2026-27 Application Updates

Thank you for Applying to New Works' Call for Applications 2026-27! 

About five months ago, November 2026, we opened our call for applications to our annual summer series All Over The Map on Granville Island (8 spots) and Studio and Theatre Residencies (3 spots). Over the next month and a half we received over 100 applications! Thank you once again to every artist who took the time to apply; the Programming Staff Team and Program Advisory Committee carefully read and considered all eligible application and acknowledge the time, passion, and creative energy poured into each and every application. We always wrap up this process feeling excited, inspired, and bittersweet that we're not able to support the many, many deserving applicants. 

“This is now my fourth year as Program Director at New Works and every year I am amazed by the amount of applications we receive.  This year was no exception.  Each year, the numbers continue to rise of artists applying to our Call for Applications and with interest, this year marked the most applications we have ever received from artists nationally and internationally.  While it is clear that technology is making the world an even smaller place with its search engines and AI tools, I also feel that it is also a reflection of artists in our time looking for meaningful connections and opportunities.  The process we undertake each year with our Advisory Committee always provides our team with invaluable insight and the time and care our members took to review each application was heartwarming to say the least.  When there is so much uncertainty in our world, it impresses upon me the privilege that we have at New Works to witness and support the artists that we do.  And through this process, my sincere hope is that New Works is an approachable organization where artists can feel seen and supported, even if their project and/or work is not selected at present.”

Amber Barton, Programming Director

Congratulations to the 2026-27 selected Artists

All Over the Map:

Arno Kamolika & Akshaya SurveBryn Bridgen, Lineea Goldstrom & Piper FrenchJayden GigliottiJes HanzelkovaJoanne ParkMario MatiasSatya Mari & Max HanicSruthi Purusothaman & Remya Rajiv

Artists in Residence:

Alexa Mardon & Erika Mitsuhashi (Theatre)Alexandra Caprara (Theatre)Dr T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss (Studio)Salome Nieto (Studio) 

Vidya Kotamraju (Runner up - Bocci Studio Space Program support) 

Carla Alcántara & Marco Esccer (Runner up - Bocci Studio Space Program support) 

 

Keep an eye on our website as more information is shared about these exciting artists and their upcoming performances over the next few months!

Thank You to the Programming Advisory Committee

Huge thanks to our generous and thoughtful Programming Advisory Committee who carefully reviewed every application! Their attention to detail, care and consideration, and professional insights and personal experience, was hugely valued throughout our application review process. We greatly appreciate their insights, feedback, and time over the last month. 

 

How is the Programming Advisory Committee chosen? 

The Programming Advisory Committee is made up of four independent dance artists working across genre and form who are engaged to bring their perspective and experience to the application review process. They advise the New Works staff and make suggestions on selections, though New Works staff are responsible for all final programming decisions. The role of the Advisory Committee ensures that New Works staff consider different perspectives and artists that they may not be aware of, invites practitioners of different dance styles to share their expertise, and holds space for a diversity of perspective that may not be represented within the staff body. 

Each individual is invited to serve on the Advisory Committee for a maximum of two years. After which point they are asked to nominate another artist to take their place. Through this process, we welcome artist perspectives as selected and valued by their peers. 

 

2026-27 Programming Advisory Committee

Juan Imperial

Bio
Juan Imperial is a Filipino, Queer artist, teacher and community leader with roots in vogue and waacking. Since the age of 14, Juan has been dedicated to uplifting and supporting the queer street dance scene and local queer, trans and BIPOC youth. Juan has taught at VanVogueJam, FORM film festival, SFU, UBC, and Emily Carr among other spaces across Vancouver. His dance practice involves the merging of contemporary, street dance and spirituality, studying in programs such as Modus Operandi’s Link program. In the Canadian ballroom scene, Juan has won over 22 grand prizes across their nearing decade long career. Juan is the first ever Butch Queen Vogue Femme and Hands Performance of the year and has been instrumental in raising the third generation of Vancouver's vogue scene.

romham gallacher

Bio
romham pàdraig gallacher: i'm an independent crip dancer & choreographer learning what new/ awkward/ beautiful creations and connections we can make by exploring the peripheries of ever-changing tangled/ disagreeable/ inconvenient dancing bodies; bringing our insides out, mapping them, then undoing and imagining different borderless futures together.

Simran Sachar

Bio
Simran Sachar is a choreographer, dancer, teacher, writer, and actor who currently dedicates time to their artistic practice in Vancouver, Canada on the unceded, ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. A captivating anomaly in contemporary, commercial, and street dance, her work, rooted in her lineage and lived experiences, bends W*acking towards the grotesque and the spiritual, using rhythm to carry what endures. She works across TV/film, theatre, XR, and public art. Recent highlights include co-choreographing Today is the evening to strike lightning (Indian Summer Festival, 2025), co-directing These hands are still at work (Surrey Art Gallery), premiering her XR film The Edge of The Underworld (2024), and her live work ACT TWENTY FIVE. Her films BETA बेटा and LUNACY have screened nationally, with LUNACY earning an Audience Choice Award.

Shahir Krishna

Bio
Shahir Krishna is a multidisciplinary artist, holistic educator, restorative yoga teacher, somatic counselor, and integral facilitator. His current life's work is to support all beings to restore a loving connection with themselves, communities, and earth through community-based arts education. He holds a master’s degree in Contemplative Education from SFU and a bachelor’s degree in Film and Cultural Studies from McGill. His practice weaves insights from Buddhism, animism and developmental psychology, offering encounters with the uncanny wisdom inside each of us. He was born in Malawi, with ancestry hailing from Karnataka and Gujarat, India. Shahir was part of the DanceWest‘s “Re/centering Margins” Dance Residency 2024, and was Indian Summer Festival’s Community Artist in Residence for 2025.

Top Banner: Madeleine Cruz & Mia Pelayo, Photo: Carla Alcántara.