Essays from Made in BC’s 2019 Creative Residency
Katie Cassady: participating in Made in BC’s 2020 Creative Residency
Made in BC: Dance on Tour’s Creative Residency was born in 2019 of the need to explicitly support Canadian BIPOC dance artists. Running from April through November, the residency provided free rehearsal space, mentorship and paid performance opportunities for three local emerging dance artists of colour. In May 2020, Made in BC published a booklet of essays written by Natalie Tin Yin Gan, Emily Dundas Oke and Simran
Sachar in response to the work created by the 2019 residency participants, Eric Cheung, Kristy Janvier and Zahra Shahab. The writers spent nearly a year working with the dance artists. “The texts are a record of this passing of time, and of the care and respect that emerged through the collaboration,” writes Sadira Rodrigues in her editor’s note at the top of the booklet, which is now available online for free.
Eric Cheung is a Chinese Canadian dance artist born and raised in Calgary who specializes in street dance and popping. Kristy Janvier is a contemporary/Indigenous dancer who was born and raised in Flin Flon and is of Dene (English River First Nation), English/Irish and Ukrainian descent. Zahra Shahab is an independent dance artist and choreographer who explores spirituality, identity and death through her work; she lives on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish people.
Find the essays, inspired by their work >> madeinbc.org/ creative-residency
The 2020 residency participants are Jessica McMann, a Cree (Cowessess, Saskatchewan) musician, contemporary dancer and choreographer; Josh Ongcol, a Dubai-born, Queer Filipinx artist; and Katie Cassady, a Vancouver-based dancer, teacher and choreographer.
Dylan Schoenmakers profiles Cassady on the following page.