Anya Allegra Saugstad
CURRENT PROJECTS
Mentorship with made in bc
for an new site specific work Ocean Roaring
Performer in 'Not The Same'
Dancing in new work in collaboration with Nasiv Sall in split bill with Akeisha De Baat and Nyssa Song.
@ the dance centre Feb 3rd.
MPC collab
Currently working with Mount Pleasant Collective as a dancer and choreographer for music videos.
Falling Still
A dance work in progress.
Showing at OpenStage at The Dance Centre May 2 and 3 2021.
Guest Choreographer at SFU
Commissioned to create a new work 'Night Storms' for Simon Fraser University.
January 2021.
Dancer for dote
Dancing in new work by Rob Kitsos for Dancing on the Edge 2021.
Biography
Anya Saugstad is a dancer and choreographer based in Vancouver BC, living and
working on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh' (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səlílwətaʔ/ Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xwməθkwəyə̓ m
(Musqueam) First Nations.
Anya trained at ArtsUmbrella, and holds a BFA with honours in Dance from Simon Fraser University. In addition, she has trained with San Fransisco Conservatory of Dance, and with The Performance Research Project under the mentorship of Lesley Telford. Anya has danced with Inverso Productions under the direction of Lesley Telford, and interned with Vanessa Goodman and her company Action at a Distance, and with Amber Funk Barton. Using dance, sound, light, and stage design, she is interested in expressing the untamed self and is pushing to create intimate worlds on stage and in public which reveal honesty and rage. She is interested in telling womens stories through vigorous and exhausting movement, and pushing the boundaries of performance. Anya has choreographed works for Simon Fraser University, Youth In Motion (Shadbolt Arts Centre), Bloom (Mascall Dance), Vines Art Festival, SplitScreen (Boombox), and F-O-R-M Film Festival. She also works closely as a choreographer and dancer for Mount Pleasant Collective, in creating music videos and films.
Artist Statement
Anyas work is often inspired by the world she dreams about; removed, intimate, often empty, chaotic, or exhausting. She creates to let herself and others arrive somewhere else. Her process physically and visually tries to answer questions about who we are as complicated beings, and aims to access and express our untamed selves.
Choreographic works
falling Still
Falling Still is an interdisciplinary performance work about the world between triumph and collapse. The piece follows a group of women who push back against all that falls on them. Light focuses on individual dancers to reveal their moments of solitude. In contrast to the group's control and stamina, these intimate moments capture the individuals 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.
This is a work in progress which began its creation at Mascall Dance with the mentorship of Jennifer Mascall. It's beginning ideas were shown through BLOOM, then at ArtsUmbrella through the Performance Research Project, and 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 May 2021.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
