Presented in partnership with the Vancouver Public Library

International Dance Day on Screen

A selection of shorts from Vancouver creators
exploring dance in the digital realm

April 29, 2025 | 12:00 – 1:15 PM
Montalbano Family Theatre at Vancouver Public Library, Central Library 
Free. RSVP required due limited capacity

Celebrate International Dance Day with an inspiring lunchtime screening and conversation exploring the intersections of dance and film. This special event, co-presented by New Works and Vancouver Public Library, highlights four Vancouver-based artists who have embraced the digital stage, including Company 605, Anya Saugstad, Satya Mari, and the world premiere of Eric Cheung’s newest film Liminal. Each brings a unique movement language and artistic vision to the screen. 

Following the screenings, join established dance artists Josh Martin & Lisa Mariko Gelley (Company 605) for a conversation on the evolving role of dance on screen, discussing its creative possibilities and impact on dance-making in Vancouver. Whether you're a dance lover, film enthusiast, or simply curious, this event is an invitation to experience the power of movement in a new dimension.

Inheritor Recordings 

Company 605 / Brian Johnson

About the Film
A collaboration between filmmaker Brian Johnson and Canadian dance company Company 605. Filmed at the historic BC Sugar Refinery (Rogers Sugar) in Vancouver, BC, and featuring 16 dancers, Inheritor Recordings warps time and place to augment and expand 605’s raw and highly physical choreography. In this short, the dance becomes an upheaval of an off-limits, dormant space and its history. Inheritor Recordings is quiet uprising of a new generation, their movement infused with tiny rebellions and a hunger to take over, urgent to claim something as their own. Inheritor Recordings is a reimagined adaptation of an excerpt from Company 605’s original full-length stage work, entitled Inheritor Album, and was made possible through the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts Dance On Screen Production Fund and the BC Arts Council.
Artist Bio
Brian Johnson is a cinematographer, filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist. His work ranges from traditional filmmaking for broadcast to visual art, theatre and performance. He is an avid and enthusiastic collaborator as well as an independent artist creating works that tend to operate within the continuum of cinema. Brian has been winning awards for his cinematography for over 15 years with credits including Sweet Magnolias and The Killing for Netflix/AMC and You Me Her for DirectTV and E-one. His own films and broadcast-based work have been equally fêted with awards and inclusion in festivals including TIFF, Clermont-Ferrand’s ISFF and, more recently, the San Francisco Dance Film Festival where Inheritor Recordings was awarded best cinematography and runner-up for best short. He is currently developing a feature film project with Toronto based novelist David Eddie. Most recently he directed a series of short films titled Future Futures that will launch on the CBC’s streaming platform GEM in the summer of 2022. These films were produced in collaboration with Screen Siren Pictures and Company 605 – one of Canada’s leading dance companies. Company 605 is a Vancouver-based arts organization known for its innovative dance projects. Emphasizing rigorous choreographic propositions, movement exploration, and collaborative processes, their diverse productions and award-winning dance films have been presented throughout Canada and internationally, featured at notable festivals and venues worldwide. 605 is an ongoing exchange between separate people, bodies and ideas, celebrating the unique possibilities created in their attempt to co-exist.
Credits
Director – Brian Johnson. Choreography – 605 Collective. Dance Direction – Josh Martin, Lisa Gelley. Producer – Marc Stephenson. Composer – Jesse Zubot. Editor – Aram Coen. Wardrobe – Dandilion Wind Opaine. Rehearsal Director – Susan Elliott. Cinematography – Yves Bernadet. Dancers – Laura Avery, Scott Augustine, Maxine Chadburn, Ralph Escamillan, Hayden Fong, Lisa Gelley, Elya Grant, Ellisa Hanson, Stuart Iguidez, Josh Martin, Tyler Olson, Jane Osborne, Diego Romero, Lexi Vajda, Jessica Wilkie, Sophia Wolfe. Lighting – Trevor Gray, Kai Kayooka, Bray Jorstad, Leonardo Harim. Grip – Alex Kuchera, Harvey Thomison, Julian Chapdelaine. Camera – Jan Klompje, Jon Thomas, Selim Mete. Stills – David Cooper. Make Up – Richelle Leigh. Costume Asst – Meagan Lenover. Producer Asst – Geoff Manton. Locations – Trevor Stackhouse. Swing – Elyjha Kiyooka. Site Liaison – John Symons. Colour Grading – Lorne Wright. Audio Mix – Jesse Zubot.

Mountains

Anya Allegra Saugstad

About the Film
Mountains is a work that explores how we hold memory through movement. The piece uses choreography created during many months in solitude, and translates that movement onto bodies, spaces, and paper planes, to describe a fragmented story of loneliness and longing. Mountains is a story about waiting, about how time unfolds unevenly, about our animal selves, our instinct, the distance that unfolds and folds itself between one another, and our bodies as vessels that empty and fill with memories.
Artist Bio
Anya Allegra Saugstad is a dancer and choreographer based in Vancouver BC, on the unceded territory of the Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh', Stó:lō and Səlílwətaʔ/ Selilwitulh, and xwməθkwəyə̓ m First Nations. Anya trained at ArtsUmbrella, and has a BFA in Dance from Simon Fraser University. Anya creates live collaborative performance works in theaters and outdoors. She builds choreography through a feminist perspective and creates work that encompasses toughness and softness, urgency and yearning, and perseverance and decay. Her work is often inspired by nature and animals. Anya has created works for Ballet Edmonton, ArtsUmbrella, LamonDance, Simon Fraser University, Method Dance Company, and Coastal City Ballet. Anya’s work has been presented throughout BC, and in Montreal, Edmonton, and Toronto. Anya Saugstad is the recipient of the Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award for 2023/24.
Credits
Directed and Choreographed by Anya Allegra Saugstad in collaboration with the dancers. Danced by Daria Mikhaylyuk, Eowynn Enquist, Nasiv Sall, Sabine Raskin, and Shion Skye Carter. Cinematographer: Bray Jorstad. Lighting: Bray Jorstad. Set and Costume: Anya Saugstad. Special thanks to The Canada Council for the Arts and Vista Point Studios.

Lost Paradise

Satya Mari

About the Film
Lost Paradise is at home and out of time. It explores the dynamics of three different maternal relationships through familiar, unusual, and sticky states.
Artist Bio
Satya is an artist excited and curious about experimental theatre and dance. She is based in so-called “Vancouver,” where she is finishing her fourth year of training with Modus Operandi. Lately Satya is mesmerized by watching and creating movement that evokes illusion, fantasy and rewind. One of her big loves is having unusual dreams in an afternoon nap.
Credits
Director: Satya Mari. Cast: Allie Shiff, Carla Van Messel, Kate Franklin, Ryan Jackson, Satya Mari. Cinematographer: dani Mackenzie Long. Sound: Ethan Volberg. Lighting & help on set: Kaya Tsurumi, Audrey Sides. Editor: Satya Mari. Post Production Engineer: Santi Henderson. Mentor in Post Production: Santi Henderson. Music Score: Satya Mari, “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” by Lead Belly, “Tattooed Man” Remastered by Coil, “Call Me When You Can” by Chris Petra. Thank you: Form Festival for the commission to make this film, Sophia Wolfe, Tamar Tabori, Terra Breads, Cineworks, Out Innerspace Dance Theatre & New Works, Claire Downie.

Liminal 

Eric Cheung

About the Film
Liminal is a real-time, interactive audiovisual film that aims to simulate the gap between the space of an individual psyche’s internal and external worlds. As we navigate this euphoric and dreamlike liminal space from a third-person perspective, we explore its thresholds and boundaries—unearthing disturbances and distortions within both the space and the self. This interplay evokes an ethereal sense of insignificance, akin to gazing into the vastness of the universe.
Artist Bio
Eric Cheung Eric Cheung is a second-generation Chinese-Canadian inter-disciplinary street dance artist and choreographer based in so-called Vancouver, on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh Nations. Eric has cultivated a singular approach to generating movement and choreography that is recognized nationally and internationally, with his specialization in the Popping style while incorporating outside influences and other dance styles in his practice. Eric has been a company member of Ouro Collective since 2018, a street dance contemporary company, partaking in the creation process of HAKO, SOTTO51, Fire06, 7y98D (Theatre / Film) in collaboration with RubberLegZ, Ouro Excerpts and Ouroboros. Individually, Eric explores different mediums to expand the boundaries of street dance further in various artistic forms of film, theatre, digital new media, interactive experiences and art installations. Select works include E_GO, I(n)finite, Re:1974, iye, Diverge, Flux, Liminal, Null, and Flux. Tim Rolls Tim Rolls is a hybrid designer focused on taming wild technologies to build real-time, interactive, generative and immersive experiences.
Credits
Director: Eric Cheung. Technical Director: Tim Rolls. Choreography/Performance: Eric Cheung. Interactive Artist: Tim Rolls. Composer: Matthew Tomkinson. Technical Support: SFU SCA's Precursor Lab - Wladimiro Woyno). Produce: Company 605.

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Top Photo: Inheritor Recordings (Company 605). Photo by David Cooper