Dance Central Summer 2021

Content

Dance Central

Marissa Wong

The Falling Company

Page 4

Shion Skye Carter

Iris Garland Emerging

Choreographer Award 2021

Page 12

Editor's Note

Welcome to the summer issue of Dance Central 2021.

Summer is a bustling season for dance in Metro Vancouver with festivals and performances lined up one after another. It is a good sign for the performing arts that dance artists have been kept busy. A busy time indeed, for many who are giving all of themselves for the sake of this country: the Olympians in Tokyo bringing home the medals; the firefighters keeping our forests and homes safe throughout this unprecedented heat wave in BC; the frontliners navigating the COVID-19 pandemic with great leadership and hard work. We have them and many others to be grateful for, but at the same time, our nation has also woken up to a dark colonial history that we are struggling to come to terms with. Communities are coming together in music and dance as a way to heal and move forwards.

If the spring 2021 issue was about legacies, this summer issue is a shout-out to the new generation of dancers who are taking the city by storm. In July, Marissa Wong took over the helm of the response. from Amber Funk Barton who was the first recipient of the Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award. Even though Amber is not featured in this issue, her presence is very much felt as an inspiration for the younger generation. The award was established in 2002 to support and promote innovative emerging choreographers in BC; this year, it goes to Shion Skye Carter. Congratulations! I look forward to speaking to more of these young dance artists and to discovering their brilliant works.

We thank all the artists who have contributed and we welcome new writing and project ideas at any time to make Dance Central a more vital link to the community. Please send materials by e-mail to editor@thedancecentre.ca. We look forward to many more conversations!

Shanny Rann, Editor

Dancers from TWObigsteps (L-R Stéphanie Cyr, Katie Cassady, Sarah Formosa, Matisse Maitland, Marissa Wong) in 'Livespace' © Meaghan Gipps

Interview with Marissa Wong

Artistic Director of The Falling Company

by Rachel Silver Maddock

The last year and a half has signalled a transition for many dance artists across Vancouver. The slowdown that came with the pandemic has prompted a desire to find new, better ways of working and to not just come back to dance, but to come back better. Marissa Wong is one of those artists undergoing a shift. After six years as co-founder of TWObigsteps Collective, she has chosen to leave it behind and take over the response. from Amber Funk Barton—renaming it The Falling Company. For her, creating a more sustainable practice is at the front of her mind as she approaches this new creative venture.

RM: In May, you performed Departure as your last show with TWObigsteps Collective. What was it like to finish off that chapter with a performance?

MW: It was emotional to end that chapter in my life—TWObigsteps supported me in finding a foundation in Vancouver. But it’s a very organic process for the collective to be moving in a new direction because we are all entering our own paths. Once COVID happened, a couple of folks [in the collective] moved away, and we were trying to figure out what would happen next. That’s when Amber approached me, and I went through an interview process, trying to see where it was going to land for myself as well. The universe kind of moved in an organic way, and that felt great. So when it came time for the end of the performance with Katie [Cassady] and me, it did feel like a chapter ending, but there isn’t

a goodbye because there still is the capacity to collaborate with all the people I’ve worked with so far.

RM: So, it’s not a goodbye, it’s more like a change of umbrella?

MW: Just a change of direction, and I think all of us are moving with that direction. Rather than holding on to what that structure was, it felt really right to let that happen. And I think it will blossom into places we can find to work together again.

RM: You mentioned several of your collective members have moved away or are doing different things. Are you going to be working with mostly the same dancers or different people in this new company?

MW: For me, it’s an ever-changing process

Marissa Wong, The Falling Company © Richie Lubaton

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Dance Central is published quarterly by The Dance Centre for its members and for the dance community. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent Dance Central or The Dance Centre. The editor reserves the right to edit for clarity or length, or to meet house requirements.

Editor, Art Director & Layout

Shanny Rann

Copy Editor

Nazanin Oghanian

Design Layout

Becky Wu

Contributors to this issue:

Marissa Wong, Rachel Silver

Maddock, Shion Skye Carter

Photo credits

Front Cover: TWObigsteps at Left of Main © Meaghan Gipps

Dance Centre Board Members:

Chair

Jason Wrobleski

Secretary

Judith Garay

Treasurer

Annelie Vistica

Directors

Julianne Chapple, Tin Gamboa, Arash Khakpour, Andrea Reid

Rosario Kolstee, Anndraya T. Luui

Dance Foundation Board Members:

Chair Linda Blankstein

Secretary Anndraya T. Luui

Treasurer Janice Wells

Directors Trent Berry, Samantha

Luo, Mark Osburn, Sasha Morales, Andrea Benzel

Dance Centre Staff:

Executive Director

Mirna Zagar

Programming Coordinator

Raquel Alvaro

Associate Producer

Linda Blankstein

Director of Marketing

Heather Bray

Digital Marketing Coordinator

Lindsay Curtis

Membership/ Outreach Coordinator

Nazanin Oghanian

Lead Technician

Chengyan Boon

Comptroller

Elyn Dobbs

with who’s the right fit. And that’s one of the things I’m going to be doing with The Falling Company— bringing those people on that are the right fit, administratively, performancewise and also who align with its values. When I started out 5 or 6 years ago, I was saying yes to so many opportunities, and recently I’ve taken time off, and I’m focusing on making a more sustainable practice for myself, which includes finding the people that I’m going to work with. So project-toproject, it depends on who’s going to be best for the art, and for outreach, and that will include former TWObigsteps members but also future dancers and community members. I also have a lot of connections outside the dance community too and so merging those communities is important to me.

RM: Going back a bit—you moved back to Vancouver and started TWObigsteps in 2015, about 6 years ago. What are some major things you learned along the way?

Founded in 1986 as a leading dance resource centre for dance professionals and the public in British Columbia, The Dance Centre is a multifaceted organization. The Dance Centre presents an exciting season of shows and events, serves a broad membership of 300 professional dance companies and individual artists, and offers a range of activities unparalleled in Canadian dance. The Dance Centre is BC's primary resource centre for the dance profession and the public. The activities of The Dance Centre are made possible bynumerous individuals. Many thanks to our members, volunteers, community peers, board of directors and the public for your ongoing commitment to dance in BC. Your suggestions and feedback are always welcome. The operations of The Dance Centre are supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Province of British Columbia, the BC Arts Council, and the City of Vancouver through the Office of Cultural Affairs.

MW: Katie and I had this conversation actually in the Zoom talkback for Departure. We were reminiscing or thinking about what we had to do, and what we would say to a younger artist who is starting out. I learned boundaries, that was a huge thing for me. Not just within my personal life, but within the collective. Working within a collective structure, we talked about it frequently—what was working for us, and what format needed to have more structure around it. When I was running TWObigsteps, it was kind of like a dinner party that I was hosting all the time, and people could come and go. And maybe you didn’t always have to bring

something to the meal, but you would clean up after the meal or participate somehow.

Once I started saying no to opportunities that didn’t align with the values that I hold in my career and life, it opened up the space for me to delve more fully into the opportunities that really did speak to me. That’s something I’m really bringing into The Falling Company now—setting a clear list of what the company’s intention is, and then finding those opportunities that align with that. I can be doing as much or as little as I want within this career. Finding out what speaks to you keeps you motivated and passionate and excited about the work that you are doing.

RM: That’s exactly what I was going to ask next—how your experience with the collective is going to shape your approach to The Falling Company, and how you might do things differently or in a new way.

MW: I am also learning from Amber who is staying on as artistic advisor for the next year. She’s going to help me through logistics, with little reminders saying this is the time we need to apply for insurance and things I hadn’t had to do when running the collective initially.

It is about sustainable work. Maybe that’s kind of an umbrella term. For me, sustainable work means aligning with folks who share the same values. It means holding safe space within a physical dance room, having the ability to share dialogue and learn and grow, having the capacity to say no, and being cognizant about those whom I’m working with including myself—in what we need financially, but also what we

need as a community to allocate space and time to do the projects we need to do without overextending.

RM: What comes to mind is the financial aspect—that it’s hard to afford to live in Vancouver in general, and so it’s easy to get overextended as a dance artist wearing so many different hats. How do you balance that with the sustainable practice you’re talking about?

MW: I think that it all coincides, making sure that there’s funding available so the dancers are being paid. When we started out as a collective all of us were donating time because partly that’s what we needed to do. We needed videos, we needed to have a resume to apply for programs. And so now that there is more of a financial structure that is coming from The Falling Company, I want to be able to use that to our advantage in creating a sustainable practice. I think it means being

Finding out what speaks to you keeps you motivated, passionate and excited about the work you are doing.

smart when I am applying for certain gigs, to know that I’m not going to hire people without finding ways of payment and ways for time as well. Because as you said, as a dance artist, you’re wearing multiple hats at the same time. When is it time to be the dancer, when is it time to be the admin person, and are those separate people? I also have those questions and want to learn that along the way too. I think that continuous learning and curiosity is an important value I will bring when I’m looking for people to collaborate with, at any stage of their career.

RM: So the response. has become The Falling Company. Why did you choose to rename/ re-envision the company rather than taking on

the former name?

MW: That was a decision between Amber and me—allowing for the response. to exist during her time. It doesn’t mean we aren’t taking the same values and structures and programs that the response. did, but it was more so around this idea of keeping that as its own entity, keeping TWObigsteps as its own company and merging them in some way. It was her wish, her request to keep it that way.

RM: Was that sort of about preserving the legacy of the response. under Amber and turning a new page as the directorship changes?

MW: I think if Amber was a part of this

Marissa Wong and Sarah Formosa in New Works Technical Residency for 'Departure' © Belen Garcia

conversation, she would say she doesn’t have to preserve her legacy. I think it’s also important to recognize the worth and value and time that she has given to the Vancouver dance community, and I think, honouring that as part of the response. is important to me moving forward. Recognizing that it is a rare opportunity that someone is handing over a company in this way, that foundation and learning needs to happen to stay in a continuous path of growth.

RM: I am very curious about this because I didn’t know it was possible—what does it actually look like to hand over a dance company? What’s the process?

MW: I am inheriting a board (officially everything has changed over as of July 1), all the financials, all of the administrative work. I will say that it a substantial amount of work compared to what I was doing before! Part of that talk about sustainability is bringing on the people who can help do that, so I’m not just the only person doing all that work. A lot of it is taking the structure, and figuring out what works and what doesn’t work. I think it would work in different ways for different folks. Since Amber was doing a project-based company, it allows me to also work in a project-based way rather than inheriting dancers as well.

be something that happens after this year, but right now I have a few opportunities to start with. I’ll be creating a new work for EDAM’s Fall Choreographic Series so that’s the most immediate thing. Then there are some opportunities for the spring already as well.

RM: About the name—I noticed on The Falling Company’s Instagram you posted this quote by Raina Maria Rilke which says “this is what the things can teach us: to fall, patiently to trust our heaviness.” What about that struck you?

MW: It was that quote alongside this cosmic moment where I was naming everything [to come up with a company name]. I named everything in my house—my poor Basset Hound has been 20 different versions of a dance company! At one point my partner and I said maybe we’ll just name it “gluten free toast with vegan butter dance company”.

RM: Are you also taking on a seasonal schedule?

MW: In the first year, it’s going to be a transition year. There will be some programs that will unfold in terms of outreach and public offerings. For seasonal work, that will

...allowing the body to naturally fall...to trust...these powers that we have within ourselves.

It wasn’t until I just allowed it to happen, after two months of trying to find a name that spoke to me and spoke to what I was working on. One evening I opened up a meditation book—and I had been thinking about this idea of surrendering or falling for a really long time (actually since I was at Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet) and about changing structures—and I opened up to a page, and it said, “The Fall”.

In meditation, there is this idea of submitting. This idea of allowing the body to naturally fall, to allow ourselves to trust the weight or the power we have within ourselves to create space for something to emerge. For myself, who has been in the structure of rigid ballet in a systemic institution for a while, breaking out of that in my solo and finding a way to use these tools, these gifts that I have in an organic fashion rather than controlling them was really important. Bringing that into the structure of the company feels really strong, right and cosmic. It also feels like there’s a lot of potential for growth and learning within the values that I hold as well as the falling of larger structures (eventually), and for changing what that might look like in dance, which can possibly create a longevity of practice for dancers and artists.

RM: I think that’s a really beautiful way to put it. Do you think that notion of undoing historical or larger structures comes from this past year when so many social issues have come to light?

that better into my practice for when I teach or create work for other people. It can become this pebble effect, when I’m trying to consciously do this work hopefully that will impact all the other people that are impacted by The Falling Company.

RM: You’ve been in this choreographer/director role for a while now. How do you balance that with being a dancer and performer yourself, and how is that going to look for you in this new company as well?

MW: Oh my gosh (laughs). I think it’s saying yes to the things that feel aligned for me, and what feels right at that moment in time. Doing the solo for instance, I didn’t really intend to do a solo and I don’t normally choreograph on myself but at that time it felt necessary to use my own body. Over the last year, I’ve been working with Alvin Tolentino and Co.ERASGA, and Alvin provides such a safe space for me to be me, and just be a dancer. It’s about aligning myself with those opportunities when they arise. It might sound a little esoteric, but sometimes I think my body knows and my intuition knows before I do what’s going to work for me.

RM: I guess that reflects the idea of The Falling Company, trusting that heaviness or what the body is saying.

MW: Yes, I had a lot of unlearning to do, and I still do. When we talk about this past year and the social issues, it’s an opportunity for me to ask how I can learn, grow and incorporate

MW: Yes! Saying “this is where I am now”. And I will say that several of the opportunities I’ve had in Vancouver, including performing, choreographing and teaching, I didn’t plan for. I am a Capricorn—I plan everything! So, it is

a huge lesson to say this is where I am now, and that’s led me to opportunities outside of dance, too. At this moment in time, I am saying I am going to be artistic director of this company, and we’ll see where that goes! There is a lot of trust that I am having, in my intuition, in the universe, in whatever you call it, and that feels good.

Marissa Wong is currently the Artistic Director for the response., renamed The Falling Company. She was previously a member of TWObigsteps Collective, which she founded in 2015. Her choreography has been presented internationally including TEDxSoma (San Francisco, CA) and Dance In Vancouver. In addition to performance, Marissa engages in the community through workshop facilitation, project managing, stage managing and teaching.

Marissa Wong in 'Departure' © Cara Tench

5 questions with Shion Skye Carter

Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award

by Shanny Rann

2021

1. What does receiving the Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award mean to you?

I was very surprised, honestly. I am so grateful and honoured to receive this award because it is something that I have heard about from the time I was a student. I never thought that it was something that I would be able to achieve myself.

I only graduated from university a few years ago. A lot of artists who graduate from a postsecondary training program can attest to this feeling of a strange transition phase after you graduate, where a lot of the time you are still considered a student or just finished being a student, in the eyes of different organizations. It is a strange gray area between graduating from school and starting your work as a freelance artist.

I definitely experienced a lot of ups and downs; there are periods that are quite condensed, when you might have rehearsals every single day for a project that you got hired for, and then, you might have a whole month or two with nothing, where you're just doing a parttime job. Those ups and downs took a little while to get used to, and I am glad that I just kept on working through that.

To get to this place now where I am receiving this recognition is amazing. It affirms to me that I am on the right path, and I have to just keep doing what I am doing.

It is incredible to get the support from The Dance Centre, the resources, and the financial support, to fully flesh out this new solo work that I have been developing called Residuals and to be able to perform it in the Faris Family Studio, which is the plan for September 2022. That is a venue that is well known in the city, and I think it is going to be a big step for me in my career.

Shion Skye Carter in 'Residuals' © Lula-Belle Jedynak

2. Can you share with us your journey in dance?

I took my very first ballet class when I was eight years old at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts where I teach now. I only did ballet class there for one year, and I told my mom I don't want to do it anymore. I wanted to do sports instead. That was my first little introduction to dance, and I didn't start again until I was 13. So, I consider my actual dance training to have started when I was 13 years old, which is a bit later than a lot of dance artists that I know who have been dancing since they were little.

I was definitely nervous when I first decided to go into pursuing dance because I couldn't help but compare myself a lot and to know that I didn't have as many years of training in my pocket. From 13 years old, I was training in modern dance, contemporary dance, and jazz, and they captured my heart. I loved how expressive I could be, and the connection to my body with which I felt really in tune.

I trained at my high school, Byrne Creek Secondary School in Burnaby, BC. They have a strong dance and drama program. I was able to do lots of different technique classes, as well as teaching younger students. They also had an after-school program that was more of a dance company. I did all of my early dance training there which was an amazing public school resource to have. Shannon Tirling and Allison Murphy were my teachers.

After high school, I auditioned for the Simon Fraser University Dance program. My dance teacher in high school went through the SFU dance program, so I knew that it existed. When I was in Grades 11 and 12, we would go watch the student dance performances and the repertory shows at SFU. It was very inspiring to watch the performances. Initially, I wanted to be a nutritionist or a physiotherapist, then I was like, “what the heck?! I am just going to try auditioning,” since I saw the open call for new students to audition.

I got accepted and I haven’t looked back since. I did five years of my degree; I took an extra year to complete a kinesiology minor as I have a potential plan to go into a masters in physiotherapy later on.

At the moment, I'm just loving and focusing on being an artist.

It is a strange gray area between graduating from school and starting your work as a freelance artist.

3. What are you working on?

I am so grateful that I have been able to not only focus on creating my own projects, but also be a part of quite a few of my colleagues’ projects, especially during COVID-19.

It has been a rough time for the arts and a lot of artists have just been persevering and continuing to create work, despite everything that is going on and the impact on this industry. I am working on quite a few of my own projects; a lot of them integrate calligraphy or my Japanese heritage which I really love exploring and allowing to permeate through multiple projects.

I just completed one performance at Spanish Banks Beach with Kisyuu for a live performance version of Flow Tide, a dance film that is being screened at the Dancing on The Edge Festival 2021. We did a live performance for Powell Street Festival in July this year. We are doing one more performance for Vines Art Festival in August. We use giant calligraphy brushes and a giant piece of canvas fabric, like dancing calligraphy with tools on a giant scale. That has been quite fun!

Kisyuu and I connected over Instagram last summer and we made the dance film without having met in person before. We only met a couple months ago to start rehearsing for this live performance. We got along right away,

Shion Skye Carter and Stefan Nazarevich in 'reach-close' by olive theory © Bee Kent

and I feel like I have known her for years. I would love to continue developing Flow Tide in different forms or to do another performance collaboration with Kisyuu.

This fall, I'm going to Galiano Island for a short residency and to make a short film. Galiano Island has a history of Japanese settlers who were there over a hundred years ago. There are remnants of the charcoal pit kilns they used to burn wood into charcoal. I am going to reflect on the Japanese settler history there.

I will also be continuing the development process of my solo Residuals, that I have been working on for a year and a half now (it got delayed because of COVID-19), in August and September with the technical residency at Scotiabank Dance Centre, to prepare the lighting and video projection.

I'll be presenting the first version of it as a premiere in Montreal at Tangente in October this year. Then, I will have a bit of a break before I perform at Scotiabank Dance Centre in September 2022, supported through the Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award.

I am still working on expanding my network and my connections with artists in the local dance community and across Canada as well. I am trying to develop my own choreography alongside being a dancer who is hired for other projects.

family, but I want to travel there as a dance artist and to do a performance or residency, and to connect with the local communities of dance artists.

Lately, I've been connecting with Japanese Canadian artists through Powell Street Festival and through the Nikkei Museum and Japanese Cultural Centre in Burnaby. There is an online directory for Japanese Canadian artists as well. It has been amazing to connect and to share personal experiences with them.

One big goal I have is to travel. I haven't been to Japan in a couple years, especially because of COVID-19. I've only been there just to visit

Shion Skye Carter in 'Residuals' © Lula-Belle Jedynak

4. Can you talk about your relationship with your mentor, Ziyian Kwan?

Ziyian is such a prolific dance artist and very established in the community. When I was a student at SFU, she was one of the guest choreographers. I was not in the cast that she choreographed a piece on, but I watched her work and was captivated by her choreography. I never really had much of a conversation with her.

BC Arts Council offers a mentorship grant which allows you to receive mentorship over the course of several months to a year with an established artist in your field. I knew that

as a recent graduate from SFU, I needed to discover more of my voice as a dance artist and a choreographer. One thing I really want to do is honour my Japanese heritage and bring that to the forefront. I am curious how aspects of my ancestry and traditional art forms that I practiced when I was younger (like calligraphy) can not only coexist side-by-side, but also blend together and be on a level playing field.

I noticed that Ziyian is extremely powerful in her work. She has a strong artistic voice, but she honours her heritage as well. The fact that she is also an Asian Canadian dance artist is very inspiring to me. I reached out to her without having spoken much to her before, asking if she would be interested in mentoring me for a few projects. We proposed to BC Arts Council that she would help me develop my solo, Residuals. I would get her outside eye, her mentorship in creating my own choreography, and also a chance to be an apprentice in her company.

Our relationship has really grown since we started working together in the fall of 2019. I consider her one of my very dear friends and colleagues, and also somebody whom I look up to a lot. One of the recent projects we have done together was Made In Voyage, which was a series of performances she put on at Morrow (a new art space she started during COVID-19 when many were closing down), drawing stories from our grandmothers. I also got to be in Spells for Chinatown, which was a project she pioneered at the Dr Sun YatSen Classical Chinese Garden in May. Going forward, I would love to keep getting her advice and see how I can work more in depth with her company, Dumb Instrument Dance.

Shion Skye Carter in 'Residuals' © Lula-Belle Jedynak

Shion is such a riveting performer and her aesthetic sensibilities as a creating artist are so refined and rooted in meticulous care as well as fluid spontaneity. These combined qualities work magic when Shion dances and when she creates. I delight in witnessing Shion’s work and it’s a beautiful gift to collaborate with her.

— Ziyian Kwan

Shion Skye Carter in 'Residuals' during research at LEÑA Artist Residency on Galiano Island, BC © Dayna Szyndrowski

Vancouver

is a unique artistic community ... almost everybody is an independent, freelance artist who is making projects happen for themselves.

Shion Skye Carter in "For The Taking" by Old Man Canyon music video © Geordie Starr

5. What would be your advice to young artists?

So much of being a dance artist is about connection and the people you have in your network. Building relationships with people is hugely important and is the main way I have gotten hired for projects, whether it is meeting people at performances, introducing myself, connecting because either we are both in a different project or we want to collaborate.

The biggest advice I can give, for any younger artists, is to fake it till you make it, with confidence. I grew up being so shy and nervous about instigating conversations or taking up space with my ideas. I always kept things to myself, and I realized I was not going to get anywhere by continuing to be nervous.

I didn't have confidence in the things that I had to say or the opinions that I had. Giving feedback to other artists is great. Don't be afraid to reach out if you need to. Just pretend that you're confident, just for yourself. It'll come eventually, naturally, the more you practice it.

Don't be afraid to reach out to an artist whom you admire, whether it's to receive mentorship or just to collaborate and let them know that you would love to work with them. It never hurts to reach out to somebody.

can make events or projects happen, you can apply for grants, you can get the support from community partners or venues, it's all worth a try.

It is better to go out and try to make these things happen instead of waiting for someone else to pass it to you, especially in Vancouver, where there are not a lot of auditions happening.

It's a unique artistic community in that almost everybody is an independent, freelance artist who is making projects happen for themselves. There are not a lot of dance companies that you can audition for or sign a contract for one year—that traditional method and hierarchy does not exist here. So, put your foot down to make space for yourself, and don’t be afraid to do that, is probably what I would tell my younger self as well.

If you are wanting to be a part of a certain process or a project, but you don't see what you're looking for in the community, try to find ways to make it happen for yourself. You

Shion Skye Carter is a dance artist originally from Tajimi, Japan and based in Vancouver, Canada. 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. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance and Kinesiology from Simon Fraser University.

Dance Central

Summer 2021

Shion Skye Carter in 'Residuals' during research at LEÑA Artist Residency on Galiano Island, BC © Dayna Szyndrowski