Fall 2023
Dance Central A Dance Centre Publication
Content Remembering Iris Garland through Tessa Perkins Deneault's thesis
Page 4 A Conversation with
Sarah Wong Writing our baggage into dance
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Editor's Note Welcome to the Fall 2023 issue of Dance Central. Before we know it, the year is coming to a close. The first week of November was jam-packed with dance events, performances and festivals. I attended the season opener of Ballet BC, HERE, featuring among the works, Enemy in the Figure by the legendary Forsythe and BOLERO X, a new take on Maurice Ravel’s iconic work by Shahar Binyamini. The whole audience stood up in ovation after the ensemble piece that featured 50 dancers from Ballet BC and Arts Umbrella. What an epic performance that I will certainly remember for many years to come! I also attended the ensemble by the Carnegie Dance Troupe as part of the Heart of the City festival. This year, Rianne Svelnis takes over from the founder, Karen Jamieson, to lead the dancers through the power of collective artmaking, collaboration and inclusivity. The theme of lineage and dance writing runs through this last issue of Dance Central in 2023. It added another perspective for me watching Ballet BC and Carnegie Dance Troupe after talking to Sarah Wong and Tessa Perkins Deneault. Both are trained as dancers and seasoned dance writers. Sarah and I had a heartfelt conversation about her days at Arts Umbrella and her journey as an artist. A dancer’s path is not always easy, there is much strength to be found in shared experiences and talking openly about what makes it difficult (to be a dancer). Tessa Perkins Deneault’s Master’s thesis on Iris Garland sheds light on Garland’s lifelong advocacy for dance and the legacy she left behind on the arts scene of Vancouver. I hope Dance Central continues to be a platform for dance writing, and in a way, a place for archiving dance in Vancouver. 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 email to editor@ thedancecentre.ca. We look forward to many more conversations! Shanny Rann Editor
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Judy Newbergher in the foreground in Songs of the Youths by Iris Garland © Simon Fraser University Archives. Iris Garland fonds. F-197-5-0-0-1.
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SFU Yearbook 65-66 Contemporary Dance Club page 105 © Simon Fraser University Archives. Simon Fraser Student Society fonds. F-74-12-5-0-0-1. 4
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Remembering Iris Garland through Tessa Perkins Deneault’s thesis by Shanny Rann
November 2, 2023 marks the 21st anniversary of Iris Garland’s passing. Twenty years ago, on July 6, 2003, close friends and colleagues from Vancouver’s dance community came together to remember Garland and celebrate her life at Scotiabank Dance Centre. While many of us were not there on that memorable occasion, Garland’s legacy certainly lives on in the arts scene of Vancouver as she continues to touch the lives of many dance artists and dance lovers in the city. This past summer, Tessa Perkins Deneault, whose day job is the Associate Director in Marketing & Communications at the Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology at Simon Fraser University, defended her Masters in Liberal Arts thesis, Iris Garland: Modern Movement1, which is a biography of Garland who joined SFU as a charter faculty member in 1965, started the dance program and served at the university until she retired in 2000. I connected with Perkins Deneault to talk about her thesis, which she plans to develop into a book length biography. Below is a summary of our conversation and some excerpts from her thesis, which will be available online through the SFU Library in the near future.
An advocate for Iris Garland’s legacy
my mind churning about the importance of
is contributing a chapter on dance during the early years of SFU. According to Perkins Deneault, it was a unique time at SFU when arts programs were non-credit electives and students were exposed to the arts, regardless of what they were studying. Garland was there from the beginning and started the dance program at SFU.
dance writing and left me wanting to know more about the lineage of dance history in Vancouver. Prior to her thesis, Perkins Deneault had been quite familiar with Garland’s work through a life writing course she took and a book project she was working on with the SFU Retirees Association, in which she
“Dance at SFU had its beginnings in the Faculty of Education’s Physical Development Centre where Iris Garland was hired in 1965 to teach dance courses that were often theoretical and served as elective courses for student athletes and others interested in
In spite of her quiet persona, sitting down with Perkins Deneault was electrifying. In the short time that we met, she already got
Artists of Dance//Novella © Racheal Prince and Brandon Alley D a n c e C e n t r a l Fa l l 2 0 2 3
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Dance Central The Dance Centre Scotiabank Dance Centre Level 6, 677 Davie Street Vancouver BC V6B 2G6 T 604.606.6400 F 604.606.6401 info@thedancecentre.ca www.thedancecentre.ca 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
T Luui, Katia Oteman, Jennifer Aoki,
Shanny Rann
Yvonne Chartrand, Rachel Maddock
learning a bit about dance. Originally hailing from Chicago, and coming to SFU from the University of Washington where she held a faculty position in their physical development department, Garland was determined to create a proper academic dance program at the university” (Perkins Deneault, 1).
Copy Editor
Shanny Rann, Tessa Perkins Deneault,
Dance Foundation Board Members: Chair Linda Blankstein Secretary Anndraya T Luui Treasurer Janice Wells Directors Samantha Luo,
Sarah Wong
Mark Osburn, Andrea Benzel
Photo credits Front Cover: Mauryne Allen and Judy
Dance Centre Staff: Executive Director
Newbergher in Songs of the Youths
Mirna Zagar
by Iris Garland © Simon Fraser
Associate Programming Director
University Archives. Iris Garland
Raquel Alvaro
fonds. F-197-5-0-0-1.
Associate Producer
Back Cover: Iris Garland in Images
Linda Blankstein
Theatre in 1968 © Simon Fraser
Director of Marketing
University Archives. Iris Garland
Heather Bray
fonds. F-197-4-0-0-10.
Digital Marketing Coordinator
Kaia Shukin
Design Layout Becky Wu
Contributors to this issue:
Lindsay Curtis
Dance Centre Board Members: Chair
Membership Coordinator
Jason Wrobleski
Outreach Coordinator
Vice Chair
Yurie Kaneko
Andrea Reid
Technical Director
Secretary
Darren John
Tin Gamboa
Comptroller
Treasurer
Elyn Dobbs
Annelie Vistica
Venue and Services Manager
Directors
Michelle Johnstone
Rosario Kolstee, Judith Garay, Linda
Development Manager
Gordon, Arash Khakpour, Anndraya
Catherine Butler
Kaia Shukin
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.
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“Although the university had no formal dance program or fine arts department, Garland continually advocated for more dance courses and ultimately a dance degree program. She developed courses in the Department of Kinesiology, ran inclusive workshops for dancers of all skill levels, invited prominent guests to give masterclasses and involved her students in her own original choreographies. Thanks to her efforts, and in collaboration with colleagues who would later join the university, the dance program grew into a minor in 1977 and a major in 1980” (Perkins Deneault, 2).
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Even till now, there are only a handful of universities in Canada offering dance as a degree (Simon Fraser University, University of Calgary, University of Winnipeg, University of Western Ontario, York University, Toronto Metropolitan University, Concordia University). The first dance degree program was offered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1926 under the leadership of dance educator Margaret H’Doubler. Perkins Deneault, who has since become a determined advocate for Garland, has her goal set on telling the story of Garland. “I want to let people know all of the things that she did to advocate for dance over the years. Without Iris coming
to SFU and starting the dance program, so many other things wouldn't have followed from that. So many people who came out of the SFU dance program went on to create companies that were foundational to the arts scene of Vancouver.”
I have always felt that dance was a kind of addiction. Once you’ve had that fatal taste... lessons as a child and especially the fateful ‘recital experience’...you are hooked for life. You may not study dance again formally for years, but there is always that nagging feeling that, if only the opportunity were there, it would be hard to resist. It goes beyond the recapturing of childhood or youth...even beyond the idea that it would be great to ‘get in shape’ again. After all, there are other ways of experiencing nostalgia and there is always
Garland on campus at Simon Fraser University © Simon Fraser University Archives. School for the Contemporary Arts fonds. F-109-12-7-0-26.
jogging for physical fitness. Dancing transcends practical reasons for doing it. It demands total concentration of mind and body — a commitment to the moment.
Iris Lillian Garland, 1935 – 2002.2 “As a charter faculty member at Simon Fraser University (SFU), Iris Garland provided the opportunity to study dance to a diverse range of students from across campus. Some were experiencing the “fatal taste” of dance for the first time as adults, while others were revisiting or continuing their dedication to the art form. Garland was an influential mentor to many of her students who were inspired to pursue dance professionally and start their own companies” (Perkins Deneault, 1).
Terry Hunter, Savannah Walling, directors of the Vancouver Moving Theatre and Karen Jamieson, who co-founded the avantgarde collective Terminal City Dance with them, were among Garland’s students and interviewed by Perkins Deneault for her thesis. Perkins Deneault’s supervisory committee was composed of Selma Odom, Professor Emerita, founding director of the MA and PhD programs in dance and dance studies at York University, Santa Aloi, also Professor Emerita in Dance at Simon Fraser University, as well as Sasha Colby, who taught Perkins Deneault the “Writing the Modern Self” course at SFU Graduate Liberal Studies program. Both Odom and Aloi knew Garland
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The SFU Dance Workshop in 1970 by Tony Westman © Simon Fraser University Archives. Iris Garland fonds. F-197-4-0-0-10.
very well; in fact, Aloi was hired by Garland to teach at SFU and worked together closely to design the dance program. Perkins Deneault described it as being valuable to have them, who knew Garland professionally and personally, on her committee. “The impact of Garland’s work in establishing and growing the SFU dance program is broad and deep. While she did present some of her own original works at the SFU theatre, her lasting contributions were not in the originality of her choreography but in the way she supported and furthered dance as an art form. The credits of almost every contemporary dance production in Vancouver include at least 8
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one student, alumnus or faculty member of the SFU dance program. Most artists working in contemporary dance in Vancouver today have been touched by this program in some way, countless dance companies have been founded by students of the program, and Garland’s mentorship has been felt through the generations (Perkins Deneault, 2).
Importance of Dance Writing One thing that struck Perkins Deneault when she was looking through the SFU archives was the importance of dance writing. She was able to find a considerable amount of materials about Iris, whether they were reviews of her
work or newspaper clippings, a lot of which were donated by her husband, Jim Felter. It is possible for her to write about Garland’s life through the connections with other people she had worked with and the history of dance in Vancouver because of the writings on dance at that time. In her thesis acknowledgements, she thanked all the critics and writers who documented dance happenings—“their work enables research like this to come to life” (Perkins Deneault, v).
and Dance International, and has taken a
There is less writing about dance now, “A lot
happened [for dance].”
course on dance writing with Kaija Pepper, an esteemed dance researcher and editor of Dance International Magazine. In Perkins Deneault’s words, “I feel I got to know Garland through looking through the archives and talking to people who knew her. She was very determined, and she's inspiring in the way she always stood up for what she thought was right. She really pushed for dance and thanks to her, a lot of things
of it is online, and not archived in the same way. In the future, if someone is going to look
evidently passionate about. Perkins Deneault
“Aside from all of Garland’s contributions in creating the SFU dance program and mentoring countless students, her service to the dance community included administrative roles in organizations such as Dance in Canada. She was president of the association in 1978 and a member of the steering committee for that year’s national conference which was held in Vancouver. In August 1986, their 14th annual
is a regular contributor to The Dance Current
conference, “Dance on Track” was in Vancouver
at a dancer from our time, the rich archival materials that are available to me might not be there.” Perkins Deneault claims we don't write about the arts in the same way or amount that we used to. Through her writing on Iris Garland, it solidified the importance of writing about dance, something she is
her lasting contributions were not in the originality of her choreography but in the way she supported and furthered dance as an art form.
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in conjunction with Expo 86, held at UBC, and Garland served as the chair of the daily programming committee. Her course Dancing in Cyberspace: Creating with the Virtual
Tracing the lineage of Iris Garland
Body was ahead of its time and attracted
“It’s hard to imagine how many lives must
international interest, while her work with LifeForms computer software furthered the possibilities of integrating digital technology with choreography. Later in life, Garland took up flamenco and studied the history of Spanish modern dancer Tortola Valencia, writing a biography of her ” (Perkins Deneault, 43).
have been influenced by Garland as a teacher, choreographer, and researcher. Iris Garland continues to impact the lives of dance artists in the community through awards established in her name” (Perkins Deneault, 44).
SFU Master Class with Dan Wagoner in 1975 © Simon Fraser University Archives. Iris Garland fonds. F-197-4-0-0-10.
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The Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer
(2011) Vanessa Goodman (2013), Deanna Peters
Award was established by Felter to support young dance artists engage in a choreographic practice, and keep Iris Garland's legacy alive. The Dance Centre in Vancouver manages and administers this award, which provides $5000 every two years to an emerging dance artist to assist with the costs of presenting their original work in the Faris Family Studio at Scotiabank Dance Centre. The award’s recipients to date are Amber Funk Barton (2005), Chengxin Wei (2007), Sara Coffin (2009), Shannon Moreno
(2015), Julianne Chapple (2017), Jamie Robinson (2019), Shion Skye Carter (2021), and Anya Saugstad (2023). Other than the Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award, Felter also established the Iris Garland Guest Artist fund at SFU to provide financial support for visiting dance artists to engage with the students and faculty of the university’s School for the Contemporary Arts. Both of these funds in Garland’s memory serve to continue the work she dedicated herself to — providing opportunities for young dancers to enhance their skills, present their choreography, and learn from visiting artists. “What Iris was interested in,” says Felter, “and what I'm interested in, is instilling creativity — not to teach only a theory, but to teach how to be creative, and that allows a whole lot of things to happen” (Perkins Deneault, 45) Hearing Perkins Deneault talk about the pivotal role Garland played in being a mentor makes me wonder if Iris is the grandmother of modern dance in Vancouver! Even though I have never met Iris Garland in person, I am myself a benefactor of her legacy through the dance program at SFU. Something in me tells me that she would be very proud of what the dance program at SFU has grown into— from the quality of dance graduates to the world-class dance studios at the Woodward's building, and especially how dance continues to blossom in this city called Vancouver where we live, work and play. D a n c e C e n t r a l Fa l l 2 0 2 3
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Oil painting of Iris Garland with Lifeforms, 2003. Courtesy of Jim Felter © Jeannie Kamins.
1 Perkins Deneault, T. (2023). Iris Garland: Modern Movement (master’s thesis). Simon Fraser University. 2 Simon Fraser University Archives. Iris Garland fonds, F-197-3-0-0-2. “Centre for Communications Resident Artists Fall ’74.” The Peak. 11 September 1974.
Tessa Perkins Deneault is an arts journalist and freelance writer who regularly contributes to publications including The 12
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Dance Current and Dance International. She is the Associate Director of Marketing and Communications in the Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology at Simon Fraser University and holds an MA in Liberal Studies, BA in English and French literatures, and Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in communication from SFU. In her spare time, she takes ballet and tap dance classes and spends as much time as she can watching live theatre and dance. She recently published her MA thesis, Iris Garland: Modern Movement, and has contributed a chapter on dance for a forthcoming book (Harbour Publishing, 2024) on the early years of the arts at SFU.
A Conversation with
Sarah Wong Writing our baggage into dance by Shanny Rann SR: I’m happy to have you with us on Dance Central for the first time, Sarah. Can we start by getting you to introduce yourself to our readers?
It is not always typical of a Chinese family to emphasize arts education. The majority of my dance studies happened at Arts Umbrella, where I trained for 14 years, completing my
SW: My name is Sarah (she/her). I was born and raised here in so-called Vancouver, on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. I'm second-generation Chinese-Canadian and I identify as queer and disabled. I usually say I am an emerging writer, choreographer, then the last bit changes. Sometimes I say, I'm an interdisciplinary artist; in more casual settings, I say I'm a “general artist person”, which is my cheeky way of saying that I work across many mediums.
Diploma in Dance in 2018. I work across a lot of mediums, but my background is in dance, I grew up in it, many of my formative years were in a dance environment. It is the thing that I always return to…this part of me that is embedded in my history. That is where dance is in my life…but it is a love-hate relationship. SR: Can you share a little bit about your dance training? SW: My first dance classes were at community centres, but Arts Umbrella
The place of dance
is where I started to pursue dance more seriously. My first dance teacher at Arts
SR: How does dance fit in this conglomeration of art disciplines for you?
Umbrella was Kay Huang, who still actively works as a dance teacher and a performer. She is amazing and is still a part of my life.
SW: I started dance classes when I was three years old. I am one of those people who started from birth. I was very lucky to have parents who gave me and my brother access to arts and culture, which was very important to them, because those were things that they found in their adulthood, which they had missed out on when they were growing up.
Arts Umbrella is not a classical ballet school like the Royal Winnipeg Ballet school but at the same time, ballet is the foundation of what they do and formed the majority of my training. As I got older, it became contemporary dance, which is a broad term that means a lot of
Sophie Dow © Chris Randle
different things—in the Arts Umbrella context, D a n c e C e n t r a l Fa l l 2 0 2 3
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my relationship to dance and to myself is still something I'm trying to unpack and heal through my practice now. it was very much the type of contemporary dance that was derived from ballet. SR: For readers like myself, who are not as familiar with the Arts Umbrella dance program, can you give us a run-down of what a day looks like for a student?
from high school, I continued with the Arts Umbrella two-year dance diploma program in partnership with Vancouver Community College. We danced for around 40 hours a week from Sundays to Fridays, sometimes more if we had performances. SR: Only one day off on Saturdays?
SW: I started out in the general school, which is an elementary after-school program. In high school, I did a half-day program called SpArts, which is the combination of sports and arts.
SW: A lot of us would teach on Saturdays, so technically, we didn't get days off. SR: Wow, that is really intensive!
SR: Arts with the intensity of sports? SW: I'm not sure who came up with that name. The program was run out of Magee Secondary School in Kerrisdale for students who are in intensive sports or arts programs. They go to high school for half a day, and then to their training place for the other half. Most of the students at Arts Umbrella go through this program. It was quite intensive because we would either be at school or Arts Umbrella. We had to maintain a certain grade average to be placed in the program. We were always on the go, and we would eat our lunch on the bus. After I graduated
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SW: I once heard another alumni describe the program as being like bootcamp and I think this description is quite accurate. SR: How did you feel throughout the two years? What motivated you to pursue this path? SW: I actually didn't think that I would pursue dance past high school because throughout my years at Arts Umbrella, I was never the favourite. There was a lot of pressure at Arts Umbrella around casting. After many years of experiencing that, I didn't believe in myself, that I could actually pursue a career in
dance. I could see that I wasn't as good as the others. What changed my mind was when I went to the summer program of the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, directed by Summer Lee Rhatigan, which sadly, doesn't exist anymore. It opened up my world in such an amazing way that there was a lot more kindness, compassion, and acceptance. I think because the scale of the school was much smaller, it didn't have all the politics of being in an institution that I was used to at Arts Umbrella. It made me realize that I could love dance again, that it didn't have to be competitive and cutthroat. So, I thought I'll do the diploma program and see what happens. I always wonder how different my life would be if I hadn't made that choice to keep going. My relationship to dance and to myself is still
something that I'm trying to unpack and heal through my practice now. SR: Thank you for sharing this openly. I share many of your sentiments. When I was in the SFU dance program, I was never the favourite too. Let us take a moment here to talk about the favourites—who are they? What do they look like? SW: A good anecdote for explaining what I experienced in my training at Arts Umbrella was an audition I attended in my graduating year for Ballet BC, held in Vancouver for the first time in several years. Previously, auditions were held in cities like Toronto and New York because within Vancouver, there was (and still is) an Arts Umbrella to Ballet BC apprentice
Sarah at age 8 taking ballet class at Arts Umbrella's Granville Island studios. Photo by Sarah's dad, Chris Wong, 2006.
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pipeline. The two institutions have a long history of being interwoven even before they were officially affiliated. When I was in school, Ballet BC directors and dancers would come to our shows, including our rehearsals sometimes. Every show we did felt like an audition, and we were constantly being put on review. This audition was held at The Dance Centre, where the Ballet BC studios were housed at the time. Every one of us had to print out our CVs and our headshot, pay the audition fee and put ourselves through the audition, which was only a formality because we already knew who would be selected—the favourites. A lot of us showed up, knowing we were going to be cut after the first round. Despite knowing this, it was still humiliating to go
Sarah at Goldsaucer Studios. Photo by Mika Manning, 2020.
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through. This experience was one of many which contributed to my complicated body memories at The Dance Centre. It is interesting to see that most of my peers who joined Ballet BC after we graduated, many of whom have now moved on to dance at Nederlands Dans Theater, are white, thin, and beautiful by European standards. In fact, most of my peers were white. There were only three people-of-colour in my class, including myself, out of the eighteen dancers. SR: How did you get admitted to the Arts Umbrella Diploma program? SW: I always think that I only made it to the diploma program, because I had already been
training at the school since I was a kid. It used to be that almost every student who went through the high school program would be admitted to the diploma program. It might be different now because every year the program gets more competitive. I didn't have to audition, but if that hadn't been the case, I don't think I would have gotten in. I got in just by the skin of my teeth.
by the enthusiasm that I brought towards choreographing on the students. I felt lucky to be supported there; in a way, it was the perfect amount of hands-off support, where they produced the show and I had studio space without them telling me what to do. That was great.
SR: What did you do after you graduated?
SW: Throughout my time at Arts Umbrella,
SR: Did you also choreograph at Arts Umbrella?
the choreographers whom we worked with
A Year in Italy
were mostly long-time company dancers from Europe. We were not exposed to as many
SW: I spent a year in Turin, Italy doing another dance program called Nuova Officina della Danza (NOD), a workshop-based dance program. It is a lot more casual than what I experienced in Arts Umbrella. There is not as much competition and people come from different places with all levels of experience. I wanted to be as far away as possible from everything I knew, because as scary as that was, I was existing in a bubble. I felt I didn't really know myself as a person. I was stuck in the familiarity of living in the city I grew up in, training in this institution where everyone has known me for years with assumptions of who I am and how I dance. If I wanted to get to know myself, I needed to go somewhere where no one knows me, where I need to adapt to a new environment and discover myself. I started choreographing when I was in Italy. The program was relaxed and I don't think they were used to having someone like me who is very proactive, so they were excited
young or local choreographers. I knew that I wanted to pursue choreography, but I wasn't quite sure if it would be possible. We had one opportunity to choreograph. In my graduating year, they had a mentorship program with Crystal Pite. I choreographed a piece called steps in my graduating year with my friend, Adrian Maxwell-Campagna. That was the best thing I did in my time at Arts Umbrella because it was the one time I had agency in my experience with dance. The whole show was run by students in the diploma program; it was an empowering moment for us, coming together as a group, and doing something for ourselves, by ourselves. That is when I knew that I wanted to keep choreographing.
Dance Ghosts SR: Tell us about your projects since returning from Italy. D a n c e C e n t r a l Fa l l 2 0 2 3
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SW: I moved back from Italy in the middle of 2019, so my time emerging into the Vancouver freelance community drastically changed due to the pandemic starting in 2020. As it did to many other performance artists, it caused me to rethink my relationship to live performance and to my body in general. Though most performance activities have since resumed, the changes brought on by the pandemic have definitely stayed within my practice, both because of personal creative interests and because as a disabled person, I cannot simply "return to normal."
Dance Centre because of what I call my “dance ghosts.” Every time that I would go to the studio, the memories, the dance ghosts would just be so overwhelming that they would literally freeze me up and cause my body to decide not to dance. So, I did what I always do when I don't know how to dance, I started writing. I ended up performing a poem called I feel like I've been here before. It was about the specific memories of that space and all those things, those voices that were coming out for me. When I was researching that poem, I was also coming into my identity as a disabled person.
These changes were very potent in my experience of doing 12 Minutes Max at The Dance Centre in May 2022. I applied because the mentors for that cohort were Ziyian Kwan and Aryo Khakpour, who are both people whom I've worked with and are friends of mine. When the show happened, I had an allergy attack and ended up performing a long-form poem over Zoom. Everyone else was in the theater. They had me displayed on a phone propped up on a tripod, on a chair, in the stage centre with a spotlight. It was like a meta performance. I was sitting right where I'm sitting right now (in my bedroom) and I was seeing everyone else in the audience. SR: That is so interesting! I remember at the height of the pandemic years, I was moderating 12 Minutes Max virtually, the performers were at The Dance Centre and everyone else was zooming in. You reversed that relationship by being the only online performer/participant. SW: I have a really hard time dancing at The 18
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Last year I started to learn more about the disabled community and to identify with the label of being disabled. Prior to that, I have had different chronic illnesses, but I didn't necessarily feel I wanted to, or could identify that way. A lot of that is largely because of internalized ableism from society, but also specifically to being trained in dance, where we're taught to view our bodies in a certain way, and to believe that our bodies’ greatest potential is in reaching these extremes, really exerting ourselves in a physical way. I had to go through a lot of unlearning, of seeing my body that way to just know that the experience I was having with being disabled wasn't a sign of weakness, or something I had to be ashamed of.
Dance West Network ReCentering/Margins Creative Residency
SW: I recently edited the booklet for the 2022-23 4th Annual Re-Centering/Margins Creative Residency. Dance West Network produces an annual booklet of essays to go along with the Re-Centering/Margins residency, which specifically supports BIPOC dance artists. The intention is to support the choreographers’ processes and to produce more writing about dance that is for artists by artists. This year's booklet commissioned four pieces of writing - by Bee Kent Colina, Misha Maseka, Aryo Khakpour and Cole Alvis - all of whom were given the liberty to connect with the residency artists and speak to their process in a genre and form that aligned best with them. The booklet is available online as a free PDF or by print-on-demand.
I have participated in this residency over the past 3 years - first as a dance artist, then as a writer, and then as an editor - so I have quite a comprehensive experience of the project from multiple angles. The first time I participated in Re-Centering/Margins for the 2020-21 season, I was a dancer in Katie Cassady’s piece which we also performed at The Dance Centre as part of a double bill with Marissa Wong/The Falling Company. In that process, I became friends with Christian Vistan, who was the writer for Katie Cassady’s piece. For the 2021-22 season, I ended up being the writer for the Ancillary Project, which occurs adjacent to ReCentering/Margins, and wrote a piece about the work of seven amazing dance artists.
steps choreographed by Sarah Wong and Adrian Maxwell-Campagna, featuring performers: Katarina Nesic, Katrin Denson, Sophie Mueller-Langer, Bekah Coulson, Beth Durnie, and Emma Berrow. Photo taken by Chris Wong at the Arts Umbrella Student Choreographic Mentorship Showcase hosted at the Dance Centre, April 2018.
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The Re-Centering/Margins Residency usually selects three artists, but all the other applicants still receive support through the Ancillary Project. I haven't heard of many other organizations doing that, where they have enough resources to go to everyone. The Ancillary Project is for those applicants who don't get the full residency, but still get offered some studio time. I am grateful that Dance West Network not only supports many different kinds of artists within Re-Centering/Margins, but that they have also been so supportive of the ways artists like myself are eager to shapeshift and take on new roles to expand their practices. The annual residency booklet is always a labour of love and care that I feel truly exemplifies these expressions of multiplicity. I am proud to be this year's editor, championing the work of both dance artists and dance writers.
Writing our baggage into dance SR: You mentioned when you cannot dance, you write. Do you think the skills are transferable? I think it is rare to be able to express oneself through dance and writing. Why do you think it is that very few dancers write? Or very few writers dance? SW: I personally think that the skills are transferable, but it is true that it is not common. Maybe most people will choose one thing and just stick to it. I choose everything all at once. Pictured left: Cover of Dance West Network's 2022-23 4th Annual Re-Centering/Margins Creative Residency Booklet, edited by Sarah Wong. Cover photos by Vitantonio Spinelli featuring artists Ana Sosa, Sidney Chuckas, and Mohammed Rashead. Graphics by EVR Design.
SR: Everything everywhere all at once! SW: Yes! I enjoy working in a very multidisciplinary way where I can dip my toes in different places, connect with different communities, let myself adapt, or be responsive to how I'm changing. I don't want to say I've moved away from dance, sometimes I just need space. Writing gives me that space. I have been taught that our job as dancers is to transcend the need for words. I have always wanted to talk about dance and have deeper conversations about the work we were engaging in and the kinds of performances we were seeing, but no one wanted to engage in those conversations with me during my training. I was always shut down; they didn't want to give me a voice because our body is supposed to be our voice and that we can just say things with our body. Yet, there are things in me that need to be named, especially thinking about political contexts and about lineages, where the dances come from, the histories and all of that. There is a consensus amongst dancers that we don't need words because we have our bodies; in reality, they are two different things. Throughout my dance training, I kept hearing the phrase, “Leave your baggage at the door”, which captures this expectation for us to dance in a seemingly apolitical context like in a vacuum, that is not emerging from the histories that we walk through. All the dance writing that I do, I want the baggage to be there. That baggage is not a burden; it is our lived experiences! D a n c e C e n t r a l Fa l l 2 0 2 3
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SR: It is almost as if dance is made to be the antithesis of words, a conflicting relationship… in fact, there is a lot going on between texts and movement.
SW: My mom is an accountant - though she is still the most creative and crafty person I know.
SW: I'm doing a degree in art history at the University of British Columbia (UBC) now. There is so much writing about visual art but very little about dance. I'm interested in archival practice and documentation of dance; how I view my writing practice is that it allows dance as performance to live on and to take on other lives.
SW: Yes, definitely!
SR: One way to make dance not ephemeral is to write about it. What role has your family played throughout your artistic journey? SW: My dad is a writer. He worked as a journalist, and he is just about to publish a book that he has been working on for over a decade about the history of jazz music in Vancouver. He has a big influence on my writing. He was always the one to edit my school assignments. I learned how to edit through him; I would sit with him at his computer, and he would go through my assignments for my English classes. He would write little things and tell me where to put a comma, so on and so forth. SR: No wonder you are such an immaculate editor! SW: I'm almost obsessive!
SR: Attention to details runs in your family, eh?
Rewriting the Myth of Dance SR: Dance brings with it the connotation that all is rosy and good, but what we experienced has been exactly the opposite of that. Dance as a wonderful thing is a myth that needs to be rewritten. What is undeniable is that we are all entitled to have a relationship with dance regardless of who we are. Those 14 years of dance training have not been easy for you, but I am sure it planted a huge seed in you. It is premature to know how or when this seed will germinate, what is certain is that dance is so embedded within you that it permeates everything you do, whether it manifests in the form of dance, it forms a crucial part of your identity. I really appreciate your honest sharing because we only hear about the success stories of dance. Not to say that you are not a success story, because then again, who are we to define success for you? It is hard to reconcile when we have a deep and personal relationship with dance, yet we are constantly judged by the so-called gatekeepers, who tell us we are not the favourites and that we are simply not good enough for it.
SR: That is the quality of a good editor. If you don’t mind me asking, what does your mom do? 22
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I would encourage you, just as I would
myself, to not give up if we so wish to continue on this path. The fact that we are still working with dance means that dance is tied to our being—we believe we can, and that we have a lot to give back to dance. SW: I hear everything you're saying. I agree that it is an amazing thing that we are still in dance despite all the forces that have tried to push us out of these spaces. By us being in dance, whether that is writing about dance or dancing, we are contributing to changing what dance is and what is considered as dance. That is important to me and I'm glad that we're doing that. SR: Thank you, Sarah, for your time and sharing your journey with me. I feel really privileged to be able to hold this space with you today. SW: Thank you for holding the space. It always feels good to have these conversations and to find common ground because when I was going through my training, I felt alone. Since moving back to Vancouver, meeting all the great people who are here, especially queer and BIPOC folks in the freelance dance community, I've found much kinship. It is nice, thank you so much for being part of that.
Sarah Wong is an emerging writer, choreographer, and interdisciplinary artist based in Vancouver, Canada on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (TsleilWaututh) Nations. Her work emerges from
Sarah Wong. Photo courtesy of artist, 2023.
lived experiences as a queer and disabled 2nd generation Chinese-Canadian, focusing on archival processes and accessing embodied intergenerational knowledge to trace relationships between identity and lineage. Her practice makes space for the multiple, creating work that spans improvisational performance, site-specific installation, textiles, poetry, film, and zines. She is devoted to cultivating practices of care, creating and facilitating spaces for bodies to rest. Sarah’s work has been presented in Vancouver by Arts Assembly, UNIT/PITT, Vines Art Festival, New Works, Number 3 Gallery, Hatch Art Gallery, The Dance Centre, dumb Instrument Dance, and Boombox, and internationally by Mosaico Danza Interplay Festival (Italy) and Sàn Art (Vietnam). sarahwong.ca / @swongski D a n c e C e n t r a l Fa l l 2 0 2 3
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Dance Central Fall 2023
