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Cosmology, wormholes, quantum mechanics… Choreographer Kaia Shukin talks about some of the inspirations behind her work Portals. Studio showings are coming up March 25 and 27 as part of our DanceLab program.
Briefly describe your dance career to date.
I started dancing when I was four – I still remember how excited I was the moment my mum told me she had signed me up. After 13 years dancing in a studio setting I took a break but there was a huge hole in my life without dance. I found my way back to it through SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts where I completed my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance in 2018.
At SFU I found community, an education in dance histories, techniques, lineage and had the privilege of interning with Justine A. Chambers and Amber Funk Barton (who has also been my outside eye/mentor for Portals), two artists I deeply admire and count my lucky stars that I still get to learn from today. After graduating I had the opportunity to be a part of the research and work of local choreographers, continue my own training and started to think about creating my own work.
Choreography is a relatively new world for me and has been pretty much only solo work. These solos were started and explored at 12 Minutes Max here at The Dance Centre, LEÑA Artist Residency, Tara Cheyenne’s Startle Reflex residency, Chalk it Up and Dance Café. My process up to and including Portals is heavily informed by improvisation and the use of scores. Dance is inherently ephemeral and yet – the fleeting moments of joy, discovery and awe that exist in the framework of improvisation will forever be exciting to me.
Who are your DanceLab collaborators?
My very talented and very wonderful collaborators are Isak Enquist and Celeste English – both of whom I met while at SFU even though we never actually worked with each other directly while there.
Isak is a choreographer, dance artist, teacher and sound designer. I heard Isak’s sound design on another project we worked on and loved the world he had created and it felt very much like the world I envisioned for Portals so I was very happy that he was interested in bringing his talents to this project.
Celeste is a lighting designer and scenographer who is working on I think at least 3 continents at any one time – she is ambitious, creative and has such a rich vision of what is possible and has truly created the visual world we get to step into with Portals.
Tell us about your DanceLab project, Portals.
Portals has been in the works on and off for almost 4 years, starting with my own thoughts, questions, research and then with Isak and Celeste – working together for brief moments we were all in one place at the same, through emails, through Zoom meetings.
I cannot lie, Portals is a lot. A lot of ideas that to me feel very much connected but also which I have spent years trying to concisely explain and I am still not there yet.
The feeling of displacement – of shifting time and place briefly has always been a part of my life which led to the concept of portals, microscopic wormholes existing within my body. Attempting to find my way to past selves, through grief and to beings I had lost, and to find my way back to the present.
I am also absolutely fascinated by cosmology and quantum mechanics (the many theories I just barely grasp) and I feel an existential connection to those ideas and my sense of displacement on a personal level. I find wonder, awe, possibility and solace in that expansiveness.
Portals has been research into all of the above – how to find my connection to the cosmos, to other worlds, people, to the particles that make me whole.
What do you hope to achieve during the lab?
I am excited to have the opportunity to live within Portals for a longer period of time – to get to explore the movement within the world of sound and lighting design it lives in.
That we can fully realize the texture of all the elements that make the work immersive for us and make sure that experience is expansive enough to fill the space, to also be immersive for anyone watching.
What is your next project?
Haha – Portals 2.0! Maybe not that, but likely another track in the concept album that Portals lives within for sure. All the ideas that were started in this work… I only want to continue to explore and expand upon.
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DanceLab Studio Showing
Kaia Shukin | Celeste English | Isak Enquist
Portals
Monday March 25 | 7.30pm, Wednesday March 27 | 7pm
Free Admission
Details
Photos: Kaia Shukin
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