kata.

It was an absolute honour hosting and curating performance artists for @thenectarfestival for their inaugural year while also taking steps to share more of what I do as a movement artist with my community. Curating talent for two main stages that included aerialists, pole, ritual theatre, go-go, fire, flow artists, indigenous hoop dance, and hip hop dancers - with three weeks of lead time - was incredible to see come together. These were some of the most beautiful stages our dancers have ever been on, and it was magic to watch them share their style and energy in spaces and with a community that celebrated and respected their work and beauty in the way they deserve to be. We hosted and welcomed multiple professional dancers into the festival performance world for the first time as they debuted their new acts (including my own) and their deeply dynamic and original approach to styling and movement art. It was so special to co-create such a deeply unique experience and direction with this team, and to celebrate emerging talent and to hold it down with the two or so dozen performers who went on this journey with me. I can’t wait to share more of the incredible memories and footage we captured. So much gratitude to @jeetkei for trusting and welcoming me into this role as well as @squishelle @bshilly @leland_river for their incredible work on logistics, curation, and supporting talent all weekend. Additional 🫶 to @shinytings for this incredible vibe of a set and the encouragement and to @upon.alannah for capturing what I’ve been up to in the studio all winter and for supporting and hyping me to show up more fully in performance spaces since diving into my floor work journey last year. As someone whose been on a life long journey with my physical and mental health, and as someone whose been absolutely in it with trauma and being told I’d be paralyzed by an illness as a child, I know first hand how powerful movement medicine is, and I will hold this experience as an affirmation of my own perseverance always. Being able to pull this together and bring this energy to the function is one of my biggest wins. Thank you all for doing life with me.

These sunrise sets on the @longfengartcar meant the world to me. So grateful to @kaimera.sky for the opportunity to share the magic and throw down in the place and with the people that forever inspire my fire journey. And to @atlantisdance_ for capturing this core memory. I will remember this night always. Thank you for being there. 🥹 🎶 // @mahmutorhan

Coming out of a pandemic induced performing retirement and holy smokes I missed all of this✨🔥 Except the surprise graffiti bomb on the stage of our family fire show… respect and be good to each other. 🕊😳

If you hesitated… this is your warning. Latex, fishnets, rope in all the right places. The dancefloor gets feral. ——————————————- DARKROOM: May 15th ——> @openended.bc <—— ——————————————- Under 100 tix left. Don’t fumble it. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 📸 @kata.creative_ @miss.velvet.nymph #openendedbc #yyjevents #yyjgays #queerrave

A moment for the energy that is @magugu1 (and this incredible lineup) – such a treat to see his first night on the West Coast go off in Squamish and first time performing with @truthdubstep . Looking forward to seeing this icon again this Friday in Victoria for the @basscoastfest pre-party at @luckybaryyj with support from @_ponda and @skerd.music Very limited tickets remain for the Friday show 🎟️ Reach out for details: @colinmct @dubversifiedculture

@miss.velvet.nymph suspension by @motevotion last Friday @ EUPHORiA⛓️🧿⛓️ Some nights just hit different. Join us May 15th @ DARKROOM : Kinky Warehouse Party - 50% sold out in just 48hrs. Tix available @openended.bc 📸 @kata.creative_

Easing into a new lunar new year in the sleepy Pacific Northwest, and looking forward to another year of art, magic, love and adventure. Going through the archives and remembering so many beautiful souls, dancers, and moments from this past year. @longfengartcar

Heading into the fall szn and integrating the magic and lessons of the summer. This was my first summer where I felt I could finally show up and connect as fully as I wanted to - I’ve been on my own for 18 months rededicating time and energy towards myself and re-learning who I am, what I really need, and how to show up in the world as myself. I de centred my own romantic life completely, focused on the love stories of my clients completely and my own art forms - and let time and that whole process do its thing. After months of shedding old parts of myself - it’s been a season of seeing and understanding who and what was beneath all that. My heart mends itself as easily as it ever has - my body feels like it’s mine again - no longer a graveyard of emotions I’m unable to face and feel - I see and move through it all - I get through experiences fully. I’m finally getting reacquainted with parts of myself and my sparkle that had been diminished for many years. I’m also grateful and thankful to all the kind souls and good people - and especially the men in my life these days - that are protective, caring, who show up, and who look out, and who encourage me to shoot for the absolute stars - who are real - feels like I’m getting closer to being able to weave someone right and special back into my life at the right time. 📸: @supersmittenkitten

Here’s a portrait of everything that held up after a long night of burning sets under the stars till sunrise on the deep playa art car circuit. 🔥 Decompressing from 1 this comes in waves. 🌊 📸: @valenciaselestin_ In the thick of it this week with joys for what we achieved, the tenderness over what didn’t come together due to storms and whatever else, and what feels like sadness over the scope of safe / opportunities available for dancers and fire artists back home. I think about who I was before the fire and flow arts found me sometimes - and how much fear and shyness this craft has transformed for me. I could have trained harder and with more precision over the years - but it was always a persuit of the feeling over the form for me - and I often felt a deep sense of “to what end?” Fire art remains regulated nearly out of existence at venues and events throughout Canada. It’s so deeply misunderstood imo but fire magic always has been. The “underground” has offered so many artists rare corners to share our unique art and magic in - it was intended to describe places where oppressed and marginalized groups were welcome to gather over art, dance and music, typically for free - to build community, connections and resilience in a - safer and inclusive space where they could resist fines and persecution. Fire artists - given that so many of us are also neurodiverse - relate to this deeply. I can’t lite up in a beach or park with my friends without risking fines. It’s been no small thing to nurture this art form all these years. Underground spaces are so needed and are deeply sacred to the people and artists that depend on them. Those that nurture this magic - despite soaring fuel costs, gate keepers, and all the rest - it will forever give me hope to witness people embody, respect and cherish the flame and all that it takes to hold it. Those who go after what’s completely inconvenient in the pursuit of sharing joy and feeling alive - those souls are among the best of us - and those will forever inspire me. #burningman #burningman2025 #burnergirls

For everyone asking their burner friends how their burn was - once again - we all got crushed by dust and rain then cried in the dark as the temple burned as we came to terms with what magic unfolded and what dreams and efforts burned to the ground. 😆 Some of us rather not try to weave those feelings into words yet and need like 6 more weeks to figure out what just happened 🤣 I’be been coming out here as needed since 2013 when I need to celebrate life or reset - I honestly feel like I have some of the best days of my burn during build and strike trying to figure out how to fit a city in and out of dusty Uhauls with some of the most inspiring and beautiful lunatics in the world. The Temu and Amazon fashion show went as hard as ever. So does Rufus Du Sol’s capacity to heard every lost sparkle pony tourist on playa. So does my ability to climb 4 janky stories of scaffolding with a box of wine to try to c a new perspective. For many of us the burn is a process that unfolds after the fact - it’s not exactly a “how was the concert?” Kind of response - that place offers some of the greatest levels of connection, ambition, magic and beauty life has to offer - and then it’s gone - and that deep relationship with the love/loss process is no small part of the vibe. Learning how to roll with it all and hold onto the sparkle beyond the circumstances is what a few of us are after out there and that takes time. And as the culture evolves - cellphones creep in - climates change - my feed is full of Instagood flavoured posts - while most of our cars and clothes still smell like a mix of chow mein, insense, gasoline, and a failed attempt to close the trunk during a dust storm etc. - and lol that’s what’s real - we’re all doing our thing to decompress and figure out how to weave the magic back into our default lives. Some of us need a hug. Others need to hydrate and LOL better parenting. Here’s a little temple ashes burn moment I wove out of my 13th? year of fire spinning and the last spoon I had to get out to deep playa to burn things. Phoenix’s have kept showing up as a symbol recently so that’s been rly neat. @voidfireflow // 🎥

Completely appreciate @colinmct capturing this silk fan moment at @mat_the_alien on Saturday evening at @basscoastfest . I picked up this set last year from @lunarwear and have been growing with them slowly as I weave poi and tech fan moves into the mix. 🦋 . . . .

On Sunday night, our fire showcase at @thenectarfestival spanned an hour and a half during @mahzetar - over a dozen fire performers shared their gifts with audiences who so rarely get to see live fire performances - especially in June. Fire dancing is about as underground as an art form can get - the legalities of practicing and performing are nuanced throughout the country, which is why I can’t express enough gratitude to every event host that is open to letting us shine - despite country wide venue restrictions, bylaw, access to education, limited mentoring and training spaces, and soaring fuel costs - fire dancing perseveres and can be practiced and shared safely when it’s cared for and respected. No small part of my life’s focus of the past decade has been in service to building up fire communities, sharing knowledge and hosting safer training spaces, and co-creating opportunities that have mentored and nurtured hundreds of fire artists of over the past decade. That chapter looks differently for me at this point, but I’ll treasure that work always. I’ll also celebrate every solid opportunity we have to share our craft with wonderful audiences - it was incredible to host this scale of fire art and to be able to show up fully for this moment after being completely in it performing and coordinating for four days. Thank you Saffron for capturing this special moment of time. Offering fire for the Solstice meant the world to me. 🙏 @ittybittybimbo