ARRAY CO-PRESENTS
Dragon by Vertical City Performance
- April 29, 30, May 1, 2, 2026 • 7:30 – 10:00 pm ET
- Live at the Array Space
PROGRAM
World Premiere
In association with Arraymusic and New Works Calgary
Created by the Ensemble
Devisor/Performers: Karen Kaeja, Jani Lauzon, Juliet Palmer
Devisor/Director: Bruce Barton
Devisor/Dramaturg: Pil Hansen
Designer: Beth Kates
Special Guest Performer: David Schotzko
Production Stage Manager: Dylan Tate-Howarth
“Dragon Remains” (poem) by Bruce Barton
Dragon (https://verticalcityperformance.com/dragon/) is an interdisciplinary meditation on the possibilities that lie beyond power. Bringing together three celebrated female artists from the fields of dance, theatre, and music, Dragon explores the complexities of adaptation, the beauty of maturity, and the richness of experience when the desire for domination is replaced with the openness of embrace. Ultimately, Dragon collapses 400 years of embodied discovery and surrender into an immersive hour, in a sensorial and sensuous attempt to imagine beyond human awareness.
Vertical City Performance (https://verticalcityperformance.com/) is an award-winning interdisciplinary performance hub lead by Co-Directors Bruce Barton and Pil Hansen, who surround themselves with an evolving group of remarkable artists from a wide range of backgrounds and fields of expertise. Founded in 2007 by an ad hoc cohort of aerial artists, physical theatre performers, and musicians, Vertical City was born out of a desire to blend and transcend disciplinary practices—a mission we have maintained for the past 18 years across 14 distinct, ground-breaking collaborative creations.
Drawing on a spectrum of approaches, including theatre, dance, music/sonic arts, installation, aerial movement, puppetry, performance art, and interactive technologies (an incomplete list), Vertical City works on a continuum of proportions, from large architectural landscapes through immersive and participatory 1:1 encounters.
Drawing on what we refer to as “a dramaturgy of embrace,” all Vertical City projects perform a desire for intimacy – within the performance, between the performance and its audience, and among those who offer us their attention (the greatest of all gifts). A key strategy is the constant movement in and out of balance, a refusal of stasis, a celebration of vulnerability, and a conviction that navigation is the most valuable skill to cultivate in a messy, chaotic world.
BIOS
Bruce Barton (https://brucewbarton.com) is a performance maker, research-creation scholar, and Co-Artistic Director (with Pil Hansen) of Vertical City (https://verticalcityperformance.com). He works extensively as a professional director, dramaturg of theatre and dance, and designer. As a playwright, his work has been performed across Canada, received multiple awards and nominations, and been anthologized. As a director and dramaturg, his work has been featured by major presenters and festivals across Canada, including Nuit Blanche, SummerWorks, and Rhubarb (Toronto), Nocturne (Halifax), Micro Performance (Vancouver), and the High Performance Rodeo (Calgary). He is the author or editor/contributor of seven books focusing on dramaturgy and artistic research, including Performance as Research: Methods, Knowledge, Impact (Routledge 2018), Mediating Practice(s): Performance as Research and/in/through Mediation (U of Winchester P, 2013), and At the Intersection Between Art and Research (NSU 2010). Bruce leads classes in performance-creation, interdisciplinary processes, practice-as-research and research methods at the University of Calgary’s School of Creative and Performing Arts. He is a Board Member of Performance Studies international (PSi), where he is also a co-convenor of the Artistic Research Working Group.
Pil Hansen is a Danish-Canadian dance and interarts dramaturge and founding member of Vertical City Performance. She also serves as lead editor of the Routledge book series Expanded Dramaturgy and Professor of performing arts at UCalgary. Pil is dedicated to developing strengths-based approaches to accessibility and aging in the performing arts. Recently, she: (1) co-developed an ADHD-centric approach for teaching creation, (2) co-established participatory principles for articulating mature artistry in dance, and (3) facilitated Deaf-centric dramaturgies. Her artistic and empirical research in dramaturgy and performance psychology focuses on dynamics of learning and socio-environmental relations across abilities and generations. Pil has dramaturged 40+ stage works – most recently for Karen Kaeja, Ainsley Hilliard, and Lee Su-Feh. Pil also authored the monograph Performance Generating Systems in Dance (2022) and edited books on dance dramaturgy and memory (2015, 2017). If curious about this intersection between dramaturgical practice, inquiry, and accessibility, then check out Pil’s latest editorial contribution: an issue of Performance Matters on Dramaturgies of Accessibility (fall 2025).
Karen Kaeja is an award-winning performer, choreographer, mentor, and community builder whose work foregrounds relational, feminine perspectives. Karen has choreographed over 75 works commissioned and presented globally. A performer and collaborator with hundreds of artists and presenters, she has been featured in works by renowned choreographers. As Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Kaeja d’Dance with Allen Kaeja since 1991, she shapes projects that reimagine contemporary dance through inquiry, discovery, and collaboration. Her acclaimed creations—including TouchX, Solo Dance Xchange, Crave, and uncover—are recognized for their intimacy, vulnerability, and innovation. Karen’s dance films have screened at over 400 festivals worldwide. A passionate educator, she leads workshops, lectures, and panels internationally. She actively mentors emerging artists and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the George Luscombe Mentorship Award, Dance Ontario Lifetime Achievement Award, and the CDA “I Love Dance” Community Award. Her accolades include finalist for the TAF Muriel Sherrin Award, the CDA “Innovation” Award, TAF Celebration of Cultural Life Award, Eldred Family Dance Award, American Choreography Award, and seven Dora Mavor Moore nominations, including one win. She has been named one of “this country’s top ten dance artists” (NOW Magazine) and “one of Toronto’s top improvisers” (Toronto Life).
Jani Lauzon is a multidisciplinary performer, an award-winning director and puppeteer, and a touring musician. Director credits include: Yaga (Belfry), 1939 (Stratford Fesitval) Where the Blood Mixes and Almighty Voice and his Wife (Soulpepper), Rope (Shaw Festival), and I Call myself Princess (Globe Theatre). Memorable acting roles; Cordelia/Fool (NAC), Shylock (SITR) and the Neighbour/Servant (Modern Times/Aluna Theatre). Film/TV: Something Undone, Ruby and the Well, Saving Hope and Conspiracy of Silence. As a puppeteer: Grannie (Mr. Dress-up), Pa Foley (Big Comfy Couch), and Seeka (Wumpa’s World). Her company Paper Canoe Projects produces her own work: A Side of Dreams, I Call myself Princess, and the award-winning Prophecy Fog. Jani is also an artist educator, most recently working at the National Theatre School.
Juliet Palmer’s music has come to life under a highway off-ramp, in a swimming pool, in the plastic flotsam of a remote beach and in concert halls across North America, Europe and Oceania. Originally from Aotearoa New Zealand, Juliet makes her home in Toronto where she is artistic director of Urbanvessel, a platform for interdisciplinary collaboration. Recent works include a blur of lichens (Musikfabrik); Other Nations (Portland Contemporary); fire break(Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra); Choreography of Trauma (The Element Choir, Continuum); Oil & Water (Detroit Symphony Orchestra); and Every Word Was Once An Animal (Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Oregon). Recordings include small excesses (Atoll ) and rivers (Barnyard Records). The feature film of her opera Sweat, libretto by Anna Chatterton and directed by Jennifer Nichols (Bicycle Opera), won Opera America’s 2024 Award for Digital Excellence in Opera. Juliet was a finalist for the Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize (2019 and 2021), winner of the Detroit Symphony’s Elaine 2018 Lebenbom Award, and a Chalmers Arts Fellow (2018-19). Shewas an OAC Artist-in-Residence at Sunnybrook Medical Research Institute (2018) and composer-in-residence at the New Zealand School of Music and Orchestra Wellington (2011/12). Juliet holds a PhD in composition from Princeton University. (www.julietpalmer.ca)
Beth Kates
Dylan Tate-Howarth