We learned a lot at our own funeral features dancer Imara Bosco, with whom Daina Ashbee previously worked on a commission for the 2018 Venice Biennale
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Daina Ashbee: We learned a lot at our own funeral
When: Feb. 6-8 at 8 p.m. (post-show artist talkback Feb. 7)
Where: Scotiabank Dance Centre, 677 Davie St., Vancouver
Recognized as one of the most original and prolific choreographers of her generation, B.C. choreographer Daina Ashbee’s work has been presented over 100 times in 18 countries and over 40 different cities. Born in Nanaimo, Ashbee is known for bold, challenging works like 2019’s Pour, which feature nude dancer Paige Culley in long sequences of stillness. We learned a lot at our own funeral features dancer Imara Bosco, with whom the 35-year-old Ashbee previously worked on a commission for the 2018 Venice Biennale. The piece premiered at Montpellier Danse, France in July 2024 and has toured to Montreal and Ottawa. The work includes full nudity and is for audiences aged 18 and up.
Q: How important is to you that your intention behind a dance be correctly interpreted by the audience?
A: I care that they have an experience. But because my work is abstract, the experience could be different for each audience member. I care that the stage is clean, that the environment doesn’t have distractions, that people can be 100 per cent present during my work. And I usually start slowly, so people can be present in the space and in their own bodies to have that experience. Then after, if somebody had a completely different journey and had thoughts and things coming up in their imagination, that what’s important for me, not that it’s a literal story from the beginning to end. If two people had completely different readings of the performance, that would be a good thing.
Q: Part of the description of this piece is: “… the choreography evokes a battle with the self. The dancer challenges gravity, resists the ground and overcomes precarious balances.” Are those themes common to your work?
A: Yeah. I work a lot with movement on the ground, a lot with resistance. I love challenging myself to develop movements that are not always aesthetically pleasing or known. I would say that I avoid any kind of steps or movements that have been highly developed in ballet or jazz or contemporary dance, steps that are really known.
Q: Are you influenced by other media?
A: No, I try to go inside of myself, in my imagination. There was an era where I was studying more visual art. My father is a sculptor, and I always loved visiting museums for inspiration. As somebody who’s doing dance and yoga, I always had a relation to sculpture and three-dimensional work in my body. But I started creating my work with the strict notion that the movement and the image comes first. It’s difficult to create movement from nothing, to find it without leaning on music or lighting or costumes, but that’s one thing that, in my early years, I was really disciplined about.
Q: Do you add sound after you have a blueprint of what you’re going to do?
A: Yeah. I might work with an ambient music or something really mellow, like a single tone. But I won’t add any kind of rhythm or musicality until the dancer has portrayed the rhythm of the piece.
Q: How literally should people take the title, We learned a lot at our own funeral?
A: I would say it’s a metaphor. I was creating it at a time where I felt like I couldn’t recognize myself and I felt like I had stepped outside of my own body, and now I’m looking back at this person. I thought if I could create work through this difficult time that I would learn something about myself. But yeah, it’s abstract, for sure. There’s a darkness in the title. The last two years have been a very interesting, transformational period of time for me.