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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