Shion Skye Carter & Miya Turnbull
Photo Credit: Nanne Springer
Omote (⾯)
This performance challenges traditional ideas of beauty, while gestures and tableau articulate the Japanese concept of ‘honne’ (a person’s true feelings) and ‘tatemae’ (their public face).
Credits
SHION SKYE CARTER & MIYA TURNBULL
Vancouver - Coast Salish Territories, & Kjipuktuk/Halifax - Mi'kmaq Territory
OMOTE (⾯)
February 28, 8PM, March 1, 2PM & 8PM
Bus Stop Theatre
General Seating – $65.00 Dance Advocate; $45.00 Adults; $35.00 Seniors; $20.00 Students / Arts Worker; Group Discounts Available
Run Time – 50 Minutes, No Intermission
Content Warning: None
Omote (面) is co-creation between Vancouver dance artist, Shion Skye Carter and Halifax mask maker, Miya Turnbull. By choreographing with hand-crafted papier-mâché masks of each of their faces, coming in myriad shapes and facial expressions, the artists explore their mixed Japanese Canadian heritage, collating and contrasting their personal experiences, while evoking the ritualistic nature of Japanese traditions such as the tea ceremony.
This performance challenges traditional ideas of beauty, while gestures and tableau articulate the Japanese concept of ‘honne’ (a person’s true feelings) and ‘tatemae’ (their public face). Omote (面) translates to both ‘surface/face’ and ‘mask’, and explores multitudes of layers of being and the self, manipulating what is revealed and what is hidden, honing in on the churning, transitory nature of identity.
Shion Skye Carter
Shion Skye Carter (she/they) is a dance artist originally from Gifu, Japan, who lives and dedicates time to their artistic practice in Vancouver, Canada on the unceded, traditional lands of the Coast Salish peoples. Through choreography hybridized with heritage art forms such as calligraphy interacting with objects and design, Shion’s work utilizes a sensitive intensity to navigate the body’s complex internal and external worlds through performance. Recent presentations of Shion’s work include Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), FTA/OFFTA (Montréal), Expanse Festival (Edmonton), Tangente (Montréal), and Kinetic Studio (Halifax), and their dance films have been screened at festivals and exhibitions globally, including in Greece, Bulgaria, Germany, and Brazil. As a performer, they have worked with artists such as Anya Saugstad (Furious Grace Dance Theatre), Vanessa Goodman (Action at a Distance), Company 605, Wen Wei Dance, plastic orchid factory, and Ziyian Kwan (Odd Meridian Arts). Shion holds a BFA in Dance from Simon Fraser University, and is the recipient of the Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award (2022) and the Chrystal Dance Prize (2023).
Miya Turnbull
Miya Turnbull (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary visual artist based in Kjipuktuk (Halifax, N.S.) originally from Onoway, Alberta. She works with many different mediums but is primarily a mask artist, and new to her practice is performance. She focuses on Self Portraits, using her Photo-Mask technique to make life-like variations and representations of her face, often distorting, erasing or manipulating her image as a way to explore identity. Miya has exhibited her masks, photos, and video in galleries internationally and across Canada, such as Acadia University Art Gallery (NS), Kishka Gallery (US), The Beaney (UK), MaximiliansForum (Germany), JCCC Gallery (Toronto), Nelson Gallery (BC), Seewell International Art Center (China) and the Esker Foundation (AB). Miya holds a BFA from the University in Lethbridge and has been fortunate to receive many grants from the Canada Council for the Arts as well as Arts Nova Scotia.