Nancy Lee curates free TECTONIC street dance demos and Latinx DJ music in downtown Vancouver as part of TAIWANfest

Media artist and DJ Nancy Lee is no newcomer to Vancouver TAIWANfest. Back in 2018, the queer cultural producer teamed up with contemporary dance artist Emmalena Frederiksson on Tidal Traces. In partnership with the National Film Board of Canada, the festival featured this 360-degree virtual-reality video. It placed viewers in the centre of an outdoor dance piece on intertidal mudflats near Vancouver.

Last year, the immigrant from Taiwan returned to TAIWANfest as a DJ. At that time, Lee shared the stage with Taiwanese DJ Dungi Sapor, a member of the Amis Indigenous tribe, in the city’s biggest dance party on the Labour Day weekend.

“I encourage people to get to know Taiwan in a deeper sense through different cultural avenues,” Lee tells Pancouver by phone. “Taiwan has an amazing music scene.”

Lee’s pronouns are they and them. They are the artistic director, chief curator, and co-founder of the Chapel Sound Art Foundation, which was created in 2012. Born in Taichung, Lee has a passion for mentorship and producing events supporting underrepresented artists. So, it’s no a surprise that this is at the centre of what they’re doing this year at Vancouver TAIWANfest. 

“I offered some curatorial support to see if we can bring cross-pollination between different communities, and also different generations as well,” Lee says.

The managing director of the Asian-Canadian Special Events Association, Charlie Wu, was delighted with the idea. His organization has centred this year’s Vancouver TAIWANfest around a dialogue with Spain, which colonized the island nation in the 17th century.

As a result, Lee invited programmers from two former colonies of Spain, the Philippines and Mexico, to program separate nights of free DJ music and entertainment.

Lee promises a “showcase battle”

These events, entitled TECTONIC – Curated by Nancy Lee I and TECTONIC – Curated by Nancy Lee II, are more oriented for youths and young adults. They will take place in šxʷƛ̓ənəq Xwtl’e7énḵ Square (north side of Vancouver Art Gallery) on August 31 and September 1.

On the first night, the Filipina-born founder and creative director of the Barangay Project Society, Sophia “Sosa” Laurio, is demonstrating a variety of street-dancing styles. Laurio, a movement artist herself, has great insights into hip-hop, house, waacking, locking, dancehall, Afro-dancehall, and contemporary dance.

“She’s handpicking different dancers and they’re going to showcase specific styles,” Lee explains. “DJ culture is very tied to street dance. The music they play dictates the style of dance.”

Lee describes what will take place that evening as a “showcase battle”. A diverse group of dancers—Simran Sachar, Ririika Maekawa, Tegvaran Sooch, Bboy QD, Amy Zhang, and Gryffin Ko will engage in a conversation through movement to the beats. It will all take place in front of the live audience at TAIWANfest.

Barangay builds connections

“The dancer with the strongest round from the preliminaries earns the title of ‘King’ while the remaining 6 dancers must line up on the opposite side of the floor to challenge the King,” the TAIWANfest website states. “When the dancer in the King position loses, that dancer must go behind the line and give up the King title to the current winner.”

The first to win seven times is crowned the overall King.

The Barangay Project Society is a nonprofit organization that supports young dancers through mentorship. The society aims to build interconnections, create bridges, and form long-lasting relationships with artists all over the world.

“Through dance, specifically Street Dance Culture, we create dynamic experiences that allow for open mindedness for new ways to see ourselves, each other, and our histories, especially as people of colour navigating the world today,” the society declares.

Lee admires Laurio’s efforts to offer accessible and affordable programs for youths.

“She wants to offer street-dance education the proper way—where you actually learn the history of music, the history of the form, and the foundation,” Lee notes. “It’s really awesome.”

Cadena supports Latinx DJs

On September 1, Lee has invited Max Ammo, who’s originally from Mexico City, to program a night of underground Latinx DJ music. Like Lee, Ammo uses the pronouns they and them.

Ammo, a.k.a. El Angel Exterminador, is part of Cadena along with Montreal-based audiovisual artist Elias Musiak, who’s from Argentina. Cadena is a coast-to-coast network that supports the underground Latinx electronic dance scene across the country.

“Essentially, it’s an opportunity to showcase more Latin American DJs and artists,” Lee says.

A DJ from Tijuana named Keygurr will perform that evening, along with Lee and IHA (a project by Apple Cabrera).

Lee has developed deep connections to Latin America as a result of another collaboration with Chilean-born interdisciplinary artist Soledad Muñoz. Over the past two years, they’ve been filming a project in Chile.

“She makes these giant copper-wire weavings of the faces of the disappeared in Chile because her family was exiled during the [Pinochet] dictatorship,” Lee says. “She’s been showing them at various sites of memory in Chile for the last couple of years.”

Lee, as a video artist, has been documenting the installation of these weavings. The dictator seized power from the democratically elected government in a bloody 1973 coup.

Moreover, Lee says there are Canadian connections because Canadian corporations have been active in Chile for decades.

“It’s going to be a three-channel film with an exhibition, catalogue, and panels,” Lee reveals. “Its opening is going to be on September 13 at VIVO Media Arts Centre.”

Lee drawn to Taiwanese history

Through this research, Lee gained a greater appreciation for the parallels between the 20th-century histories of Chile and Taiwan. Both countries fell under dictatorship and martial law for lengthy periods.

In Taiwan’s case, the government imposed martial law from 1949 to 1987, with full freedom of speech only coming in 1992.

Lee cites a book, The 400 Year History of Taiwan, for transforming her thinking. The author, the now-deceased historian and social activist Su Bing (sometimes referred to as Su Beng), looked at the rise of Taiwanese identity in the face of repeated colonization.

“It was after reading Su Bing’s book that I thought, ‘Oh my God, there’s so much parallel with what happened in Chile during the dictatorship and what happened in Taiwan.”

Vancouver TAIWANfest presents TECTONIC – Curated by Nancy Lee I at 7 p.m. on August 31 in šxʷƛ̓ənəq Xwtl’e7énk Square (north of the Vancouver Art Gallery). TECTONIC – Curated by Nancy Lee II takes place at 7 p.m. on September 1 in the same location. Both events are free to the public. Follow Pancouver on X @PancouverMedia and on Instagram @PancouverMedia.