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Anya Allegra Saugstad

current projects

PREMIERE OF FRAGMENTS

New comission on LamonDance. At BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts. April 26th and 27th 2024.

GRAVITY IN YOUR EYES PREMIERE

New creation created in collaboration with Sophia Saugstad. Premiering June 2024 in Vancouver.

PAPER MOUNTAINS PREMIERE

at The Scotiabank Dance Centre with Dance in Vancouver. Nov 2024. 

BALLET EDMONTON GUEST CHOREOGRAPHER 

World Premiere in Edmonton Oct 2024. 

ARTIST WITH ACTION AT A DISTANCE / VANESSA GOODMAN

Ongoing projects and tours. 

bio

Biography

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Anya Allegra Saugstad is an emerging dancer and choreographer based in Vancouver BC, on the unceeded territory of the Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh' (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səlílwətaʔ/ Selilwitulh (Ssleil-Waututh), and xwməθkwəyə̓ m (Musqueum) First Nations. 

 

Anya trained at ArtsUmbrella, and holds a BFA in Dance from Simon Fraser University. She also trained at The San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, and in Gaga technique in San Francisco, Israel, and New York. Anya has toured with Action at a Distance with Vanessa Goodman through the USA, Canada, and Germany performing “Graveyards and Gardens” and “Core/Us” (2021-2023). 

 

Anya Saugstad is the Artistic Director of a non profit dance organization called Furious Grace Dance Theatre

 

Furious Grace / Anya Saugstad creates live, digital, and site adaptive performance works that foster space for emerging female and non binary artists to tell their stories through movement. Anya is interested in creating vigorous and highly physical movement to express stories that encompass strength, yearning, and urgency. She uses dance to access the wild animal states of being alive, and encourages her collaborators to show rawness and vulnerability as femme presenting bodies in performance. Anya’s site specific work Ocean Roaring, and Moss Body Breathes are inspired by nature, and she creates work that moves others to engage with the earth. These works both question human beings' impact on mother nature, and tell stories about the climate crisis we face. 

 

Furious Grace Dance Theatre's core group of collaborators include female emerging artists Cindy Kao, Daria Mikhaylyuk, Eowynn Enquist, Nasiv Sall, Sabine Raskin, Sophia Saugstad, Shana Wolfe, and Shion Skye Carter. Anya also works closely with Stefan Nazarevich who creates original compositions for many of her works and Vista Point Studios, and MPC to create short films centered around dance on screen.

 

Anya has been a guest choreographer and created works for LamonDance, ArtsUmbrella, Simon Fraser University, Method Dance Company, and Coastal City Ballet, and upcoming Ballet Edmonton. Anya’s work has been presented through The Dance Deck (Belle Spirale), The Scotiabank Dance Center, Crimson Coast Dance, The Hearth, Dancing on the Edge Festival, The Rotary Center for the Arts, F-O-R-M film Festival, The San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, and Vines Art Festival. Anya has toured her work across BC and to Montreal Quebec. Anya Saugstad is the recipient of the Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award for 2023/24. 

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ocean roaring

‘Ocean Roaring’ is a site specific live dance and violin performance that follows the stories of six women on the shore of the ocean at dusk. ‘Ocean Roaring’ was created on the beach in Vancouver BC in 2019, was made into a film in July 2020, and then toured live to Kelowna in 2021. ‘Ocean Roaring’ has been supported by Dance West Network Dance on Tour, The Rotary Centre for the Arts, the Canada Council for the Arts, New Works, and Vines Art Festival. This no tech, environmentally conscious work, focuses on tireless and urgent movement as a means to describe distance and longing between people and the land, and directs attention to the ocean as a scarce and vital resource. It duets the power of women’s bodies dancing with the power of the water.

'Ocean Roaring' was created in Vancouver at the shore of kits beach and first performed at vines art festival in 2019. From there, the work developed into a film that was shared virtually in festivals in 2020 including Vines Art Online Festival, Made in BC, and ArtsStarts. The work was toured live to Kelowna in 2021. This piece has been supported through Canada Council for the Arts, the Rotary Centre for the Arts, Vines Art Festival, and Dance West Network. We are looking for more opportunities to share this work with other bodies of water, communities and audiences.

 Photos by: Aaron Hemens

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Anya Saugstad/ Furious Grace Dance Theatre

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