"How do we learn about the people that nobody spoke about?" "What do we each carry and hold, sealed and contained, in our bodies, hearts, minds, souls?" Firehorse and Shadow, is a performance work by Dreamwalker Dance Company situated in Vancouver’s Historic Chinatown. It exists as a set of stories combining elements of contemporary dance, shadow puppetry, animation, film, and theatre. In this work intangible experiences are given form through choreographer Andrea Nann’s embodied familial histories process that has been developed in collaboration with core collaborators: director Sarah Chase; dramaturge/future teller/visual artist Cindy Mochizuki; and shadow artist/performer Annie Katsura Rollins. The work explores memory, sensation, perception, shadows, personal histories, relationships, cosmology, Chinese medicine, wellness, food, and fate. Through a series of consultations supported by Ontario Arts Council Artist-Presenter Collaborations program we worked with April Liu from Chinatown Storytelling Centre (CSC); Jasper Yip from Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society (VAHMS); creative collaborators Chase, Rollins, and Mochizuki; and filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier, to better understand current contexts and community needs in Vancouver’s Chinatown, and to devise community engagement initiatives that would allow us to 1. extend the scope of our existing work and 2. to share the unique practices that were part of Firehorse and Shadow creation process within the Chinatown community and beyond. With generous support from Canada Council for the Arts Public Outreach program Firehorse & Shadow in Community began with a series of creative workshops and community gatherings to engage members from Vancouver’s Chinatown community (individuals ages spanning from youth to seniors). Our work aroused sensation, memory and imagination as past experiences were embodied. Our process was grounded in Dreamwalker’s trauma-informed practice Conscious Bodies Methodology. Individual storytelling emerged as groups entered into collaborative process and creative practice, inviting deeper essences of an experience, a person or a place being re-membered to be felt, met with love, and shared with others. Creative workshop themes included: Shadow and Storytelling, Storytelling and Movement, Dumplings and Divination, Intergenerational Walking Talks, Sealed Secret Releasing Rituals and more. During each workshop participants were moving together, playing, imagining, creating, sharing tea, reflecting, eating and spending time visiting. These collective experiences supported each individual to journey into felt experience in the kind and care-filled presence of others. Filmmakers Yasuhiro Okada, Sophia Mai Wolfe and Dan Loan were present to document workshop experiences; to witness and record all verbal and non-verbal sharings. Editors Ran Zheng, Sarah Genge and Jennifer Baichwal wove this series of four video story poems. Creative Producer Kelsi James stewarded our journey with care and love.

"What are the stories we have never asked our families about?" "What are the inner lives and small histories that are vanishing as architecture is demolished and washed away?" Firehorse and Shadow, is a performance work by Dreamwalker Dance Company situated in Vancouver’s Historic Chinatown. It exists as a set of stories combining elements of contemporary dance, shadow puppetry, animation, film, and theatre. In this work intangible experiences are given form through choreographer Andrea Nann’s embodied familial histories process that has been developed in collaboration with core collaborators: director Sarah Chase; dramaturge/future teller/visual artist Cindy Mochizuki; and shadow artist/performer Annie Katsura Rollins. The work explores memory, sensation, perception, shadows, personal histories, relationships, cosmology, Chinese medicine, wellness, food, and fate. Through a series of consultations supported by Ontario Arts Council Artist-Presenter Collaborations program we worked with April Liu from Chinatown Storytelling Centre (CSC); Jasper Yip from Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society (VAHMS); creative collaborators Chase, Rollins, and Mochizuki; and filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier, to better understand current contexts and community needs in Vancouver’s Chinatown, and to devise community engagement initiatives that would allow us to 1. extend the scope of our existing work and 2. to share the unique practices that were part of Firehorse and Shadow creation process within the Chinatown community and beyond. With generous support from Canada Council for the Arts Public Outreach program Firehorse & Shadow in Community began with a series of creative workshops and community gatherings to engage members from Vancouver’s Chinatown community (individuals ages spanning from youth to seniors). Our work aroused sensation, memory and imagination as past experiences were embodied. Our process was grounded in Dreamwalker’s trauma-informed practice Conscious Bodies Methodology. Individual storytelling emerged as groups entered into collaborative process and creative practice, inviting deeper essences of an experience, a person or a place being re-membered to be felt, met with love, and shared with others. Creative workshop themes included: Shadow and Storytelling, Storytelling and Movement, Dumplings and Divination, Intergenerational Walking Talks, Sealed Secret Releasing Rituals and more. During each workshop participants were moving together, playing, imagining, creating, sharing tea, reflecting, eating and spending time visiting. These collective experiences supported each individual to journey into felt experience in the kind and care-filled presence of others. Filmmakers Yasuhiro Okada, Sophia Mai Wolfe and Dan Loan were present to document workshop experiences; to witness and record all verbal and non-verbal sharings. Editors Ran Zheng, Sarah Genge and Jennifer Baichwal wove this series of four video story poems. Creative Producer Kelsi James stewarded our journey with care and love.

"Can artistic process and collective embodiment help us recover family stories that have been severed, fractured or lost?" "How does remembering lead to reconnection? With each other, across generations, and in the rich and complex geography of specific Places?" Firehorse and Shadow, is a performance work by Dreamwalker Dance Company situated in Vancouver’s Historic Chinatown. It exists as a set of stories combining elements of contemporary dance, shadow puppetry, animation, film, and theatre. In this work intangible experiences are given form through choreographer Andrea Nann’s embodied familial histories process that has been developed in collaboration with core collaborators: director Sarah Chase; dramaturge/future teller/visual artist Cindy Mochizuki; and shadow artist/performer Annie Katsura Rollins. The work explores memory, sensation, perception, shadows, personal histories, relationships, cosmology, Chinese medicine, wellness, food, and fate. Through a series of consultations supported by Ontario Arts Council Artist-Presenter Collaborations program we worked with April Liu from Chinatown Storytelling Centre (CSC); Jasper Yip from Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society (VAHMS); creative collaborators Chase, Rollins, and Mochizuki; and filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier, to better understand current contexts and community needs in Vancouver’s Chinatown, and to devise community engagement initiatives that would allow us to 1. extend the scope of our existing work and 2. to share the unique practices that were part of Firehorse and Shadow creation process within the Chinatown community and beyond. With generous support from Canada Council for the Arts Public Outreach program Firehorse & Shadow in Community began with a series of creative workshops and community gatherings to engage members from Vancouver’s Chinatown community (individuals ages spanning from youth to seniors). Our work aroused sensation, memory and imagination as past experiences were embodied. Our process was grounded in Dreamwalker’s trauma-informed practice Conscious Bodies Methodology. Individual storytelling emerged as groups entered into collaborative process and creative practice, inviting deeper essences of an experience, a person or a place being re-membered to be felt, met with love, and shared with others. Creative workshop themes included: Shadow and Storytelling, Storytelling and Movement, Dumplings and Divination, Intergenerational Walking Talks, Sealed Secret Releasing Rituals and more. During each workshop participants were moving together, playing, imagining, creating, sharing tea, reflecting, eating and spending time visiting. These collective experiences supported each individual to journey into felt experience in the kind and care-filled presence of others. Filmmakers Yasuhiro Okada, Sophia Mai Wolfe and Dan Loan were present to document workshop experiences; to witness and record all verbal and non-verbal sharings. Editors Ran Zheng, Sarah Genge and Jennifer Baichwal wove this series of four video story poems. Creative Producer Kelsi James stewarded our journey with care and love.

"Transformed by fire the stories and secrets are released and set free." Firehorse and Shadow, is a performance work by Dreamwalker Dance Company situated in Vancouver’s Historic Chinatown. It exists as a set of stories combining elements of contemporary dance, shadow puppetry, animation, film, and theatre. In this work intangible experiences are given form through choreographer Andrea Nann’s embodied familial histories process that has been developed in collaboration with core collaborators: director Sarah Chase; dramaturge/future teller/visual artist Cindy Mochizuki; and shadow artist/performer Annie Katsura Rollins. The work explores memory, sensation, perception, shadows, personal histories, relationships, cosmology, Chinese medicine, wellness, food, and fate. Through a series of consultations supported by Ontario Arts Council Artist-Presenter Collaborations program we worked with April Liu from Chinatown Storytelling Centre (CSC); Jasper Yip from Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society (VAHMS); creative collaborators Chase, Rollins, and Mochizuki; and filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier, to better understand current contexts and community needs in Vancouver’s Chinatown, and to devise community engagement initiatives that would allow us to 1. extend the scope of our existing work and 2. to share the unique practices that were part of Firehorse and Shadow creation process within the Chinatown community and beyond. With generous support from Canada Council for the Arts Public Outreach program Firehorse & Shadow in Community began with a series of creative workshops and community gatherings to engage members from Vancouver’s Chinatown community (individuals ages spanning from youth to seniors). Our work aroused sensation, memory and imagination as past experiences were embodied. Our process was grounded in Dreamwalker’s trauma-informed practice Conscious Bodies Methodology. Individual storytelling emerged as groups entered into collaborative process and creative practice, inviting deeper essences of an experience, a person or a place being re-membered to be felt, met with love, and shared with others. Creative workshop themes included: Shadow and Storytelling, Storytelling and Movement, Dumplings and Divination, Intergenerational Walking Talks, Sealed Secret Releasing Rituals and more. During each workshop participants were moving together, playing, imagining, creating, sharing tea, reflecting, eating and spending time visiting. These collective experiences supported each individual to journey into felt experience in the kind and care-filled presence of others. Filmmakers Yasuhiro Okada, Sophia Mai Wolfe and Dan Loan were present to document workshop experiences; to witness and record all verbal and non-verbal sharings. Editors Ran Zheng, Sarah Genge and Jennifer Baichwal wove this series of four video story poems. Creative Producer Kelsi James stewarded our journey with care and love. Project co-creators: Andrea Nann with Sarah Chase, Cindy Mochizuki, Annie Katsura Rollins Community engagement creative producer: Kelsi James Video producer: Jennifer Baichwal Dumpling ritual cinematographer: Nicholas de Pencier Editor + 16mm cinematographer: Ran Zheng Editor: Sarah Genge Online editor: Cameron Saville Camera artists: Daniel Loan, Yasuhiro Okada, Sophia Mae Wolfe Community Partners: Chinatown Storytelling Centre, April Liu, plastic orchid factory, Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society, Jasper Sloan Yip We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council