Studio Salon Series: Spring 2024

Studio Salon Series: Spring 2024

April 27 - 28, 2024

What Lab

1814 Pandora St

Vancouver BC, V5L 1M5

Our Studio Salon Series returns, featuring works in progress by four local artists. This event will be live at What Lab (#202-1814 Pandora St, Vancouver) on Saturday April 27th & Sunday April 28th, 2024 @ 5 PM, both evenings. In-person audience capacity is limited to 30 people.
We will also be holding our Annual General Meeting on Sunday, April 28th before the showcase! Join us for pizza and refreshments afterwards.

Saturday, April 27 @ 5 PM:
Starr Muranko
Raven Grenier

Sunday, April 28 @ 5 PM:
Nick Miami Benz
Juolin Lee
* AGM with food and refreshments *

LIMITED CAPACITY!
TICKETS BY DONATION

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

STARR MURANKO is dancer/choreographer, Mother and Co-Artistic Director with ​Raven Spirit Dance. As a choreographer she is most interested in the stories that we carry within our bodies and Ancestral connections to land that transcend time and space. Her work has been shared locally and nationally including the Dance Centre, Talking Stick Festival, Coastal Dance Festival, Dancing on the Edge, Native Earth Performing Arts, Weesageechak Begins to Dance, Impact Festival and InFringing Dance Festival. Featured works include Chapter 21, Spine of the Mother and before7after as well as recent collaborative work Confluence and her current research for a new piece Tracing Bones.

A proud company dancer with the Dancers of Damelahamid since 2005, she has toured across Canada and internationally and trained under the guidance and mentorship of the late Elder Margaret Harris. She was a 22/23 Artist-in-Residence at Ballet BC alongside colleague and longtime collaborator Margaret Grenier. Starr has facilitated workshops through ArtsStarts, Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre, Native Education College and Vines Art Festival and holds a BFA in Dance from SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts. She honours and celebrates her mixed Ancestry of Omushkegowuk Cree (Moose Cree First Nation – Treaty 9), French and German in all of her work.

Photo credit: Melanie Orr

ravenspiritdance.com

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RAVEN GRENIER is an emerging choreographer, Indigenous contemporary dance artist, singer, and visual artist in formline design. She is a 4th year Indigenous Studies student at UBC and the artistic and administrative assistant for Dancers of Damelahamid. Her artwork is available at Lattimer gallery and Coastal Peoples Gallery in Vancouver.

@ravengrenier

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Shapeshifter. Storyteller. Self. NICK MIAMI BENZ is a Leo-nominated performance artist trained in dances from Afro, Latinx and Indigenous diasporas with a focus on the embodiment of animal movements. While studying dance in New York City, they worked as an equestrian for The Metropolitan Opera, which inspired them to return to theatre as an actor and singer. Nick’s acting training is founded on the Meisner technique and voice work through the Lovetri method. Their theatre credits include God’s Lake, Little Red Warrior, Blackhorse and working with Atomic Vaudeville, Mascall Dance, Netflix and John Fluevog. In addition, Nick Miami Benz shares their expertise in movement through Gyrotonic (R), Pilates and holistic exercise coaching in Vancouver.

Photo credit: Audrey Bow

@benzdontbreak

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JUOLIN LEE is a Taiwanese-Canadian emerging dance artist who is fascinated by the transformative power of dance. Juolin’s understandings of dance were greatly influenced by working with artists in the community she greatly admires, such as Natalie TY Gan, Ziyian Kwan, Emmalena Fredriksson, Arash Khakpour, and Zahra Shahab. Through openness and curiosity, she wishes to continuously unpack her idea of self and her relationship with the world. juolinlee.com

Photo credit: Albert Normandin

juolinlee.com

About the work:
Soup of Forgetfulness (working title) is a solo work in progress inspired by the Taiwanese Folklore myth, Mong Po Tang (孟婆湯) about the afterlife and the process of reincarnation. The first phase of this work is generously supported by Foray Residency at Morrow, Dumb Instrument Dance in Dec 2023/Jan 2024. I’m excited for this Residency opportunity with Co.Erasag to dive deeper into this work. I’m curious about the space between remembering and forgetting, and the space between the living and the deceased.

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ACCESSIBILITY

What Lab is wheelchair accessible by a set of doors leading from the alley between Pandora St. And Franklin Ave. The front entrance has a flight of stairs.Thank you for your continued donation and support that helps Co.ERASGA’s annual arts programming and provides economic support to all participating artists.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We humbly acknowledge that most of Co. ERASGA's work, including the Studio Salon Series, takes place on the traditional and unceded lands of the Coast Salish people including the Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw), Tsleil-Waututh (səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ) and Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm) Nations, the original stewards and caretakers of these lands.

Our Studio Salon Series is a recurring series featuring local artists sharing works-in-progress with the community in an informal setting.

These events are free to the public in an effort to create more communication between artists and the community while their works are still in development. After short excerpts are shown, the featured artists engage in conversation with the audience around the topics presented in the work, creation, and development.

Host or Publisher Co.ERASGA Dance Society