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CHÂU Kim-Sanh (she/her)

is a choreographer-dancer, filmmaker, and cultural worker. Her stage creations have been presented at the MAI, Tangente, l’Arsenal, l’Écart (Canada), Krossing-Over (Vietnam), Performance Curator Initiatives (Philippines), and SIDance (Korea), among others. In 2023, she collaborates as a dancer with Ariane Dessaulles, Erin Hill, and compagnies Katie Ward, Carpe Diem /Emmanuel Jouthe. Châu is an associate artist at Equivoc’ and artistic director at Studio 303.

est chorégraphe-interprète,  réalisatrice et travailleuse culturelle. Son travail chorégraphique a été présenté au MAI, l’Arsenal, l'Écart, Tangente, et à travers plusieurs festivals internationaux, dont SIDance (Corée), PCI (Philippines) et Krossing-Over (Vietnam). En 2023, elle est interprète pour des projets de Arianne Dessaulles, Erin Hill, Compagnie Katie Ward et Carpe Diem /Emmanuel Jouthe. Châu est artiste associée chez Equivoc’ et directrice artistique au Studio 303.


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MIDLAND // DANCE PERFORMANCE VIDEO



LOVE FLOWS 

an experimental film that visually connects love vows. It speaks of friendship with Chittakone and his love for music and his cats. Of sisterhood with My-Anh and our desire to protect each other. Of partnership with Faiz and my wish to bring him into the light. Here, there is no river, but love flows abondundantly.

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PERFORMANCE
2022

Next at 
PuSh Festival 2025
CAM en tournée 2025



BLEU NÉON

a solo performed entirely from the position of the squat - used as a cultural, political and aesthetic symbol of Asian being. Bleu Neon navigates between fantasized nostalgia, language loss and sexual objectification - all three widely experienced by Asian diasporic populations.

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PERFORMANCE
2022

Next at
PuSh Festival 2025
CAM en tournée 2025



MIDLAND

screendance project celebrating forgotten satellites, enlivening their ghosts through a sensitive and ritualized dance. Beings dialogue, and answers are given but never understood.

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FILM
2021

Available onLinterface/clubvideo



ORE

screendance project, shot in Saigon (Vietnam), follows 11 dancers in this rich and chaotic city. Believing in a deep and visceral body language, Kim-Sanh Châu & Ray Lavers’s creation is intimate and assumes its own subjectivity. Their work is anchored within space, as well as rythm.  

Read more...
FILM
2017

Available on
Regards Hybrides Collection




KALEIDOSCOPE

leaning between dance and installation, Kaleidoscope is a colorful sensorial journey where bodies unravel subconscious and fleeting dreams. Floating through concise positions and with gentle corporeity, the dancers Ariane Dessaulles and Melina Stinson, open our oneiric imaginations.

Read more...
PERFORMANCE
2018





INNER SMOKE

in Hoa Binh, rural area in Northern Vietnam, large expanses of white smoke can be observed every day. Whether at roadsides, in fields, or even backyards, local light fires every night around 5 p.m. Whether fire is lit in the idea of cleaning, purifying or honouring the deceased, this omnipresent phenomenon becomes obsessive.

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FILM
2016

Available on
Linterface/clubvideo



LOVE FLOWS


Love Flows|Ở đây sông cạn, nhưng tình yêu tuôn chảy

an experimental film that visually connects love vows. It speaks of friendship with Chittakone and his love for music and his cats. Of sisterhood with My-Anh and our desire to care for each other. Of partnership with Faiz and my wish to bring him into the light. And of all the messages of love that are not visible yet still very much present. In Love Flows, there is no river, but love flows continuously.

un film experimental qui relie visuellement des voeux d'amour. De l'amitié avec Chittakone et son amour pour la musique et ses chats. De la sororité avec My-Anh et notre désir de prendre soin l'une de l'autre. Du couple avec Faiz et de mon souhait de le mettre en lumière. Et de tous les messages d'amour qui ne sont pas visibles mais pourtant bien présents. Dans Love Flows, il n'y a pas de rivière mais l'amour coule en continu.

Screening
Articule (Canada) June 22 2024

Credits
A film by Kim Sanh Châu
With Faiz Abhuani,  Hazy Montagne Mystique, Kim Sanh Châu et My Anh Châu
Music Hazy Montagne Mystique
Support Cineground, Lorganisme, and Conseil des arts du Canada

FR


BLEU NEON



In a distant, fictional Vietnam, the echoes of pop music on cassette tape reverberate against the sounds of modern Vietnamese rap. Châu Kim-Sanh inhabits this space, metamorphosing through bodily states generated by the presence of coloured neon lights. Of this evening blue erupts a purpleness: “bầu trời màu tím xẩm” – an uncertain translation. Eyes closed, the neon haze returns her to the sensation of her ancestral land. Saigon, like many cities in South-East Asia, is flushed with these vivid lights. Here, embodied memory and the imaginary take a ride on a Honda Dream II motorcycle, across a humid sky whose wetness whips the face.

This solo is performed in its entirety from the squat position – a typically Asian posture. Audio recordings bespeckle the choreography, navigating between fantasized nostalgia, loss of language and sexual objectification – all three widely experienced by Asian diasporic populations. In Southeast Asia, rap culture is increasingly popular – giving a voice to a population marked by silence. Rap here is a prayer.

Lyrics (by Jonair) here



Credits
Choreography & performance Kim-Sanh Châu
Music Hazy Montagne Mystique, JONAIR and Rắn Cạp Đuôi Collective
Rehearsal Louise Michel Jackson
Dramaturgy Be Heintzman Hope
Lighting & technic Jon Cleveland
Rap support Vladimir ‘7Starr’ Laurore, LilWaterboi Chuong Trinh, Nguyen Kim Phuong

Shows
MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels)(Canada) April 28-29-30 2022
Festival de danse contemporaine de Sherbrooke (Canada) August 19 2022
Festival Quartier des spectacles /Chinatown (Canada) Sept 23 2022
Semaines culturelles vietnamiennes /CCV Montréal /Maison de la culture NDG (Canada) Oct 4 2023
Festival des arts performatifs de Rouyn-Noranda (Canada) Oct 13 2022
Kinergie (Vietnam) April 5 2023
Krossing Over Art Festival (Vietnam) April 14 2023
Guang Ming College(Philippines) April 20 2023
Performance Curators Initiatives /Dance Forum (Philippines) April 27 2023
Festival FURIES (Canada) July 29 2023
Parcours danse - Séléction officielle /Maison de la culture Janine Sutto Nov 30 2023

Residencies
Institut Français & Dancenter (Vietnam) March 2019
CCOV (Canada) July 2021
Maison de la culture Marie Uguay (Canada) December 2021
MAI (Canada) 2021-22

Financial Support
Above residecy partners
+
FTA Respirations
Conseil des arts de Montréal
Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec
Conseil des arts du Canada
Total budget of $44,000 (research & production) - hourly rate base of $35/h for all 


Direction Kim-Sanh Châu
With Louise Michel Jackson, Jean-Paul Rousseau Kim-Sanh Châu
Music Hazy Montagne Mystique
Sound design Sandy Pinteus

C’est à l’orée des bois que se croisent des coupoles et des corps.
Leurs dialogues inaudibles imprègnent les roches à l’encre mauve.
Lueurs de l’aube. Soleil froid.
Capter l’impalpable. Danser l’invisible.

Ce court-métrage célèbre des coupoles oubliées, et les imagine vivantes à travers une danse sensible et ritualisée.
Des êtres y dialoguent, des langues se répondent sans se comprendre.

MIDLAND a été réalisé dans une grande solitude. Dans la noirceur de l’aube, Châu a voyagé à travers le Québec sur ma petite moto de 1976 afin de capter ces images. De façon très intime, ce vidéo touche à l’attachement au territoire, de la beauté tout comme de la violence qui peuvent naitre du sentiment d’appartenance, de possession et de leurs contraires.

***

It’s at the edge of the woods that satellites and bodies intersect.
Their inaudible dialogues steep the stones in purple ink.
Gleams of dawn. Cold sun.
Capture the intangible. Dance the invisible.

MIDLAND is a screendance project celebrating forgotten satellites, enlivening their ghosts through a sensitive and ritualized dance. Beings dialogue, and answers are given but never understood.

MIDLAND was created in deep solitude. In the shadow of dawn I travelled through Quebec on my small motorbike from 1976 in order to capture these images. Through an intimate lens, this video addresses land ownership, troubled by the simultaneous beauty and violence that stems from the feeling of belonging, of ownership, and their opposites.

***
Tourné en partie durant sa résidence artistique à Marsoui au Salon 58 en octobre 2019, MIDLAND peut se vivre comme une incursion dans différents paysages bruts. Qu'ils s'agissent d'installations permanentes ou éphémères, de constructions naturelles ou nées de l'intervention humaine, les lieux dépeints dans MIDLAND dégagent une poésie sans artifice.
ㅡ Priscilla Guy, commissaire (Salon 58)

***
Residencies Salon 58
Screening Living Away fest, NYC US (July 21 2020), Salon 58 (July 23 2020), Rendez-vous du cinema québecois (April 28 2021), Festival Filministe (Sept 2-8-15 2021), Image Forum, Tokyo JP (Sept 20 2022), aCinema Space, Milwaukee USA (Nov 15,2022)
Production Equivoc'
Support Salon 58, Mandoline Hybride, Canada art Council


Co-direction, choreography and interpretation Kim-Sanh Châu
Co-direction and cinematography Ray Lavers
Interpretation Dương Văn Quý, Lê Quốc Huy, Lê Hữu Phước, Nguyễn Christina, Nguyễn Mạnh Quyền, Nguyễn Ngọc Tân, Phạm Ngọc Anh, Nguyễn Vũ Hoàng Minh, Sabra Johnson, Trần Trọng Nghĩa, Võ Hồng Nhung
Music Hazy Montagne Mystique (Chittakone Baccam)
Sound design Sandy Pinteus

Duration twenty minutes
Original format 35 mm full-frame, 4K pro res
Shot in Vietnam Produced in Canada
Year 2017
Support Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, LOJIQ, DanCenter
Screening Rencontres Internationales Regards Hybrides /Canada (November 10, 2017)

ORE est bleu, scintillant, fragile.
Cette vidéodanse, tournée à Saigon (Vietnam), suit 11 interprètes dans cette ville riche et chaotique. Ancré dans un langage chorégraphique et cinématographique épuré, Kim-Sanh Châu & Ray Lavers proposent leurs regards subjectifs sur cette ville à laquelle ils sont liés, sans pour autant la comprendre pleinement. Leur travail dialogue avec l'espace et met en lumière la lenteur. ORE est la seconde vidéodanse d'une trilogie tournée au Vietnam, faisant suite à Inner Smoke (2016), qui a reçu le prix de la meilleure direction 2017 au Festival Quartiers Danses / Cinémathèque Québécoise.

ORE is blue, gleaming, fragile and powerful. This screendance project, shot in Saigon (Vietnam), follows 11 dancers in this rich and chaotic city. Believing in a deep and visceral body language, Kim-Sanh Châu & Ray Lavers’s creation is intimate and assumes its own subjectivity. Their work is anchored within space, as well as rythm. ORE is their second screendance shot in Vietnam, following Inner Smoke, which was awarded Best Direction 2017 by Festival Quartiers Danses - Cinémathèque Québécoise (Canada).


Choreography Kim-Sanh Châu
Interpretation Ariane Dessaulles, Melina Stinson (Canada), Võ Hồng Nhung (Vietnam)
Dramaturgy Daina Ashbee
Music Chittakone Baccam, Michel F. Côté
Video Guillaume Vallée
Lighting Jon Cleveland

Residencies OFFTA, Espace Marie Chouinard, La Serre - arts vivants, Dancenter, Danse Danse
Shows Tangente (Canada) Feb 8-9-10-11, 2018, Krossing-Over (Vietnam) April 19-21, 2018, Dancebox (Malaysia) May 1, 2018, SIDance / HOTPOT (Korea) Oct 13 2018, Sejong International Festival (Korea) Oct 16 2018, Arsenal (Canada) Dec 11, 2018, Rencontres Internationales Regards Hybrides (Canada) Oct 23, 2019.
Financial support Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec
Year 2018

À mi-chemin entre danse et installation, Kaleidoscope est un voyage sensoriel coloré où les corps dévoilent rêves enfouis et subconscient. Naviguant entre des positions concises, les danseuses Ariane Dessaulles et Melina Stinson, dessinent une douce corporéité ouvrant à des imaginaires oniriques lointains. Le public glisse dans un univers brumeux et surréel à l’aide de lunettes kaleidoscopes. Celles-ci démultiplient l’image et altèrent les couleurs. Avec cette création, Kim-Sanh Châu matérialise et ouvre son univers synesthésique entre couleur, musique et émotion. Kaleidoscope est rose pâle, pourpre, avec des touches bleues persan et dorées. Les corps se multiplient à l’infini. Puis disparaissent.

Leaning between dance and installation, Kaleidoscope is a colorful sensorial journey where bodies unravel subconscious and fleeting dreams. Floating through concise positions and with gentle corporeity, the dancers Ariane Dessaulles and Melina Stinson, open our oneiric imaginations. The audience slides into this surreal and hazy world wearing kaleidoscope glasses. Their special lenses multiply the image and alter colours. With this new creation, Kim-Sanh Châu realizes and invites us into her synesthetic realm of colors, music and emotions. Kaleidoscope is pale pink and violet, touched with Persian blue and gold. Bodies duplicate infinitely. Then disappear.