The Slanted Team
Cast
Renée Mak (she/her)
Writer, Producer, Director, Circus Artist
Renée Mak is a Chinese Canadian multi-disciplinary creative human – a circus artist, illustrator and designer, Renée started her circus journey late by industry standards at 23. She always wanted to be a dancer or gymnast, but this was never accessible to her. With no movement or athletic background, what began as a means to lose weight became an empowering journey that has become an integral part of her identity.
Apart from being a circus producer and storyteller, she trains and works in the disciplines of circus style hula hoops, bottle balancing and handbalancing. Her art is vast and flexible and often speaks to the human experience with a focus on expressing and normalizing trauma, vulnerability and having the conversations with herself and with others that she otherwise, does not know how to have.
Renée is grateful to be able to create on the the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people. With a family history of indentured railroad and laundromat workers in her family, she is particularly grateful for the kindness of the Musqueam and Sto:lo people towards early Chinese settlers in the lower mainland and Fraser Valley.
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Kasha Konaka (she/her)
Writer, Circus Artist
Kasha Konaka is a Japanese-Canadian circus artist and contortionist based in Vancouver, Canada.
Kasha specializes is contortion, balancing on her hands and bending and twisting in incredible ways. Though not her specialty, she also has experience performing aerial hoop, aerial net, hand to hand, acrobatics as well as many original apparatus.
She has performed for many corporate events, weddings, and productions locally and throughout North America.
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She loves the beauty and otherworldly nature of contortion and moving her body in interesting ways.
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Kasha is also an accomplished Circus Instructor. She teaches contortion, flexibility and hand balance. She believes in the importance of training strength with flexibility for sustainability and injury prevention. She is level 2 certified in Artistic Womens Gymnastics and was Head Coach of Britannia Gymnastics Club from 2016-2018. She is also experienced in choreography and has choreographed many floor routines, Gymnaestrada Group Performances, as well as competitive Acro and contortion pieces.
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Chris Murdoch (he/him)
Circus Artist
Chris Murdoch is a multidisciplinary circus artist, director, and master of ceremonies. In his 20 years on stage he performed a host of juggling and prop manipulation arts, theatrical and film acting, martial arts, acrobatics and even some bad magic.
He hosted a monthly show with fusion dance troupe Luciterra for 5 years, and produced a series of halloween theatre productions. Along with Yuki Ueda, Chris was the show producer, technical director and performance curator for Madskillz Vancouver - a ground level circus festival that ran for 10 years. Also with Yuki, Chris founded Cause & Effect Circus and created the award winning contemporary juggling show “the New Conformity”. Cause and Effect has performed at the Singapore Grand Prix and across North America, and produced the East Vancouver hit Nightmare Before Nutcracker: a circus and live music spectacle with a cast of 25 performers.
Chris has taught prop manipulation at CircusWest for 10 years, and has taught circus workshops in Canada, Australia, the United States and South East Asia. For no good reason at all he took up leatherwork in 2016 and now works full time in the film industry making real costumes for imaginary people.
Noeli Acoba (she/her)
Circus Artist
Noeli Acoba is a Filipino American circus performer, Youtuber, and a founding member of the American Circus Alliance.
She was the Apprentice Mentorship Program Student (2017) at Kinetic Theory Circus School in Los Angeles. She performed internationally in festivals and at premier venues such as la TOHU. Noeli has collaborated in researching new, inventive apparatuses with companies like Cirque du Soleil and Acrobatic Conundrum.
Noeli’s YouTube channel is all about circus! Her favorite and most meaningful series she created so far is the UPRISE Docuseries. This series highlights BIPOC circus artists who share their experiences and opinions about circus (in regards to racism) and what they hope to change within the circus industry.
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Skim / Romi Kim (they/them)
Drag Artist
김새로미, Romi Kim or Skim in drag, is a queer, genderfluid, second-generation Korean. They identify themselves in recognizing these words as verbs rather than nouns or adjectives—constantly in action, and in flux. They are an uninvited settler living and working on the unceded xÊ·mÉ™θkÊ·É™yÌ“É™m (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and SelÌ“ílÌ“witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Kim explores personal histories, vulnerability, and intimacy within colonial spaces within their work. They are interested in transforming the power of a story and privileges within language. Kim has a collaborative artistic practice as part of the House of Rice, an all-Asian drag house in Vancouver and a solo one.
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Kim has shown works in South Korea, in the United Kingdom, and across Canada. They have performed in South Korea, Vietnam, online internationally, and in Vancouver. Kim received a BFA in Visual Arts and Gender Studies at the University of Victoria in 2017 and they are currently studying at the University of British Columbia as an MFA candidate.
Shay Dior / Van Dang (they/them)
Drag Artist
Shay Dior, also known as Mother of the House of Rice, is a Vietnamese genderfluid drag artist who has led an incredible drag career, while strongly advocating for queer Asian representation. The House of Rice is an all Asian drag family that Shay Dior founded to showcase the beauty, talent, and strength in being a QTBIPOC individual. Since the formation of the house, they have been teaching strong family values while mentoring these growing performers, who all share a common goal of working toward a bright future for the queer Asian community.
To further build the queer Asian community and increase visibility, Shay Dior also created and, now, co-produces an underground dance party that showcases the amazing talent of local and international queer Asian entertainers. RICECAKE aims to create a safe space where the Queer and Asian communities can celebrate the intersectionality of their identities and has become a safe haven for many within the Vancouver LGBTQ community. Not only is the Mother of the House of Rice a passionate producer and a creative performer, but Shay Dior has been featured in three documentaries and has become established in the Vancouver community as a queer Asian revolutionist!
Crew and Support
Clarence Tang (he/him)
Creative Support
Clarence is an artist of sorts. His inspirations include Eartha Kitt, Bob Fosse, Wade Robson, the first three seasons of So You Think You Can Dance, Pixar, his crazy/inappropriate friends, Heidi N’Closet, Little Mix and the list goes on and becomes more random.
Growing up in a small town in Chilliwack, he discovered that he was Chinese at the age of 3 when his brother told him – this made him cry. Since those humble beginnings, he’s had more than a decade of dance training, joined the circus for a bit, taken an insurance course, worked for Amazon twice, explored Web Development and Digital Marketing all to discover that he still has no idea what he’s doing.
Unsure of what the future holds, he hopes that the art he creates is honest and make people feel things (although, for the right job/amount of money would be willing to lie and create work that makes people dead inside.)
Carlo Fortin (he/him)
Videographer / Video editor
(His words below)
A lotta bit of acting and telling stories. a little bit of mixing music.​ When Carlo is not doing any of the above, he enjoys constantly learning, the frequent workout and an even more frequent donut.
(Not his words below)
Carlo is a force to be reckoned with. An expert videographer, editor and artist to the core. No scenario scares this professional and he's able to think on the fly and see a vision through no matter the challenges he's presented with.
House of Rice
Creative Support
Launched during Pride Week 2018 with an iconic photoshoot fit for the cover of Vanity Fair, followed by a high energy group performance at Ricecake’s pride party that year, The House of Rice left the Vancouver’s queer community in a state of awe and starving for more. Since their first appearance, the House of Rice, founded by Shay Dior, has become a celebrated drag family of queer Asian artists known on the west coast and across Canada.
Originating with 5 members, the House of Rice has now grown to a collective of 12 artists, and have been representing the queer Asian community in events across Vancouver such as Ricecake (Vancouver’s only Queer and Asian dance party, also founded by Shay Dior), Man Up, Rhythm Of The Night, Eastside Studios, Backdoor, and Pride in Chinatown.
They have also been featured in documentaries which include Canada’s a Drag Season 3 by CBCARTS, Yellow Peril: Queer Destiny by Love Intersections, and Ricecake: The Documentary by Yuki Fedreau.
With Asian cultures and societies being traditionally homophobic, the House of Rice aims to provide inspiration for other queer Asian youth to feel safe in exploring their identities. The members of the House of Rice come from diverse educational, artistic, and most importantly, cultural backgrounds, but are united by their shared goal of creating visibility in the Queer Asian community.
Love Intersections
General Support
Love Intersections is a media arts collective made up of queer artists of colour dedicated to using collaborative art making and relational storytelling to address systemic racism in our communities. We produce intersectional and intergenerational stories from underrepresented communities of colour – centering the invisible, the spiritual, the metaphysical and the imaginary. We believe in deep and meaningful relationships, that intersectionality is a verb and a call to action, that we must cultivate social trust through collective care and community responsibility. Our desire is to provoke (he)artful social change through a lens of love.
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Cause & Effect Circus
General Support
Write here
Filthy Lot
Painting Venue
Born from the dream of two long-time friends, A Filthy Lot Entertainment was created to show the world there’s a better way to bring creative ideas to life. Disillusioned after a career spent in the trenches of the film industry, our founders Chris and Trevor knew there had to be a better way. Assembling a team from their network of film and TV industry friends and colleagues, A Filthy Lot got its start in Chris’ living room, but before long we found a disused studio by the water, and have been working on getting this place cleaned up ever since.