Jennifer Robichaud began her training as a dancer at the age of three. Ballet, jazz, modern, and tap. She's now the artistic director of the Larchaud Dance Project, which she cofounded with Nicole Bemister-Lardino in 2004. The Larchaud Dance Project performs around the city. Last year they were invited to perform in China at the Shanghai International Fringe Festival.

Larchaud mounted their Shinjiru piece in Shanghai. Shinjiru "is about going into video games and using kids as players in an alternate reality game. It was pretty shocking for them. What was speculated about their government, we were putting on stage." They weren't able to mount for their full production with sound, video, and lights. The Fringe organizers didn't give performers much time to set up, and what time there was, was lost in translation issues. So Jennifer and her crew just got up and performed. Wasn't she worried about the government's reaction to their work? "We didn't stay long."

After finishing university, Jennifer applied to both teacher's college and law school. "I was accepted to both but I didn't want to go - I wanted to dance." Jennifer now teaches part-time and works with several schools to support her work with Larchaud. The other Larchaud dancers support themselves with everything from teaching to DJing.

Larchaud performs at art festivals around the city. And once a year they mount a full production. On November 1-3 (2007) at 8pm Larchaud will mount "Caution" at their annual production at the Winchester Street Theatre. Caution is the Larchaud Project's intrepretation of the Pandora's box story.

Growing up, who inspired Jennifer to dance? "Michael Jackson. Gregory Hines." Local inspiration? "I really admire the Chamir Project and the Rubberband Dance Group from Montreal."

"Our community is very diverse. It has a distinct cultural side to it without it being pretentious, which I find in a lot of other similar areas. There's a little bit of edginess to it. And it changes by the block."

"I go to F'Coffee a lot. Cozmic [a Larchaud dancer] is the resident DJ on Sunday nights at the Blue Moon [725 Queen St E] - we go there a lot." On the Danforth "we go to Allen's, and we get a lot of our stuff at Energia - some of our friends teach yoga there."