Our personalized coaching program is available to artists who wish to upgrade their knowledge and skills in management and administration. In a series of individual meetings, participants can go more deeply into questions regarding their artistic projects with the help and collaboration of the New Works Staff.
In 2020, we worked with 3 artists/groups: Avery Smith, Erika Mitsuhashi and TWObigsteps collective.
Technical Residencies: In September 2020, all three artists/collectives received additional support from New Works through a technical residency at the Waterfront Theatre in Vancouver. Learn more about these residencies here: www.newworks.ca/technical-residencies-september-2020/
About the artists:
Avery Smith
Avery Smith is a dance artist living and working on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tseil-Waututh First Nations of Vancouver, BC. Avery has danced in site specific and multimedia pieces for artists including Company 605, Compagnie Vision Impure, Farouche Collective, Kimberley de Jong, Emmalena Fredriksson, and others. Avery was associate artistic producer for Company 605 through 2018/19 and was the company’s artistic intern through 2017/18. She is a recipient of EDAM Dance’s training scholarship and was a selected participant in The Banff Centre’s Creative Gesture Collective Composition Lab for Music and Dance 2019. Avery uses her artistic practice to explore differing gradients of structure and freedom. She plays with scales of effort and ease within physical tasks, creative processes, and already existing dance infrastructure.
What are you working on and how has New Works supported you so far?
“I’m currently working to develop an interdisciplinary project involving movement, live music and text, with Montreal artists, Kimberley de Jong and Anna Atkinson. The grant-writing support and residency resources that New Works is providing has been incredibly helpful in the continued research and development of this collaborative project.“
📷 Photo by Mika Manning
TWObigsteps collective
TWObigsteps collective is a collective of like-minded dance artists who come together and create open artistic environments. We have the privilege to create, play and share on the unceded territories of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Səlílwətaɬ (Tsleil- Waututh), and xwməθkwəyəm (Musqueam) Nations. Since 2015, we have engaged in the dance community through producing, performing, and hosting works, and have been presented internationally, including Vancouver, San Francisco, and Montreal. We value collaboration across artistic disciplines, and aim to have this show up in both our work and artistic processes. The collective is POC, queer and trans- inclusive and acknowledges that each member has their own distinct cultural background and dance history. We use this diversity to engage with and strengthen different parts of the local and international dance communities.
What are you working on and how has New Works supported you so far?
“We are looking to engage with international presenters to further tour ‘Livespace’, a piece choreographed by Marissa Wong. New Works connections and administrative support has been helpful in taking the next steps with this piece“.
📷 Photo by Meaghan Gipps
Erika Mitsuhashi
Erika Mitsuhashi is a dance artist based in Vancouver, the unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam Nations. She holds a BFA in dance from SFU’s SCA. She has had the pleasure of interpreting the work of peers and artists including Justine A. Chambers, Ziyian Kwan, Sasha Kleinplatz, Rob Kitsos and Vanessa Goodman. As a maker, her practice spans disciplines using the body as a site for conceptual thematics including in-betweenness, intimacy, materiality of the body/spaces and DIY performance tactics. Erika’s work and collaborative projects have been presented locally and internationally by PAUL Studios Berlin, Toronto Love-In’s PS:We are All Here series, Surrey Art Gallery’s InFlux, Kinetic Studio’s Open Studio Series, New Works’s 2018/19 Season Launch and La Serre’s OFFTA festival of live art. Locally, she has ongoing collaborations with fellow dance artists Alexa Mardon (Mardon + Mitsuhashi), Francesca Frewer and Farouche collective (Mahaila Patterson-O’Brien and Felicia Lau).
What are you working on and how has New Works supported you so far?
“I am currently in early stages of developing some new small scale projects for live-streaming and digital platforms, in addition to a long term solo project called Making it up, where I take an abstract and personal investigation of identity and consumption of my mixed-raced personhood. New Works is providing me with meaningful support catered to my practice, in a moment where my practice has been on pause, re-activated and in-flux. I’m so grateful for the different streams of support thus far including grant writing clinics and administrative/producer mentorship.”
📷 Photo by Lula-Belle_Jedynak