Residency Reflections 2025-26
Work-in-Progress with Simran Sachar
with support as a New Works' Artist in Residence
March 23 - 27, 2026
Open Styles Freestyle Session
March 27 | 12 – 2pm
Q7 Studios (77 E 7th Avenue, Vancouver)
FREE
At the end of this “Vancouver” residency, Sachar wants to welcome everyone in the dance community to an open styles freestyle session. This offering is for our community to interact with what’s already been activated in the space by Sachar and her team throughout their residency. Please come dance, share space, show off or keep lowkey, socialize, cypher and get down with us to close out a week of hard work!
About the Residency
Simran Sachar is at the beginning of a brand new process. She’s stepping into the research and creation phase of her new work, Twister (working title), During this phase, Sachar will be working bi-coastally in Vancouver and Montreal with 6 dance artists who specialize and have a history with W*acking, and a sound consultant/DJ to create a dance-theatre experience. This process is generously supported by Canada Council for the Arts, British Columbia Arts Council, and New Works.
A note from Sachar:
The question I have in this research phase is, “How does the rhythm change?” I am utilizing rhythm as an archive of who used to be there, or a way for their presence to carry on. I am interested in how rhythm activates and holds space for transformation. My intention in gathering us together as artists who have or have had a significant love for W*acking is to just be in practice together.
TWISTER
Cast: Rina Pellerin, Krystina Dejean (Montreal), Ralph Escamillan,Katria Phothong-Mckinnon, Antoine Findeli (Montreal), and Alyssa Favero.
Mentors: Cristina Bucci, Antonio Somera, Axelle Munezero
Collective grounding in land, body, and Spirit lead by: Jeanette Kotowich
Assistant: Erin Lum
Sound Consultant/DJ: Sevrin Emnacen-Boyd
About Simran Sachar
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. Sachar has won and placed high at numerous (open/all styles and W*acking) street dance battles across Canada and the United States.
Sachar’s work has been generously supported by Canada Council for the Arts, British Columbia Arts Council, Creative Spark Vancouver, FORM Film Festival, Surrey Art Gallery, Dance West Network, Dance Victoria, Arts Revelstoke, The Dance Centre, Odd Meridian Arts, New Performance Works Society, Indian Summer Festival, PuSH International, Dancing On The Edge, Co.Erasga, CanAsian Dance, Festival Accès Asie, and more.
Photography by: Marshall To & Karolina Turek