OOE ARTIST FEATURE: 2026 CELEBRASIAN DANCE BRINGS DIVERSE ARTISTIC VOICES TO THE STAGE FOR ASIAN HERITAGE MONTH

 

On May 20, the ODD Box theatre came to life with the dazzling costumes, movements, and music of Asian-Canadian artists. 2026 CelebrAsian Dance marked the 15^th anniversary of Autumn Melody Collective (AMC), a group that produces annual shows highlighting Asian-Canadian dance artists. “The event celebrated Asian heritage,” says Ottawa dance artist William Lau. “But it also deepened understanding, fostered dialogue, and created space for stories that reflect the richness and diversity of Asian-Canadian experiences.”

Old Ottawa East resident Yvonne Coutts, Artistic Director of the Ottawa Dance Directive (ODD), welcomed audience members to the venue – a space that ODD shares as part of their commitment to collaboration. Monica Wu from the Ottawa Asian Heritage Month Society spoke of the strong and dynamic dance community in Ottawa and invited audience members to travel, “no passport required!”

AMC’s Lau was trained in Peking opera which combines music, song, mime, martial arts, dance, and acrobatics. Cross-gender dancing in traditional roles comes from the historical banning of mixed-gender performance. Lau’s opening piece, the Feather Fan Dance, portrays a graceful female character opening and closing fans, spinning, and making fluid movements symbolizing joy, beauty, and nature. Lau playfully used his fans to communicate with audience members. 

“My teacher Shen Xiaomei was female and a direct disciple of Mei Lanfang, the master of Peking opera,” Lau says. “Like Mei Lanfang, I specialized in female roles.” With the ban lifting years ago, the need for gender-busting dance performances no longer exists, but some dancers – both male and female – continue to play cross-gender roles.

 Katherine Ng and Justin Lui (both from AMC) performed the Spear Dance, an iconic operatic dance and martial arts performance combining combat, dance, and acrobatics to simulate female versus male battles. Percussive music and operatic makeup intensified the scenes. Lui wore platform shoes, a holdover from when only male dancers could perform it and needed to be taller than their male (playing female) counterparts. “It is very difficult to dance in those shoes,” Lau says. “Justin had to wear them at home to get used to them.”

A group of community dancers from Ottawa’s Silk Road Arts Studio Canada performed Spring Bloom, a joyful folk dance depicting a garden stroll in spring. “This more modern interpretation involved staging and lighting design and a more current fashion esthetic,” Lau says.

Valerie Kenyon from the U.S. and Thailand performed the Bian Lian, a face-changing performance that originated in Sichuan opera. Each time the mask changed, the movements and personality of the character changed. This male character was once restricted to men along with the secret of the mask-changing technique. Kenyon seamlessly switched masks countless times throughout the piece! “This is the first time the artform has been seen in Ottawa,” Lau says.

Eko Nurcahyo performed the Topeng Keras Dance, a traditional dance-drama from Bali, Indonesia that symbolizes courage, authority, loyalty, and hot-headedness. The dancer played a strong, bold warrior wearing a mask with fierce expressions to represent his power.

Yeonji Hong followed with the Pyongyang Sword Dance, a traditional Korean martial dance performed by a woman wielding swords. “Her seemingly simple movements required great strength and precision and embodied restrained power and refined elegance,” Lau says.

The final performance featured Lau in Worn Inheritance, by choreographer/composer Peter Chin, Artistic Director of Toronto and Cambodia’s Tribal Crackling Wind company and Lau himself. The piece premiered in Toronto one week earlier. The musicians travelled from Cambodia. “One section of the piece was drawn from the Peking opera’s The Drunken Concubine,” Lau explains. “The loyal beauty, who is faithful to the emperor, awaits his arrival, but he stands her up. She is jealous and sad but speaks the words: ‘Prepare the wine I will drink alone.’”

The piece deconstructs the traditional style. “‘The character is female, but I am a man,’ I said during the choreography phase,” Lau explains. “Peter Chin told me: ‘This is your encounter with the artform. Whatever comes through your mind, we’ll use.’ So, my gender changes and is sometimes both. It was an emotional roller coaster of feeling happy, fearless, and sad – sometimes all three.”

To find out more about AMC and upcoming performances go to www.autumnmelodycollective.ca.

Author Tanis Browning-Shelp (http://www.browning-shelp.com) pens her Maryn O’Brien Young Adult Fiction series, published by Dog-Eared Books, from her home in Old Ottawa East. Contact tanis@browning-shelp.com if you have information about artists or art events that you believe would enrich our community members’ lives.