NW Spotlight | A Reflection on New Works Cohort 2025 by Paper Rabbits
New Works Spotlight
A look inside our multifaceted, value-driven, community-responsive service organization
Beyond performances and programs, New Works is part of a living, evolving dance ecosystem. This monthly blog series highlight the unseen moments—the collaborations, reflections, and shifts that shape our community. It’s about the ripples of artist support, learning, and shared growth. Each story offers a glimpse into the evolving needs of the dance community and how we respond.
NW Spotlight | A Reflection on New Works Cohort 2025
by Paper Rabbits (Nathan Coburn, Elle Derkitt, Sophia Makarenko)
It was a dark and stormy night… And we had just graduated Arts Umbrella’s Post- Secondary Dance Program… a few months prior actually. It was November 2023. We were experiencing a peak point of uncertainty and instability in our short time as fresh emerging artists with nothing to grab a hold of except for each other. Thus Paper Rabbits was formed.
Beginning a career in unknown territory (freelance) when you were given incredible tools for something else (dance company) is terrifying. We had so many questions. What are we doing here? Who is auditioning? Why do we dance? What if we make the wrong decision? Should we stay or should we go? Are we running out of time? What????? *panic* These questions combined with being in our early twenties, it was all too much to handle on our own. Seldom opportunities were arising and we didn’t know where to look, yet somehow we had a lot to say but no where to say it. We decided to navigate this turmoil through togetherness, resulting in creating something of our own.
PROM NITE was our first collective work, premiering at Kitsilano Neighbourhood House on August 2, 2024 with the help of a Youth Neighbourhood Small Grant. The more time we spent together at each other’s houses talking and philosophizing and scheming, we came to the conclusion that we shared a collective drive and value system of who we wanted to be in the world and what we wanted to produce. We each felt that we were missing improvisation and creative play in our artistic practices. Universal themes of identity, femininity, passing of time, and confrontation resonated across the board. Through shared studio space, midnight rehearsals outdoors, and sheer desire, we created characters, a score, a set, posters, website and had an audience, therefore a performance. Later we learned from New Works that this is called producing your own show.
Left to right- Elle Derkitt, Nathan Coburn, Sophia Makarenko (Leif Pearson)
Putting on our own show was an immense high. But, following that experience we had a ton of questions about how to do this long term with more resources and efficiency. Essentially, now what? That’s when we received a DM from Marco (New Works Community Engagement Manager) saying that we should apply to the New Works Cohort 2025.
The application process helped us nail down the specific support we were looking for. We didn't have the tools or resources to facilitate our big ideas. We often felt like we were walking in the dark. Everything felt makeshift and DIY. We began to establish questions and specific goals:
- How do we communicate ideas more effectively in terms of marketing and grant writing? - What specific language should we use? What are keywords of legal language? - Tech rider???????
- Finance. Applying for grants, budgeting, and funding.
- How do we budget when we have no money?
- We produced our own show but don’t know what that means.
- How to write timelines. What even is strategic planning?
We needed more support to understand what is happening in the Vancouver and Canadian arts sector.
New Works generously tailored the topics of discussion and learning objectives to the specific needs of the cohort. Our experience primarily focused on grant writing and financial support. The topics we covered included grant writing, budgeting, marketing, non-profit structures, music licensing, and tech riders.
During this program, we chose to work through writing and submitting the “Project Assistance for Performing Arts - Collectives” grant through BCAC. It was a significant undertaking for us as we had experience writing applications for various showcases, residencies, and other opportunities, but had never tackled a BCAC grant. Part of this program was one on one time with a mentor from the New Works team. We were privileged to work with Jason Dubois. Working with Jason was literally the best. We had endless questions, and anytime we were curious about a detail or unsure of our next steps, Jason knew exactly what to do.
It was because of Jason’s mentorship and this program that we were able to submit a grant that we felt was articulated, researched, and heartfelt. We ended up submitting the grant at Brekka on 4th and Alma at 4:00am in May 2025. Afterwards, we felt delirious and walked to our respective homes as no buses were running. It was a very satisfying (though depleting) experience.
This cohort provided us with an overwhelming amount of support and information that we are still processing and will be processing for years to come. We continuously reference our notes when applying for new things and when expanding into new territory. Studying under New Works left us with the ability to tackle elements of production and logistics of running a collective with much more ease, joy, and knowledge. We are developing an understanding of the importance of specialized knowledge in different fields of performing arts. New Works has given us enormous confidence in our practice, especially as a new collective. This is affirming of the work we have already done. This program truly is essential to anyone looking to navigate the Canadian arts ecosystem.
We have established some of our defining values which include a sense of community and belonging. We are becoming more integrated into Vancouver’s dance community, and this is a beautiful thing. Through understanding the dance ecosystem, and how this connects to the world at large, we feel even more in awe of what our colleagues and friends are doing. Being a part of the community that New Works has cultivated has been pivotal in connecting us to Vancouver’s dance landscape. It’s a pleasure to know other artists and their practice. As we run around the city dancing, creating, teaching, and seeing our friends' shows, it’s always a pleasure to bump into fellow cohort alumni.
Moments after submitting The Grant (Nathan Coburn)
We would like to share some personal milestones that the completion of the cohort facilitated:
- For PROM NITE (epilogue) we created a queue to queue, mailing list, and schedule. During the creation of this piece, we better understood the technicalities of production and artistic process on a very grassroots level.
- We hired and paid our first collaborators for PROM NITE (epilogue), and navigated music licensing and finances between collective members in an efficient, legal way.
- Right now we are in the midst of preparing our show DOUBLE BILL, which will premiere on November 30 at Kitsilano Neighbourhood House.
One day, our team will expand and we won’t have to do everything ourselves for free:)
Please feel free to visit our website! www.thepaperrabbits.ca
From Belle Spirale’s Dance Deck Residency 2025- (Nathan Coburn)
About Paper Rabbits
Established in 2023, Paper Rabbits is an experimental dance collective based in Vancouver, Canada. Founded by Elle Derkitt, Nathan Coburn and Sophia Makarenko, the work of the collective attests to the portrayal of temporality, feminism and surrealism and how it is investigated through dance theater. Invested in contributing to the Canadian art scene, Paper Rabbits is determined to expand and redefine how dance is perceived. Nathan, Elle and Sophia met through the Arts Umbrella Post-Secondary Dance Diploma Program and have been dancing and working together since 2021. In 2022, they were participants of Arts Umbrella's Young Choreographer Mentorship Showcase led by Crystal Pite which instigated their development in creation process. Now working together as a collective, these artists are pushing the range of physicality and artistry through interdisciplinary work. Paper Rabbits has produced their own show PROM NITE at Kitsilano Neighbourhood House, was a part of New Works Cohort 2025, and premiered PROM NITE (epilogue) at Belle Spirale’s Dance Deck 2025. Paper Rabbits aims to foster community while striving to make a lasting impact.
Why New Works Spotlights?
New Works delivers many unique programs, in many different ways, in support of many communities of artists. If you’ve ever asked a New Works staff member, “so, what does New Works do exactly?”, you’ve likely been met with a rambling run on sentence and a laundry list of exciting programs and projects that we have on the go. Up close it may look a little messy, but take a step back and you will see the container: all of our work exists in response to current gaps in the needs of the dance community. This looks like performance opportunities, partnership and collaboration, professional development, teaching engagements, mentorship, skills training, and many more. And we are just one small piece of this vitally diverse dance milieu.
We envision a healthy artist-centred arts ecosystem where connection, collaboration, and opportunity is celebrated beyond the container of our own organization. Through this ongoing blog series, we invite you to join us in witnessing artist experience through and beyond New Works programs, and in celebration of our living, breathing, shared communities.