The Middle of Everywhere
SCA Repertory Dancers
November 21 – 23, 2024
Fei & Milton Wong Experimental Theatre
149 W. Hastings St., Vancouver
Tickets: SFU Students $10 | Seniors + SFU Alumni / Faculty / Staff $15 | General $20
Join us for our annual SFU Fall Dance Repertory show 2024. This years program features an eclectic mix of four contemporary dance works exploring themes of boy band culture, prayer in motion, interiority and misperception, and nostalgic endurance.
We have an incredible line-up of Vancouver-based guest choreographers, including SCA MFA student Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, Company 605, and SCA faculty member Rob Kitsos. We are extremely excited to welcome renowned international New York-based guest artist Autumn Knight.
The evenings of works are performed by the SCA repertory student dancers, and supported by the SCA student production team.
Choreographers
Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, Company 605, Autumn Knight, and Rob Kitsos
Performers
Teddy Brubacher, Grace Byman, Daisy de Kroon, Gabi Johnson, Liz Kiss, Reese Magnayon, Claire Martin, Naz Özlü, Penelope Patterson, Elijah Sam, Larkin Schering, Amaru Seki, Kaliyah States, Avery Warren, Sarah Wilson, Clara Xu, Vivien Dang, Ruby Henderson, Sonja Kwantes, Hannah Latta, Emily Lee, Isabella Onorato, Ashley Sankaran-Wee, Katie Schauerte, Jeya Thiessen, Lachlan Harris-Fiesel, and Sara van Gaalen.
Production
Daisy Thompson: Dance Faculty Lead/Producer
Mohammadreza Akrami: Assistant to Dance Faculty and Lead/Producer
Kyla Gardiner: Production & Design Faculty Lead
Ben Rogalsky: SCA Technical Director
Emily Neumann: SCA Production/Events Manager
Students: Maddy Woodley (PM), Edison Cheung (TD), Mars de Menezes (TD), Czarina Agustines (TD), Albina Dyusenova (SM), Coco Zhou (LD), Jessica Kwon (ALD), Kirsi Jiao (SM), Sunny Lee (ASM), Hailey Gil (LD), Chloe Ng (ALD), Eva Zhou (SM), Sky Logan (ASM), Patrick Maka (SM), and Ellis Cho (ASM).
Special Thanks
Daisy Thompson, Mohammadreza Akrami, Kyla Gardiner, Brady Cranfield, Ben Rogalsky, Wladimiro A. Woyno Rodriguez, Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, Company 605, Autumn Knight, Rob Kitsos, and Vanessa Kwan.
Program
I AM BOYBAND
Manufactured masculinity, fame and desire, commodified youth all in the service of a beautiful monster.
Created and choreographed by: Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, with contributions from the cast.
Performers: Teddy Brubacher, Grace Byman, Gabi Johnson, Liz Kiss, Reese Magnayon, Claire Martin, Naz Özlü, Penelope Patterson, Elijah Sam, Larkin Schering, Kaliyah States, Avery Warren, Sarah Wilson, Vivien Dang, Hannah Latta, and Ashley Sankaran-Wee.
Sound design: Amy Su, Leif Nordby, Aidan Edwards, Stephanie Poon
Lighting Design: Hailey Gil
Additional info: Thank you to the dancers, Daisy Thompson and Caroline Liffmann for their expert notes and support.
Inheritor Album (Excerpt)
This is a section from a work made up of images and ideas around generational transition, and the intersecting nature of both what has been left behind, and what is being transformed or rebuilt as something new. The artists were thinking about how this plays across time, and how we move along trajectories, lineages and worn-in paths from those before us. Breaking apart a singular timeline, each moment in these parallel trajectories could contain an attempt to follow, connect, diverge, or tread a new route elsewhere.
Created and Produced by: Company 605. Remounted and Adapted by: Lisa Mariko Gelley / Josh Martin
Performers: Ruby Henderson, Amaru Seki, Clara Xu, Sonja Kwantes, Emily Lee, Isabella Onorato, Katie Schauerte, Jeya Thiessen, and Daisy de Kroon (understudy).
Sound Credits: Matthew Tomkinson / Kristen Roos
Lighting Design: Coco Zhou
Animation / Video Design: Miwa Matreyek
Inheritor Album was an early work of 605 Collective, directed by Lisa Mariko Gelley, Shay Kuebler, and Josh Martin. It was created and performed with additional original collaborators Laura Avery, Justine A Chambers, and David Raymond. The full-length album evolved into a 60 minute work, with a 6 performer ensemble alongside animation and video by Miwa Matreyek, and projection programming by Wladimiro A. Woyno Rodriguez. It premiered in 2012 at Dancing on the Edge Festival (The Playhouse / Vancouver), then onto Canada Dance Festival (NAC / Ottawa), and toured internationally.
Fast Walker
Black interiority, irony, surveillances, delusion, bondage, liberation, Sancho.
Choreographer/Director: Autumn Knight
Performers: Teddy Brubacher, Grace Byman, Daisy de Kroon, Gabi Johnson, Liz Kiss, Reese Magnayon, Claire Martin, Naz Özlü, Penelope Patterson, Elijah Sam, Larkin Schering, Amaru Seki, Kaliyah States, Avery Warren, Sarah Wilson, Clara Xu, Vivien Dang, Ruby Henderson, Sonja Kwantes, Hannah Latta, Emily Lee, Isabella Onorato, Ashley Sankaran-Wee, Katie Schauerte, and Jeya Thiessen.
Sound Design: Mohammadreza Akrami
Lighting Design: Hailey Gil
Scratch
From restraint to nostalgic indulgence for that song
Choreography: Rob Kitsos and Performers
Performers: Ruby Henderson, Lachlan Harris-Fiesel, Isabella Onorato, Katie Schauerte, Sara Van Gaalen + special guests.
Music: Rob Kitsos
Hall and Oats Projection: Rob Kitsos
Lighting Design: Coco Zhou
Additional info: Special thanks to Lorraine Kitsos, Daniel Weintraub, Anthony Austin, Irfan Brkovic, and Stefan Smulovitz.
Biographies
Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg is an award-winning creator, performer, choreographer, director, writer, and artistic director of Tara Cheyenne Performance, working across disciplines in film, dance, theatre, and experimental performance. She is renowned as a trailblazer in interdisciplinary performance and as a mighty performer "who defies categorization on any level." Along with her own creations, Tara has collaborated with many theatre companies and artists, including: Zee Zee Theatre, Bard on the Beach, ItsaZoo Theatre, The Arts Club, Boca Del Lupo, Ruby Slippers, The Firehall Arts Centre, and Vertigo Theatre (Calgary).
With a string of celebrated solo shows to her credit (including bANGER, Goggles, Porno Death Cult, I can’t remember the word for I can’t remember, Body Parts, and Pants), multidisciplinary collaborations, commissions and boundary bending ensemble creations, Tara's work is celebrated both nationally and internationally. Tara is known for her unique and dynamic hybrid of dance, comedy, and theatre. She is sought after for creating innovative movement for theatre and has performed her full-length solos and ensemble works around the world (highlights: DanceBase/Edinburgh, South Bank Centre/London, On the Boards/Seattle USA, High Performance Rodeo/Calgary, etc.). Her most recent solo, Body Parts, premiered at The Cultch in May and is currently on tour. Current research focuses include gender, the attention economy and neuroscience, and aging. Tara lives on the unceded Coast Salish territories with her partner, composer Marc Stewart, and their child Jasper.
Led by artistic co-directors Lisa Gelley and Josh Martin, Company 605 is an arts organization based in Vancouver, on the unceded Indigenous territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Producing various dance projects and performances through shared creative process, the artists place emphasis on movement invention and physically demanding works, juxtaposing raw with precision, and highlighting effort, risk and interconnection. 605 is an ongoing exchange between separate people, bodies and ideas, recognizing and celebrating the unique possibilities created in their attempt to co-exist. Valuing collaboration as an essential tool for new directions in dance, Company 605 continues to awaken a fresh and ever-evolving aesthetic, together building a highly athletic art form derived from the human experience.
With roots as a dance collective, the company was founded in 2009, and now has an expanding repertoire of diverse works and interdisciplinary collaborations. 605 has performed from coast to coast in over 30 cities across Canada, as well as in the US, Central America, Europe, Asia and Australia, presented at many notable festivals and venues such as: American Dance Festival (Durham, NC), New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival, Usine-C (Montréal), L’Agora de la Danse (Montréal), La Rotonde (Québec City), DanceWorks (Toronto), Live Art Dance (Halifax), The Banff Centre, On The Boards (Seattle), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco), Bumbershoot Festival (Seattle), Festival PRISMA (Panama), HebelHalle Heidelberg, Tempel Kulturzentrum (Karlsruhe, Germany), and Sydney Festival (Australia).
605’s co-directors have also created commissioned works for several other dance companies, including Vancouver’s acclaimed Ballet BC (Anthem, 2017), and their collaborations with filmmakers have allowed 605’s work to be shared globally, with award-winning short dance films shown at over 45 dance-on-screen festivals around the world.
Autumn Knight is an interdisciplinary artist working with performance, installation, video and text. Her performance work has been on view at various institutions including DiverseWorks Artspace, Art League Houston, Project Row Houses, Blaffer Art Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum, Skowhegan Space (NY), The New Museum, The Contemporary Art Museum Houston, Optica (Montreal, Canada), The Poetry Project (NY) and Krannart Art Museum (IL), The Institute for Contemporary Art (VCU), Human Resources Los Angeles (HRLA) and Akademie der Kunste, (Berlin). Knight has been an artist in residence with with In-Situ (UK), Galveston Artist Residency, YICA (Yamaguchi, Japan), Artpace (San Antonio, TX) and a 2016-2017 artist in residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem (NY). Knight is the recipient of an Artadia Award (2015) and an Art Matters Grant (2018). She has served as visiting artist at Montclair State University, Princeton University and Bard College. Her performance work is held in the permanent collection of the Studio Museum in Harlem. She attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2016) and holds an M.A. in Drama Therapy from New York University.
Rob Kitsos is a dancer, teacher, performing artist, musician, and choreographer who has performed across North America, Europe and Asia. As a maker, Rob has created over 100 original works, many of which include collaborations with artists from a range of disciplines. Along with movement-based work- Rob works with video and sound and materials with a range of collaborators. As a teacher Rob has worked at Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Washington and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. In 2004, Rob joined the faculty of Simon Fraser University in the School for the Contemporary Arts. He teaches contemporary technique, composition, repertory, interdisciplinary collaboration, and improvisation in performance. Rob received his BA in Theatre/Dance from Bard College and his MFA in Dance from the University of Washington in 1997.