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AISHA SASHA JOHN is a performer, choreographer, and poet. She’s the author of I have to live. (McClelland & Stewart, 2017), a finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize, THOU (Book*hug, 2014), a finalist for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry and the ReLit Poetry Award, The Shining Material (Book*hug, 2011), and the chapbook TO STAND AT A PRECIPICE ALONE AND REPEAT WHAT IS WHISPERED (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2021). As a dance artist, Aisha is interested in performance as a site of rehearsing being and in the power of reception as creative methodology. She’s the inaugural Affiliate Artist at Toronto Dance Theatre where her work The Pool, made with the TDT ensemble, will premiere in winter 2025. Aisha’s duet DIANA ROSS DREAM (Danse-Cité 22), performed with Devon Snell, has been presented in Montreal, Vancouver, and Rouyn-Noranda, and was developed during her 2019-2022 Dancemakers choreographic residency. Aisha’s first full-length solo work debuted as the aisha of oz at the Whitney Museum in 2017, and in 2018, iterations of the aisha of is were presented at Montréal, arts interculturel (MAI) and Toronto’s SummerWorks Festival. Winter 2026 will mark the debut of a co-creation with fellow choreographer/performer Clara Furey. Aisha holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and a B.A. in African Studies and Semiotics from the University of Toronto. She was born in Montreal.