Enemy Lines

Enemy Lines is a live dance performance that looks at how a climate of fear led to the incarceration of Japanese Canadians. Held by curiosity, choreographer Mayumi Lashbrook looks back at the actions taken against her family during World War II. Suddenly deemed a threat after the Pearl Harbour attack in 1941, over 22,000 Canadians of Japanese descent were forcibly removed from the coastline of British Columbia - their lives forever altered.

Storm and Silence

A woven tapestry of dance, spoken word, and live music which comes together for a nuanced tale of myth, memory and history. Historical events married with family folklore arose the tale of Lorelei, a dancer during WWII, who escapes into the River and enters an underwater mythological dreamworld.

(Parentheses)

(Parentheses) is a contemporary dance duet which explores darkness, beauty and longing. By definition, ‘parentheses’ delineate explanatory thoughts. Thus, the work explores the idea of what is held within the ‘parentheses’ of any given conversation. (Parentheses) is an exploration in unburdening these unspoken elements as something tangible, peering deep into our vulnerabilities to seek connection.

The Soldier’s Tale

Set to Igor Stravinsky’s famous work, The Soldier’s Tale, fused theatre, music and dance for a memorable performance at the MacMaster L.R. Wilson Hall. In the beautifully told tale, dancer Mayumi Lashbrook represented the Princess and moved to the orchestra conducted by Jeffery Pollock and alongside storytelling actors directed by Jennifer Walton.

February 23rd 2020 at the Socrates Project

Choreography by Sid Ryan Eilers

Of Ink

Created during the L’AiR Arts Residency program, this piece is a look at how the body holds trauma and how it can be identified, released, and healed. Through research of Mayumi's family traumas of the 1940s WWII era as Japanese Canadians, she's investigating what we can learn from the past to shape our future. Mayumi is exploring the way performer meets audience, seeking connection, vulnerability and awareness of self to jointly uncover areas of misconception and ignorance.

January 26th 2020 at L’AiR Arts Residency Gala & February 22nd 2020 at PROSPECTS
Choreography by Mayumi Lashbrook
PROSPECTS was produced by Aeris Körper

Collapsing the Night

Live music, interactive projection and dance choreography guided attendees on an incredibly unique experience through the Gage Park Tropical Greenhouse. Similar to visiting an art gallery, the audience walked through the greenhouse experiencing the performance. The piece investigated themes of how we find, and ultimately how we can release, our internal dark spaces of loneliness and fear through connection and community care. Generously support by the City of Hamilton Enrichment Fund Grant.

November 22nd & 23rd 2019 at the Gage Park Tropical Greenhouse
Choreography by Sid Ryan Eilers
Produced by Aeris Körper

Deepening

Performed with a range of cast, this piece centres around listening and radiating from your deepest self. Created to be adaptive to each performance setting and audience to offer a magical and effervescent joy.

March 1st 2020 at How’s The Weather Fundraiser, November 16th 2019 at Glitter, November 9th 2019 at Urban Renaissance Conference, & October 19th 2019 at the Burlington Performance Arts Centre’s Elvis + The Man In Black Pre-Show
Choreography by Sid Ryan Eilers

Opening

Opening is a releasing of beauty and all its many facets. Fractals of light are projected shimmering around the bright physicality of dancers Sid Ryan Eilers and Mayumi Lashbrook.

June 16th 2019 at the Hamilton Arts Week Works-In-Progress Showing & May 25th 2019 at Finding Free
Choreography by Sid Ryan Eilers & Mayumi Lashbrook

Yes I do Dream

Created to the hauntingly beautiful lyrics of the Thanya Iyer Band, this work was an installation and commission for the 2019 Frost Bites Festival. Performed by Mayumi Lashbrook.

February 14th-17th 2019 at Frost Bites
Choreography by Sid Ryan Eilers
Yes I Do Dream was commissioned by Frost Bites in collaboration with the Thanya Iyer Band

Vivid Voyage

A mixed program presented at the Burlington Student Theatre. Works explored the internal musings and reflections of the the wild soul to find the uniqueness of each being and their brilliance. The program included Internal Wilderness and Parting Ways.

April 6th & 7th, 2019 at Burlington Student Theatre
Internal Wilderness choreography by Sid Ryan Eilers
Parting Ways choreography by Mayumi Lashbrook

Produced by Aeris Körper

Family Tree Tale

This work is partly biographical, partly fictitious, it uses props, reading and text, minimal and physical movements. “die blaue Blume der Romantik” is about the story of Lisa’s German family as gardeners for the Russian Czars and the history of her mother’s immigration to Canada as an eight year old. Family Tree Tale is a carefully woven family fairytale questioning misogyny, women’s rights and immigration.

October 2018 at PROSPECTS
Choreography by Sid Ryan Eilers

PROSPECTS was produced by Aeris Körper

Reckoning

Reckoning is a subtle, sedated-moving duet looking at the relationship between two women. The performers search for ways to find peace with one another. There is a sense that one of the dancers has strength or knowledge over the other and the other simply submits. When they aim to return to the previous movement there is an inability to go back to the way things were. Haunting and incredibly powerful.

July 2018 at PROSPECTS
Choreography by Sid Ryan Eilers

PROSPECTS was produced by Aeris Körper

Parting Ways

Looking at the pull of two opposing forces, and the care, thought and process needed to find a balance between the two. Using stark counter points, black and white costumes and precise lighting Parting Ways is a journey through difficulties to liberation. Dancers speak throughout, the work looks closely at the end of a marriage and the ripple effects caused. 

April 2019 at Vivid Voyage, July 2018 at PROSPECTS
Choreography by Mayumi Lashbrook

Vivid Voyage and PROSPECTS were produced by Aeris Körper

Cascade

Cascade is an exploration of the Waterfall landscape of Hamilton, Ontario. After hiking the terrain of five waterfalls in the area; moves through several scenes where specific waterfalls or images are portrayed.

November 2017 at a Work-In-Progress showing funded by the Hamilton City 150 Grant
Choreography by Sid Ryan Eilers

Produced by Aeris Körper

Powerhouse

Powerhouse is a dynamic and physical interactive piece that was created specifically for the abandoned Westinghouse headquarters in 2019. In it’s prime the Westinghouse Electric Company focused specifically on how electricity could change our lives; this work looks at how energy exchange transforms the space and the people who interact with it.  The piece concludes with a powerful and celebratory dance party where everyone, performers and audience are on the dance floor.

February 2018 at Frost Bites
Choreography by Sid Ryan Eilers

III

III explores the relationship and movement of three. III allied people, III pillars of support, III strands of a cord. We are familiar with the bond of two, but what dynamics shift with a third? A braid of bodies creates patterns unparalleled and impossible by fewer. III looks at the strands that make up that trio and what actions can integrate involvement of all.

April 2018 at PROSPECTS & June 2017 at New Blue Dance Festival
Choreography by Mayumi Lashbrook

PROSPECTS was produced by Aeris Körper

In Sight

Exploring the physical sensations of going through a stroke. This multidisciplinary collaborative project was created with Open Heart Arts. This site specific work was amid artwork of typewriters and everyday objects. Presented at the Art Gallery of Hamilton as part of the Frost Bites festival.

February 2017 at Frost Bites
Choreography by Sid Ryan Eilers

RE(Variations)

RE(Variations) takes the audience on an intoxicating journey through three separate and distinct dance works exploring exquisite beauty, brute strength, and thrilling darkness: I:Variations, (Parentheses) and Revel. Aeris Körper creates performances that engage in shared personal experiences, combine dynamic emotional content and are begging to be watched.

February 2017 at the Citadel: Ross Centre for Dance
(Parentheses) Choreography by Sid Ryan Eilers and Mayumi Lashbrook
Revel Choreography by Sid Ryan Eilers, Mayumi Lashbrook and Mateo Galindo Torres

Produced by Aeris Körper and a DanceWorks CoWorks Series Event

Variations of Silence

Variations of Silence takes the audience on an intoxicating journey through three separate and distinct dance works exploring exquisite beauty, brute strength, and thrilling darkness: I:Variations, Revel and Storm and Silence. Aeris Körper creates performances that engage in shared personal experiences, combine dynamic emotional content and are begging to be watched.

January 2017 at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre
Revel Choreography by Sid Ryan Eilers, Mayumi Lashbrook and Mateo Galindo Torres
Storm and Silence Choreography by Sid Ryan Eilers

Variations of Silence was produced by Aeris Körper and presented by the Burlington Performing Arts Centre

Reflective/Vulnerable

A triple bill of love, political strife and quiet contemplation. Each distinctive work brings the audience into a sensation, an image, a feeling. Drastically different and yet poetically similar. This work was funded by the Ontario Arts Council.

October 2015 at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre
Reverie Choreography by Sid Ryan Eilers, Mayumi Lashbrook and Mateo Galindo Torres

Produced by Aeris Körper

Form and Fixation

Form and Fixation encompassed two works questioning of the external forces around us. Part of the Hamilton Fringe Festival, this 1 hour show had audiences dreaming of Reverie and shaking their fists at political structures. Reverie was originally presented at Dance Matters in September 2014 and had an opportunity to grow and expand for this iteration of the piece.

July 2015 at the Hamilton Fringe Festival
Reverie Choreography by Sid Ryan Eilers, Mayumi Lashbrook and Mateo Galindo Torres