Presented through a cultural partnership with CMHC Granville Island
Pop Up Dances 2023
Featuring Salome Nieto, Kat Single-Dain of the Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret, Carla Alcántara, Chengxin Wei, Company 605, Raven Grenier, Babyface Brass, Alex Wells, Kelly McInnes, Tsatsu Stalqayu (Coastal Wolf Pack). Hosted by Nick Gold (Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg).
Saturday, September 23 & Sunday, September 24, 12pm - 4pm | FREE
Granville Island Venue Partners: Origins Coffee, Ron Basford Park & Granville Island Theatre District, Dundarave Print Shop, Arts Umbrella, Ocean Artworks.
Expect the unexpected as intriguing and exhilarating dances pop up in unusual spaces across Granville Island. In celebration of New Works 30th Anniversary, Pop Up Dances will feature 30 performances over the two days involving more than 30 artists!
Pop Up Dances are site-specific performances that celebrate dance in all its forms. From Indigenous Hoop Dance to tap and contemporary dance, Pop Up Dances is a smorgasbord of creativity that audiences of all ages will enjoy. This outdoor event will take place rain or shine and is free to attend.
How to Pop Up
As an audience member, there are a few different ways to take in Pop Up Dances. Come on down to Granville Island this weekend and start exploring!
Join a Hosted Audience Experience
Audiences are invited to join Pop Up Dances host Nick Gold (Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg), who will expertly guide the group across Granville Island to each of the five site-specific performances. If you want to be sure not to miss a show, alongside Nick's brilliant commentary, this is the Pop Up style for you!
Hosted experiences depart from Ron Basford Park at 12pm, 1:30pm, and 3pm on Saturday and Sunday. The full route (.4km over 65 minutes) includes five stops to take in the five performances, and finishes at Dundarave Print Workshop. The route is wheelchair and stroller accessible, with very limited seating at each venue. Please reach out to info@newworks.ca, 604.893.8807 or message us on social media if you have further questions about access.
Find Nick Gold (Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg) and the Pop Up audience, in real time, by clicking the button above. Note this button will NOT be live until September 23 and 24 at 12pm, when the first show begins!
Explore the Island on Your Own
Come on down to Granville Island anytime, and pop in to the next show of your choice! Audience members are welcome to step in and out of the hosted experience, or make their own way to the next performance of their choosing.
This is a great way to take in as much Pop Up Dance as you want, or even circle back to see your favourite shows again!
Meet the artists, and learn more about the site-specific works they will be sharing, below!
And don't forget to keep an eye on our social media, where we'll do our best to keep you updated throughout the weekend!
Meet the Artists
SALOME NIETO
Artist Bio
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 performance in 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 held 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 for ten years and is currently a graduate candidate pursuing an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts in the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University. www.salomenieto.com // Photo by Yvonne Chew.
About the Work
"Levity" - The impetus for this site-specific performance is the incredible migration that the Monarch Butterfly undertakes, journeying for over four generations across 5,000 kilometres through the forests of the Northern Hemisphere, albeit its lightweight and fragility. // Choreography and Performance: Salome Nieto (Canada) - Music: Alex Garrido (Chile) - Costume: Katherine Soucie (London).
CARLA ALCANTARA
Artist Bio
Carla Alcántara is a Mexican multidisciplinary artist, emerging choreographer, photographer, videographer, and educator. Born and raised in Mexico City and moved to Canada in 2021. Director of TEMPO Dance & Visual Art, a project-based company that collaborates with different artists, mixing contemporary dance and visual art to create meaningful yet accessible art to express, communicate and connect with people. Carla has performed and participated in creative processes of artists, choreographers, and companies, including “Lux Boreal” (Tijuana, Mexico), “8 Proyecto GATO” (Mexico City), “ARCOS Dance (Austin, TX), "Nohbords" (Mexico
City), "La Silla Danza" (Tijuana, Mexico), Charlotte Boye-Christensen (Vancouver,
Canada), VLACC (Vancouver, Canada), and in festivals like “Spring Works” (Ontario,
Canada) “Without Walls” (San Diego, Ca), 12 Min Max (Vancouver, Canada), SIBU
International Dance Festival (Malaysia), “Cuerpo al Descubierto” (Mexico City),
"Trolley Dances"/ San Diego Dance Theatre, “Cuerpos en Tránsito” (Tijuana), among others. // Photo by Carols Varela.
About the Work
"DRIVE". DRIVE is a contemporary dance solo choreographed and performed by the artist Carla Alcantara. This movement performance is driven by the concept of holding the reins of our lives. It aims to offer a space for self-reflection to navigate through our motivational practices, generate empathy with others while understanding the different meanings of success and happiness, and bring awareness about the importance of decision-making in life.
KAT SINGLE-DAIN/THE DUSTY FLOWERPOT CABARET
Artist Bio
Perhaps best known in town as the Artistic Executive Director of The Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret Society, named one of “Vancouver’s best kept secrets” by the CBC, Kat is an award-winning filmmaker, critically acclaimed performer and writer/director/choreographer of five full-length, original theatre productions, and an event producer since 2005 best known for leading the Parade of Lost Souls since 2013. Kat can be seen on a regular basis throughout BC as the well-loved over-the-hill chorus girl Gloria from Gloria's Happy Hour, and has recently taken up hosting comedic speed dating as Gloria at the Dusty Flowerpot’s home base studio theatre. As a musician, you may see her playing brass with Balkan Shmalkan, singing vocals with Blackberry Wood, percussion with the Dusty House Band, or tap dancing with The Myrtle Sisters. Her most recent two original creations couldn’t be any different from each other yet both have been receiving rave reviews, and selling out houses - Call Me CC is a musical starring Climate Change as the lead character, and Disco Inferno was an interactive disco musical that took Vancouver by storm this April. Read more on Kat in the Georgia Straight’s article this month. // Photo by Seamus Sullivan.
BABYFACE BRASS
Artist Bio
Babyface Brass has been busking with high energy and danceable music on the streets of Vancouver for over 14 years. They play a modern and exciting mix of jazz, world music, New Orleans second line, hip hop, and funk. Defying expectations, musical genres, and bylaws, Babyface Brass is Vancouver’s premier street jazz and party band with an ensemble that regularly ranges from 4 to 12 musicians including horns, drums, bass, and tap dancers. Joined by tap dancing group "From the Soul" around 2011, the spectacle only grew until the groups merged under the single moniker. Babyface Brass is led by experienced working local musicians, Ashton Sweet, Mike WT Allen, Kenan Sungur, Alex Taylor, and Rhys Arrieta. Vancouver’s best kept secret on a sidewalk near you!
TSATSU STALKQAYU (Coastal Wolf Pack)
Company Bio
Tsatsu Stalqayu, started with our Ta’ah’s dream to show the world who we are as Coast Salish People. Just as wolves travel in packs and work together to flourish in life, our group runs with one heart and one mind. From the eldest to the youngest, we encourage each other to stand strong in the face of adversity by consistently practicing our cultural ways of living. Teaching our children the songs, dances, and stories will keep our traditions alive for generations to come. We take pride in who we are and what we do. Our hope now is to continue representing the Coast Salish culture to the best of our ability, within the respected boundaries, so that all nations can enjoy the beauty we have to share.
COMPANY 605
Company Bio
Led by artistic co-directors Lisa Mariko Gelley and Josh Martin, Company 605 is an arts organization based in Vancouver, Canada on the traditional, ancestral, and 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 rigorous choreographic propositions and movement invention, building physically demanding work that juxtaposes raw with precision, and highlights 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.
About the Work
"Streaming" -
Streaming is an ephemeral duet playing on the precipice of digital. Witness two beings in temporary states of connection and groove, as they ascend and descend toward and away from their human forms.
KELLY MCINNES
Artist Bio
Gratefully based on the unceded Coast Salish territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations, Kelly McInnes is a settler of Irish, Scottish & British ancestry. She is a queer contemporary dance artist concerned with embodying care, sensuality, and complexity. As choreographer, performer and community-engaged facilitator, the intention of her work is to inspire collective healing. Often collaborative and site specific, Kelly's work has been presented in Canada, Berlin and Mexico. Her Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy practice powerfully inspires her artistic process. Community-engagement is integral to her practice. Since 2015, Kelly has facilitated community classes and collaborative creative processes with over 100 youth, adults and seniors. kellymcinnes.com // Photo by Yvonne Chew
About the Work
"Broken Clouds" experiences of eco-grief and reconnecting to spirit inspire Kelly McInnes’ poetic dance contemplation. // Creative Support: Jackson Tegu, Maxine Chadburn.
ALEX WELLS
Artist Bio
Alex Wells is part of the Lil'wat Nation from Mount Currie, BC. Performance has been his way of life since children sharing our culture through song and dance. The Hoop Dance is what he specializes in. A storytelling dance, or creation of life, Alex began telling his story of the Hoop Dance at the age of 12 being part of the world events Like Calgary Stampede, 2010 Winter Olympics, and the National finals rodeo in Vegas. Alex, quotes culture saves lives. We are the first nations people of Canada.
CHENGXIN WEI
Artist Bio
Chengxin graduated from the Beijing Dance Academy in 1997, where he studied
classical Chinese dance for eleven years, and received his Bachelors of Fine Arts degree.
He is a former principal dancer of the Guangdong Provincial Dance Theatre, and since
2000, he has appeared with numerous Canadian dance companies including Ballet British
Columbia, Anatomica, Company Erasga, EDAM, Judith Marcuse Projects, Joe Ink, the
Lorita Leung Dance Company, Mandala Arts and Culture, MovEnt, and Wen Wei Dance.
In 2004, Chengxin co-founded Moving Dragon, a contemporary dance company that
focuses on cross-cultural fusion between Eastern and Western dance styles. He is the
2007 Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award recipient, and the 2009 recipient of
the David Leighton Arts Fellowship Award from the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
Chengxin hold his MFA degree in dance at the University of Washington, where he was
awarded the 2010 Art Fellowship Challenge Grant. From 2012-2014, he was a Visiting
Assistant Professor at Ohio University’s School of Dance. Chengxin has taught as a
sessional instructor at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts and is
currently on faculty at Lorita Leung Dance Academy.
RAVEN GRENIER
Artist Bio
Raven is a fourth year First Nations Indigenous Studies student at UBC, Artistic and Administrative Assistant for the Dancers of Damelahamid, and an emerging multidisciplinary artist. With a background in traditional Gitxsan dance, and pow wow she is a contemporary Indigenous dance artist, song composer, and visual artist in formline design. Her work is available at Lattimer gallery in Vancouver and through her instagram @ravens_creations_.
About the Work
"Spanochnonga" - Spanochnonga is a response to Alicia Elliot's a Mind Spread Out On the
Ground, and is an interpretation of experiences with mental health
disorders of schizophrenia and seeing/hearing voices and nochnonchns
or spirit beings. // Performer, Song, and Spoken Word: Raven Grenier -
Sound Design: Ted Hamilton, Scope - Sound Mentorship: Edzi'u -
Regalia: Rebecca Baker-Grenier -
Collaborating Interpreters: Atamira Dance Company - Dramaturgy: Charles Koroneho, Margaret Grenier - Formline Nail Art: Waaynewi7 day spa
NICK GOLD (Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg - Host)
Artist Bio
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 De Lupo, Ruby Slippers, The Firehall Arts Centre, 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, 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. Tara lives on the unceded Coast Salish territories with her partner composer Marc Stewart and their child Jasper. www.taracheyenne.com
Top photo: Kat Single-Dain / Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret, photo by Nayana Feilkov.