I am gone from the metal when the metal hits the mould, is Zahra Shahab’s latest choreographic work. Through detailed character play and interaction with sculptural materials, the audience is invited to discover a series of continually emergent fantastical identities.

The title of the piece, a line from a poem by Robert Bringhurst, illustrates the illusion of defining the self in any permanent way. Ever-changing, the essence of self cannot be moulded into a stable shape or form. With a cast that centres Artists of Colour, the work explores the metamorphosis of codeswitching. It exposes how passing through and adapting smoothly to the world requires a multiplicity of characters to put on, toss off, and morph between. These characters serve as tools for survival and portals of expansion into ways of being that are beyond normative cultural scripts. Settling into the liminal spaces between these characters, we excavate information from the vulnerable magma of transformation. The only certainty is flux, a space somewhere between dissolution and emergence.

The performance is followed by a free dance workshop at 3:30 pm
To register, email info@newworks.ca