Vancouver dance collective CAMP embodies the core of collaboration to illustrate a tale between humanity’s dark and light side

As the premiere of WANTED at the Vancouver International Dance Festival approaches, the group shares its unique creative process

SPONSORED POST BY vancouver international dance festival

CAMP members from top left: Ted Littlemore, Sarah Formosa, Eowynn Enquist, Brenna Metzmeier, and Isak Enquist. Photo by Richie Lubaton

In the digitized era, CAMP values collaboration. The group dynamic contributes directly to the creation process of the dance collective’s new performance, WANTED, premiering at the 2021 Vancouver International Dance Festival, as its members seek to unify their vision while coming from different dance backgrounds.

“We bring clear motivations as individuals, but then there is somehow space for us to pass off the baton.” CAMP member Brenna Metzmeier says.

The concept of a cowboy—the landmark feature in WANTED—in fact, stems from the everyday interaction between group members. The CAMP members train with each other on a day-to-day basis. Yet, they want to elevate their work beyond just methodological training. “Eowynn Enquist came in one day and said ‘picture this, a cowboy dancing in slow-motion’, then this piece somehow spiraled into a cowboy piece,” CAMP member Ted Littlemore says with a laugh.

The openness and trust that each artist in CAMP has toward each other allows them to smoothly integrate a piece of themselves into other members’ concepts and visions.

As WANTED taps into different topics concerning the nature of humanity, the creation process behind it also challenges the artists to be delicate about the balance between the rawness of the message they want to convey and the showmanship of their performance. As CAMP member Sarah Formosa points out, “This piece is very much about our fear and distrust, our community and how we sit inside the society that we’ve been given.” However, she stresses that “even though there is a lot of darkness involved in that, we really try to work with a lot of comedy, and moments where you, as the audience, can actually receive what you are seeing rather than being trapped in the state of darkness and sadness.”

Working directly with the camera rather than rows of audiences, CAMP members find this new form of presenting their art as a part of the challenge they face during the creative process of WANTED. Without the availability of outside eyes CAMP can refer to while creating, the camera has now become their new lens. “Because we can really craft how the camera moves and what it sees, it feels like we’re almost giving the audience more secrets” Formosa says. CAMP uses this challenge as an opportunity to utilize unique angles and interactions to foster an intimate experience for the audience. 

With regard to how the pandemic challenges the creation process, CAMP members believe that this entire process in fact permeated WANTED. Littlemore compares the pandemic to a “pressure cooker” for the creative process: although the members are operating mainly in the realm of the unknown, they are pushed in their creative power because of how much time they spend with each other. Pandemics put relationships to trial, which is precisely a part of what WANTED investigates. 

Watch CAMP perform WANTED, livestreaming from May 27 to 29 as a part of the 2021 Vancouver International Dance Festival.

Tickets to livestream performances of WANTED are free/by-donation with advanced registration at VIDF.