Morrow Events
On the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations
Please join us in events hosted and supported by Dumb Instrument Dance at Morrow. As well, we hope you will keep your eye out for events privately produced by artists and organizations at Morrow – and support them with you presence!
Morrow is so excited to support Waves of Words, a free event that celebrates the writings of authors in the Magdaragat Anthology! There will be an open mic where the authors read from selections of their works, dance performances by Sevrin Emancen-Boyd and Juan Imperial, snacks and good Filipinx company! Link to register
May 31 @ 8:00 pm June 1 @ 8:00 pm June 2 @ 8:00 pm June 3 @ 8:00 pm June 4 @ 5:00 pm
As part of REVOLVER FESTIVAL: Produced by UP IN THE AIR THEATRE
Areli, Kelly and Rianne invite 15 guests to a gathering that heightens the senses through the bizarre and the familiar, bringing sweet attention to the awkwardness, the humour, and the pleasure in how we are together and to things that can often be overlooked in our everyday lives.
Kelly McInnes – co-creator / performer
Areli Moran – co-creator / performer
Rianne Švelnis – co-creator / performer
Produced by Kelly McInnes, Areli Moran, Rianne Švelnis
May 17 & June 7, 2023
vAct is renting Morrow for 2 of its Springboard workshops with House of Rice Drag & Shay Dior!!! Link to registration and more info here on vAct’s website.
Wednesday, May 17, 5:30-9:30pm
Workshop exploration includes: movement exercises, concept creation, prop building/crafting and audio tips.
Wednesday, June 7, 5:30-9:30pm |
Learn the origins of the house. This evening will have a panel discussion, which includes the work around increasing representation and building community. There will be screenings of House of Rice documentaries and digital pieces.
May 6 – 29, 2023
ahmm
April 15-16, 2023
Movement Workshop: Earth, Water, Fire and Air
a vAct Springboard Initiative
Register Here / Registration Full
With dance artist Alvin Tolentino (Co.ERASGA)
How do we respond and associate these four vital elements in Spring?
Let’s move together and explore by setting to motion and awareness: thinking, observing, listening, moving and dancing the four elements of earth, fire, water, and air as our bodies reset for spring and to nature’s abundant reawakening.
This workshop allows participants to encounter the essences of the four elements guided through an open creative play, exploratory movements, dancing and recharging the body.
No dance experience is necessary but the curiosities and willingness to free and discover the art of moving your body.
April 2, 2023 | 1pm – 4pm
Movement Classes for Support Workers
Register Here
Movement Classes for Support Workers are led by Rianne Švelnis and Alexa Mardon: dancers and dance teachers who have worked as frontline support workers in various capacities.
The classes support movement, play, and strategies for those of us doing frontline support. We invite self-identified support workers, with the understanding that support work takes many forms, and is often not professionalized or even acknowledged.
We have been developing and facilitating these classes intermittently since 2017. We recognize that workers increasingly experience “burnout”: a reasonable nervous system response to unsustainable systemic conditions. We recognize that burnout is not an individual failure to cope with crisis but rather a symptom of larger violent systemic structures at work.
These classes invite participants to access strategies for embodied rebound and repair, play, and connection through movement. Our belief is that we contain a multitude of responses in any given moment and that movement + dance with awareness can help us access and practice this responsive agility.
The goal is not to ‘fix’ or ‘get you back to work’. These classes include exhaustion and refusal as part of what we are moving with. We hope to build solidarity amongst workers, and co-create practices of being together even when in separate places, weaving fibers of strengthening bonds between us.
March 27th / 6pm
Producing: Best Practices
– a vAct Springboard FREE event, produced with support from Dumb Instrument Dance
Registration with vAct here
Looking to improve your skills and instinct as a producer? Duties and responsibilities of a producer in the live performance sector constantly change, adapt and sometimes a new skill must be learned through a quick YouTube tutorial video. The role of a producer can be broad or highly specific depending on the project and “good” producing can be a subjective opinion. How can an artist begin or maintain the complex demands of what is required to produce a show or an event? Join us in this intimate roundtable panel discussion with producers Jocelyn Tsui, Argel Monte de Ramos, Shanae Sodhi, and Maiko Bae Yamamoto as they share their thoughts and experience on best practices as emerging, mid-career, and established producers. This event is for artists of all levels interested in producing (self or for other companies), looking to share and learn in a peer-to-peer setting.
CADA/WEST Unconference March 23 – 30, 2023
Hosted in community partnership with Morrow:
FREE dance workshops, salons and hybrid events including movement workshops: DOUBLE DUTCH, POW WOW, TOP ROCK, ANIMATION,GAGA, FELDENKRAIS LOCKING DANCE HALL HUSTLE & “Let’s talk about” salons. More info here
Gathering Hope / February 17th, 3pm
Live Performance & Live-streamed Event
DTES Grandmothers Collective: Savannah Walling, Rosemary Georgeson
Gathering Hope weaves threads of cultural sharing and intergenerational knowledge with Vancouver Downtown Eastside Grandmothers Collective: Dalannah Gail Bowen, Rosemary Georgeson, Savannah Walling and Sharon Jinkerson-Brass, along with Olivia C. Davies, Ziyian Kwan and Rianne Svelnis. Tickets are pay what you can and available here.
Gathering Hope is produced as part of Matriarch’s Uprising Festival, supported and hosted by Dumb Instrument Dance at Morrow
Honey / December 18th, 7:30pm
Free Work In Progress Performance
Dance Artist Justin Calvadores and Dumb Instrument Dance invite friends and colleagues to witness a work in progress sharing that is a culmination of Justin’s Conjure Residence at Morrow. A short performance will be followed by conversation, music and snacks.
Inspired by queer transgression, Justin is joined by movement collaborator Shana Wolfe and musician Alger Liang in researching the discovery of hope and transformation through metabolizing loss. ‘Honey’ is intimately informed by Justin’s fascination with maggot to fly metamorphosis and also the writing of Clarice Lispector.
Justin’s personal practice and work is informed by their queerness and identity as Filipinx; integrating the array of modalties they have been fortunate enough to study. They are grateful for dance as a catalyst that has enriched their perception of the world.Doors open at 7:15pm.
Access Information:
There are 2 common area entrances to the building. If you need elevator access, please enter through the back door, which is in the parking lot of the alley behind 910 Richards (at Smithe). We will be at the door to welcome you from 7:15pm – 7:30pm.
There is one wheelchair accessible gender neutral bathroom. There are two other bathrooms and all bathrooms will have unscented soap. We ask guests not to wear scents to this event.
Meet The Artists / Thursday Dec 1 / 8pm / FREE
Ana Sosa, Sidney Chuckas, Mohammed Rashead
A culmination of these choreographers works explored during their DanceWest Re-Centering Margins Residence
Chalk It Up! Nov 19 & 20, 2022 / 2pm & 8pm / Tickets
New works by 10 emerging choreographers
Morrow is thrilled to support Chalk it Up! in its annual showing of work developed and performed by young and emerging artists from different genres of dance. Featuring creating and performing dance artists:
- Emily Bosak
- Ysadora Diaz
- Oksana Augustine
- Kaia Shukin
- Brianne Chan with Alesandra
- Anna Lamontagne with Danielle Mackenzie Long
- Shannon May with Lauren Yeung
October 29th, 2022 / 2pm Harmanie Rose / The Art of Falling (and not getting up again)- a mixed ability perspective.
A culmination of Harmanie’s 3 week Conjure Residence
Join Harmanie Rose and theatre/dance artists Emily Grace Brook, Rianne Svelnis and Adam Grant Warren. We welcome you to attend this all ages free event of talking, dancing and community gathering in person at Morrow or via zoom. Please find zoom link at below. From Harmanie: For some disabled bodies, falling can be innately unpredictable. For both witness and faller, it can be unsettling, playful and experiential in myriad ways. What can we learn about the way we move to safely support the unknown, and to find the joy in falling?Harmanie, Adam and Emily each bring varying skills to this research of falling in which their unique experiences inform how they practice their art as people who use manual wheelchairs.
Zoom Link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85774105066…
Meeting ID: 857 7410 5066
Passcode: 547979
Movement and PaperArt Making Workshop hosted by Rianne Svelnis & Sauha Lee
March 6th, 2022 / 1-4pm
Free workshop . All ages welcome. No prior experience necessary.
Join dance artist Rianne Svelnis and visual artist Sauha Lee in an all ages, all people welcome, workshop that segues to creating paper art. Feel free to bring something organic to incorporate into what you create. All other supplies will be provided.
Gathering Hope O’Dela Arts with DTES Grandmothers Collective
Dumb Instrument Dance and Morrow host O’Dela Arts Matriarch’s Uprising festival for an online sharing of what was discovered during its improvisational creation residency at Morrow, that weaves threads of cultural sharing and intergenerational knowledge with Vancouver Downtown Eastside community artists Dalannah Gail Bowen, Rosemary Georgeson, Savannah Walling and Sharon Jinkerson-Brass, along with Sophie Dow, Olivia C. Davies, Ziyian Kwan and Rianne Švelnis.
Supported by Dumb Instrument Dance, Morrow and Talking Stick Festival.
Rianne & Alexa Solveig Mardon
Movement Classes for Support Workers
Feb 17 / 4 – 6pm : online workshop
February 18:in person workshop, 4-6pm:
The workshop is free! If you have an abundance of funds at the moment and would like to make a financial contribution to the community, please send funds to the Drug User Liberation Front https://www.dulf.ca/etransfer
Movement Classes for Support Workers are just that: classes for those of us doing frontline support which incorporate movement, play, and strategies. We invited self-identified support workers, with the understanding that support work takes many forms, and is not always professionalized.
Rianne and Alexa have been developing this workshop since 2017 and both are or have been front-line workers in different capacities. We recognize that workers increasingly experience “burnout”: a reasonable nervous system response to unsustainable systemic conditions. We recognize that burnout is not an individual failure to cope with crisis but rather a symptom of larger systemic dysfunction.
These classes invited participants to access strategies for embodied
rebound and repair, play, and connection through movement. Our belief
is that we each have a multitude of responses available to us in any
given moment: and that movement + dance lead with awareness can help us
access and practice this responsive agility.
Rianne and Alexa hope for these classes to build solidarity amongst workers, to build a practice of being together even when in separate places, to sew fibres of strengthening bonds between us.
Kinesthetic Strike
Circle Discussion with Daisy Thompson & guests
Nov 28, 2021 at 2:30pm / Nov 29, 2021 at 3pm
Kinesthetic Strike
Dumb Instrument Dance and The Dance Centre co host a circle discussion at Morrow as part of Dance In Vancouver’s DIV Conversations. led by Daisy Thompson in conversation with guest speakers, guided around the idea of rehearsal as a way to imagine, practice and disseminate joyful, positive and durable relationships.
Centered around the concerns of the disproportionate and fatiguing labour of artists, when our art processes and practices are so closely entwined with the art market, this circle discussion will discuss how dance rehearsal – including the creation of the spaces to rehearse, and the advocacy of the conditions to work – can contribute to healthier connections through interdependent relationships of care.
Sunday November 28 | 2:30-4pm with Ziyian Kwan & Jessica Wadsworth.
Monday November 29 | 3-5pm with Justine A. Chambers, Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg & Deanna Peters.
Raising Our Game: a discussion on rates, contracts and hybrid work facilitated by CADAWest
November 28th, 2021 / 1pm
Morrow and Dumb Instrument Dance partner with CADAWest & CDA in this community event that foregrounds care.
What to expect: the event is “hybrid”. To be covid careful, asmall group of people can attend live at Morrow. Another 25 attendees are expected to attend on Zoom. We have members from 4 provinces attending and an interesting mix of careers!
What to bring:Your experiences and how you resolved issues (or didn’t). Your expectations for services or programs that you think might benefit your career and the careers of other artists. If you have something specific that you’re looking for information on, please email us in advance so that we can prepare information for you
Produced by CADA/West staff in partnership with the CDA and Morrow/Dumb Instrument Dance.
Made In Voyage / Nov 24 – 27 & Dec 1 – 4, 2021
Presented by The Dance Centre’s as part of Dance In Vancouver, Made In Voyage is a collage of 3 solos that pays homage to the grandmothers of performers Ziyian Kwan, Justin Calvadores and Shion Skye Carter. Originally created with 6 performers, this distilled iteration aims to counter historic erasure by highlighting the life stories of womxn of colour. Each solo captures dramas of diaspora, war and peace – in tandem with delightful family anecdotes. Collaboratively created, the collection as a whole, weaves song, dance and intimate storytelling towards a poetic reveal that celebrates the vulnerability, nurturing and resilience that flows through generations.
Love Letters to Divided Nations: August 27, 2021
Join River Blondin Burt in a performance of auto-ethnography that is a series of installations about ancestral visitations, indigenous identity, and inter-generational healing – expressed through poetry, song, movement and audio/visual landscapes.
After a week of residence at Morrow, River will perform at 5pm, 6pm, 7pm on Friday, August 27th. After each performance, a chance to meet and talk with River about their work.
Love Letters to Divided Nations is a Free event, produced by Dumb Instrument Dance with the generous support and partnership of Powell Street Festival.
River (Cassandra) Blondin Burt is a two-spirited Dene artist whose multidisciplinary work is grounded in an exploration of art as medicine. They believe that the radical act of co-creating with other-than-human relations is an act of socio-political rebellion, and a pathway for transformative collective healing in the Anthropocene era. They were raised in Vancouver, on the traditional territory of the xwməθkwəyə̓ m, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh , and Selí̓lw̓ itulh First Nations, are a proud member of the Yellowknives Dene Nation, and currently live in their ancestral homelands of Denendeh.
Mar 1 – April 30, 2021: Dumb Instrument hosts Familiars in residence at Morrow – in collaboration with dance artists Kelly McInnes, Rianne Svelnis and Taiko artist Eileen Kage. Creation and dissemination via a series of virtual events and outdoor performances that celebrate artistic practice as contemporary witchcraft.
Feb 1 – 5, 2021: Morrow welcomes Erika Mitsuhashi for a mini-residence to prepare and live stream her work for Speculative Futures, presented by Theatre Replacement and Company 605. Erika livestreams her creation on February 5th from Morrow. Click here to witness! “Making It Up: the meeting ”
by David Cooper
Sept – Oct 2020 – Ziyian Kwan, Zahra Shahab, Shion Skye Carter, Marissa Gold, Alexa Mardon and Rianne Svelnis are at Morrow with Made In Voyage, a project that pays homage to the performer’s grandmothers.
July 25, 2020: 2- 5pm. Join Cellist Peggy Lee and Ziyian Kwan for live improvised performance and a browse in the shop. Quick 15 minute sets for 1-2 audience members at a time – in a covid safe setting.
photo: David Cooper
By appointment August 2020: Dance Artist Oksana Augustine offers Aura Paintings. Sliding Scale $60 – $100. To book an aura painting with Oksana please contact morrowspace@gmail.com
Sept 6 – 10, 2020: Peter Dickinson launches his book My Vancouver Dance Histories, through a series of intimate and covid safe Salons, in the company of dance artists featured in the book. 4:30-6pm as follows:
Sunday, Sept 6: Barbara Bourget and Jay Hirabayashi / Kokoro Dance
Monday, Sept 7: Rob Kitsos
Tuesday, Sept 8: Ziyian Kwan / Dumb Instrument Dance
Wed, Sept 9: Tara Cheyenne / Tara Cheyenne Performance
Thurs, Sept 10: Lesley Tilford/ / Inverso Productions
Fri, Sept 11: James & Natatlie Gnam / plastic orchid factory
Sat, Sept 12: Justine Chambers
Images:
- Ziyian Kwan by David Cooper
- Rianne Svelnis & Ziyian Kwan by David Cooper
- Aura Painting by Oksana Augustine
- Book Cover – Peter Dickinson My Vancouver Dance Histories