Shion Skye Carter

Shion Skye Carter is a dance artist originally from Tajimi, Japan, and based in Vancouver, Canada, on the unceded, ancestral, and occupied traditional lands of the Coast Salish peoples. Through choreography hybridized with calligraphy, video, and sculptural objects, her work celebrates the intersection of her ethnographic and queer identities, in connection with her heritage. As co-founder of olive theory, an interdisciplinary duo with musician Stefan Nazarevich, she collaborates to experiment at the intersection between embodied performance, installation art, and live sound. Their ongoing project reach-close features an interactive, sculptural, amplified piano wire installation. The artists activate the wires by plucking, using violin bows, and scraping their buzzed haircuts, creating an interactive performance for both performers and audiences.

Since 2019, Shion has performed both her independent work and projects with olive theory in multiple cities across Canada, and worked as artist-in-residence at What Lab and Left of Main in Vancouver, as well as LEÑA Artist Residency on Galiano Island, BC. She began experimenting with creating short dance films during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which have since been screened at festivals globally, including SHUT IN DANCE Film Festival (USA), House is Me by Purespace (Turkey), Dance Days Chania (Greece), Moving Images Dance Festival (Cyprus), and CAPSULE by the National Arts Centre (Canada). As a performer, she has interpreted the works of artists such as Vanessa Goodman (Action at a Distance), plastic orchid factory, and Ziyian Kwan (Dumb Instrument Dance). She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance and Kinesiology from Simon Fraser University, and is the 2021 recipient of the Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award.

Website: shionskyecarter.com

The Kiln Project

Short artistic statement about the project:

The Kiln Project is a dance film created collaboratively between BC-based artists Shion Skye Carter, Brenda Kent Colina, and Prince Shima, filmed in the forests of Galiano Island on the traditional, unceded territories of the Lamalcha, Penelakut, and Huitson First Nations. Shion dances in and around the charcoal kiln, echoing the cylindrical shape of the performance space with her movement, using a choreographic score that embodies the natural elements of traditional Japanese binchotan charcoal: wood, fire/industry, and water. Through movement, image, and sound, this film honours the history of Japanese-Canadian communities and charcoal artisanship on Galiano Island, forging connections between the past and present.

Artist credits

Performance/Creative Direction: Shion Skye Carter

Film: Brenda Kent Colina

Music: Prince Shima

This project is created in partnership with LEÑA Artist Residency & Research Centre, and presented by Active / Passive Performance Society.

Links to my collaborators' work

Shion: shionskyecarter.com/

Brenda: https://www.beekent.com/

Prince Shima: https://princeshima.bandcamp.com/