Biography

Falling Still

Falling Still is an interdisciplinary performance work about the double world we often live, between triumph and collapse. The piece follows a group of women who are strong and undefeated, who push back against all that falls on them. Within this group, lights focuses on individual dancers to reveal their moments of solitude. In contrast to the group's power, these intimate moments capture their numbness, longing, loneliness, and crashing. This work focuses on the pieces of our lives that are often hidden and associated with failure. It questions our assumptions about success and ideals, as it dives into a story with two sides; the war inside us, between lightness and darkness, between being lost and in control.

Falling Still aims to capture burnout as beautifully and as humanly as vigor. It questions our assumptions about human capability, using dance theatre and sound to shed light on the silent roaring fights within ourselves.

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This is a work in progress which began its creation at Mascall Dance with the mentorship of Jennifer Mascall. It beginning ideas were shown through BLOOM, then at ArtsUmbrella through the Performance Research Project, and most In a split bill performance at La Fabrique St. George 7e7 warehouse space in Vancouver BC. A longer version of the work will be shown through OpenStage at The Dance Centre in October 2020. 

Choreographer: Anya Saugstad and Collaborators

Dancers: Daria Mikhaylyuk, Eowynn Enquist, Shion Skye Carter, Katarina Nesic, Maddy Gilbert, and Sabine Raskin

Sound: Stefan Nazerevich

Photo: Mika Manning

Dear Ocean Roaring

Dear Ocean Roaring takes place on the shore of the beach at sunset. It is a collaboration of dance theatre and live violin. The work is an apology and a thank you. It is a piece about connecting back to our environment, and aims to provide viewers with a moment to look out at the ocean and understand its vastness; understand that we are not the only creatures playing and living on this earth. 

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To the ocean as a grave , and as a place of life. We create in a space many others never enter, many others never pass. In a place that is stolen. With all of our privilege, we speak with our bodies. 

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This work was made for Vines Art Festival 2019, and was first presented at the festival in August 2019. It will be perfumed again at Vines Art Festival this coming August 2020. All rehearsals and performances of the work are done at Kits Beach in Vancouver BC. 

Choreographer: Anya Saugstad and collaborators

Dancers: Daria Mikhaylyuk, Eowynn Enquist, Shion Skye Carter, Samantha Priya Wright, Cindy Kao

Live Violin: Cindy Kao

Photo: Yvonne Chew

Almost Ghost

Almost ghost is a work which experiments with the act of leaving. It tries to show fragments of stories, about the ways we empty from one place or person to the next.

This piece was made as a commission for the Simon Fraser University in October 2018.

Choreographer: Anya Saugstad

Rehearsal Assistant: Marla Eist

Lighting Designer: Margery Liu

Dancers: Savannah Gillespie, Amy Griffith, Nelle Lee, Nancy Junjiaqi Li, Shannon Lin, Larissa Read, Melissa Swatez, Mackenzie Seaborn, Kadin Vanden Heuvel, Allison Vicente, and Vienna Wong. Music: Voice of the Dagger by Alberich & Lussuria, and Angels by Gianluca Piacenza.

Photo by Paula Viitanen

IN WALLS, IN STORM

In walls, in storm is a work in progress that I started making in September 2018. It was created during a residency at BoomBox in Vancouver BC.  This work became an outcome of what I had to deal with that day.  Some days I would go a push the wall and that was all I would do. some days I sat in a dining room chair in the corner and fell off of it again and again. sometimes I found comfort in repetition,and other times I felt helpless. I accumulated objects in the space as I felt fit, a dining room chair, a large fan, a satin dress, a yellow flower pulled up with the roots.  I thought a lot about what it meant to be stuck. I processed what my body made each day, I pieced these days together to make a 20 minute non stop fragment. 

Choreography and Performance: Anya Saugstad

Photo: Katherine Vincent

jungle

Jungle is a work created to investigate separation, to accentuate the empty unknown spaces of our lives, and to bring ourselves back to our strong physical animal. It is a work that presents overlapping simultaneous scenes using light, dance and music as a means to isolate characters and their stories. 

Choreography: Anya Saugstad and collaborators

Dancers: Shion Skye Carter, Kaylee Louis, Anya Saugstad, and Samantha Priya Wright

Composer: Stefan Nazerevich

Film: Asad Yahya

Photos: Brenda Nicole Kent

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Away

Away is about leaving. It’s about how we work through loss and change. It’s a work that physically explores being an in between, being the one left, or the one leaving. As animals, as flawed and powerful beings we must go, and in consequence be lest from one another. We are so temporary. 

Dancers: Shion Skye Carter, Eowynn Enquist, Anja Graham, Caitlin Mcinnon, Nyssa Song, Lynelle Sura, Kristina Villanueva, Annabelle Wong, and Samantha Priya Wright

2fade

2Fade is a duet which explores time and distance inside and within two bodies. There is a contrast between slow and quick movement throughout the piece, to experiment with pushing the notions of what distance is. It is a fading overtime, and a relationship that both grows and falls apart. 

Choreography and Performance: Shion Skye Carter and Anya Saugstad

Photos: Yvonne Chew