Anya Saugstad premieres Paper Mountains at Dance In Vancouver, November 23
In full-length work, five dancers explore paradoxical themes through vigorous physicality
Paper Mountains. Photo by Bray Jorstad
The Dance Centre presents Anya Saugstad’s Paper Mountains on November 23 at 8 pm at the Scotiabank Dance Centre as part of Dance In Vancouver
OVER 1,000 HANDCRAFTED paper airplanes have gone into the making of choreographer Anya Saugstad’s Paper Mountains, a work that sees five dancers whirl vigorously through space.
Originally devised during the pandemic as a byproduct of uncertainty, Paper Mountains has since evolved into an examination of paradoxes in the face of the climate crisis: think sorrow and celebration, strength and lightness, surrender and resilience. When Stir spoke to Saugstad in 2023 for our annual Fall Arts Guide, she shared that “the paper plane had this really nice theme of flight, of lightness, and of going”.
Last year, Paper Mountains secured The Dance Centre’s biennial Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award, which provides a young dance artist with up to $5,000 for the production of a new work. As a result, Saugstad is now premiering a full-length version of her piece at this year’s Dance In Vancouver showcase put on by The Dance Centre. Though the planes won’t be present on-stage in this iteration of the piece, they inspired its soaring sense of urgency.
Paper Mountains features dancers Eowynn Enquist, Nasiv Sall, Oksana Maslechko, Sarah Hutton, and Shion Skye Carter, with a soundtrack by Stefan Nazarevich and Amanda Sum, and lighting design by Andie Lloyd. The piece marks Saugstad’s second premiere as of late; she and her sister, theatre artist Sophie Saugstad, also debuted their interdisciplinary collaboration Gravity in Your Eyes at Dancing on the Edge in June.
Audiences can catch Paper Mountains at the Scotiabank Dance Centre on November 23 at 8 pm. Directly afterward, Dance in Vancouver will conclude with a 9:30 pm performance of Soft Currents by Vanessa Goodman’s company Action at a Distance. 
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