DSRIP (2020)

Deep Sea Research in Progress (DSRIP) was a creative research collaboration between Jenna Berlyn Mazur, Tia Ashley Kushniruk, and Kenzie Bowes.

Initially inspired by the ideals of 'Beauty' and 'Beauty' in dark times, DSRIP sought to exploit the aesthetic reign of colonial western dance standards in contemporary concert dance using a variety of zany archetypal characters, displaying the motifs of artifice, suffering, and decay through violent means, and ‘our relationship to the audience’, to metaphorically posture how to reclaim what is truly 'beautiful' to us.

At the end of this research creation period, we deemed that all of the material generated belonged to everyone in the room. All ideas, movement concepts, tableaus, lighting, etc., were collectively owned by the group of artists present. Thus, DSRIP became a collection/bank of works/research generated by us, belonging to all of us.

The cast of DSRIP comprised of a multicultural team of dance artists with various sexual orientations, gender identities & expressions. The artists we worked with were essential to how we crafted/played within the world of DSRIP and how we chose to subvert the collective perceived normalcy of ‘beauty’ within contemporary concert dance. 

Created in a devised space, this creative research was built together with these artists: Kevin 'Shazam' Li, Juolin Lee, Calder White, Ileanna Cheladyn, and Susannah Haight.

DSRIP existed at Left of Main (Vancouver).

To watch a playlist of the research click here.

For additional questions please email either jenna.mazur@live.com or tiaakush71@gmail.com