UNTITLEdISTANCE is a duet about Arash and Emmalena, two dancers based in Vancouver who grew up far from here and far from each other. Through their encounter they tell stories from the past to illuminate their possible imagined individual and collective futures. They entertain, inquire and provoke as they move through universal themes such as togetherness, aging and love to those more arrestingly contemporary such as our rapidly changing climates and migration. What is it that links this wild range of themes? Us. Through questions, answers and attempts to understand this moment in time, Arash and Emma bring humanness to the foreground in far reaching dances of seriousness and silliness, madness and hope.

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Created by Arash Khakpour and Emmalena Fredriksson, 

UNTITLEdISTANCE explores contact and text improvisation in dance performance. The research began with a residency at Simon Fraser University in the summer of 2016. In 2017 they received the Chrystal Dance Prize from Dance Victoria to develop the project further through a residency in Victoria and in Örebro, Sweden. The piece premiered at Dancing on the Edge in July 2017  and has to date been performed at: 

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Arts Assembly | work in progress | Vancouver |  April 2017

Dance Victoria | work in progress | Victoria |  June 2017

Dancing On The Edge | premiere | Vancouver |  July 2017

Nya Teatern | Örebro Sweden | September 2017 

Dance Days |  Victoria |  January 2018

Push Off | Vancouver | February 2018

New Works at Night | Vancouver | May 2018

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As Artists in Residence at The Dance Centre in Vancouver, Emmalena and Arash are continuing the research with 6 Vancouver-based bilingual dancers in the fall of 2019 with the support of The Canada Council for The Arts. 

https://www.thedancecentre.ca/programs/residencies

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Made in BC online showcase: 

http://www.madeinbc.org/mibcshowcase/untitledistances/

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Review by Peter Dickinson:

http://performanceplacepolitics.blogspot.com/2017/07/edge-7-at-dote.html 

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Photography: Erik Zennström and Yvonne Chew

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Developed through the support of the Chrystal Dance Prize, Dance Victoria, Simon Fraser University, Dans i örebro Län, Teater Martin Mutter and Nya Teatern.