TechniCowlour - Jan 18 to March 15, 2025

January 18 – March 15, 2025

Opening: January 18, 5 – 8 PM;
Featuring a free 20-min performance performed by Aryo at 6:30pm on Jan 18 (opening), and sliding scale tickets on Feb 12, Mar 1, and Mar 15 (closing)

Ticket Information Here

Gallery Hours: Wed – Sat, 12 – 6 PM

A The Biting School Production

Co-produced by battery opera
Co-Presented by vAct and Centre A

Concept and creation by:
elika mojtabaei + Aryo Khakpour

In collaboration with:
Alanna Ho 
ellis cheadle
Jaewoo Kang
SF Ho

_

Centre A is excited to kick off 2025 with the announcement of our upcoming exhibition TechniCowlour!

“i just want to be a cow

in full colour

in full house

in full surround sound

free from all that makes me sad 

— by Arika Mojpour (6th-century Persia)

TechniCowlour is an installation and performance exploring the intersections of mythology, memory, and sensory experience. At its core, the project queers and remixes materials—scents; fabrics; songs; gestures; and Iranian mythologies and architectural references—into a fragmented experience of longing; and questions the preservation of culture that persists in diasporic living, blurring the lines between the nostalgic and the immediate.

Across its three interconnected spaces, TechniCowlour invites viewers into a sensory dialogue that traverses the ancient past, the near past, and the present. One room binds light with absence; and houses retellings of pre-Zoroastrian deities in the form of costumes created from second-hand clothing. Another space envelops the audience in near darkness, where the intimate terrains of scent memories and tactile interactions take precedence over sight. The third space centres water, grounding us in the present—a momentary refuge entwined with the poetics of displacement and loss. 

Our process began as a response to the Iranian film, The Cow (1969), which tells the story of a man’s unparalleled love for his cow, and his immense grief upon her death—an event that leads him to believe he has become his cow. TechniCowlour is an invocation of the body and the senses, undermining the customary cultural inertias in favour of an experimental adaptation. Here, nostalgia becomes an entry to presence rather than a retreat from it. Through the interplay of mythology, cinema, and haptic exploration, the piece asks: What does it mean to live between worlds that carry us across times?”

— The TechniCowlour creative team

Bones, Perception and Imagination in Contact Improvisation - July 11

The Biting School Workshop

Bones, Perception and Imagination in Contact Improvisation

A Contact Improvisation workshop. All levels welcome

Thursday July 11, 2024

6pm to 8pm PM

facilitated by Arash

Location: EDAM Dance - 303 E 8th Ave, Vancouver, BC V5T 1S1

Price: Sliding Scale price for the workshop: $12-21

Bring loose comfortable clothing and be prepared to move without shoes and socks on

The class capacity is 25 = first come (booked) first served

Dropping in on the day of is only possible if the class is not at capacity. Please check our Instagram to make sure there is space.

The Biting School Instagram

www.bitingschool.com

Arash Khakpour

Bones, Perception and Imagination in Contact Improvisation

In this open-level and beginner-friendly contact improvisation workshop, we will bring the value of agility and tactility to awaken our inner CATS. We will indulge in the range of our senses, the energetic circumferences of our bones and tapping into imagination. This leads into dreaming the body and the extensions of our bodies as a way of exceeding the physical body. We will dive into perceptual possibilities of what it feels like to engage in contact dance with ourselves and inhabiting personal suppleness that translates into dances with others. We will work on conscious duetting by using rolling point, sloughing, bridging, yielding, anchoring, pressure modulation, internal expansion and weigh-sharing to sharpen our

physical awareness and dexterity.

BIO

Arash Khakpour (آرش خاکپور) is a dancer and choreographer from Tehran and is privileged to be a dance artist based in the Coast Salish Territory (Vancouver). Arash has been practicing dance and performance for the past 15 years and has been a company member of the EDAM ensemble since 2017. He tends to invest in the nuances of prejudices in the body as a way of inviting the unconscious to the conscious, and as a doorway to confront unknown emotions. He sees dance as a process of physical, emotional and spiritual discovery and a mode of transformation. He works with dance as a language that researches the human condition through mythical, historical, social, political and existential interpretations. As a first-generation immigrant, he continuously considers what healing he can bring to the land and communities he works with. He is building a culture of relationality and reciprocity that celebrates the multiplicity of presences and approaches. Arash is the co-founder and artistic director of the dance-theatre-film company The Biting School (alongside his brother Aryo Khakpour).


Physical Experiments in Theatre Making and Performance - July 6 & 7

Physical Experiments in Theatre Making and Performance

An interdisciplinary workshop for self-identified professionals in dance, theatre, and other performing arts.

July 6 & 7th, 2024

10:30am – 4:15 PM

5 hours of workshop with a 45-minute break

Schedule:

10:30am – 1 PM facilitated by Arash

1 – 1:45 PM break

1:45 – 4:15 PM facilitated by Aryo

Location: hopbopshop (150 McLean Dr., Vancouver)

**Unfortunately, the studio is not wheel-chair accessible due to staircases

Price: Sliding Scale price for the entire workshop: $60-$150

**If you only are able to attend 1 day, please send an email to mail to:thebitingschool@gmail.com

Bring loose comfortable clothing and be prepared to move without shoe

The class capacity is 10 = first come (booked) first served

www.bitingschool.com

Arash Khakpour

Indulging | Principles and Poetics in Contact Improvisation 

In this beginner-level workshop, we will bring the value of playfulness and curiosity to working on the mechanics of rolling point, sloughing, bridging, yielding, anchoring and pressure modulation in contact to share a sense of the basic principles. We will bring the value of agility and tactility to awaken our inner CATS. We will dive into exploring how the physical skillsets we already know can expand through indulging in the range of our senses, noticing emotions and celebrating “failures”. We will dance in different duets to explore how letting go of tension and expectation can lead to flourishing creativity within each dance. We will engage in short improvisational duets to sense how we can exchange information non-verbally and with full body dexterity, then transition into improvising with the group to cultivate our skill and pleasure of reading the partners in the room. 

This workshop will include some physical contact as part of the exploration. 

Aryo Khakpour

Playing | The Materials of Imagination

Through a series of exercises and explorations rooted in Physical Theatre, Corporeal Mime, and the Viewpoints, I'll be holding a space of intentional play and learning how to negotiate together in making something creative. Through structured improvisations and ensemble-based exercises, we will explore ways of activating our imagination and collective creation. We will make short scenes from nothing and shape them into new scenes. My intention is to study together how to play intelligently as a group and as part of a group, and how to utilize our physical imagination in interacting with collaborators and other performance materials.

Physical Experiments in Theatre Making and Performance - June 1 & 2

Physical Experiments in Theatre Making and Performance

An interdisciplinary workshop for self-identified professionals in dance, theatre, and other performing arts.

June 1st and 2nd, 2024

1:30PM – 6 PM

4 hours of workshop with a 30-minute break

**Our June workshops are full!
Thank you for your interest and support. Please stay tuned for more workshop opportunities from July onwards!

Schedule:

1:30pm-3:30 PM facilitated by Arash

3:30-4 PM break

4-6 PM facilitated by Aryo

Location: hopbopshop (150 McLean Dr., Vancouver)
**Unfortunately, the studio is not wheel-chair accessible due to staircases

Price: Sliding Scale price for the entire workshop: $40-$80
**If you only are able to attend 1 day, please send an email to thebitingschool@gmail.com

Bring loose comfortable clothing and be prepared to move without shoes

The class capacity is 10 = first come (booked) first served

www.bitingschool.com

Arash Khakpour

Indulging | The Dimensions of Imagination

In this class, we will bring the value of agility and tactility to awaken our inner CATS. We will dive into exploring how the physical skillsets we already know can expand through indulging in the range of our senses, the energetic circumferences of our bones, noticing emotions and tapping into imagination. Can imagination guide us to inhabit our bodies of knowledge and generosity? This leads us into dreaming the body and the extensions of our bodies as a way of expanding and exceeding the physical body. Can imagination guide us to dream our ancient bodies of otherworldly wisdom? This class will invite us to dive into perceptual possibilities of what it feels like to awaken and develop our imagination as a way of bridging the unconscious to the conscious. We will work on enhancing personal suppleness and virtuosity, tuning into the perception within the group, and utilizing the group's intelligence. Can imagination guide us to dance the unimaginable dances with others?

This workshop will include some physical contact as part of the exploration. 

Aryo Khakpour

Playing | The Materials of Imagination

Through a series of exercises and explorations rooted in Physical Theatre, Corporeal Mime, and the Viewpoints, I'll be holding a space of intentional play and learning how to negotiate together in making something creative. Through structured improvisations and ensemble-based exercises, we will explore ways of activating our imagination and collective creation. We will make short scenes from nothing and shape them into new scenes. My intention is to study together how to play intelligently as a group and as part of a group, and how to utilize our physical imagination in interacting with collaborators and other performance materials.