The 13th Chronicle

Philip Birkby is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University with a BFA in Theatrical Design. He has toured Europe, Asia and North America with such shows as Arthur: A live musical adventure, Porgy and Bess and Blast. He has also lived and worked in theatre in Boston, Los Angeles and Washington DC before settling in Vancouver. He designed the lighting for Donna Redlick Dance’s Blood from Stone in 2018 and Salome Nieto’s Impermanent Flower in 2022. Additionally, Philip works as a lighting designer at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, working with the resident community dance companies Youth in Motion and Continuum, the long-term dance programs and supporting artists in residency. He is excited to be working with Salome Nieto providing lighting design for her MFA graduating project, The 13th Chronicle.

Barbara Bourget is the Artistic Director of Kokoro Dance and Co-producer of the Vancouver International Dance Festival. Barbara has performed ballet, contemporary dance, and butoh for the past 59 years with dance companies, including the Vancouver Ballet Society, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Mountain Dance, Paula Ross Dance Company, Judith Marcuse Dance Projects, EDAM, and Kokoro Dance. Barbara and her life partner, Jay Hirabayashi, have choreographed over 200 dance works, including 85 full-evening stage and site-specific productions. Barbara has taught contemporary dance for the past 46 years. Barbara has a Master of Fine Arts degree from Simon Fraser University and received the City of Vancouver’s Mayor’s Arts Award in Dance in 2011. In October of 2022, Barbara and Jay were inducted into the Dance Collection Danse Hall of Fame for their 35 years of creative work with Kokoro Dance and their 23 years of support for the Canadian dance community through the Vancouver International Dance Festival. www.kokorodance.com

Carl Craig has played music since age fifteen when he started performing with various bands and later studied music in the Jazz Studies program at Capilano University. Early on, he became more interested in creating sound design and composing for theatre instead of touring with bands, and worked with the Deep Cove Theatre and collaborated with writer John McGie on numerous projects, including a two-hour rock opera, Thomas, which premiered at the Centennial Theatre in early 2005. In 2003, Carl began working on films with film maker Diane Farnsworth, and wrote the musical scores for Smorgasbord and Dueling Lotus, which toured the US circuit as part of the New York Film & Video Festival, and screened at Cannes Marche du Film in 2004. Carl teamed up with dance artist Salome Nieto and Farnsworth, and wrote the hauntingly beautiful music score for film installation, La Esencia de mi Madre, which was shot in Mexico City and Vancouver, and performed at the Shadbolt Theatre in 2007. In the past decade, Carl has worked in audio books with Post Hypnotic Press, as well as writing music for film, including for Lemon Grass Studios, Clancy Dennehy, and Diane Farnsworth, and for documentary, 21^st Century Nun, and the short film, Espirito, and countless other projects.

Currently working in so-called Vancouver, Nicole Dreher (they/them) is a contemporary dance artist and performer currently in the process of completing their BFA at Simon Fraser University. They step into the studio each day with an open mind, and a willingness to be carried by the dance supported by functional and intuitive movement. As a queer artist and mental health advocate, their work is infused with global and personal experiences with the goal of their movement practice to exist as a pocket of joy despite everything.

Lauren Han is an artist and BFA student at the School for Contemporary Arts, born and raised in Mohkinstsis on Treaty 7 territory. They enjoy working in many mediums, but spend most of their time performing and devising in the theatrical discipline. The 13th Chronicle marks their first time dancing in front of people since they were very young. Lauren is deeply grateful for the generosity with which she has been welcomed into this work and equally grateful that you're here to be a part of it.

Kaitlyn La Vigne (she/her) was born in Vancouver and raised in Surrey, British Columbia, on the traditional territories of the Semiahmoo, Katzie, Kwikwetlem, Kwantlen, Qayqayt and Tsawwassen First Nations. Kaitlyn is continuing to explore and find curiosity in her own movement practice as well as her choreographic work as she moves through SFU’s dance program. Kaitlyn aspires to create and collaborate with other artists as a choreographer and mover in the professional dance scene.

Liz Oakley is a multidisciplinary artist who makes object-based performances, installations, and events in order to animate materials, text, sites, and situations. They are an arts educator, puppet designer, deviser, and puppeteer. Originally from New York City, they are currently living in so-called Vancouver pursuing an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at SFU. www.lizlizliz.com

Salome Nieto is a Vancouver-based dance artist known for her transformative works and evocative performances. Highly influenced by butoh, the cultural syncretism of Mexico and intersectional feminism, her research considers the significance of ritual and ceremony during process and in performance in the context of contemporary dance. The exploration of these intersections led her to the inception and creation of her solo work Camino al Tepeyac in 2011, and subsequently co-founding pataSola dance in 2013. In 2017, Nieto was awarded the Vancouver International Dance Festival Choreographic Award in recognition of her contribution to the art of contemporary dance as a solo artist. She has performed her work in Argentina, Canada, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Thailand. As an interpreter and collaborator, Nieto has worked prominently with Vancouver-based Kokoro Dance, Donna Redlick Dance, and Raven Spirit Dance. As an arts administrator, Nieto holds the position of Fine and Performing Arts Programmer for Dance at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts with the City of Burnaby in British Columbia, and is currently pursuing an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts in the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University. www.salomenieto.com

Curious about the gestures and connections that make us human, Bernice Paet (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist who delves into this theme in her designs, performances, and installation works. She lives and creates on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations and is currently a 4th year student in the Theatre Production and Design program at SFU. Bernice believes in pouring her love and care into the productions she works on and hopes to continue building her career doing so.

Jami Reimer is a musician, performing artist, composer, and educator from Treaty One Territory, Winnipeg, Canada. Her work spans genres of musical theatre, choral, and instrumental with an emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration. Jami has been active as a music educator, yoga instructor, and performing artist between Winnipeg, Canada, Lugano, Switzerland, and Cairo, Egypt. She is currently residing on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations as an MFA candidate at the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. jamireimer.weebly.com

Alberto Renteria Ibarra is a Mexican cinematographer with over thirty years of artistic experience in film and video photography. He graduated from the University Center for Cinematographic Studies CUEC – UNAM. Alberto has been part of collaborative projects that enjoy awards and recognition for scientific dissemination, such as the 2007 Crystal Screen Award for the scientific documentary Erosion, the 2005 Crystal Screen Award for the scientific documentary The Giants of Coahuila, the 1998 Honorable Mention in the area of natural sciences for the videos From the Rock to the Element and Los Tuxtlas at the 10th National Scientific Film and Video Festival of Morelia, Michoacan, the first place in Dissemination for Physiology of Everyday Life at the First National Festival of Medical Film and Video in 1992. VIDEOMED Mexico, D.F. was awarded the 1984 Ariel Award and the 1983 Special Prize at the Fifth Havana Festival by the Spanish Association of Scientific Film, Cuba, for the 16 mm documentary short we will find them.

Katherine Soucie is a Canadian/UK artist, designer, entrepreneur currently based in London, UK. Her research and practice is driven by a long-term engagement with sustainable fashion and textile processes with a focus on waste diversion, creative remanufacturing and regenerative design methods. She has worked within industry for over 20+ years and established her award winning zero waste design studio and label Sans Soucie in 2003 by developing a signature line of textiles, clothing and accessories out of textile waste (pre-consumer waste hosiery). Her work has been showcased, exhibited, sold and commissioned internationally in Canada, USA, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Australia, Hungary, Germany and the UK. www.sanssoucie.ca | www.katherinesoucie.com

Krystal Tsai is a Vancouver-based emerging artist born and raised in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. She places a strong interest in Gaga technique, contact improvisation and conceptual dance work. She is hoping to contribute her movement language to the community in the near future.

Anna Wang-Albini (she/they) is an emerging contemporary dance artist based in Vancouver BC on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Anna approaches choreography and the body as a way to hold texture, various subtexts, and knowledge. As they wrap up their BFA Honours in Dance, they continue to explore how to integrate other artistic mediums in their research, choreographic process, movement generation, and/or the form/presentation of their work.

Maddy Woodley is currently a first-year Production & Design student at SFU. While she has experience in Stage Management from high school, this will be Maddy’s first university level show in this position. She is incredibly grateful for the opportunity.