Enemy Lines

Enemy Lines is a live dance performance that looks at how a climate of fear led to the incarceration of Japanese Canadians. Held by curiosity, choreographer Mayumi Lashbrook looks back at the actions taken against her family during World War II. Suddenly deemed a threat after the Pearl Harbour attack in 1941, over 22,000 Canadians of Japanese descent were forcibly removed from the coastline of British Columbia - their lives forever altered.

Lashbrook seeks to understand these events in Canadian history and the curious hold it’s had on her life. Her work illuminates the cycles of fear based oppression and intolerant thinking that still afflicts us today. In Enemy Lines she elucidates our hardwired need for each other, and the way that disconnection can hinder our growth. Enemy Lines is a tender reminder of the fractures of our collective past and the possibilities for our shared future. 

Enemy Lines is produced by Aeris Körper, a professional dance company based in Hamilton. Aeris Körper brings people into their bodies through creation, presentation, and facilitation of dance that explores, questions, reflects and reveals connections across race, gender, sexuality, age, identity, ability and experience. Enemy Lines will be presented at the McMaster University’s L.R. Wilson Hall from May 26 to 28, 2023 for Hamilton audiences.

Creator Notes:

As I worked on Enemy Lines, it was always a surprise the moments that would bring tears to my eyes. Seeing the address of the farm my family was forcibly removed from House No. 1394 Horrol Rd. New Westminster BC. Recognizing my great aunt’s foresight at age 16 to bring a shorthand typing book to the camps in order to advance her career options. The kindness of a neighbouring farmer who brought over carrots and potatoes for my family’s first dinner on their uncultivated Manitoba sugar beet farm. My great grandmother’s goal to return and reclaim her belongings. How she would tie chopsticks to her wrists to be able to keep chopping sugar beets to support her family. I couldn’t have predicted when or how these hardships would affect me. I kept reading, listening and looking for those moments as guideposts. I am grateful for each and every unexpected swell of emotions over the past four years of research. 

I am struck by the parallels in Canadian history, the recurring cycles of oppression inflicted on other groups of people. I remind myself that I will unknowingly perpetuate harm. So I let my tears fall as offerings to wake me up to reality and not lure me into indifference. I cannot change what happened to my ancestors. But I can release the fetters I create around myself. 

“The way to stop the war is to stop hating the enemy.”

- Pema Chodron

Produced By

Aeris Körper

Choreographer 

Mayumi Lashbrook

Dramaturg 

Denise Fujiwara

Rehearsal Director 

Gerry Trentham

Ensemble

Brayden Cairns

Miyeko Ferguson

Michael Mortley

Mayumi Lashbrook

Denise Solleza

Understudy

Nickeshia Garrick

Producer

Rose Hopkins

Lighting Design

Logan Cracknell

Projection Design

Chimerik Collective

Sound Design

Yobi Alan

Stage Manager

Helin Gungoren

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