Dance Central September / October 2014

September/October 2014

Dance Central A Dance Centre Publication

Content Migrant Bodies A conversation with Sammy Chien Page 2

Pure Fracture Noam Gagnon Page 8

Undivided Colours Art and Gender Symposium Preview Page 12

Welcome to Dance Central.

Sammy Chien (Chimerik) is a Taipei born, Vancouver-based interdisciplinary media artist who seeks to merge cinema, sound art, new media, and dance performance techniques into a new individual practice. He has studied film at Simon Fraser University (BFA Honors) and developed an expertise in electroacoustic music and digital technology in a performance environment. Since learning real-time performance software from Troika Ranch (NYC/Berlin) he has continued his deep interest in interdisciplinary collaborations and

This issue focuses on projects that investigate

forges deep connections between image, sound, and movement. He has collaborated visually, aurally and conceptually in numerous multi-disciplinary projects range from film,

aspects of identity, ethnicity, and gender through

theatre, dance, audiovisual performance to interactive installation which have exhibited

dance: MIGRANT BODIES is a two-year interna-

across Canada, Western Europe, and Asia including Centre Pompidou(Paris), Museum

tional research project that is about to come to

of Contemporary Arts Taipei, National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing), Hellerau:

Vancouver this fall, and brings together dancers,

European Centre for the Arts Dresden. Sammy has recently embarked collaboration with

writers, and media artists in an interdisciplinary

the Beijing Modern Dance Company and fortunately working with artists such as Wong

investigation. Vancouver-based filmmaker Sammy

Kar Wai’s Cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Zhang Yimou’s production designer Gao

Chien is one of the participants and talks about his

Guangjian and the Father of Rock in China Cui Jian as well as having lunch with Ai Wei

expectations at the beginning of the project.

Wei. Sammy has also been involved in research, collaborations or mentorship in projects that focus on the integration between art, science and technology as well as engaging

The Thinking Bodies series of performers' portraits continues with a conversation with Noam Gagnon, about his recent work DVOTE, and his reflections on what it means to fail and to succeed.

with various community groups such as social activists, low-income residents, cultural, gender and ethnic minorities and youths. Sammy is the Co-Founder/Co-Artistic Director of Chimerik collective, which is a vision, philosophy and imaginative environment that values creative technology and new media practices as important vehicles capable of bridging various art forms to construct new kinds of artistic engagement and language that are transnational, transcultural and prompt social change..

We begin a new series titled Critical Movements which focuses on projects that develop dialogue about the role of dance in contemporary culture.

The first event featured in this series is a symposium titled UNDIVIDED COLOURS organized by Co.ERASGA in cooperation with The Dance Centre and The Roundhouse that will take place in early November. It combines a conference on gender and dance, a performance by noted contemporary Asian dance artists and a residency project.

As always, we thank all the artists who have agreed to contribute and we welcome new writing and project ideas at any time, in order to continue to make Dance Central a more vital link to the community. Please send material by mail to members@ thedancecentre.ca. or call us at 604.606.6416. We look forward to the conversation!

Andreas Kahre, Editor

AK: Migrant Bodies brings together dance artists, writers, and media artist in a long-term interdisciplinary project. How does your practice intersect with its artistic and research goals?

SC: My artistic background is mainly centered on filmmaking, new media and sound art, but I have been moving and writing—not professionally, but I have been interested in the questions that the project explores in the context of the body, and in the challenge of taking my work closer to the body and a new artistic practice. I feel that this project is something that I love to explore in a more research based context.

AK: Have you danced yourself?

SC: When I was thirteen, I started breakdancing and hiphop with friends, but after my teenage years, I went through a big transition where I considered it childish, and abandoned it all. I moved to Vancouver to enter academia at Simon Fraser University, and developed a new identity as a filmmaker, electroacoustic composer and new media artist. But SFU is an environment that encourages interdisciplinary collaborations, and I began to work with dancers, and that's when I became interested in bridging the disciplines and developing new forms from dance. Since then, I have made the transition from an academic environment to the professional environment as well as to the arts community. First, I taught a video and movement workshop with Karen Jamieson to DTES (Vancouver Downtown East

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Dance Central September/October 2014

migrant bodies A conversation with Sammy Chien

Migrant Bodies is a two-year collaborative project that involves Comune di Bassano del Grappa (Italy), La Briqueterie-CDC du Val-de-Marne (France), CircuitEst (Quebec), The Dance Centre (British Columbia), and HIPP The Croatian Institute for Movement and Dance (Croatia). Migrant Bodies uses artistic and cultural tools to open up reflection on migrations and the cultural impact and differences they bring when seen as a valuable and rich source for European and Canadian societies. Sixteen artists (five choreographers/dancers, five writers, five visual artists and one senior dance artist) from three European countries and two Canadian provinces carry out two years of research on migrations and the social and cultural changes that migrations generate in their societies, with a goal to produce works both for established venues and site-related locations, and to portray new forms of identity of the migrant bodies to the widest possible audience. The research is facilitated by a variety of activities: Community meetings, meetings with immigrated communities, communities of migrants, audiovisual material touring among the partner cities, and a web platform/log for artists and critics. An international symposium and the Migrant Bodies online catalogue will help evaluate, critically reflect on, and disseminate the final outcome of the project.

continued on page 6

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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 every two months 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.

Side) residents. That was the first time where I liberated my body again. Then I got several fun opportunities to move on stage with amazing dancers, for example from Marie Chouinard's company and the Beijing Modern Dance Company.

I also gave a talk this past year about working through the body and how it relates to artistic practice as well as to mental wellness. I believe that there is a new door opening; a link between mental disorder and how movement can change our body's functions. I know a number of people who have been put on various kinds of medication, with

Editor Andreas Kahre Copy Editor Hilary Maxwell

detrimental effects, and I think it is important to recognize

Contributors to this issue: Sammy Chien, Noam Gagnon, Alvin Erasga Tolentino Cover Photo: David Cooper

talked about that journey and how underrated it is. I was

Dance Centre Board Members Chair Ingrid M. Tsui Vice Chair Gavin Ryan Secretary Margaret Grenier Treasurer Roman Goldmann Directors Matt Breech Susan Elliott Anusha Fernando Beau Howes, CFA Kate Lade Anndraya T. Luui Josh Martin Starr Muranko

Dance Foundation Board Members Chair Linda Blankstein Secretary Anndraya T. Luui Treasurer Jennifer Chung Directors Trent Berry, Kimberley Blackwell, Grant Strate, Janice Wells Dance Centre Staff: Executive Director Mirna Zagar Programming Coordinator Raquel Alvaro Marketing Manager Heather Bray Services Administrator Anne Daroussin Development Director Sheri Urquhart Technical Directors Justin Aucoin and Mark Eugster Accountant Elyn Dobbs Member Services Coordinator Hilary Maxwell

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 by numerous 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.

that movement is a much healthier therapeutic method. I hoping to provide exposure for movement art as an important therapeutic approach that deals with body, mind and spirit at the same time. This is an important aspect of movement art, and not confined to 'dance', or audiences who approach dance performance as something to be consumed or entertained. Last year I was invited to a symposium titled Disfiguring Identity: Art, Migration & Exile.at the Surrey Art Gallery, that was concerned with issues of xenophobia, identity and racism. I participated in a panel, and I created an online video piece that dealt with migration and xenophobia, and with the question how contemporary art can open new doors for society and disrupt the social construct.

I think artist can do a lot by bringing forms together and by opening new doors. Information is available at this website: http://ryeberg.com/curated-videos/stillness-in-motion/ AK: You worked with choreographer Henry Daniel?

SC: Yes, he was one of the first choreographers I worked with who truly inspired me to go a journey with dance performance. It was with him, and with the pioneer of digital performance company Troika Ranch that we undertook a pretty epic collaboration with scientists, engineers, and artists. In the six years since then, I’ve collaborated in countless performance works. I like working with choreographers who encourage you to enter in the early stage of the process, especially before the pressures of making a production take over, so that you are part of the process of the piece rather than just a designer. I'm not interested in creating the icing on the cake, if I am working for artistic value. Working with dance artists made me aware of the approach to 'think with the body'; I believe that there is an intelligence of the body that a lot of artists and writers and intellectuals don't get to experience until they actually enter into that process themselves. I really value it, and I have come to realize that

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it is a totally different approach to thinking and creating art.

Henry Daniel really opened that door for me in my early stage of dance performance and interdisciplinary collaborations. I

migrant bodies A conversation with Sammy Chien

think he was already ahead of the time, when I look back to the work that we’ve done together. He thinks deep, dreams big, talks philosophically, so sometimes people have difficulties comprehending his ideas, but I did, at that time. It was a mind-blowing experience and a great departure artistically.

AK: Do you experience your own life as migratory?

SC: I immigrated from Taiwan to Canada, and before I came to Vancouver I was in Nova Scotia, both in a very small town Called Truro and in Halifax. In between, I’ve lived in New Mexico, in Japan, India and Germany. I have move around a lot, and even though I feel that Vancouver is my home now, I still have an urge and a passion to move, because I see the world as a global village.

AK: In Europe, the word 'migrant' now carries connotations of illegality. The stereotype of impoverished African and Eastern Europeans aiming to exploit the social institutions of Western Europe, much like the narratives that accompany migration from Mexico into the US conveniently excludes the aspect that migrants provide a cheap, disenfranchised labour force and that European 'ethnic identities' are themselves the result of hundreds of years of great migrations.

SC: I relate to it more in the context of historical migration. which goes back 150 millennia. I’ve recently encountered a scientist from Beijing Tsinghua University and a researcher from Peace Media, who are in the process of researching the discourse of ancient civilization, especially in relation to the histories of migration. I was invited to be part of the research process, and I’m hoping to go to South American with them in the near future.

AK: One unique aspect of the project is the way it investigates identity through the body, and how we construct a sense of home as a projection of ourselves in to a past or a future that is essentially a fiction, and a well–guarded fiction at that. Three thousand people drowned this year in the attempt to reach the Italian island of Lampedusa, since Europe has closed its doors to immigration from Africa. The financial stakes are enormous, and migration, as the echo of colonialoism, has become the true test of what is called 'civilization'. Do these questions inform your approach to your role in the project?

SC: They will, definitely; these are subjects that I truly care about in everyday life. However, I haven’t explored this part of

the context in this project yet. For now, I am approaching it from my own journey of exploring migration, xenophobia and of working in an interdisciplinary experience, It will be something I will do more research and thinking about as the project unfolds AK: Your practice constitutes a form of migration across disciplinary boundaries in its own right, Will you be limited to the role of a filmmaker, or do you have an expectation of your involvement?

SC: I hope not, But we will find out! Whichever role fits best for the project and the process, I will be happy with it, as long as my creativity, voice and vision can be part of the process and research. I think that the vision we have is more important than the tools we use. I am looking forward to working with Su-Feh Lee —as well as all the other participating artists from across the world, of course— whom I met when I was filming a dance show.

She became very interested in how I approach filming dance performance, so I imagine that might be an important aspect of my involvement. At the same time, I am interested in listening, and in looking, and in creating dialogues with the artistic mind, body and tools that I have. From there, I will see where it can take us to. I am very excited to push boundaries with these artists.

AK: We would like to keep the conversation going as the project evolves and you find out more about your role. Would you be interested in continuing to speak with us?

SC: Yes, definitely! I look forward to it!

AK: Thank you!

migrant bodies Notes from the Project description continued from page 3

"The world of today is traversed, physically, by a population almost as big in numbers as a continent: The population of migrants. Migrants due to hunger, war, persecution, or by choice; all of them carry their own territory in their bodies – often their only ‘belonging’ and their core identity. Migration resonates differently and has different impacts in each of the involved cities, influencing the demographic, social, cultural, artistic, economic and political scenes. Migrants are increasingly seen as a core element of our self-perception, and the key to understanding ourselves and others. They contribute to a new sense of multicultural citizenship and transform our sense of belonging.

In turn this calls for constructive dialogue on cultural differences, to reinforce social inclusion and fight against discrimination and prejudices, creating a sense of mutual understanding and a space of dialogue and tolerance upon which we build new worlds. Migrant Bodies seeks to create a European/ Canadian laboratory, in which mainstream images in relation to migration are examined through the universal language of the arts. The body of the artist is seen as the ideal medium to portray new identities that come to be as a result of migration across territories and continents.

https://www.facebook.com/MigrantBodies

Migrations relate in very different ways to the five participating cities. Immigrations and emigrations had different impacts on the past and recent history

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of the five territories where the project organizations are based, influencing and impacting their respective demographic, social, cultural, artistic, economic and political scenes. Migrants are becoming more and more constitutive elements of our self-perception, and a key element in how we see and understand others. Migration is a fundamental aspect of building a new sense of multicultural citizenship and, hence, of our development

Residency Dates 2014: 1-10 July : Bassano, 12-20 July: Zagreb, 6-24 October: MontrĂŠal, 17-26 November: Vancouver, 8-18 December: Vitry-sur-Seine

toward dynamic and changing societies.

At the same time, in societies which define themselves as always more complex and diverse, it becomes necessary to strengthen a constructive dialogue on cultural differences, bringing to light their value and creativity to reinforce social inclusion and fight against discrimination and prejudices.

The partners feel the urgency to create a European/Canadian laboratory,

Residency Dates 2015: 9-19 February: Vancouver, 11-21 March: Vitry-sur-Seine, 22-24 May: MontrĂŠal, 11-14 June: Zagreb, 29 June - 4 July: Bassano.

in which dominant codes and mainstream images in relation to migrations are questioned and reflected upon, bringing this into the wider community through the universal language of the arts, to develop new images and to collect new insights together. The partners of Migrant Bodies decided to face this cultural, political and civil reflection taking as a starting point the body of the artist, seen as a cultural medium to research and portray new identities that often migrate across territories and continents."

D a n c e C e n t r a l S e p t e m bcontinued e r 2 0 0 4on page 3 16 Dance Central September/October 2014

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Noam

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Pure Gagnon Fracture Thinking Bodies: A conversation with

AK: There is a territory that has opened up, across the

disciplines, where the rela-

tionships between form, content, structure, improvisation, and their interaction in performance is more fluid than ever before. Sound, for example can now be focused to create a localized object — music that ‘dances’ in space. Technological development is part of it, but more importantly, there appears to be a shift in mindsets. Have you experienced that in your work?

NG: Yes, I have a sense of the incredible potential that exists right now. I was part of the New Aesthetics workshop with Theatre Replacement recently, where six-

teen artists came together in a generous and enriching atmosphere; it was a pure exploration of sharing concepts and inventing projects, and it was beautiful.

AK: You recently finished working on a three–year collaboration titled DVOTE with bharatanatyam-based dancer and choreographer Nova Bhattacharya. What did you discover?

NG: We worked in a cumulative process until May 2014, when we performed at The Cultch in Vancouver, and then finished the project with a performance at the Canada Dance Festival in June. I am still amazed when I remember the beauty of the risk, and of the hardship, and the unknown we explored together. There was potential for the future, and real beauty in what we learned, but the outcome was not as powerful as the research and the learning curve it brought us. We discovered that our respective ways of approaching and amalgamating material were extremely opposite. Sometimes when you try something unknown, you love the result because you can feel the presence of a greater goal. It can be nebulous, but I want to feel that presence. In the end, the shape of the work was not what we thought it should be, which is okay but as you get older you have to constantly redefine what is success and failure for yourself, and this project forced me to reevaluate that at the deepest level.

AK: How did this process relate to your previous work?

NG: I have been re-evaluating the idea of success in acknowledging that Dana (Gingras) and I had to move on, beyond Holy Body Tattoo, because it had met its mark, but in a society where money and a viable 'product' matters more and more, risk-taking is getting more difficult. Since Holy Body Tattoo, I have had to redefine myself in that social structure in terms of what success and failure are for me, from project to project, and especially with DVOTE. We are living in a society where open, critical discourse is difficult to have, and where the beauty of risk, or failure is not easy to acknowledge. That's what was so incredible about the New Aesthetics workshop, where we could talk freely, and in a context where what Dance Central September 2004

was at stake were only the ideas, and concepts of generating material.

Noam Gagnon: Photo: Alex Waterhouse-Hayward

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Thinking Bodies: A conversation with

With this project, I don't know what the 'result' was, but at a personal level I can say it was the greatest failure of my life, and at the same time, when I look at what we were attempting, and where we were trying to go, in that sense it was probably the biggest success I have ever had—not as it appeared at the time, but in the potential of where it will lead me.

I am now working on a new project that has got me asking important new questions, with new collaborators, and I have a new goal.

AK: A significant part of your practice has been to create in connection with another performer. Stepping outside such a long-established creative partnership, and into another is a delicate process. How did you approach working with Nova?

NG: Working twenty years with another person obviously shapes you, and it wasn't easy to find out who I was without my 'other half', but it has been almost nine years since Holy Body Tattoo, and I have been able to expand and re-create my methodology since then. I do find that a 'symbiotic' feeling is necessary for me to create great work, whether in Pilates, or Franklin Method, or in choreography. And I want to make sure that my collaborator and I want the same thing, so we can use our strength. I am not really a conceptual artist; I want to find a method to create a landscape where we create together. With Nova, I found that our backgrounds were so different, that it became the hardest part to reconcile. I needed to have a sense that we were looking at the world we were creating from the same need, or desire, or want. Also, I altered a lot of material during the process, but I am really good at sticking with the first impulse. It taught me how adaptive I was. At the same time, I created three pieces outside of the project—one with the Ottawa Dance Collective, one with nineteen dancers in Montréal and one for Dancing on the Edge, which were wonderful experiences, but coming back to DVOTE it became something different than we had wanted to focus on. To me this is crucial: If you are creating work about thirst, you ask: How thirsty are we, what creates that thirst, what satisfies it—everything is possible, but you have to know that the piece is about being thirsty. We were working in such pure abstraction that it became confusing and difficult to reconcile our differences in understanding whether we were improvising, accumulating material or setting it.

"At a personal

it was th failure of

the same time, when I

attempting, and where

it was biggest succ ever had—not as

in that sense

but in the potential of w

AK: Did you have a way to talk about it?

NG: We tried, but we came up against the fact that many different sources can drive a work.

One of my greatest sources in this process was the fear of failure, even though so much of my work is about hope, about perseverance, about transcending and about the resilience of the human condition, of not wanting to be demolished or forgotten even if you feel that everything is grinding you down. I realized that this fear has been driving me for many years, and I have had to acknowledge it as a result of my personal history and views. In the end, we failed not because we didn't try everything; we did what artists do, we did try everything, but it simply didn't work.

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DDaannc c e eCC en p tpetm r /eOr c 2 t o0b0e4r 2 03 1 4 e tnrt raal l S Se e ebme b

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Noam Gagnon

AK: In observing how audiences responded to the work, I noticed both a sense of disappointment and an impression that the ‘failure’ took on the nature of a gift. The project had raised expectations that something interesting would come out of it, not in a specific form or theme, but in substance, and when it failed the 'mode' of failure wasn’t so much damaging as instructive—it was a ‘meaningful failure’.

NG: That experience changed me. I have always been extremely organized and well-rehearsed before I go on stage, but this time even before we went on stage we were saying “What are we

level I can say

going to do? We are missing four minutes and we don't have the full picture yet…” and that was

the greatest my life, and at look at what we were

e we were trying to go,

probably the ccess I have

hard. It was a meaningful effort and the potential was huge, and even to the end the potential grew, but it was never realized.

AK: Did you have anybody else in the room?

NG: Yes, we had many people, including Ginelle Chagnon, an incredible woman who has worked with many artists, especially PaulAndré Fortier, for many years. She was so inspirational and helped us recognize the meaning and the power of the work, but at some point I felt the limitation imposed by scheduling, and I felt the need to ‘set’ the material, so that we could structure and refine it, but I didn’t feel that the process and the way we generated material allowed us to quantify and qualify it, except to sift through six months later and create from isolated fragments—which is not the way I like or would have chosen to work. Then we worked with Dan Wilde, a theatre director and an amazing performer but, in terms of directing, it wasn’t helpful for me as we did not have any big pictures in place so that I could understand Dan's notes in a specific relationship to the work.

AK: I know that you have also worked with Jimmy Tate, and now with Peter Hinton, so it seems that you are comfortable in the presence of theatre artists, which places you into a ‘theatrical’ mode of working.

s it appeared at the time,

How do you relate the verbal process to movement creation?

where it will lead me."

and I were always compatible, because in terms of articulating and

NG: I love the sharing of ideas; I always have, and that’s why Dana developing ideas and concepts there was a back–and–forth, but always with a shared idea of the greater goal, so that we could remind ourselves "Now, that's the dancer talking but it should be the choreographer.” Having someone else in the room was not only a luxury,

but since we were the creators, we had to figure it out first. Getting feedback later made sense, but having someone tell us what the piece was about while we were creating didn’t. I find it really hard to be told what to do, yet I have no problem with someone telling me how they can assist in making me do what I want, and I am more than willing to change my method. With Dana, we often found that the other was right, and went with what was the most efficient way to reach our goal. With DVOTE, the issue was that we couldn't agree on a consistent theme, or develop a common method, and without a clear goal, we couldn’t use the feedback, and our perceptions of what we value in process were very different.

D a nDcaen C r anlt rSaelp St eem /O t ro b2e0r0 42 0on 1 43page116 1 c e nCt e pbt eerm bcecontinued

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Critical Movements: A conversation with Alvin ErasgaTolentino

AK: Undivided Colours really relates to three events— a residency at Scotiabank Dance Centre starting in October 2014 in support of a collaboration between you and Thai dancer Pichet Klunchun, an evening of performances that feature Peter Chin, William Lau, Didik Nini Thowok, Pichet Klunchun and yourself, and a symposium on Gender, Diversity and the Body in the performing arts held at Scotiabank Dance Centre and The Roundhouse November 7-9. Starting with the conference, who will be invited and who will be the participating panelists?

AET: Anyone in the arts community, the LGBT community, the Asian community, and of course the dance community. We are also sending a special invitation to the UBC Centre for Sexual Studies, to SFU and to the Alliance for Arts and Culture. It is really the general public.

The focus of the symposium will of course be on performing arts and on movement-based artists, but the goal is to critically examine the position and conditions of these practices in a wider cultural context.

The confirmed participants at this point include Daelik, Paraskevas Terezakis, Joe Laughlin, William Lau, Heidi Specht, Colleen Lanki, Joel Klein, Chris Gatchalian and Laiwan, as well as Christine Fletcher and the performers in the November 8 performance, but there will hopefully be more.

AK: How much time do you expect the panelists will have?

AET: At this point, we imagine that each panelist will have about 15 minutes to talk about their practice and their experiences, followed by a 30 to 45 minute discussion. It will be a tight schedule, but we have added an open forum on Saturday afternoon to allow for more discussion time on specific issues that arise on the Friday.

AK: Do you have a sense of the focus of the symposium? Will it be based on specific questions, or follow a 'survey' format, or do you hope that it will define a new approach to the issues it raises?

AET: For me, all three aspects are essential, but while we can suggest

Undivided Colours

a focus, the approach will define itself in the dialogue. I believe that

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framing the questions too narrowly can be problematic, and that each panel will develop a specific focus based on the participants and their reaction to one another.

AK: You are deliberately framing the event in terms of a dialogue among artists, and their direct experience of issues that involve gender, identity and the body. Do the artists on the panels know one another's practices?

AET: Some do, some will not. My goal is to

A three-day symposium in Vancouver by Co.ERASGA Dance in partnership with The Dance Centre and The Roundhouse Community Arts Centre Friday, November 7 @ 2:00pm - 8:00pm, Faris Family Studio, Scotiabank Dance Centre, 677 Davie St.

Art and Gender Official opening of the symposium with guests from Vancouver's artistic community at Scotiabank Dance Centre, 677 Davie St. Participating guest artist speakers include: Daelik Hackenbrook, Joe Laughlin, Paraskevas Terezakis, Pangaea Arts /William Lau, Heidi Specht, Colleen Lanki, Chris Gatchilian, Colleen Lanki and Laiwan.

Saturday, November 8 @ 1:00pm - 3:30pm, Faris Family Studio, Scotiabank Dance Centre, 677 Davie St.

Reflection/Forward Thinking Observer and facilitator Andreas Kahre will conduct an open forum for general discussion about the Symposium's opening panel discussion from November 7 in the Faris Family Studio, Scotiabank Dance Centre, 677 Davie St. This panel will provide critical time for reflection and forward thinking by posing questions and providing answers as a result of the many creative initiatives that will arise.

Sunday, November 9 @ 5:00pm - 7:00pm, Performance Hall, The Roundhouse, 181 Roundhouse Mews

Diversity, Duality, Body and Dance Performances featuring diverse dance artists Peter Chin, Didik Nini Thowok, Pichet Klunchun and Alvin Erasga Tolentino at The Roundhouse Community Arts Centre.

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Dance Machine

NOTES TOWARD THE SYMPOSIUM Designing Dance: A conversation with Jesse Garlick

try to connect them and to facilitate ways to let their practice and

"This is the first time a culturally diverse group of

experience create an intersection. Some articulate their experience

artists, scholars and other members of the artistic

primarily through dance, while others, like Laiwan for example,

community will come together in the Pacific West

have a specific interest in exploring questions of gender and identity

Coast to critically present and discuss their art prac-

in an interdisciplinary context, and through strategies such as what

tice in relation to gender, body, dance, diversity and

she calls 'Spectaculative Fiction'. Each artist will create a statement

identity. The dialogue will focus on art, the artists

that outlines their approach, and specific questions, so that we all

themselves and the personal evaluation they will share

have a sense of what they are interested in sharing and presenting.

through this dialogue. Instead of analyzing their work in reference to the mainstream, these artists will be

AK: Given the time constraints, and the scope of the mini-sym-

able to engage in reflective critical dialogue among

posium, the event can create an opening but hardly produce any

themselves. This outreach initiative will bring together

'conclusions'. Will there be an ongoing investigation of the issue, and

contemporary local, national and international dance

will the residency relate to the theme?

artists of diverse communities to advance professional development, networking, dialogue and knowledge-

AET: The conference will result in a publication that presents these

sharing among established, diverse and young emerg-

themes to a wider audience. As for the residency, our specific goal is

ing artists with arts professionals.

to create a new work with Pichet Klunchun that confronts the notion of traditional and contemporary modes of dance, and to investigate

Critical discussions will explore the basis for the

how to utilize the practice of tradition and bring a contemporary el-

artists' work and common themes of experiences

ement to it, articulated through physicality, scenography and what-

and struggles. Representation comes from Thailand,

ever material we can use both here and in Thailand. Pichet has long

Cambodia, Philippines, Indonesia, and Asian Cana-

been dealing with notions of gender, especially where the char-

dian communities. This initiative is an opportunity for

acterization of male and female archetypes is central to traditional

artistic cross-pollination to strengthen and extend the

Thai Khon performance, and to his own practice, which attracted

networks of diverse artists across Canada and globally.

me to his work. The residency is the next phase of this process, and

Open to the general public, we aim to bring the artistic

to learn from an artist who is living in Thailand—a society that has

community in dance and other disciplines to confront

never been colonized by the West—honouring a traditional form in a

and share the artists' stories to encourage dialogue

complex contemporary context.

and networking between participants and attendees.

AK: How does your work relate to the questions that are central to Speakers include the following artists to date: Daelik,

his practice?

Joe Laughlin, Paraskevas Terezakis, Pangaea Arts /William Lau, Heidi Specht, Chris Gatchilian, Laiwan, Peter

AET: Through the complexity of gender, working with the body, and

Chin, Didik Nini Thowok, Pichet Klunchun, Colleen

the idea of duality that resonates in what I want to pursue.

Lanki and Alvin Erasga Tolentino."

AK: Is this the first time you have worked together?

AET: Yes. I began my research last year, when I went to Bangkok and worked in his studio. This time we will be working in Vancouver in a residency at Scotiabank Dance Centre, and present solo works.

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From there we will go into the creation of the final work.

Undivided Colours

Critical Movements: A conversation with Alvin ErasgaTolentino

AK: You mentioned that Thailand was never colonized, but in

to actually sit and listen to them for a while, and I hope we can cre-

the context of gender identity, is it possible to be an embodied

ate a glimpse into the world of artists who have been successful in

performer and not be colonized—in Bangkok or in Oslo, for that

the mainstream, but always on the basis of their own process and

matter?

artistic rigour.

AET: Of course that is a discussion that will be interesting to

AK: Thank you!

have with him.

AK: Have you discussed it? How does he approach it?

AET: Not yet. He is difficult to pinpoint, because there is an interesting openness and fluidity in his practice between sexual and gender modes, which comes across as a poetic resonance between male and female essence.

AK: Do you have a sense of what the final work might be like?

AET: All I know at this point is that it might be solos, duets or ensemble work, and that it will involve a multimedia aspect. We are currently looking at other artistic partners, composers and designers, either from Thailand, or from here, but we still have a year to develop and finalize these aspects.

AK: Do you have a particular goal for the project?

AET: I will have a chance to formulate that in November. Our goal until now has been to discover creative boundaries, to understand each other's practice, and Pichet's role in both Thai culture, and in a global context, and to make a commitment to have him work here with me. I have no idea what will be the outcome, but I enjoy taking the risk of working with other artists whose practice I am drawn to, and to discover the relationship.

Experiencing another artist's process and focus is a central part of my own development as an artist, and it provides me with a perspective on what I need to develop further.

AK: This does link your work to the symposium.

AET: Exactly. Exploring other artists' approaches, not only as they manifest on stage, is important to understanding the many layers that are contained in their work. It is so rare that we get Dance Central September/October 2014

15

Thinking Bodies: A conversation with

Noam Gagnon

continued from page 11

AK: You have gone back to working with theatre artists for your next project?

NG: Yes, I have been working with Laara Sadiq, in a beautiful project called We Are Making Fiction, with director Peter Hinton and musician Kid Koala, and possibly the writer Michael MacLennan. Some of the issues in the room are the same; being able to define the work, with an actor coming from a different world where they are used to having a director shape the piece. I, on the other hand, need to define what the text is, and its source, and I have to have a good idea what the piece is about, and then I can use an outside eye.

AK: Do you miss dancing when you are working as a choreographer or in a theatre context?

NG: No. I know that I am designed for the stage, and thank god I am still able to dance full on at my age, but I really like to be on the outside, because I like to be fast and efficient, and it's easy to make choices according to what is in the room. Laara and I spent a week defining what the project would be about; love, aging, relationships, and about the fiction we need to create in order to survive. It’s about what happens over time, speakin relationships, in daily life, when you are repeating the same thing over and over and over and it loses its power, because you fall into something that feels good, but you are not present anymore, or in relationships when you realize the intimacy is gone, that you are just good friends. There are so many fractures in our daily lives all the time— now I look at a picture of myself and I think "Oh my god, I am an old man," but inside I am not! I see myself, not the face, or the grey hair, and I realize that there is a fracture in the fiction that I have about myself. We live in a society that creates fictions all the time because

moment you underst

first thing it

the truth can't be spoken. That’s where in working with a director it is critical for me to know what I want and to define for myself what I want. With DVOTE, I thought we would go along and figure out what happens as we went along, and I realized that it doesn’t work for me.

Of course you explore and find material but you have to own it within a structure that accumulates towards a unified whole, in a process that is intangible. Working on this new project I realize that I need a director who can help me confirm and accomplish what I want to

"Where

realize th a greater world

ing about our age, through the notion of fracture. Fracture happens

questio

and ask find what drives us, pe

do; not by trying to tell me what they think the piece is about, but by supporting its goals.

AK: Having worked with Peter Hinton, I imagine he would be brilliant at this.

NG: Yes, both Peter and Laara are amazing. And I have learned from the process that the function of the text is not going to be about acting but about sharing, in a conversation with the audience that is shaped and layered and looped, where the meaning starts altering itself and exploring its anthropological meaning: What defines the world we live in, which is nature, relationship, and sexuality.

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AK: Will you be speaking?

NG: Yes, and this is the first time that I am not afraid, because it isn't acting, it's conveying data which anyone between the ages of 15 and 99 can understand. It’s about love in all its forms. I am sharing ideas with their minds, and trying to create a system where the choreography is based around the audience, allowing them to make their own choices. I am excited about it because it is about changing you; It affirms something that is happening inside you and creates a change, so that it isn't about what you don’t recognize, and makes you gravitate toward what you know. This piece has the potential for the audience to create their own choices, and it is the most exciting process. It is like using sound in a new way, and creating a new form of direct communication.

AK: Theatre, at least in its conventional modes, is informed by its rituals and what Peter calls ‘habits of mind’.

Do you find yourself having to meet these rituals, especially when you are in a space with an actor’s body and an actor’s voice?

NG: It felt like a danger that you come to the process with expectations. For example, I am interested in a physicality that tears or fractures you, or goes beyond your boundaries. I created a piece recently, for a

I am at is to

hat there is d out there, and the tand where you are, the is to take

risks

ons , through adversity, to ersonally and as a society."

Dance Lab at Dancers’ Studio West in Calgary, for nine performers, one of whom was an actor who could barely touch his knees. It was a very physical, driven work, based on a Mondrian structure. I would ask people to tell me who was the actor, and it took them a long time to pinpoint him among the dancers. That is the job; use what is in the room, hold it within a strong focus and the vision I have for a work.

My work is based on the power of pure intention; if you are thirsty you drink. If you are really thirsty, you drink in a way that expresses that need fully. That power of pure images is crucial to my work, and I have to find a way to tailor my performance to it. The same is true for working with voice. Laara has a beautiful resonance that I will never have, but she will be speaking rather than acting, I will have to be aware of not being in my throat, to connect to my diaphragm, to save my voice; those are all skills I can remind myself of and train for. It is the same thing for physicality. If we are talking about gesture that talks about history or relationship or coupling, and what it expresses in the context of this couple: “You were

placing your hand on my hips.” “No, you grabbed my ass.” “No, you actually slapped me.” etc Those gestures form the pure intention, and there is no right or wrong way they can accumulate. If we can create a purity of movement and intention, and then frame it in musical phrasing, and also in blocks of chapters, we'll be fine. It’s not about lifting your legs higher. What we understand as people is the effort it takes to get up in the morning, or the effort it takes when you are in love and you struggle to be able to find a way to express that to someone. We all fail at something, and language, as Peter Hinton has said, will always fail; that's why we keep trying. If we use language and movement with the same intent, we will be fine. In this process people Dance Central September 2004

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Thinking Bodies: A conversation with

Noam Gagnon

"I am

may always ask “Is she an actor, or a dancer?” But if we are able to be conceptually clear in how we define it at the core, it won’t matter. Laara is an extremely creative artist, and a generator of life force, and we will not let someone else tell us the meaning until we clarify it and then we will invite the writer and the director. Will we struggle? Yes, and that is the beauty of taking the risk, and defining what we are doing with precision. But in order to express what drives people and art and toward each other, I am not interested in how high my legs can go.

recre

AK: Have you worked with text before?

NG: I have used text, with Nigel Charnock, in Ten Things You Will Hate About Me. AK: You speak of 'using' text, and I wonder to what extent it works the other way around; that text 'uses' us.

Peter Hinton would be very much aware of this dichotomy, I imagine, having lived and worked all his life in various forms of colonized language. We are constantly used and created by text, especially in a colonial country like Canada, and I am curious about how you experience that relationship?

NG: I agree, and I love Peter’s way of conversing about text, which is similar to mine: In ‘using’ text, we always acknowledge a phenomenon that acts globally and socially, but it is always based on the individual.

Like Google Maps, you can scan the continent, the street, and the individual door, and Peter is always able to speak about all three levels at the same time, informed but never limited by his personal experience. It’s magnificent. At the same time, you are right: I am speaking about using and trying to figure out what we want to do, but there are the confines about preconceived ideas, or social values, or commitments, and how the text may be 'using us', without our being aware.

AK: You mentioned that you are entering a Master’s program and that you are going further in your Franklin Method studies?

NG: Presently, I am doing my third year in the Franklin Method as a Movement Educator with the great Eric Franklin himself. I just finished studying how to teach the embodiment of the organs, which is a life–altering experience. My body feels that it has the ease I had in my twenties again. I also am planning to do a Master's program at Vintage Pilates in L.A. I want to continue to explore the depth and specificity of position and of levers while in movement, which keep you whole in the Pilates Method. I am a master Pilates teacher in the classical system but there are three or four people still alive who studied with Joseph Pilates, and I want to take the time to study with someone for several years who has worked with him and can tell me specifically what it was, and should be, and explain why, to see if it matches and deepens my own views on it. I feel it is necessary to achieve that level of pure simplicity and integrity, which is extremely complex and takes so much effort to get to, I find it really exciting. Now in my fifties, I can say: This is what I have, this is what there is. In a society of grant writing and funding strategies, I am not sure this is valued, but if I compare myself to others with a nine-to-five job they don't enjoy, I can say: I love mine!

AK: What happens now? When will the work be shown?

NG: There will be a residency at Scotiabank Dance Centre as part of The Dance Centre's DanceLab program, which I am really looking forward to, but we have to secure funding. We are looking at late 2015 or 2016. It feels a little difficult to struggle for support at this point. The older you get, the less forgiving people D aare, n c e perCentral 18

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am a maturing artist who had an

incredible amount of success, and what I am

struggling with now is that it should not be seen

as a luxury to reate and expand and deepen myself as an arist.

Not to create an 'industry', but because I have the right to

ask new questions ."

haps because there isn’t the novelty, and I have wondered whether the last show had an impact, especially since my work has always been funded, and I wonder if it has to do with having to redefine myself since Holy Body Tattoo, but at the end of the day it reminds me of what drives the work, which is not the funding, but a moment like this, where we talk about the meaning of the work.

AK: Artists are more and more cast into the role of managers of their own ‘brand’, and interdisciplinary projects are still funded in a context where the habits of the disciplines prevail, and changes are difficult to make. Dance in particular is expanding and transforming, and movement artists are now performance artists, media artists, visual artists—without losing depth as dancers. That is a challenging development for those who are used to containing artists either in disciplinary categories, or in malapropisms such as ‘the industry’. How do you come to terms with these attitudes if you have a project on your hands, where the names alone should be enough to announce that you are artists of the highest calibre, and that the categories are meaningless until the work has been created?

NG: I was working on a mentorship project recently, with people who make more money every week and every month than my company—or Holy Body Tattoo, which had nothing when it started, and created productions that looked super-expensive, but which came out of artistic rigour that is not a function of money and can be created everywhere. It was staggering how difficult it was to make people understand the reality of this work. Everyone's industry is suffering, but we all work to the best of our abilities. Art is beautiful because it is a necessary part of our culture and our daily lives, and I am a maturing artist who had an incredible amount of success, and what I am struggling with now is that it should not be seen as a luxury to recreate and expand and deepen myself as an artist. Not to create an 'industry', but because I have the right to ask new questions and to be given support to ask these questions. Where I am at is to realize that there is a greater world out there, and the moment you understand where you are, the first thing is to take risks and ask questions, through adversity, to find what drives us, personally and as a society. On that level, the work with Nova answered my queries, and made me appreciate what may not have been the most pleasant experience, but one without regrets and a tremendous love and respect for her as an artist that I have learned so much from.

AK: Thank you!

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