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.

A new work for Springboard Danse created and shared in 2025 at The Pittsburgh Playhouse alongside works by Sharon Eyal, Kidd Pivot, and Tom Weinberger. 

'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.

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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.

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. This no tech, environmentally conscious work, focuses on tireless and urgent movement as a means to describe distance and longing between people and the water, and directs attention to the ocean as a scarce and vital resource.

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Ocean Roaring toured in 2022/23 to Bowen Island, Nanaimo, Galiano Island, and Vancouver.

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Choreography and Direction: Anya Saugstad 

Violinist: Cindy Kao 

Collaborators: Daria Mikhaylyuk, Eowynn Enquist, Nasiv Sall, Sabine Raskin, and Shion Skye Carter. 

Costumes by Julie Newton (HiJulez) 

​Made possible by: Canada Council for the Arts, The Hearth, Crimson Coast Dance, Leña, Vines Art Festival.