SHED | knowing each other as different and the same
Image credits: Performers FOONYAP and Pam Tzeng. Photo by Mike Tan
Under the bright yellow glow of SHED, time suspends for an alchemy of movement, sound, animate costumes and light.
Featuring a collection of time-based moving portraits, SHED | knowing each other as different and the same holds space for the multiplicity and humanity of bodies of culture. The immersive performance installation invites pause. A slowing down and an enlivening into presence for an otherworldly experience.
a seeing
a feeling
a being with
a sensorial unravelling
a conjuring of ancestral love and grief
a shedding of what holds us from
knowing each other as different and the same.
SHED is an invitation to notice the subtle ways our bodies perceive, receive and relate to an “other”. To witness the assumptions and imaginings that consciously and/or unconsciously colour our experience of difference. To remember that every body inhabits an internal life as vivid and complex as our own.
The collection of choreographies by Tzeng includes a duet created and performed with experimental musician FOONYAP, and five solo portraits created for, with and danced by Cindy Ansah, Cory Beaver, Kara Bullock, Alèn Martel and Mpoe Mogale.
Sound, costumes and light manifest as energetic extensions of the body, spirit and land. The design elements of each work emerged from tender and nurturing exchanges with sound designers FOONYAP, Jiajia Li, Num and Darren Young, costume collaborator Alison Yanota, sodium light designer Nicolas Brunet-Beaulieu and lighting designer Jonathan Kim.
Each portrait draws from the intimate and vast inner landscapes of the performers’ embodied values, memories and lived experiences. Each exists as a testimony of the beauty and resilience of bodies of culture.
Note: I replace the language and idea of “People of colour” with “Bodies of Culture'' as reclamation of the inherent wisdom of the body and the pieces of our experiences that have been stolen, stripped away, and invisibilized by white body supremacy. Bodies of Culture comes from my practice in Somatic Abolition guided by the work of author, therapist and racialized trauma specialist Resmaa Menakem.
PAST PRESENTATIONS
April 27 - May 14, 2022
The New Gallery (Calgary)
June 3 + 4, 2022
Mile Zero Dance (Edmonton)
July 15 + 16, 2022
Plastic Orchid Factory (Vancouver)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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Pam Tzeng
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Duet
FOONYAP
Pam Tzeng
Solos
Cindy Ansah
Cory Beaver
Kara Bullock
Alèn Martel
Mpoe Mogale -
Costume Design
Pam Tzeng
Alison YanotaSound Design
FOONYAP
Jiajia Li
NUM
Darren YoungMusic Mastering
Krzysztof Sujata
Sodium Light Design
Nicolas Brunet-BeaulieuLighting Design and Technical Direction
Jono Kim
Tech / Stage Manager
Tauran WoodDuet Rehearsal Director
Linnea SwanExhibition Text
Jordan Baylon -
Project Management
Pam Tzeng
Bianca Guimarães de Manuel
Social Media Coordination
Kris Vanessa Teo Xin-En / 张欣恩Publicity
Aldona Barutowicz -
Premiere
Co-produced by Dancers’ Studio West Artist in Residence Program (2019-2022) and The New Gallery 2022 Main Space Program. Moh’kìnst’sis / Calgary
Mile Zero Dance
2022 Dance Crush Series
amiskwacîwâskahikan / Edmonton
Plastic Orchid Factory
2022 adaptives series
Vancouver -
Canada Council for the Arts
Calgary Animated Objects Society
Calgary Arts Development
Alberta Foundation for the Arts -
Melissa Avila, Loretta D’Antuono, Sylvie Moquin and Jamie Tognazzini for their contributions to the initial research of this project.
Thomas Geddes, Katie Green, Sasha Ivanochko, Ashley King, Ping Tzeng, Michael Vincent Tan, Xstine Cook and AZMA Digital for their invaluable support.
The Old Trouts Puppet Workshop, Theatre Encounter, Inside Out Theatre, and The Grand YYC for offering affordable spaces for SHED to be created in.
Image credits: Performers FOONYAP and Pam Tzeng. Photo by Mike Tan
