Shion Skye Carter (she/they) is a dance artist originally from Tajimi, Japan, who lives and dedicates time to her artistic practice in Vancouver, Canada as a settler on the unceded, ancestral, and occupied territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Through choreography hybridized with heritage artforms that interact with digital and sculptural objects, Shion’s work looks inward to the facets of her intersectional identity as a lens to process the world around her. As co-founder of olive theory, an interdisciplinary duo with musician Stefan Nazarevich, she collaborates to experiment at the intersection between embodied performance, installation art, and live sound. Their ongoing project reach-close features an interactive, sculptural, amplified piano wire installation. The artists activate the wires by plucking, using violin bows, and scraping their buzzed haircuts, creating an interactive performance for both performers and audiences.
Shion has performed her work across Canada, including presentations at The Dance Centre (Vancouver), Tangente (Montréal), Kinetic Studio (Halifax), and Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), and her experimental dance films have been screened at festivals globally, including Dancing on the Edge Festival (Canada), International Portrait Film Festival (Bulgaria), CAPSULE by the National Arts Centre (Canada), Hibrido Brazilian Videodance Festival (Brazil), and Dance Days Chania (Greece). As a performer, she has interpreted the works of artists such as Anya Saugstad, Vanessa Goodman (Action at a Distance), Wen Wei Dance, and Ziyian Kwan (Dumb Instrument Dance). She holds a BFA from Simon Fraser University, and is grateful to be the recipient of the Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award (2021) and the Chrystal Dance Prize (2022).
(Headshot photo: Brenda Kent Colina)
RECENT PRESS
July 2022: Feature interview on After School Podcast
March 2022: Discorder Magazine, article on Residuals (住み・墨)
February 2022: Nikkei Voice, web article on Yume. Digital Dreams collaboration project
October 2021: Nikkei Voice, newspaper article on Residuals (住み・墨)
October 2021: atuvu.ca, web article on Residuals (住み・墨) presentation at Tangente in Montreal, QC
September 2021: Vancouver Shinpo, web articles on my work with calligraphy
July 2021: The PEAK newspaper, web article on receiving the Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award
June 2021: Stir Magazine, web article on receiving the Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award
June 2021: The Georgia Straight newspaper, print article on Flow Tide at Dancing on the Edge Festival
April 2021: Stir Magazine, web article on olive theory
April 2021: Dance International Magazine, web article on young artists creating work during the pandemic
March/April 2020: Dance Current Magazine, print article on my creative process