PRIVILEGE AT HOME: THE PERFORMERS
Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa
“Keyboard virtuoso and avant-garde muse" (Georgia Straight), RACHEL KIYO IWAASA is “among Canada’s foremost contemporary music pianists” (Paolo Pietropaolo, CBC Radio).Rachel’s reputation for fearless performative risk has inspired many of Canada’s most notable composers to write for her, including Hildegard Westerkamp, Rodney Sharman, Jocelyn Morlock, Cris Derksen, Nicole Lizée, Farshid Samandari, Emily Doolittle, Jeffrey Ryan, Leslie Uyeda, and Jordan Nobles.Rachel’s album Known & Unknown: Solo Piano Works by Rodney Sharman was praised as "exceptional, gripping and timeless." (Tom Haugen, Take Effect), and listed in the Top 10 Modern Composition Albums of 2024 by The Wire Magazine (UK). Rachel’s art practice explodes expectations of what is possible at the piano, flowering most powerfully in liminal collisionsbetween artistic genres. Her interdisciplinary adventures include work with artist SD Holman, film director Nettie Wild, playwright David Bloom, choreographers Jennifer Mascall, Idan Cohen and Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, and multi-media provocateur Paul Wong. Rachel’s recordings on Redshift Records and earsay music receive frequent broadcasts on CBC. With SD Holman, Rachel co-founded the Queer Arts Festival in Vancouver. Rachel's writings about her family history as a sansei 3rd generation Japanese-Canadian are on exhibition at the Cumberland Museum and Archives and will be published in several upcoming anthologies. Rachel teaches at the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra School of Music and lives in the sovereign unceded territories of the shíshálh and Squamish Nations. Photo Credit: SD Holman
Marisa Gold
is an intuitive multidisciplinary dance artist born and raised in Vancouver, BC, with a passion for soulful creative expression. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance from Simon Fraser University and graduated from The Ailey School Independent Study program (NYC). Marisa has professional experience as a spoken word poet, film/tv actor/dancer, musical theatre performer, voiceover artist and vocalist. As a collaborator, Marisa joyfully brings her multifaceted experience to each creative process she takes part in.Most recently, Marisa has had the opportunity to collaborate with Mascall Dance, Odd Meridian Arts, Raven Spirit Dance, Action At A Distance, Inverso Dance, The Biting School, and Belle Spirale Dance Projects. Photo credit: Karolina Turek Photography
Isak Doran Enquist
is a movement artist, choreographer, actor, and experimental sound designer based on the unceded territories of the Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh, Skwxwú7mesh, and xʷməθkwəy̓əm Nations. Originally raised in the Kootneys/Ktunaxa Nation, he began his formal training in Shotokan Karate-Do before pursuing formal dance education.
Isak has performed nationally and internationally with Out Innerspace, Shay Kuebler/RSA, Compagnie Vision Impure, Amber Funk Barton, Mascall Dance, Inverso Productions, Generous Mess, Anne Plamondon, Corporeal Imago, and Cristina Bucci. He teaches at Harbour Dance Centre, Lamondance, Goh Ballet Academy, Training Society of Vancouver, Modus Operandi, and GötesborgOperan among others.
Isak has created new stage works for BLOOM (Mascall Dance), Dancing On the Edge (DOTE), Vancouver International Dance Festival (VIDF), Dance Café (the response.), Innovate Film Festival, Dance: Made In / Fait Au Canada Festival, Coastal City Ballet, Lamondance, Blackout Theatre, and most recently premiered “Fall(se) Circ(us)” with Little Room Productions. Photo Credit: Lulabelle Jedynak
Ysadora Dias
Ysadora Dias is a dance artist based in so-called Vancouver, whose cultural heritage deeply informs her movement and creative practice. She has collaborated with many artists across the city and performed with companies including Co. Erasga, Raven Spirit Dance, Inverso Productions, Action at a Distance, and Belle Spirale. Ysa has also worked with MascallDance on different projects and toured with the company throughout Canada and New Zealand. Photo credit: LucianaPhotography