A Conversation with
Andrea Nann Re-membering the stories we never heard and the renewal of a place we call Vancouver's Historic Chinatown by Shanny Rann
In October 2022, Andrea Nann, Annie Katsura Rollins, Sarah Chase and Cindy Mochizuki with creative producer Kelsi James, began a year-long series of public outreach workshops and embodied activations in Vancouver’s Historic Chinatown. The outreach both preceded and followed the premiere performance of Dreamwalker Dance Company's production Firehorse & Shadow, co-presented by plastic orchid factory and Chinatown Storytelling Centre at Left of Main in May 2023 for ExplorASIAN during Asian Heritage Month. In Firehorse and Shadow, Andrea summoned women from her matrilineal line, in particular her grandmother Lin Lee, whose story was one of many that was waiting to be released. On February 17, 2024, Dreamwalker will return to Left of Main in Vancouver's Historic Chinatown for Firehorse & Shadow in Community, an immersive evening of movement, stories, music, shadow play and film.
SR: Hi Andrea, I am happy to have you here on Dance Central for the first time! Before we get started, can you introduce yourself briefly to our readers?
my career, I have gone through many different ways of being a dance artist—from dancing full-time in a company performing concert stage repertoire, to choreographing, producing and presenting my own work,
AN: Hi Shanny! My name is Andrea. I also go
designing site-specific participatory
by Dreamwalker, which has been my moniker
installations, devising improvisational score-
for many years. I think it says a lot about me.
based experiences...
As a whole person, I am experiencing myself in the realms of possibility, as I am grounded on this Earth.
SR: Thank you for this beautiful introduction. Can you bring us back to your early days, what got you started as a dancer?
I am a dance artist. My work is rooted in embodied practices, collective communal
AN: Well, I didn't know that I was a dancer
processes, and collaborations. Throughout
in theofearly days, but I was.Prince I amand Chinese Artists Dance//Novella © Racheal Brandon Alley
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Dance Central Winter 2024
