DIV 2021 Program

The 13^th biennial
Dance In Vancouver
November 24-28, 2021

PROGRAM 

TICKETED PERFORMANCES

DUMB INSTRUMENT DANCE
MADE IN VOYAGE

Conjured and performed by Ziyian Kwan in collaboration with Justin Calvadores and Shion Skye Carter
Original Music: Mary Ancheta

Sourced Music: Soundwalk Collective: Sarah
Herbie Flowers & Barry Morgan: KPM 1000 Series
Henry Purcell: Ground in C Minor
György Kurtág: Homage a Verdi
Matheis Veit: 85 Piano Miniatures

Dumb Instrument Dance extends a warm Thank You to The Dance Centre for presenting this work and to Powell Street Festival for co-producing our 2021 DIV performances at Morrow. The creation of Made In Voyage was made possible by The Canada Council For The Arts, The British Columbia Arts Council and City of Vancouver Cultural Services.

Made In Voyage, as a whole, is comprised of 7 solos that are odes to the grandmothers of dance artists Shion Skye Carter, Justin Calvadores, Ziyian Kwan, Marisa Gold, Alexa Mardon, Zahra Shahab and Rianne Svelnis. Whimsical worlds in which truth is indeed, stranger than fiction – inspired by the grandmothers of a remarkable team of artists.

For Dance In Vancouver 2021, Dumb Instrument Dance offers a triptych of solos that counter historic erasure by highlighting the life stories of womxn of colour, portrayed through the memories of their grandchildren: Ziyian Kwan, Shion Skye Carter and Justin Calvadores. The works are at times delightfully anecdotal and at other times epic in their reveal of dramas related to diaspora, war and peace. Expect an undulating collage that reflects on nurturing and resilience

Read more: Made In Voyage

Artist Biographies

Composer, Mary Ancheta is a composer of Filipina descent based on the unceded ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations A graduate of McMaster University, she has opened up for John Mayer, Bjork, Ziggy Marley, and many others. Mary has co-writing credits for indigenous artist iskwē’s EPs which were nominated for 2 Junos awards as well as a Polaris. In 2017 Mary had the privilege of playing the Summerstage Concert Series in New York City’s Central Park opening for Buffy Sainte Marie and a Tribe Called Red with iskwē’. Mary has performed for International audiences including in Vietnam, Dubai, Hong Kong, China, Qatar, USA, Europe, Taiwan, Australia, Bermuda, and more. Recently Mary was the Musical Director at Stanford for a residency with iskwē and just returned from Frankfurt, Germany performing at the Frankfurt Book Fair for Canadian Heritage and the Governor General of Canada.  maryancheta.com

Performer and collaborating artist, Justin Calvadores (they/them) is a freelance contemporary dance artist based in so called “Vancouver” BC, the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. They are a graduate of the Arts Umbrella contemporary dance program. In 2017/18, Justin joined Ballet BC as an emerging artist under the direction of Emily Molnar and performed on international stages such as Sadler Wells and the Autostadt Theatre in Wolfsburg, Germany. During the 2019/2020 season Justin joined Ballet Edmonton as a company artist under the leadership of Karissa Berry and Wen Wei Wang, performing works by Serge Bennathan, Shay Kuebler, Karissa Berry and Wen Wei Wang. Recently, they have worked and performed with companies and artists such as Dumb Instrument Dance, Mile Zero Dance, and Wen Wei Dance. Justin is interested in creating work that centres around queerness and their identity as Filipinx. They enjoy integrating their studies of anatomy, reiki, contemporary technique and improvisation to inform their practice. Justin is grateful for dance as a catalyst that enriches their perception of the world and are exploring the idea of dance as embodiment.

Performer and collaborating artist, Shion Skye Carter is a dance artist originally from Tajimi, Japan, and based in Vancouver, Canada, on the unceded, ancestral lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Through choreography hybridized with calligraphy, video, and sculptural objects, her work celebrates the intersection of her ethnographic and queer identities, in connection with her heritage. As co-founder of olive theory, an interdisciplinary duo with musician Stefan Nazarevich, she collaborates to experiment at the intersection between embodied performance, installation art, and live sound. In both her independent work and as olive theory, Shion has performed across Canada, and worked as artist-in-residence at What Lab and Left of Main in Vancouver, as well as LEÑA Artist Residency on Galiano Island, BC. Her recently produced dance films have been screened at festivals globally, including Dancing on the Edge Festival (Canada), Festival of Recorded Movement (Canada), Dance Days Chania (Greece), and Moving Images Dance Festival (Cyprus).

As a performer, she has interpreted the works of artists such as Anya Saugstad, Vanessa Goodman (Action at a Distance), Ziyian Kwan (Dumb Instrument Dance), and Wen Wei Dance. She holds a BFA in Dance and Kinesiology from Simon Fraser University, and is the 2021 recipient of the Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award.

Choreographer and Performer, Ziyian Kwan has worked as a dance artist on the unceded ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations, since 1988. As an interprète, she has performed close to 100 original creations by an eclectic range of choreographers on international stages, and is recipient of The Dance Centre’s Isadora Award for excellence in performance. As Artistic Director of Dumb Instrument Dance, Ziyian’s creations abstract lived experience to form collages of imagery, movement and language. Ziyian’s artistry is inspired by collaboration with luminaries in the fields of dance, music, film, theatre, literature and visual art.

 ‘ I am my heart’s dumb instrument ’ www.dumbinstrumentdance.com

THE BITING SCHOOL
ORANGUTANG

Presented by The Biting School in partnership with The Dance Centre for Dance In Vancouver

Performer/Choreographer: Arash Khakpour
Creative Consultant: Raïna von Waldenburg
Dramaturg: Aryo Khakpour
Set Designer: Hamidreza Jadid
Costume Designer: Elika Mojtabaei
Composer: Alex Mah
Lighting Designer: Jonathan Kim
Producing Stage Manager: Amanda Parafina
Photographer: Luciana D’Anunciação

The Biting School gratefully acknowledges the support of Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, BC Gaming, The Dance Centre, Battery Opera, EDAM Dance.

The Biting School draws on history, literature and philosophy to interrogate challenging social and political issues. The company’s work translates the anxiety, trauma and beauty of our time into the language of the body in no-holds-barred theatrical works full of physicality, daring ideas and dark humour. Orangutang (Malay for ‘the man of the forest’) is a provocative new solo choreographed and performed by Arash Khakpour.

Orangutang is a mourning ritual, a dance of birth and death.
This ritual is my way of mourning the loss of my innocence and the innocence of others.
This performance is rooted in memories that came from practicing my ancestral religious traditions of Shia Islam.
Orangutang is the manifestation of my inner turmoil revealed to you.
An attempt at compassion towards the external world.
Orangutangs are rare and endangered species native to Indonesia and Malaysia.

In Malay, ‘Orang-utang’ means ‘the man of the forest’.
– Arash Khakpour

Originally from Tehran and based in Vancouver, Arash Khakpour is privileged to be a dance artist who has immigrated to the ancestral and unceded Coast Salish territory. Arash’s practice is concerned with the reveal of the complexity of the human experience, and of having a body. He investigates how thoughts influence the body and how the bodily states and sensations influence thoughts. This leads to his ever-evolving and intense interest in experiencing what it feels like to be a body without any direct focus on intellectual thinking and concerns. How can I just be a body? He is interested in dance as a language that researches the human condition through historical, social, political and existential interpretations. Arash’s choreography has been presented at PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Montreal, Arte Interculturel (Montreal), Dancing on the Edge, Art for Impact, Dance Days Festival (Victoria BC), Dance In Vancouver, rEvolver Festival and Vines Art Festival.

Arash is the co-founder of the dance-theatre company The Biting School (alongside his brother Aryo Khakpour), co-founder of Vancouver’s guerrilla performance group Pressed Paradise, and the founder and co-host of How About A Time Machine, a podcast on the history of Canadian performance. Arash is grateful to be the 2016 recipient of Dance Victoria’s Chrystal Dance Prize.

DOUBLE BILL
KELLY MCINNES + MAHAILA PATTERSON-O’BRIEN

Kelly McInnes
Blue Space
Choreography / Performance: Kelly McInnes
Lighting Design: Jessica Han
Outside Eye / Rehearsal Director: Leon
Initial Creation Support: Ziyian Kwan

Blue Space is a reflection, a prayer and a mourning. It is hope, action, confusion, grief. It is remembering and healing. A celebration of oceans within oceans, waterfalls from wet eyes. Blue Space is all shades of blue.

No plastic was purchased new for Blue Space. It was all donated and repurposed after first use.

Special thanks to my wonderful creative team and everyone who supported the creation of Blue Space. Thank you to Angela, Michelle, Starr and The Dance Centre for the opportunity to share this work again.

Jessica Han (she/her) is a Taiwanese-Canadian filmmaker, lighting designer, theatre technician, and stage manager based in Vancouver, BC. You can find her working with and collaborating with dance artists and companies such as Out Innerspace Dance and Co.ERASGA; or flexing her muscles annually with the Vancouver International Children’s Festival, Vancouver Folk Music Festival, and the Vancouver Queer Film Festival. Since the pandemic, she has devoted more time to capturing and streaming live dance and theatre presentations on digital platforms.

Leon (b. Grootfontein, Namibia) is an international artist with primary focus in live physical performance. They are grateful to live, play and work on the lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. They most recently collaborated with Upintheair Theatre, Vines Art Festival and Evann Siebens. Leon is proud to be co-founder and member of HORSESHIT, a collective of experimental performance-makers based in the Americas. Today, they are grateful for the kindness of strangers, to work with Kelly once more, and for the opportunity to be an artist right now.

Kelly McInnes is a settler of Irish and British ancestry based on unceded Coast Salish territories. As a dance artist Kelly works as choreographer, performer and community-engaged facilitator. She creates performance as a way to remember and celebrate the creative complexity and intelligence of life, body and Earth. Recently completing her training in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, Kelly’s artistic work is powerfully inspired by this practice. Her intent with all her work is to inspire collective healing. kellymcinnes.com

Mahaila Patterson-O’Brien
Mid-Light: A Translucent Memory
Choreography: Mahaila Patterson-O’Brien
Performers: Eowynn Enquist, Isak Enquist
Projections: Daniel O’Shea
Sound: Paul Paroczai

Film:
Performers: Eowynn Enquist, Isak Enquist
Projections: Remy Siu
Sound: Paul Paroczai
Text: Mahaila Patterson-O’Brien
Cinematography: Sepehr Samimi, Daniel O’Shea
Editing: Sepehr Samimi

 A score-based reimagining of a work that existed. A future memory. An attempt to grasp an idea that is endlessly shifting, searching, and dissolving into new forms.

 We acknowledge the support of Canada Council for the Arts, Theatre Replacement, and Shadbolt Centre for the Arts.

Eowynn Enquist (she/her) began her dance training at Affinity Dance in Surrey, BC, Canada. Her formative education continued at Simon Fraser University and in 2015. As an interpreter, Eowynn has worked with: Mahaila Patterson O’Brien, Wen Wei Dance, Action at a Distance, Vision Impure, Mascall Dance, the response., Kinesis Dance Somatheatro, Rachel Meyers, Anya Saugstad, Out Innerspace Dance Theatre, Sarah Hutton and Aiden Cass (Generous Mess), Dance Victoria, Corporeal Imago and CAMP.

Raised in the Kootenays/Ktunaxa of Canada, Isak Enquist began formal training in Shotokan Karate before his dance education at Simon Fraser University and Modus Operandi. As a dance artist in Vancouver, he has performed with Out Innerspace Dance Theatre, Compagnie Vision Impure, Mahaila Patterson-O’Brien, Amber Funk Barton (the response.), Mascall Dance and Shay Kuebler Radical System Art. Isak is also a founding member of CAMP, contributing as a dancer and choreographer. Touring with these companies have included performances across Canada, USA, and Europe.

Mahaila Patterson-O’Brien is a choreographer in Vancouver BC. She holds a BFA (Hons.) in Dance from SFU School for the Contemporary Arts. Her work has been presented at Dancing on the Edge, Victoria Dance Days, Dance in Vancouver, and Dance Victoria Choreographic Lab. Her choreography revolves around form and abstract gestures through the use of unison, repetition, and complex patterns. http://mpattersonobrien.com

Daniel O’Shea makes theatre, designs projections, and creates films, using technology and design as a keystone to support narrative and deepen dramaturgy. His work focuses on states of presence, unbalancing audienceship and novel constructions of light through design and new media. Daniel’s work has been seen in Canada and internationally. He is a founding member of A Wake Of Vultures. Daniel is engaged with Vancouver’s thriving contemporary performance scene and often engages in crossover with indie film and the digital arts. www.doshea.net

TASHA FAYE EVANS
CEDAR WOMAN (WORK IN PROCESS)

Dedicated to the legacy of cedar woman, Lee Maracle.

Dancer and Choreographer Tasha Faye Evans
Cedar Woman Mask Ocean Hyland
Cedar Box Xwalacktun OBC
Cultural Director Charlene Aleck
Sound Design Edgardo Moreno
Lighting Design Jeff Harrison
Stage Management Jethelo Espaldan Cabilete

At the core of me, is you. The first seed that planted and grew and grew and grew. I am your prayers .I am all of your dreams wrapped into me. I am your every fall and rise and fall and rise again and again. When I fight and lose and fight and lose it is your voice that sings and then mine and my daughter’s after me.

We are a legacy. Coast Salish women. Cedar Women.

Cedar Woman is a prayer amongst a long line of prayers. It is a tribute to a legacy of strong and resilient Coast Salish women spanning all the way back to a tree. Cedar Woman is a new contemporary dance about protecting what we know from the depth of our soul to be sacred. It is a work in process.

Hands raised to the people supporting Cedar Woman and this creative journey: Lee Maracle, Raven Spirit Dance, Jeanette Kotowich, Margaret and Andy Grenier, Alvin Erasga Tolentino, Yasu Okada, Cory Philley and the Shadbolt Arts Centre, Lisa Ravensbergen.

Charlene Aleck is a Granddaughter of Chief Dan George. She’s a former elected Councillor for the Tsleil Waututh Nation and a spokesperson for the TWN Sacred Trust Initiative. She is a mother of four and a grandmother. As a child she played Sara Jim on the Beachcombers. She  danced with Karen Jamieson and Children of Takaya.  She is dedicated to the protection and restoration of the land and water her people have been the stewards of since time immemorial.

Tasha Faye Evans is a Coast Salish dance and theatre artist with Grandparents also from Wales and European Jewish descent. Her career continues to be a collection of collaborations and performances with national and international Indigenous artists. Tasha’s work also focuses on redress and Coast Salish cultural resurgence particularly in Port Moody where she is raising two children. Tasha’s artistic practice is an integration of her artistic expression and shared sacred responsibility to care for the future of all of our relations, particularly our Old Growth Forests.

Jeff Harrison is the Technical Director of Kidd Pivot. He is a four-time Jessie Award-winning lighting designer for his work on Carousel Theatre’s Pharaoh Serket & the Lost Stone of Fire, Patrick Street Theatre’s Floyd Collins, Pi Theatre’s Blasted and Arts Club’s Hand to God.  Jeff is a graduate of SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts, attended the Banff Centre for the Performing Arts and is a member of the Associated Designers of Canada.  Other lighting credits include: Urban Ink’s Children of God, and NAC Indigenous Theatre’s The Unnatural and Accidental Women.

Ocean Hyland/ shḵwen̓/ ts;simtelot is an artist who works in the realms of painting and digital design. Along with her practices she enjoys participating in language revitalization of Coast Salish languages. As a young woman, Ocean received the ancestral name ts;simtelot which was shared with her by her Mother. This name has been passed down through her family on her Cheam side. On her matrilineal side she is Tsleil Waututh, Squamish, Cheam, Hawaiian, and Chinese. Through her father she is Scottish and Irish. The richness and diversity of her cultural heritage is what inspires Ocean in her many art practices. https://www.salishshkwen.com/

Edgardo Moreno has worked extensively with contemporary dance choreographers creating sound design and musical scores for projects in Canada, Venezuela, Mexico, Sweden, Argentina, England and USA. He has written scores for films produced by CBC, Bravo, City TV, NFB, OMNI, Ontario Arts Council, History Channel, TVO. He is presently working in creating video and live sound pieces that are part of his Fireflyproject. His film Double Exposure has screened in various film festival across Canada and South America. Edgardo has completed and LP of Electro-Acoustic pieces entitled ‘El Piano De Raquel’. https://www.musicamoreno.com

Xwalacktun OBC (Rick Harry) Xwalacktun pieces can be found throughout Coast Salish territory – on top of mountains, in parks, at elementary, secondary and post-secondary institutions, in communities and in museums. Lovingly referred to as “The Boss”, Xwalacktun is a Master artist and has influenced thousands of emerging artists through the school systems inspiring them to connect with their creative spirit. Fluent in multiple forms of First Nation’s design, Xwalacktun shares both his cultural knowledge and innovation while ensuring each piece speaks to important themes such as interconnectedness, community, and environmental awareness. https://www.xwalacktun.ca/

FREE EVENTS 

ACTION AT A DISTANCE + TANGAJ COLLECTIVE
BLOT – BODY LINE OF THOUGHT

Concept and choreography: Simona Deaconescu, Vanessa Goodman
Artistic consultant: Olivia Nițiș
Music: Monocube
Object design: Bucharest: Ciprian Ciuclea
Light design: Alexandros Raptis
Assistant choreographer: Georgeta Corca
Producer: Laura Trocan

BLOT proposes a series of performative situations that explore movement in relation with the bacteria in our body. The show aims to rethink the body as an interconnected system, strong and fragile at the same time. The body is stripped of the social meanings determined by language and redefines itself through a continuous dialogue about coexistence. The two artists work on stage with seemingly invisible connections, but without which the human body could not function.

Thank you to Angela Conquet, The Dance Centre and their entire team, The FACTT Institute and Plastic Orchid Factory for presenting this work in its iterations over year.

Made with generous support from Tangaj Dance Association, Action at a Distance Society, The Administration of the National Cultural Fund, Canada Council for the Arts, The National Center for Dance Bucharest, Left of Main and Plastic Orchid Factory. BLOT is supported by Cultivamos Cultura, in the frame of Biofriction, a European project co-financed by the Creative Europe program of the European Union.

Simona Deaconescu (1987, Romania) is a choreographer and filmmaker working across genres and formats. Her work explores future scenarios of the body, creating spaces in which nature and technology meet, and the notion of choreography extends beyond the human body. She examines social constructs, at the border of fiction and objective reality, sometimes with irony and black humor. https://www.tangajdance.com/my-product/blot/

Vanessa Goodman lives, works and creates on the ancestral and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, including the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō, Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. She holds a BFA from SFU and is the artistic director of Action at a Distance. Vanessa is attracted to art that has a weight and meaning beyond the purely aesthetic and uses her choreography as an opportunity to explore the human condition. https://actionatadistance.ca/

ANOUK FROIDEVAUX
LAMENT FOR A DYING WORLD

Concept & performance: Anouk Froidevaux
Original text & vocals: Anouk Froidevaux
Cinematography: Daniel Froidevaux
Editing: Milena Salazar
Sound design: Sérgio Milhano

Lament for a Dying World is an experimental dance film that weaves together a poetic narrative, incorporating movement, voice, sound and imagery to perform a contemporary lament. The film touches on themes related to mental health and its intergenerational impact, while looking at the current climate crisis. It uses the art of lament to grieve our fractured relationship with the natural world and heal the wounded aspects within our own psyche through reconnecting with the archetype of Mother Nature.

This project was filmed on the unceded territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam Nations. It was supported by The Dance Centre, during a DanceLab residency in February 2020, and by Canada Council for the Arts.

Growing up in Vancouver, Anouk Froidevaux has been performing and working internationally for 20 years. She is the creator of Body and Belonging, a methodology that approaches the body as a source of inspiration, a place of belonging, full of unlimited creative resources, and transformative potential. Her artistic research and teaching practice addresses a need to restore balance within ourselves, our communities and with nature, by reconnecting with our own body and the natural environment through embodiment and the ritual of performance.

MASCALLDANCE
LURCH

Choreographer: Justine Chambers
Performers: Nick Miami Benz, Ralph Escamillan, Ben Kamino, Bennett Tracz, Chris Wright
Sculptor: Alan Storey
Producer: Tobias Macfarlane

Today you will see a run of a score proposed by Justine Chambers. (Duration 60 minutes.)

Lurch is a fascinating project that revisits the idea of repertoire through physical discussion with remarkable choreographers.

Lurch (working title) explores a body and an inanimate object. The inanimate object: a large sculpture by BC artist Alan Storey, originally commissioned by MascallDance in 2010. The bodies: five dancers, who span four decades in age and bring diverse dance roots to the project, from ballet and contact improvisation to drag, street, contemporary dance, and vogue. And commissioned choreographers who are known nationally for their mature work, big ideas, and a powerful knack for talking about dance.

Special thanks to: Raquel Alvaro, John Macfarlane, Sante Ainslie, Linda Blankstein, Leif and Steve.

Read more: https://www.mascalldance.ca/new-page-87

Nick Miami Benz …shapeshifter, storyteller, self.  A dancer at heart with their practice centred on how Afro, Indigenous and Latinx cultures express themselves kinaesthetically. Nick has performed with The Metropolitan Opera, Mascall Dance, Atomic Vaudeville, Sony Go Pro, APTN plus many other organizations and companies. Liberation exists in fearless expression of the body allowing storytelling to be medicine for the mind, body and community. Nick specializes in holistic exercise coaching, using Pilates, Gyrotonic(R) and Yamuna(R) Body Rolling methods.

Justine Chambers (she/her/hers) is a Bi-racial black woman of Scottish/Irish and African American descent; a dance artist living and working on the unceded Coast Salish territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Her movement-based practice considers how choreography can be an empathic practice rooted in collaborative creation, close observation, and the body as a site of a cumulative embodied archive. Privileging what is felt over what is seen, she works with dances that are already there – the social choreographies present in the everyday. https://justineachambers.com/

Ralph Escamillan (he/him/his) A dancer, choreographer, and community leader, I am Canadian-born, Queer, Filipino/a/x diasporic, and based in Vancouver, BC. The work I create questions my fascination with identity, traditions, clothing, and the influence of pop culture in a globalizing society. My experience has allowed me the opportunity to see the discrepancy of privilege in society, and I hope to shift this narrative through my work. I believe the body is powerful and important in communicating these ideas and that we should support the body’s autonomy/agency, political values, and ancestral legacy. My goals now are to create more spaces to foster artists like myself, to speak about stories that can connect to people like myself, so that I am not speaking by myself anymore.     www.ralphescamillan.com

Benjamin Kamino (he/him/they/them) His work has been presented nationally and abroad. He often collaborates with other artists, recently with Gerry Morita, Daina Ashbee, and Mohammadreza Akrami. He has been fortunate to dance under the direction of Michael Trent, Ame Henderson, Marie Chouinard, Sasha Kleinplatz, Aszure Barton, Jennifer Mascall, Peggy Baker, and Robin Poitras. He is an MA candidate studying choreography at DAS Graduate School, and curated the  Dancemakers Centre for Creation in Toronto 2014/15 season alongside colleague Emi Forster.    http://kamino.xyz/

Tobias Macfarlane is of Scottish / British / American & Canadian Settler Heritage.  Having grown up around theatres and studios, it is a constant pleasure to join MascallDance’s excitement while connecting his three passions: arts, business, and technology. Tobias spent years running businesses and taste-testing the world with a constant curiosity of creation. He’s been a trumpet teacher for the blind and an ozone researcher but love of invention and the sparkle of collaboration brought him back to the Arts. Happy to wrestle with changing business opportunities and find ways to create a world together.

Alan Storey works locally and internationally from Vancouver.  He has a 40-year history of site-specific Public Art-making, and is perhaps best known for the massive ‘Pendulum’ installation that swings perpetually through the HSCB Atrium on Georgia Street in downtown Vancouver, its movement activated by the movement of air through the building’s air circulation system.  The double ladder installation central to Lurch is part of a 2010 triptych in collaboration with Jennifer Mascall for The White Spider.

Bennett Tracz (he/him/they/them) Of Canadian/British heritage, he grew up on the unceded land of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nations. Their post-secondary training began at Ryerson University’s Performance Dance Program under the direction of Vicki St. Denys, and continued in Vancouver’s Modus Operandi Contemporary Dance Program, under the direction of Tiffany Tregarthen, David Raymond, and Kate Franklin. Bennett has had the opportunity to collaborate with artists such as Alysa Pires, Kristen Carcone, Jennifer Mascall, Justine Chambers, and most recently, Joshua Beamish.

Chris Wright (he/him/his) is of Scots/Irish/French ancestry. He discovered dance while completing a Kinesiology degree at the University of Western Ontario. He has performed professionally for various Vancouver-based dance companies, as well as in the US and abroad. Current interests include geometry, timing, ways of seeing, wood, metal and fire.

DANCE WEST NETWORK: RE-CENTERING/MARGINS CREATIVE RESIDENCY
STUDIO SHOWING AND CONVERSATION

Jennifer Aoki
In the Woods (working title and work-in-progress)
Choreography & Dancer: Jennifer Aoki
Composer & Musician: Cait Nishimura
Mentor: Mariko Tanebe
Writer: Carolyn Nakagawa

This explorative journey between two Japanese Canadian artists uses technology to collaborate in real time despite being on opposite sides of the country and in two different time zones. They are working together to establish a shared artistic language through which they are deepening their relationships with their local forest, each other, and themselves. Despite the distance, their remote collaborative sessions feel intimate, vulnerable, and inspired as the creative energy flows freely back and forth.

The creative process involves excursions to the forests in BC and Ontario for the purposes of engaging in Shirin-Yoku, a Japanese tradition of forest bathing. The artists share their observations and express their experiences through their respective art forms and respond to each other in real time through a series of improvisations. Feeling the dynamic energy of the forest from one of the last remaining old growth cedar trees to the tiny fungi appearing on the forest floor. Expanding their awareness of surroundings and exploring this expansion through sound and movement. As they support each other through collaborative improvisation, they also challenge each other to spend time in the unfamiliar sensations, movements, and sonic realms.

Nick Miami Benz
Pluma
Music:  Jezebel by Sade
Mentor:  Sparkle Plenty
Writer: TBA

This is a piece with three separate dance works, and spoken word inspired by feathers.

Sophie Dow
parasol chapter x
Choreography & Interpretation: Sophie Dow
Text & Sound Design: Sophie Dow
Mentors: Olivia C Davies & Cole Alvis
Projections: Connie Oreamuno & Fezz Stenton
Film/Videography: Vitantonio Spinelli & Sophie Dow
Editing: Sophie Dow

A window into portions of a creative process for parasol chapter x; a new solo by Sophie Dow.

Narratively, parasol chapter x is:

Somewhere in a space between the present living world and a reconciliation of past reality, we meet character q.

q is seemingly booted into a purgatory of sorts. Illustrated as an over-the-top red-washed universe, an epic adventure unfolds prior to q’s physical death.  Overtaken by passion, lust and desires that appeared in the fullness of the life q just lived, we witness a journey through vignettes, memory, obstacles and dance macabre, symbolic of both windows into lived experience and hints of a larger continental genocide.

Steeped in metaphor, identity and historical inklings, this chapter activates reflection on how far one is willing to go in obtaining certain statuses, releasing sets of attributes and preparing for the death of a body and an era.

Special acknowledgements
Maarsii for the generous support for research, mentorship and work-in-progress offerings from: Nightwood Theatre – 2021 Ontario Arts Council Recommender Grant; O’Dela Arts – Matriarchs Uprising Harvest Moon Showcase; Raven Spirit Dance Collective Choreographers Residency Program 2021

Re-Centering / Margins Creative Residency aims to increase opportunities and professional development for emerging dance artists of colour to create contemporary works with mentoring support that helps more fully realize their artistic visions. This project also supports Dance West Network’s mission by strengthening emerging contemporary dance artists in Vancouver for future engagements locally and provincially. Produced by Jane Gabriels, PhD, Executive Director, and supported by project coordinator, Juolin Lee.  dancewest.net

Thank you to funders:  RBC Foundation, City of Vancouver’s Art, Culture and Community Services Department, and BC Arts Council.

The roots of Dance West Network (formerly Made in BC – Dance on Tour) connect BC through dance. Our new name allows the work to reach even further by supporting our efforts to be more inclusive, to centre dance, to facilitate connections between communities and dance artists sharing vibrant practices and experience, and to create collaborations that work towards greater equity for historically excluded dance artists and audiences, offering opportunities for people from all over BC to learn about the arts, express themselves creatively and celebrate a shared humanity through dance. dancewest.net

Jennifer Aoki is a Japanese Canadian dance artist who is grateful to be living and working on the traditional and unceded territories of the Coast Salish Peoples. She completed her formative dance studies through SFU, receiving a BFA in Dance. Jennifer’s work has been presented across Canada, as well as in Seattle, Amsterdam, and Berlin, including Dancing on the Edge, Nah Drahn, 12 Minutes Max, Vines Arts Festival, and Fringe Festivals. Jennifer is Artistic Co-Director of Voirelia and The Body Orchestra.

Cait Nishimura – Jennifer Aoki’s musical collaborator  – is a Canadian composer, musician, and educator based in Waterloo, Ontario. Known for writing nature-inspired, programmatic music, Cait has quickly established herself as a prominent voice in the concert band community. With influences from minimalism and pop music, her work is full of simple yet lush harmonies and themes that linger in listeners’ minds. As a lifelong environmentalist, she not only draws inspiration from the natural world but also uses her platform to advocate for conservation awareness and action.

Nick Miami Benz shapeshifter, storyteller, self. A dancer at heart with their practice centred on how Afro, Indigenous and Latinx cultures express themselves kinaesthetically. Liberation exists in fearless expression of one’s self allowing storytelling to be medicine for the mind, body and community. Nick specializes in holistic exercise coaching, using Pilates, Gyrotonic(R) and Yamuna(R) Body Rolling.

Winnipeg-born Sophie Dow is a multidisciplinary creative, inspired by dance, music, collaboration and Métis-Assiniboine + settler roots. An avid adventurer, Sophie has a passion for busking, yoga and traveling on top of holding a degree in Dance Performance and Choreography. With a unique list of credits deeply impacting personal process and vocabulary, Sophie’s had the great fortune of working with some of Turtle Island’s wonderful dance innovators, including Chimera Dance Theatre, Kaeja d’Dance, O.Dela Arts, Carol Anderson & Jeanette Kotowich.

Hosts and Facilitators of post-performance conversation:

Having parents from Tanzania, and of Indo-Ismaili heritage, Alyssa Amarshi has always been interested in diverse types of cultural expression, especially movement and intermodal art. Her passion for performing and expressing grew while she was working with Bollywood dance companies as a preteen. In high school, her friends from the West Indies exposed her to Dancehall and STEP (a form of percussive dance), both of which she continued to explore while completing her BA in Psychology at McGill University. After moving to Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) lands (colonially known as Vancouver), she trained with SOULdiers Dance Company and Ketch Di Vybz where she further fortified her understanding in street dance and love of Dancehall. She has graced the stage with artists such as A Tribe Called Red, Kimmortal, and Nanya Music. She has also creative directed, choreographed and performed in pieces for Vines Festival, Indian Summer Festival, and Vancouver International Children’s Festival.  Alyssa has also sat on panels for the City of Vancouver and the Reach Gallery. Her vision, through her collective Her Tribal Roots is to create more opportunities for artistic expression, rooted in symbiotic collaboration, compassion, and play.

Angela Cooper (Poundmaker) I am a fourth-year student at Royal Roads, completing my Bachelor of Arts in Professional Communications. I am a working actor and performing artist. As an Indigenous student in the academic field, I value the opportunities Royal Roads has offered me to empower and strengthen my voice as an Indigenous woman in the communication field. As an actor represented by Premier Talent Management, I value the support and recognition that my brand has given to Indigenous representation. As a minority, I work hard to create equity and diversity in places where BIPOC members do not feel seen, heard, or safe. I believe any opportunity granted me is an opportunity to shine light and support back to my community. I value storytelling and authenticity. I believe that empathy is our greatest resource in places of work and play; and listening to understand is more valuable than listening to speak next.

My latest passion is building my intercultural communications. I value empowering holistic dialogue and interaction between cultures. As an Indigenous visitor on unceded Musqueam territory, I believe we are all Treaty people, and we will grow exponentially together when we call each other in compassion, integrity, and honor. My hope is to re-center the margins and democratize the arts. Everybody create!

All My Relations,

Angela Cooper

P. MEGAN ANDREWS
THE DISORIENTATION PROJECT

Creator/Performer: P. Megan Andrews
[Facing, East?] Gesture Sequence: Sarah Chase
Video Gestures: Angela Joosse
Dramaturges/Creative Consultants: Angela Joosse, Natalia Esling, Michelle Olson, Tedd Robinson
Guardian/Co-host & Production Assistant: Alexandra Pickrell
Guardians/Co-hosts: Jullianna Oke, Ursula Blanchard, Rachel Helten

In the disorientation project, artist and scholar P. Megan Andrews enters into practices of perceptual disorientation in movement, sound and spoken word, resisting the impulse to re-orient and re-stabilize. Visitors are invited to witness her practices on location in and around the Roundhouse. You will receive instructions for how to engage. Encounter various objects, process documents and multimedia materials. Chat with Andrews about the work. Share a response as part of the ongoing project archive/document. Andrews invites us to consider the question: How can experiences of disorientation open ways towards more ethical relations?

In partnership with the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre

Thank you to my project companions listed above; Angela Conquet; Mirna Zagar, Raquel Alvaro and all the staff at The Dance Centre; Julie Mamias, Katheryn Peterson and Cheyenne Goolcharan at New Works; Ken Cunningham, Karin and Ron Andrews, Caroline Liffman, Julie Lebel, Lee Su-Feh, Moberly Arts and Cultural Centre, BC Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, SFU Institute for Performance Studies and SFU School for the Contemporary Arts. Special thanks to all the folks who’ve taken photos of my inversions.

Megan Andrews, PhD, (she/her) is a settler dance artist/scholar, movement educator and writer/editor based on Coast Salish lands. Her work explores ethical relationality and the aesthetics of ethics through practices of movement, voice, perception, critical-poetic writing and dialogue. She is currently Associate Artist, Vancouver’s Scotiabank Dance Centre and Visiting Scholar, Institute for Performance Studies, Simon Fraser University. pmeganandrews.com

Ursula Blanchard is a contemporary dance artist currently based in Vancouver, BC, and originally from Princeton, NJ. She recently graduated from SFU’s contemporary dance program. Ursula is currently investigating how to manipulate the visceral response movement elicits from its watchers, most recently through the use of spoken word and poetry along with dance.

Sarah Chase is a performer and choreographer whose distinctive signature has garnered her an international reputation. Her work has been presented across Canada and Europe for over twenty-five years, at such venues as the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Festival TransAmerique (Montreal), DanceHouse (Vancouver), the Holland Dance Festival, Klapstuk Festival (Belgium), Salzburg Szene Festival (Austria), Kaaitheater (Belgium), Tanz Quartier (Vienna), Fondation Cartier (Paris) and Theater der Welt (Germany).

Natalia Esling, PhD, (she/her) is a researcher, dramaturg, editor, and copy-editor. Since 2013, she has worked as a dramaturg on performance projects in Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver, collaborating with professional dance, music, and visual artists from across Canada. She co-convenes the Canada-based Articulating Artistic Research (AAR) working group. Her research focuses on devised and experimental performance with particular attention to sensory engagement and audience experience.

Rachel Helten is a dance artist, choreographer, and teacher based on the unceded indigenous land belonging to the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō (Stolo), and Səl̓ílwəta/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. The cornerstones of Rachel’s practice are found in deep listening, collaboration, interdisciplinary methods and unearthing the stories that live within our bodies.

Angela Joosse, PhD, (she/her) is a media artist and scholar whose work focuses on embodied movement, phenomenology, and cinematic poetics. Her artistic practice includes site-specific installations, digital videos, and experimental films exhibited at venues such as the TIFF Cinematheque, Korean Cinematheque, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Winnipeg Film Group’s Cinematheque, Toronto’s Nuit Blanche, aluCine, Montréal Festival des Films du Monde, and the Dawson City International Short Film Festival.

Born in Vancouver, Canada, Jullianna Oke has trained in various styles of dance but has found a passion for contemporary and interdisciplinary arts. As a recipient of the Beedie Luminaries scholarship, Jullianna is currently attending SFU as a dance major to further her theoretical understanding of how dance has evolved.

Alexandra Pickrell (she/they) is a Saskatchewan-born dance artist currently based in Vancouver, BC. She has completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Contemporary Dance from Simon Fraser University. Alexandra is an ex-world baton twirling athlete with interests in collaborative creation and exploring ideas of a softer world through her vulnerable and atmospheric choreography.

JUSTINE A CHAMBERS
STEADY

Choreography: Justine A. Chambers
Collaborative partners / performers: Kate Franklin, Ali Denham, Bynh Ho, Steph Cyr, Vanessa Kwan, Erika Mitsuhashi, Zahra Shahab, Rianne Svelnis, Josh Martin,Lisa Gelley, Kemi Craig, Kylie Miller, Emma Tweedie
Original lighting design: James Proudfoot
Original costume design: Justine A. Chambers

Steady (2021) is a performance work that considers the act of rocking to be a dance that can be performed by everybody. Regardless of size, scale, spatial orientation or energy exerted, the rock is a whole and joyous dance that can tap into the parasympathetic nervous system, encouraging the alleviation of pain and depression by triggering the brain to release endorphins.

Steady houses an archive of scores, videos and instructions for rocking both submitted by the public and sourced privately. During DIV, the public is invited to witness the research process, and to submit their own rocks to the archive.

Special acknowledgements: Steady was originally created as part of the No Single Dancer exhibition curated by Jasmine Hynes in June of 2021. The development of the work was possible with the support of Susan Gibb and Ben Wilson at The Western Front

Steady performance archive at Western Front: https://legacywebsite.front.bc.ca/events/steady/

Justine A. Chambers is a dance artist and educator living and working on the traditional and ancestral  territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Her practice considers how choreography can be an empathic practice rooted in collaborative creation, close observation, and the body as a site of a cumulative embodied archive. Privileging what is felt over what is seen, she works with the social choreographies present in the everyday. She is Max Tyler-Hite’s mother. https://justineachambers.com/

Performers:

Company 605 http://company605.ca

Kate Franklin http://www.katefranklin.ca/

Vanessa Kwan https://vanessakwan.com/

Erika Mitsuhashi https://www.erikamitsuhashi.com/

Zahra Shahab https://zahrashahab.ca/

ZAHRA SHAHAB
AL-FATTAH: WHEN I BOW, I SEE THE OPENING

Choreographer/Performer: Zahra Shahab
Rehearsal Director: Alexa Mardon
Artistic Doulas: Alexa Mardon, Rianne Svelnis, Bynh Ho
Mentor: Raina von Waldenburg

Thank you to David McIntosh and Su-Feh Lee of Battery Opera Performance for generously extending the Hop Bop Shop to me as a home to create this project.

This project is funded by the Canada Council for the Arts as well as the Dance In Vancouver Dances for Unusual Times micro-commission (The Dance Centre).

Al-Fattah: when I bow, I see the opening is a new choreographic work (in process) created and performed by Zahra Shahab. It is a journey into the interior space of body memory and emergence as she listens to the history of Islamic prayer rituals in her bones and tethers them to compassionate intimacy with her flesh. It is a work about sitting back-to-back with the bound knot of her sensuality, tied up through patriarchal culture and religion, and gently rocking until an opening appears. It is a queering of ablutions – entering through the gate of the body, with all its desires, grief, bacteria, and secretions, into a place of worship. Al-Fattah is one of the 99 names of Allah which means “The Opener.”

Alexa Solveig Mardon is devoted to practices of gathering, collaborations with the dream realm, and collective sensing. Alexa studies movement through dancing, bodywork, support work, and poetry. Alexa is a queer second generation settler of Finnish/Karelian/British Isles descent living as an uninvited guest on the illegally occupied, unceded Coast Salish territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ peoples. Working on Al-Fattah with Zahra has been a re-membering of queer kinship as sacred practice and a space for inviting imperfect intimacies with ancestors, spirits, and dancing itself.

Zahra Shahab is an independent dance artist and choreographer living on traditional, ancestral and unceded Coast Salish territory. Originally from Calgary, she relocated to Vancouver in 2015 to study at Modus Operandi Training Program. She is interested in the word fantasy and the prophetic power of coaxing our imaginations beyond the confines of white supremacy. She is an ecstatic emo who finds herself splitting apart and reconfiguring frequently while looking at moss or listening to a friend. zahrashahab.ca

Rianne Svelnis is a dance artist who co-creates, performs, teaches, and facilitates dialogue. She is currently teaching All Bodies Dance classes at Carnegie Community Centre, creating a cyber-performance of the blog Waterfallfallingforeveragain with Andrea Cownden and Layla Marcelle, and consulting dream and wax oracles for Alexa Mardon’s Dream Reading Group. Upcoming activities include research of Steady by Justine Chambers, Symbiotic Forms at Morrow (Dumb Instrument Dance), and development of a duet with romham pàdraig gallacher to be shared at The Dance Centre’s Discover Dance! series.

Raïna von Waldenburg moved to Vancouver in 2012. Former full–time faculty at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Raïna taught a physical approach to acting based on the work of Jerzy Grotowski at the Experimental Theatre Wing for 17 years. Raïna performed in the experimental downtown NYC theatre scene for decades. In 2012, she received a Distracted Globe Foundation grant and the New York Innovative Theatre Award nomination for “Outstanding Solo Performance” for her one-woman show, Oysters Orgasms Obituaries, at LaMaMa Experimental Theater Club. Raïna’s recent solo: My Friend Andrea (Cultch Lab Theatre, Vancouver). alivebody.ca

LEE SU-FEH
TOUCH ME HOLD ME LET ME GO

Created by Lee Su-Feh with the support of, and in collaboration with a network of people and organizations:

Mask carved by Bracken Hanuse Corlett
Music: Junhong McIntosh-Lee
Writing consultants: Chuah Guat Eng, Tanya Marquardt
Dramaturgical consultants: Pil Hansen, DD Kugler
Photography: Arctic Char, Lee Su-Feh, Dean Hunt, Amy Pelletier

This work began as a response to an invitation to make a new work in my 2nd and 3rd year (2019 and 2020) as artist-in-residence at Dancemakers Centre for Creation in Toronto. The artists involved in that process, which began in 2019 in-person, and ended in 2020 online were: Francesca Chudnoff, Supriya Nayak, David Norsworthy, Nyda Kwasowsky, Omar Rivero and Naishi Wang.

The work with Bracken was supported by a DanceLab residency at Scotiabank Dance Centre, Vancouver.

Special thanks to Guillaume Mécheneau for philosophical exchanges about algorithms and long-distance care.

Lee Su-Feh is the Artistic Director of battery opera, which is supported by The Canada Council for the Arts, The British Columbia Arts Council and The Province of British Columbia, The City of Vancouver. Lee Su-Feh’s work encompasses choreography, performance, teaching, dramaturgy, writing and community-organizing. Born and raised in Malaysia, she was indelibly marked by teachers who strove to find a contemporary Asian expression out of the remnants of colonialism and dislocated traditions. Since moving to Vancouver in 1988, Lee has created a body of work that interrogates the contemporary body as a site of intersecting and displaced histories and habits. leesufeh.com

CO.ERASGA
OFFERING

Choreography: Alvin Erasga Tolentino
Dancers: Joshua Ongcol, Olivia Shaffer, Marc Arboleda, Antonio Somera, Alvin Erasga Tolentino, Hannah Richards, and Marissa Wong
Composer: Emmanuel Mailly
Costume: Meagan Woods
Lighting: Jonathan Kim
Stage Manager: Amanda Parafina

This collection of solo works, performed by 7 of Vancouver’s finest and diverse dancers, aspires to honour the living practice of Dance and Dancing and the challenges of keeping this art-form alive during this extraordinary time of the pandemic crisis and isolation.

How do our bodies relate, move and dance at this critical time of pandemic adversity? In this creation, Tolentino asks each dancer to explore movement as a form of devotion and prayer – allowing the dance to transcend luminous energy. Each work individually and together as a full-length presentation, Offering becomes a performance ritual, evoking a spiritual reach for a universal interconnect, awareness, and healing for the world.

At the heart of Co.ERASGA is Artistic Director Alvin Erasga Tolentino, a Filipino-Canadian artist of remarkable commitment, talent and energy, whose diverse cultural background and heritage has been a driving force for much of the company’s work. In addressing themes that reflect Tolentino’s individuality, global awareness and ethnicity, Co.ERASGA exposes and explores issues of cultural identity, gender, hybridity, and community engagements and promotes cross-cultural dialogue. www.companyerasgadance.ca

Co.ERASGA gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts council, City of Vancouver, BC gaming commissions, the sponsors, donors and all members of Co.ERASGA.

KRISTEN LEWIS
CHORA: GRAPHIA (REVERBERATIONS)

Conceived by Kristen Lewis, in collaboration with Avery Smith.

Meditating on the roots of the word “choreography” in the Greek word for space (chora) and writing (graphia), Chora: Graphia sets in motion an improvisational practice of shared writing in response to the shows on offer at Dance In Vancouver 2021. Kristen Lewis and Avery Smith will be on hand at select shows over the course of the festival, inviting audiences to reflect, in brief, anonymous written notes on old-school index card, on the shows. The results of this practice will be posted in physicalized form at Scotiabank Dance Centre (in the foyer, in the lobby, and in the Scotiabank alcove), creating an evolving record that speaks to the surprising, unplanned networks of connections—we might call these connective tissues—between the shows, between audience’s own lived, embodied realities in this moment, and between resonances that the space itself awakens between us and the wider world.

In connection with Chora: Graphia (Reverberations), Kristen and Avery will be working with Leisa Shelton Campbell and the other Melbourne-based artists bringing the work Scribe to the festival—we will reinscribe and translate the writing generated by Scribe alongside the Chora: Graphia texts, creating a living archive that speaks through many and varied voices about what DIV has awakened in audiences.

Kristen Lewis will transform this living archive into a published article that records what artists, audiences, and the space itself has written into being during this time together. Chora: Graphia, working in resonance with Scribe, seeks to give voice to a multiplicity of perspectives, to complicate usual notions of who is and is not an authority on a work, and, mostly, to listen, deeply, to voices that, too often, stay silent after the show.

Kristen Lewis’s practice considers the connections between conceptual apparatus and bodily realities. She conceives writing and dance-based performative actions that reveal new, freer ways of being together. Since COVID, her work has turned to the question of how to choreograph intimacies across the distance and has sourced conversation as a primary medium for generating deeply collaborative work. www.kristenlewis.org

Avery Smith is a dance artist living and working on the unceded territories of the ʷməθkʷəy̓əm, sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and sel̓íl̓witulh Nations. Avery seeks to explore collaborative actions of care and effort within creative processes. Using state-based tasks to generate material, Avery is currently researching how language and text can interface with movement to facilitate abstract artistic ideas. www.averymsmith.com

ONLINE EVENTS

JEANETTE KOTOWICH
KWĖ – DIGITAL OFFERING

Jeanette Kotowich – Lead Artist
Stéphanie Cyr – Collaborator/ Dance Artist/ Improviser
Olivia Shaffer – Collaborator/Dance Artist/ Improviser
Tamar Zehava Tabori – Collaborator/Dance Artist/ Improviser
Edgardo Moreno – Collaborator/ Sound Designer
Hina Nishioka – Collaborator /Lighting Designer
Moe Clark – Kiyokêwin (the process of visiting amongst kin)
Lisa Mariko Gelley – Artistic Support
Kayleigh Sandomirsky – Production/Stage Manager
Ida Adamowicz – Camera Operator
Cassandra Cross – Camera Operator
Yasuhiro Okada – Lead Technician/ Live Stream Operator
Anika Syskakis – Gimbal Operator

Sound Contributions
Moe Clark
Riit
Sill & Rise

Special thanks to Raquel Alvaro, Angela Conquet, Sophie Dow, Starr Muranko, Chengyan Boon, & Michelle Olson.

Project supported by Raven Spirit Dance, The National Arts Centre, The Dance Centre, and Canada Council.

The Kwê team would like to acknowledge the land ancestral that holds this projects development belonging to the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Sel̓ilw̓ ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) people.

We are bodies seeking sovereignty, imperfectly tethered to homelands near and far… Containers of complex histories, tears, and joy… We journey through liminal territories of vulnerability and strength. We embrace multiplicity and settle into the untamed knowing of our courageous hearts. Harnessing bravery, we weave our presence into vast futures.

Jeanette Kotowich’s work reflects her Nêhiyaw/Métis cosmology within the context of contemporary dance, performance, and futurism. Kwê is Jeanette’s current research project in collaboration with dance artists Stéphanie Cry, Olivia Shaffer, and Tamar Tabori with a team of contributing artistic designers. Kwê derived from iskwêw (femme Spirit) and iskotêw (fire) – it provides a fluid container to intentionally define and amplify iskwêwak sovereignty and dismantle dominant colonial and patriarchal narratives with vulnerability, courage and heart.

Ida Adamowicz – Camera Operator Ida grew up with a camera in her hands. Born in Poland and raised in Ontario, Ida inherited her father’s love for photography. Her love for still pictures eventually evolved into video. In 2013, after earning her diploma in Television Broadcasting at Mohawk College, Ida opened up her business, Wonderful Ida. In 2016 Ida relocated to Vancouver. She took a break from her business to work for the Film Industry in the Grip Department to satisfy her love of lighting. However, her passion for storytelling brought her back to business, specifically working for organizations that empower women. When COVID hit she pivoted once again. This time combining her love of teaching and video to start a Youtube channel where she teaches others how to film themselves. She also produces POETV, helps small businesses leverage their knowledge by filming video courses, and offers online video coaching and consulting. www.wonderfulida.ca

Moe Clark – Sound Contributor âpihtawikosisâniskwêw (Métis/half breed) multidisciplinary artist Moe Clark is a 2Spirit singing thunderbird. She fuses together vocal improvisation with multilingual lyricism to create meaning that is rooted in personal legacy, ancestral memory and embodied knowledge. Originally from the prairies in Treaty 7, she’s called tio’tiá:ke (Montreal) home for over a decade. Her work as an artist, educator and activist aims to remember and reconnect belonging to territories of land, body and voice through creative continuums of indigenous language immersion, ceremonial practice and song creation. http://moeclark.ca/

Cassandra Cross – Camera Operator INDIGENOUS FILMMAKER, SCREENWRITER, PHOTOGRAPHER, MUSIC COMPOSER. “Creating projects about the struggles of the land and peoples through supernatural and symbolic story telling, using community and cultural support.” Cassandra “Kaas” Cross is a First Nations female artist from the Haida Nation. Kaas has been in the film industry for 6 years working as a Director, Editor, Photographer, Cinematographer, and Music Composer. Kaas has previously helped produce a spoken word film by Andrea Grant that has been awarded the Venice Shorts Film Award and nominated by AIFF, the Los Angeles Skins Film Festival and Dam Short Festival. She has also completed a short doc called Mural Life and another short doc called Dance With Me for Telus Storyhive. Cassandra holds a Degree in the Arts and is also a certified drone operator. In 2021 Cassandra is now looking to enhance her experience through training and professional development that will assist in progressing her career forward as a professional filmmaker.

Stéphanie Cyr – Dancer Stéphanine Cyr is a queer dance artist, pro-amateur flower smeller and enthusiastic playlist maker. They are the sole offspring of Sylvie + Jean-Luc and was raised in Shawville, QC, on unceded Algonquin Anishnaabeg territory. Steph’s practice is centered around digital, stage and site-specific performance + creation, often influenced by pop/queer culture, sci-fi/fantasy and a curious relationship with objects. They are grateful to be living on ḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) territory and working within the Vancouver arts community since 2016. Stephcyr.cargo.site

Lisa Mariko Gelley – Production & Artistic Support Lisa Mariko Gelley is an artist and mother, living and working on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She received her training in classical, contemporary, and urban dance forms in Canada and Europe. Lisa is Artistic Co-Director of Company 605, a contemporary dance company in Vancouver, creating original works through collaborative processes with artists in dance and other disciplines. Lisa has worked and collaborated with artists including Dana Gingras, Justine A. Chambers, Cindy Mochizuki, Amber Funk Barton, Vanessa Goodman, Martha Carter, Karen Jamieson, and Aeriosa (Julia Taffe). In addition to her work as a performer/choreographer, Lisa values opportunities to connect with young dancers and emerging professionals through contemporary dance education. Lisa is the recipient of the 2015 Vancouver International Dance Festival Choreographic Award. www.company605.ca

Jeanette Kotowich – Lead Artist I am a multi-disciplinary iskwêw, independent dance artist, creator, choreographer and Auntie Culture enthusiast of Nêhiyaw Métis and mixed settler ancestry. Originally from Treaty 4 territory Saskatchewan, I create work that reflects Nêhiyaw/Métis cosmology within the context of contemporary dance, Indigenous performance, and Indigenous futurism. Fusing interdisciplinary collaboration, de-colonial practices and embodied research methodologies; my work references protocol, ritual, relationship to the natural/spirit world and Ancestral knowledge. My practice is intergenerational and vocational; it’s a living and lived experience. I reside as a guest on the Ancestral and unceded Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Səl̓ilw̓ ətaʔɬ/ (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) territories, colonially known as Vancouver. movementhealing.ca

Edgardo Moreno – Sound Designer Edgardo Moreno is a Canadian-Chilean composer that has been commissioned for projects in Canada, Venezuela, Mexico, Sweden, Argentina, Colombia,England and USA. He has worked extensively with indigenous contemporary dance choreographers and artists including Penny Couchie, Justin Manyfingers, Alejandro Ronceria, Rulan Tangen, Starr Muranko ,Tasha Faye Evans, Carlos Rivera, Sara Roque. He is presently working in creating video and live sound pieces that are part of his Fireflyproject. www.musicamoreno.com, www.fireflyproject.ca, www.edgardomoreno.bandcamp.com

Hina Nishioka – Lighting Designer Hina is an emerging young lighting designer and lighting board operator originally from Japan. She has a big passion for entertainment lighting and works in theatres, live events and film and television. As a former dancer, she enjoys lighting for dance shows from the bottom of her heart. Her past lighting design credits include Im:print (Inter- Cultural Association), Summer Bucket List (Victoria Fringe Festival 2019), and Ngaii Duk (SATCo at University of Victoria). Her assistant credits are Wabi Sabi (Kokoro Dance, Lighting designed by Gerald King) and Othello (University of Victoria, lighting designed by Michael Whitfield). For more information about her past works, please visit her website http://hinalighting.com

Yasuhiro Okada – Lead Technician/ Live Stream Operator Born in Hokkaido, Japan. Yasuhiro Okada received his Master degree in digital content management from DHU graduate school in Tokyo. He worked as a videographer for Sony Music and Columbia Records in Tokyo. He is an awardee of Nikon photography in 2011 for portrait work. He continues as a freelance videographer and photographer in Vancouver, Canada.

Kayleigh Sandomirsky – Production/Stage Manager Kayleigh Sandomirsky is a multidisciplinary artist based in the traditional, unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. When Kayleigh is not working on independent productions she is finishing her last year with UpintheAir Theatre as their Resident Curator. Recent Stage and Production Managing credits include: Ying Yun (Wen Wei Dance); Revelations (UpintheAir Theatre); HIVE: Flight Paths (HIVE Collective); a workshop for Sen Nemuri (Julia Siedlanowska and Kanon Hewitt); Departure (Katie Cassady and Marissa Wong, presented by TWObigsteps Collective); The Array: First Contact and The Array: The Shape of the Galaxy (UpintheAir Theatre); and Holocaust Brunch (Tamara Micner, presented by the Chutzpah! Festival). Kayleigh is excited to be exploring and creating again with such an incredible team of artists.

Olivia Shaffer – Dancer Olivia Shaffer is a Vancouver-based choreographer, performing artist, and movement teacher. Her passion lies in the creation of organic, embodied performance rooted in structured improvisations. Her choreographic practice speaks to the human condition and is inspired by tensions between the tangible and the ephemeral. Olivia values diverse artistic collaboration which has led her to interpret the work of more than 20 choreographers. She is a performing company member with EDAM Dance, where she also teaches and is the assistant to the Artistic Director, Peter Bingham. Olivia’s formative training was in contemporary dance at Simon Fraser University; her ongoing training includes Contact Improvisation, somatic movement practices, and Grotowski physical theatre. Olivia regularly teaches classes to professionals, pre-professionals, and community members; she has taught abroad in Europe, the United States, and Asia. www.oliviashaffer.ca

Anika Syskakis – Lead Creative Collaborator & Gimbal Operator Anika Syskakis (settler ally with Greek ancestry) is a Vancouver-based documentary filmmaker dedicated to stories that promote social justice and human connection. Her work has been featured on platforms including CBC ARTS, Out in Schools, the Portland Film Festival, and The Queer Film Festival. She recently won Best Canadian Female  Filmmaker at the Toronto International Women Film Festival awards. She is committed to shining light on topics that spark empathy through diverse stories. www.TheiaCreative.com

Tamar Zehava Tabori – Dancer Tamar Zehava Tabori is an emerging dance and video artist. She is interested in the documentation of dance, having done archival work for organizations such as Kaeja d’Dance, and at present holds the position of Youth Curator for F-O-R-M (Festival of Recorded Movement). She has been involved in various interdisciplinary dance productions across Canada, performing on stage and on screen, and has received commissions for both production and instruction roles. As an artist, she seeks to intrigue and engage, exploring the tension between the ephemeral dancing body and the ostensible permanence of digital landscapes.

FUTURE LEISURE
ESCAPE

Text/video: Julianne Chapple
Performance: Maxine Chadburn, Ed Spence, Jen Yan

Julianne Chapple is a choreographer, performer and new media artist. Her work is primarily based in and inspired by the body, and explores themes of memory, voyeurism and interfacing with technology. https://www.futureleisure.net