Kokoro Presents: open two, Allison Lang’s performance series #3

 

 

Coming up with have a third Allison Lang's series: open two.

A two performance evening at KW Studios!

adv $10

dos $15

Pass for all four shows $20

This event is 19+ 

Doors at 7:00pm

Show at 8pm

Katy Perry in Space 

Elee Kraljii Gardiner and c.o.valenza 

Description of work:

Katy Perry in Space is a dance piece exploring questions of our relationship to each other, the world, and the cosmos. We are fascinated by astrophysics principles, the vast and ever expanding spacetime of the universe, and black holes. Anything can become a black hole if it is compressed enough. Theoretically, even the earth could become a black hole if it were compressed to the size of a gumball.

Nathan Coburn was born and raised in Vancouver, and received their education at the Arts Umbrella Dance program, under the direction of Artemis Gordon.
An alumni of the Ballet BC Annex under the direction of Medhi Walerski, Nathan has had the privilege of working with phenomenal artists including Shay Kuebler, Cristina Bucci, Jera Wolfe, Crystal Pite, Doug Letheren, Alexis Fletcher, Sylvain Senez, Fernando Hernando Magadan, and Ethan Colangelo, among others. Nathan has performed as a freelancer throughout BC and recently toured to Toronto, performing in Project Inizi by Cristina Bucci at the dance: made in canada | fait au canada Festival.
As an independent creator, Nathan created their first solo work STEVE with collaboration from Marisa Gold for Vines Art Festival in August 2025.
Nathan is a co-founder of Paper Rabbits with Elle Derkitt and Sophia Makarenko. Paper Rabbits’ first production PROM NITE premiered at Kitsilano Neighbourhood house August 2024, and their site specific remount PROM NITE (epilogue) premiered at Belle Spirale’s Dance Deck 2025.

Elle is From Regina, Saskatchewan, Elle began her early professional training at the Alberta Ballet School in Calgary, Alberta. In 2020, she continued her studies at Arts Umbrella in Vancouver under the direction of Artemis Gordon. Elle had the opportunity in her third year at Arts Umbrella to dance in Ballet BC’s Annex, under the direction of Medhi Walerski. Elle has been fortunate to work with incredible artists such as Yvan Dubreuil, Alexis Fletcher, Sylvain Senez, Racheal Prince, Brandon Lee Alley, Marissa Wong, Crystal Pite, Fernando Hernando Magadan, and Ethan Colangelo, among others.
Based as a freelance dance artist in Vancouver, BC, Elle has been a part of Dance//Novella’s Emerging Artist Program and learned to dance tango for Phoenix Chamber Choir. She has danced for Opera Unbound in their original composition, Floating Island, which preceded her first solo work, A Day’s Work, in collaboration with Taryn Plater, Perri Lo, and Alyssa Samson. She is a Fall 2025 EDAM scholarship recipient, training in contact improvisation under Peter Bingham, Anne Cooper, and Olivia Schaffer. 
Elle is a co-founder of dance-theatre collective, Paper Rabbits, with Nathan Coburn and Sophia Makarenko. Paper Rabbits has produced its own work, PROM NITE, performed at Kitsilano Neighbourhood House and a site-specific rendition, PROM NITE (epilogue), at Belle Spirale’s Dance Deck 2025.

Description of work:

Poet laureate Elee Kraljii Gardiner and musical-sound artist c.o.valenza present co-creational text scores. eleekg.com versevancouver.ca https://patchbayfieldhouse.ca/

c. o. valenza (they/she) is a queer, interdisciplinary sonic artist and clarinetist. In their work, they focus on practices that shift ways of listening – to ourselves, to each other, and the world around us – where music is tied to ways of being. Specifically in their work as a composer, they see musical scores as prompts to multifaceted dialogue between one’s own internal sonic experience and tangible sound. By exploring and challenging the form of the score, they search for a nexus of free improvisation, intimate sound worlds, and access points to shared music-making for any and all who would come to engage with a “score”.

Elee Kraljii Gardiner is the author of two poetry collections (Trauma Head, serpentine loop) and the editor of two essay collections (Against Death: 35 Essays on Living and V6A: Writing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside). A frequent collaborator with choreographers, musicians, sound and visual artists, Elee is currently collaborating with nature via a series of durational art installations that investigate cultural ideas regarding the passing of time. She directs Vancouver Manuscript Intensive and is the seventh poet laureate of Vancouver, learning in community via the sound-based legacy project Here, Hearing. Her new book, sometimes, forest, arrives from Talonbooks in the spring. 

 

KW Studios is an accessible venue. Folks in need of an elevator can access one through the lobby entrance. Accessible bathrooms are available downstairs. KW events are both auditory and visual. Sound can be loud, but earplugs can be provided free of charge. Lighting is generally lower but can be adjusted and raised to accommodate people who need brighter venues.

KW events are NOTAFLOF (No one turn away for lack of funds) . NOTAFLOF tickets are of limited capacity. Please consider your financial need relative to folks in the DTES community where we reside before asking to pay less. We practice the policy NOTAFLOF specifically to allow access to folks negatively impacted by gentrification projects within the DTES community. If you are a student or low income worker, please consider saving up for the next show as the artists and KW staff are also low income workers. 

Located 111 West Hastings Street Vancouver. Look for the KW sign off Hastings Street for the entrance.

 

 

This event takes place on the unceded and occupied homelands of the Coast Salish peoples of xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. We are immensely grateful for being allowed to continue to live, work, and play on these lands.