Originally from Alberta, Josh Martin is a diversely trained dance artist with a career-to-date that has led him across North America and Europe, studying and performing in many genres along the way. As a performer and collaborator, he has worked with many dance companies and independent choreographers such as Wen Wei Wang (Wen Wei Dance), Tiffany Tregarthen and David Raymond (Out Innerspace Dance Theatre), Amber Funk Barton (the response.), Vanessa Goodman (The Contingency Plan / Action at a Distance), and as a past company member of Le Groupe Dance Lab in Ottawa under the direction of Peter Boneham.

In 2006, Martin co-founded Vancouver-based 605 Collective with Lisa Gelley and Shay Kuebler, where he began his choreographic practice and producing new work through a shared creative process. 605 is an ongoing exchange between separate people, bodies and ideas, celebrating the tension created in their attempt to coexist. Creating collaboratively, the company aims to offer a highly athletic art form derived from the human experience, placing emphasis on movement invention and physically demanding work. Now operating as Company 605.

Martin continues to share in the Artistic Directorship with his partner Lisa Gelley, together creating and disseminating their work for stage and film throughout Canada and internationally. Their most recent production, Vital Few, was recipient of the 2015/16 CanDance Creation Fund Commission, and recently toured across the country with 24 performances this past Spring.

Martin’s independent works have been presented in Vancouver, Victoria, Moncton, Portland, Seattle, Ottawa and throughout Germany (Winning 1st Prize for Choreography at the Internatonal SoloTanz Festival in Stuttgart). He was also the recipient of Vancouver’s 2013 Mayor’s Arts Award – Emerging Dance Category.

Off the stage, he serves as Chair of The Dance Centre’s Artistic Advisory and Vice-Chair of its Board of Directors and is Past-Chair of the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists – Western Chapter.