP Montreal and LUX Magna—music festivals in Montreal, Quebec that combine family-friendly events with a diverse range of underground art practices. She is the co-founder of the microcinema La Lumière Collective and a member of the Digital Arts Initiative, a cohort of 95 female-identifying digital artists.

As a founding member of the collective Technologies of Consciousness (with Steffé Castonguay and Sonya Stefan), she performed Numinous Machines at the 25th anniversary of MUTEK. This immersive work investigates bioplastic vinyl, DIY turntables, and touch-sensitive soundscapes, and reflects the collective’s deep engagement with the intersections of art, media, and science. Rooted in DIY ethics and an affinity for the organic world, their creations explore healing, decomposition, and cyclical endings. The duo were the first-ever artists-in-residence at the Biosphère de Montréal, where they initiated research on bioplastics and phytogram filmmaking.

Her international collaborations include Argentina’s ArtlabPro, where she partnered with sound artist Lain-9 to debut their audiovisual piece IK Pegasi. She also worked with choreographer and performer Dana Gingras, Japanese avant-garde synthwave duo Group A on anOther—a hybrid art installation and electroacoustic performance. For the piece, she gathered of 24 tube televisions, creating a set design that placed the transmuting body at the center of a post-feminine, fourth-dimensional space.

Currently, Stefan is in production on The Feeling Behind, a poetic dance documentary exploring the life and work of Newton Moraes Dance Theatre, and on Reflets Dansants, a projection mapping project in collaboration with producer Julie Dalbec. This site-specific work will premiere in Marsoui, Gaspésie, as part of the FURIES Dance Festival in July 2025.

Stefan has completed with Honors her Masters of Studio Arts from Concordia University and is a graduate from the Graham-based training at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre.