Photo: Carla Alcántara
Portals
Portals is a performance of contemporary dance, lighting and sound which create an atmosphere of possibility and a glimpse of worlds traversed. A continuous exploration of travel through space and time being possible within our own bodies. Through the manual manipulation and transition of both lighting and sound, different portals appear that are both guiding and simultaneously being created by the dance unfolding.
Their proximity and orientation always shifting, all three performers exist on the periphery of each other as the brief worlds they create collide, open and pass through each other.
Veins as wormholes, galaxies in viscera, memories and sensation containing a multiverse. The arrival, assembly, disintegration and diffusion of our brief state of being. A way through grief, an act of wonder, a journey through the multiplicity of self.
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TRAILER
Photo: Carla Alcántara
Project Created by: Kaia Shukin in collaboration with Celeste English and Isak Enquist
Key Artistic Collaborators:
Dancer/Choreographer: Kaia Shukin
Scenography/Lighting Design and Performance: Celeste English
Sound Design and Performance: Isak Enquist
Outside Eye/Mentorship: Amber Barton
Associate Lighting Designer: Za Hughes
Associate Sound Designer: Alesandra
Rehearsal Director: Eowynn Enquist
Outside Eye/Rehearsal Assistant: Brianne Chan
Text Read By: Robert Shukin
Performance type: Built for the theatre, This work is adaptable to theatre, outdoors, or alternate venues/spaces.
How do you define this work: Contemporary dance, Multi-disciplinary performance
Length of performance: 30 minutes (15-minute pre-show sound and lighting design with performers on stage is an optional addition to the piece) - mixed program
Audience type: General Audience
General Technical Requirements:
Lighting:
2x source 4s
- 1x hung above as a top light with a glass gobo (provided by artists)
- 1x on a floor plate with wheels (provided by artists)
6-10 instruments with shutters on floor plates
- can be any, even birdies
50ft of twist lock cable
- to be used on the ground, dropped from the grid downstage centre
1x long run dmx cable
- please note: the length of this will be determined by the location of the lighting console, we connect directly to the lighting console into our nomad which sits onstage
White wall, curtain, cyc, or scrim upstage
Flooring/stage:
Black/Dark marley flooring
Haze machine
Sound:
Professional stereo sound system
2x 15-17 inch subwoofers
2x Stage monitors
1x XLR cable
1x Power cable
- 1x subwoofers on a floorplate with wheels (floorplate provided by artists)
Both the Source Four and subwoofer on wheeled floorplates are moved and used on stage in performance by both the lighting and sound designer and act as props in this regard.
Alternative Venues/Spaces/Outdoors: This piece has been developed and shared in black box theatre spaces but we would also be interested in presenting in alternative spaces (galleries, warehouse or multi-use spaces).
Venue and Flooring: black or dark-grey marley is preferred, relatively smooth performance space for the movement of lighting and sound props.
Requires a black-box type space (would not be suitable to an outdoor venue)
Required amount of time for tech set up: 2 hours
Number of Performers on tour (including choreographer): 3
Number of Support Staff on Tour: 1
Availabilities: 2025 Spring Season (Mar - Jun), 2025/26 Season, 2026/27 Season
Kaia Shukin
Kaia Shukin is a dance artist on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations currently known as Vancouver. She received her BFA in Dance from SFU in 2018 and since then has had the privilege of working with and learning from Justine A. Chambers, Amber Barton (the response.), Daisy Thompson, Eowynn Enquist, Jennifer Mascall (MascallDance) and Isak Enquist.
As an emerging choreographer they have had the opportunity to explore their own work through residencies and performances at 12 Minutes Max and DanceLab Interdisciplinary Research (The Dance Centre), LEÑA Artist Residency, Dance Cafè (the response.), Chalk it Up, Startle Reflex Residency and Workin’ it Out (Tara Cheyenne Performance) and Exquisite Pressure (What Lab).
Performance History & Upcoming Performances
March 25 & 27, 2024 - DanceLab Interdisciplinary Research at The Dance Centre, Faris Family Studio, Vancouver, BC (Completed work presentations)
November 19-20, 2022 - Chalk It Up Showcase, Morrow, Vancouver, BC (excerpt)
December 2021 - 12 Minutes Max at The Dance Centre, Faris Family Studio, Vancouver BC (work-in-progress showing)
Project Details
We would be interested in connecting with local communities through conversation/Q&A’s, workshops and open rehearsals.
Movement and Improvisation Workshop: Portals is a scored improvisational piece with set lighting cues and sound design that guides all three collaborators. For this workshop, participants would be led through task and image based improvisation scores that utilize both our senses and relationship to time.
These workshops would be open to folks with any level dance experience as the scores created will be what leads the movement.
This work has invited conversation and questions and we would like to include that as part of the sharing process, either post-performance, during open rehearsals or more of a workshop type setting where Celeste (lighting), Isak (sound) and Kaia (choreography) discuss how we worked together on taking the initial idea and began a design-led creation process in collaboration and performance together in our respective disciplines.
Outreach Activities
Contact information
kaiashukin@gmail.com