Furious Grace Dance Theatre / Anya Saugstad and Sophia Saugstad

‘Gravity in Your Eyes’ is a new collaborative project of dance and theater that follows two sisters and the forces that guide their lives. With a cast of four actors and four dancers, the piece explores themes of independence and belonging. Anya Saugstad (Co-Director and Choreographer) and Sophia Saugstad (Co-Director and Playwright) collaborate to create a world that is described through both of their mediums, directorial methods, and imaginations. Other than the elaborate lip syncs they created as kids, this is Anya and Sophia's first project together as sisters.

Co-Director and Choreographer: Anya Saugstad

Anya Allegra Saugstad is a dancer and choreographer based in Vancouver BC, on the unceded territory of the Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh', Stó:lō and Səlílwətaʔ/ Selilwitulh, and xwməθkwəyə̓ m First Nations. Anya trained at ArtsUmbrella, and has a BFA in Dance from Simon Fraser University. As a dancer, Anya has toured with Action at a Distance / Vanessa Goodman through the USA, Canada, and Germany performing “Graveyards and Gardens” and “Core/Us” (2021-2023). Anya Saugstad is the Artistic Director of 'Furious Grace Dance Theatre', (originally Judith Garay’s company 'Dancers Dancing'). 'Furious Grace' / Anya Saugstad create live collaborative performance works in theaters and outdoors. Anya builds vigorous and highly physical ensemble choreography to express stories that encompass strength, celebration, and yearning. Anya has created works for ArtsUmbrella, LamonDance, Simon Fraser University, Method Dance Company, and Coastal City Ballet. Anya’s work has been presented through Dance West Network, The Scotiabank Dance Center, Crimson Coast Dance, The Rotary Center for the Arts, and has toured her work across BC. Anya Saugstad is grateful to be the recipient of the Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award for 2023/24.

Co-Director and Playwright: Sophia Saugstad

Sophia Saugstad (she/her) is a performer, director, and theatre creator originally from Bowen Island. She is a graduate of the Studio 58 Acting Program and has an Honours Degree in Theatre Studies from UBC. Directing credits include: 30 Neo-Futurist Plays (Bramble Theatre Collective), The Importance of Being Earnest (UBC Players Club), Unraveling (OR Festival/Fabulist Theatre), and Venus and Moon (Ignite Festival, Vines Festival). Assistant Directing credits include Snow White (Carousel Theatre), Constellations (Exact Resemblance) and Saint Joan of the Stockyards (UBC). She recently created and performed her own solo show Long Live Lexi Bezos at the Vancouver Fringe Festival and will remount it at Edmonton Fringe this summer!

Composer: Stefan Nazarevich

Stefan Nazarevich is a Ukrainian-Canadian composer. His compositions, performances, and installations utilize meticulous, architectural music production to turn emergent artifacts of failing technology into aesthetic sonic objects. His visual-album ARCMAPS (2023) explores retrofuturism and lo-fi glitches, described by Adbusters Magazine as “...casually dystopic [and] cinematic.” A frequent interdisciplinary collaborator, Stefan has composed for Vision Impure, Joshua Beamish, Wen Wei Dance, and FakeKnot, among many other prominent voices in the Vancouver arts community, across disciplines such as film, dance, and immersive theatre. Past presentations include VIDF (2019, 2021), Tangente (Montreal 2021, 2023), MAI (Montreal 2021), and Darmstadt Ferienkurse (Germany, 2018).

Lighting Designer: Andie Lloyd

Andie Lloyd is a queer interdisciplinary artist and community advocate based in Vancouver, on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories. She co-founded HK House 香港屋, a non-profit preserving Hong Kong culture. Her design work includes Fat Joke (Neworld Theatre), SmartSmart (SpiderwebShow), Residuals(住み・墨) (Shion Skye Carter), Peace Country (rice & beans theatre), Happy Valley/馬照跑．舞照跳 (rice & beans theatre), and Clean/Espejos (Neworld Theatre). She is a member of the Associated Designers of Canada.

Performers:

Nasiv Kaur Sall (she/her) is a Canadian-Punjabi dance artist, actor, choreographer and rehearsal assistant based in Vancouver, BC. Since completing her formal dance education in 2020 with the Arts Umbrella Dance Company, Nasiv has lent her talents to various film, tv and theatre productions and Canadian dance companies and institutions. As a contemporary dance artist and performer, she has worked with companies Kidd Pivot, Out Innerspace Dance Theatre, Anne Plamondon Productions, La Tresse Collective, Mascall Dance, Dance//Novella, CAMP Collective, Belle Spirale and Anya Saugstad. Nasiv has further extended her talents to the film industry, working as an actor and dancer in various feature films and series for networks Nickelodeon, Disney, The CW, NBC, and Netflix.

Sarah Hutton is a dancer, actor, choreographer, teacher, and rehearsal director. She was raised in Hanna, Alberta. She moved to Vancouver in 2013 and has since trained with the Source Dance Company, EDAM, Modus Operandi, and Peggy Baker’s Emerging Artists Program. Sarah’s other training includes RUBBERBANDance Method and scene study classes with Nadine Wright. She has had the pleasure to collaborate with Paras Terezakis, Shay Kuebler, Constance Cooke, and Anya & Sophia Saugstad. Touring with Radical System Art has brought Sarah to perform in France, Austria, the United States and across Canada. Sarah Co-Directs the emerging contemporary dance company, generous mess, with her partner Aiden Cass. @sarah_hutton @generous_mess

Cassidy Hergott is a Vancouver-based performer and graduate of Studio 58. She was born in Kelowna, BC on the unceded land of the Sylix/Okanagan people, and moved to Vancouver to further her acting training. As well as performing, Cassidy is a pole dance student/instructor at Tantra Fitness. Select theatre credits include Ensemble (Wizard of Oz, CTORA Theatre), Celina (The Bright Young Things, Folding Camera Theatre), Martha (Spring Awakening, Renegade Theatre), and Bebe (A Chorus Line, Studio 58). Cassidy adores movement and is working on her pole-infused solo show, Not My Colour, to be produced by Promethean Theatre in the fall. Huge thanks to Sophia and Anya for assembling such a talented team!

Laine Gilles is an actor and multi-disciplinary artist based in Vancouver. It was through dance classes growing up where she discovered her love of acting, and has since graduated from Studio 58 theatre. Even in her acting endeavours, she manages to incorporate movement - she has loved the art of dance since childhood, and hopes to continue creating and exploring among such amazing artists like the ones on this project. Recent theatre credits include: The Hobbit, (Project X Theatre), It’s a Wonderful Life (A Live Radio Play) (Western Canada Theatre) and The Rocky Horror Show (Studio 58).

Simran Sachar is a South Asian contemporary and street dance artist, choreographer, and actor. She is a captivating anomaly in this industry who consistently works in ground-breaking spaces. Simran’s latest film with XR technology, premieres in 2024. Her first XR film, BETA बेटा was presented at Luna Arts Festival 2021. In 2020, her first film ‘LUNACY’ was a part of National Arts Centre's CAPSULE and premiered at F.O.R.M Film Festival and won the Official Selection of the Audience Choice Award. She made her acting debut in Alberta Theatre Projects showing of Bombay Black. Simran is the Winner of 2023’s Release Yourself Whacking Battle in Montreal at Artfulness Festival. Opera.

Sarah Formosa is a performing artist, born and raised in Vancouver, BC. She has had the pleasure of performing with many Vancouver-based dance companies. As an actress, Sarah has had the opportunity to work in both Film and Television and on stage. She is grateful to be here at Dancing on the Edge, working with this group of artists.

Eowynn Enquist (she/her) is a 4th generation settler of Irish, French, English, and German descent, incredibly grateful to be living and working on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Eowynn has worked with established dance companies and independent choreographers in Canada such as: Action at a Distance, Anne Plamondon Productions (Montréal,QB), Anya Saugstad, Corporeal Imago, Cristina Bucci, Daria Mikhaylyuk, Heather Myers, Isak Enquist, Kinesis Dance Somatheatro, Mahaila Paterson-O’Brien, Mascall Dance, Nicole Von Arc for Edmonton Opera’s production of Orphee+, Out Innerspace Dance Theatre, Rachel Meyer, Vision Impure Compagnie, and Wen Wei Dance.

Katrina Teitz is an interdisciplinary artist based in Vancouver, BC and a graduate of Capilano University's Musical Theatre Diploma Program (2017). Their favourite past credits include Snow White (Carousel Theatre), Cry-Baby the Musical (Awkward Stage Productions), The Five Vengeances (Affair of Honor). When they aren't acting on stage or screen, they are co-producing films with company: this could've been an email Productions and also, streaming ttrpg games live on twitch! She is an emerging stunt performer with training in flips, tricks, Wushu and a black belt in Karate.