Two artistic directors want to give queer youth across the Lower Mainland a voice through a community production called PROX:IMITY RE:MIX – and the Royal City is no exception.
Delia Brett and Daelik Hackenbrook, the faces behind Vancouver-based dance company MACHiNENOiSY, are bringing their show to Anvil Centre Theatre this Saturday.
The 30-minute performance is a collaboration between seven LGBTQ+ youth and their straight allies (four of whom are from New West), who explore the issues of identity and gender through personal anecdotes.
But it’s not your typical dance show.
“You’re not going to see what you’d normally see if you were to base it on something like So You Think You Can Dance,” Brett told the Record. “It’s like dance theatre, so there’s a lot of talking. The show is really constructed around the personalities of the participants themselves.”
PROX:IMITY RE:MIX, Brett added, is also a collaboration with new media artist Sammy Chien, who’s been able to fuse sound and video technology into the production.
Alex Bellavance, who identifies as a trans male, is one of seven performers to hit the stage. The 15-year-old “discovered himself” in 2011 and came out in a letter to his mom on May 25, 2012.
“We kind of brushed it off for a year because it was unheard of at the time,” he explained. “Then I had come out again later that year, to both my parents. They were fine with it and we still didn’t do much about it. Then I came out to everyone over Facebook and I had all positive responses.”
Even though the transition process has been mostly positive so far, with surgery to come next year, Bellavance said it wasn’t that long ago where people just thought of it as a “phase.”
“It was just really hard to get going with my transition. … I feel like I’m almost done. Once I finish (surgery), I’m going to feel 100 per cent and focus on doing other things.”
Given the teenager’s confidence, Brett said it was easy to incorporate his story into the show. However, not every trans person feels the same way, she noted, which is why the artistic directors wanted to create a platform.
PROX:IMITY RE:MIX was born out of a previous project called Law of Proximity, where in 2012, eight youth were mentored in the creation of multimedia dance. The pair then decided to use the same template and invited youth to participate in performances in their own communities, a skill-building process that takes about two weeks. Participants are asked to write journal-like entries about themselves and share what they like, or don’t like. From there, Brett and Hackenbrook use that information to build the show.
“It’s about giving a voice to people who tend to be marginalized,” Hackenbrook told the Record. “The youth we’re coming across have all be very powerful in the representation of themselves.”
Brett, meanwhile, suggested it’s also been a very rewarding experience for them, the teachers.
“We get out hearts blasted wide open every time because working with youth, who are so willing, so smart, so talented, it’s just really touching and really inspiring,” she said.
PROX:IMITY RE:MIX at Anvil Centre on Oct. 24 is MACHiNENOiSY’s fifth and final production of the year. Admission is free, with doors opening at 1 p.m. and the curtain rising at 2 p.m. The show is part of the third annual MOMENTUM Youth Arts Festival (formerly known as Yam Jam).
For more info or to register, visit www.momentumyouthfest.com.
