Company 605

The SCA's Iris Garland Guest Artist this semester is Vancouver's own Company 605. Artistic Directors Josh Martin and Lisa Gelley-Martin have been working with the SCA's dance and theatre areas on a large-scale, collaborative production, Topofilia, which will premiere March 20. Find out more here.

The Iris Garland Dance Program Enhancement Fund was established by James Felter in memory of Iris Garland, professor of dance and founding member of the School for the Contemporary Arts. The fund was developed to bring national and internationally recognized dance artists to the area to work with the dance students in the SCA. We are extremely grateful to James Felter for his continued generous contribution to the School for the Contemporary Arts. Other Iris Garland Artists have included: KT Neihoff (Seattle), Serge Bennathan (Vancouver), Mark Haim (Seattle), Colin Conner (New York), Helen Blackburn (Montreal), Mui Cheuk-Yin (Hong Kong), and Yossi Berg and Oded Graf (Israel).

Company 605 is a Vancouver-based dance company dedicated to producing new dance work through a shared creative process. As part of a generation of creators inspired by the exchange between urban and contemporary dance, Company 605 places emphasis on movement innovation and physically demanding works, valuing collaboration as an essential tool for new directions in the form. With the group’s extreme versatility, the collective creates by using one another as the canvas for their ideas and visions, and invites guest choreographers to make new work with the company. Through constant collaboration with all involved artists and performers, Company 605 continues to push into new territories and awaken a fresh and exciting aesthetic, together building a highly athletic art form, with extreme physicality derived from the human experience.