Our
Projects

“The forest dies and dies and dies again, and so it lives.”

Paper Mountains is a work that embodies themes of emergence, evolution, and growth. Inspired by nature and animals, the work delves into the sorrow and celebration that coexist within us amid a climate crisis. Paper Mountains embodies the paradoxes of strength and lightness, urgency and yearning, toughness and softness, and surrender and resilience.We have been asking ourselves throughout this work “what does it mean to burn down and re-grow again?”.

Paper Mountains premiered at The Scotiabank Dance Centre with Dance in Vancouver in November 2024 and will be touring through BC in 2025-2027. We are thrilled to be sharing this work with Bowen Island, Golden, and other areas of BC. We will be sharing this work at Pacific Contact 2025.

'Moss Body Breathes' is a new outdoor live ensemble dance and violin work inspired by and in research with the flora and fauna of British Columbia. Anya Saugstad (choreographer and director) and her collaborators are interested in embodying plants and animals of the area pulling inspiration from movement that stems from the celebration of being alive and at the same time the grief we hold from the climate crisis we face. The work is tech free using no electricity, studio space, or single use materials, and creating with dance, live violin, and forested outdoor sites.

Gravity in Your Eyes is a collaborative project of dance and theatre that follows two sisters and the forces that guide their lives. With a cast of four actors and four dancers, the piece explores themes of independence and belonging, and is told through dance, dialogue, and set design. Anya Saugstad (Co-Director and Choreographer) and Sophia Saugstad (Co-Director and Playwright) collaborate to create a world that is described through both of their mediums, directorial methods, and imaginations. Other than the elaborate lip syncs they created as kids, this is Anya and Sophia's first project together as sisters.

​

Gravity in Your Eyes premiered at Dancing on the Edge in 2024.

Beautiful Beasts was a new work created for Ballet Edmonton and premiered alongside works by Anne Plamodon and Kirsten Wicklund in October 2024.

Here it is is a duet that acknowledges our brief existence, and the longing and pain we hold in a world where we leave one at a time. This work features dance artists Nasiv Sall and Shana Wolfe and was created at The Dance Deck (Belle Spirale), and presented at Left of Push with Plastic Orchid Factory.