Shion Skye Carter, Japan / Canada

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.

​Through choreography hybridized with heritage art forms such as calligraphy interacting with objects and design, Shion’s work utilizes a sensitive intensity to navigate identity and the body’s complex internal and external worlds through performance. Recent presentations of Shion’s work include Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), OFFTA (Montréal), Expanse Festival (Edmonton), Tangente (Montréal), and Kinetic Studio (Halifax), and their short movement films have been screened at festivals and galleries globally, including in Bulgaria, Germany, China, Greece, 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 Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from Simon Fraser University, and is the recipient of the Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award (2022) and the Chrystal Dance Prize (2023).

Photo: Mateus Studios

During the residency with L'AiR Arts at Atelier 11, Shion aims to refine and lengthen their contemporary dance performance, Cobalt while studying French artist Yves Klein (1928-1962) and his shade of International Klein Blue that he developed in Montparnasse. 

​Join us at Atelier 11 on April 26th for an informal performance of Cobalt as the culminating event of Shion’s residency, followed by a post-show talk and Q&A. 

Photo: Lula-Belle Jedynak

Cobalt is a contemporary dance solo that reflects the vibrant, pigmented abundance that I strive to feel in my body, a body that I constantly scrutinize and critique; a body that doesn’t always feel like home. Moving through time from my childhood to the future, I oscillate between these portraits of self, attempting to succeed in the impossible task of existing at multiple ages, multiple identities, all at one moment.

While artist-in-residence at Atelier 11, I will lengthen the performance by diving deeper into the choreographic motifs of oscillating between portraits of the body at different ages, and further developing the visual impact of the work. I am curious to explore new ways of interacting with costume and objects as extensions of the moving body, and to hone in on this striking shade of blue.

Through this residency, my aim is to further refine Cobalt as a contemporary dance performance that can captivate people with its aesthetic minimalism, the choreography expressing subtle resilience and gentle provocation in ways that strikes a chord with anyone on a journey to radical self-acceptance.

We gratefully acknowledge Canada Council for the Arts, whose support has made this residency possible.