Simran Sachar

I am a proud Punjabi and Marathi/Canadian Actor, Writer, and Contemporary/Street dance artist who specializes in the styles of Waacking, Hip-hop, Ballet, Contemporary, Tap and Modern, and prioritizes the work of BIPOC artists. Currently, I experiment with how many layers of my various dance training, and memories from my imagination inform my Waacking. Allowing my movement qualities to be distorted, yet welcoming. The number one indicator of my dance is the refreshing fearlessness in my authentic, honest facial expression, being a navigator to the movement and story. This allows my work to expand in experimentation through expression, leading me on an extremely unique path, catered just for me. Through freestyle and creation, I find myself uncovering and generously sharing the deepest, darkest secrets that lay beneath what it means to be a South Asian woman. These vulnerable spaces leave remnants that appear disturbing, eerie, unapologetic, peculiar, and necessary. Currently my work incorporates other disciplines, supporting collaboration of spoken word, writers, film artists, 3D animation, sound designers. As a result I develop a spontaneous, playful approach to challenge norms in South Asian culture, gender norms placed upon Punjabi women, and the volumes at which my radical body can scream the truth. 

BETA बीटा

Project Description:

"BETA बेटा s a work in progress digital installation that plays with the mediums of volumetric and animation which follows the journey of a young woman who deals with the heavy grief of the death of her dadoo (grandfather) in different spaces, until she finds herself in a different dimension beginning her search for someone who’s passed on."

My piece on it: When I made BETA बेटा, originally I was researching something else. But before the premiere, when my dadoo left us, I also watched the story of BETA बेटा change. It had a life of its own, and I merely became an old friend to the work in progress. I left it completely and watched it become a story of a girl who is desperate for another dimension to find someone she loves.

This project is created in partnership with Arts Revelstoke.

Key Collaborates:

Nancy Lee
Volumetric Filmmaker/Mentor

https://www.nancylee.ca/

Nancy Lee 李南屏 is a Taiwanese-Canadian interdisciplinary media artist, curator, filmmaker, DJ and cultural producer. Their work stimulates and enlivens space, making a provocative statement about how inescapably interconnected we are with our surroundings. This notion of staging is a constant in Nancy’s work and underpins their projects, from their early work as a more traditional filmmaker, through their conception and planning of live events, and into the realms of XR, new media performance and installation, where their art practices continue to coalesce and evolve.

Kiran Bhumber

Sound Designer

https://www.kiranbhumber.com/
Kiran Bhumber ਕਿਰਨਦੀਪ ਕੌਰ ਭੰਬਰ is an Indo-Canadian interdisciplinary media artist, composer, sound designer, performer and educator based in Vancouver, Canada. Bhumber’s interdisciplinary practice considers the mediation of memory through emerging interactive technologies and how the body catalyzes the activation, recall and reinscription of memory into the present. Her storytelling results in constructing interactive installations and performance systems that examine movement, touch, performativity and cultural memory.

Omar Rivero (Driftnote)
3D Animation Artist

Omar Rivero, also known as Driftnote, is a musician and multimedia artist whose work is centred around improvi- sation, interactivity, audio visual installations and 3D imaging. He is interested in themes of cultural erasure, system- ic oppression, race and identity in the african/indigenous diaspora.

Alinar Dapilos
Videographer

https://lnk.bio/alinardapilos

Alinar is a graduate of the Film Production program at InFocus Film School. His specialty is in editing, but also has experience as a director, camera operator, director of photography, and photographer. Alinar is originally from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and is currently based in Vancouver, British Columbia. He has also worked as an intern with the Northwest Territories Film Commission.