This bold new creation – envisioned and choreographed by Anthea Seah (T.H.E) and Josh Martin (Company 605, Vancouver) — brings together a creative team of performers and collaborators from both cities in a meeting of voices, seeking out what it means to build and to break.
A fragmented team is determined to “keep it together” as their bodies are launched into an alternate realm, propelled by unnatural momentum and shared delusion. As their bubble of fantasy drifts towards the spike of reality, we are thrown into an unstable world of compulsive magical thinking.
What happens when collective imagination exceeds capacity? When our wildest ambitions threaten to burst under the weight of their own making? When the sin of slowness collides with the pressure to produce? Sloth Cannon unfolds as an absurdly fragile scenario, hellbent on building forward while simultaneously falling apart.
Co-produced by: The Human Expression (T.H.E) Dance Company (Singapore) / Company 605 (Vancouver, Canada)
Co-created and Co-directed by: Anthea Seah / Josh Martin
In collaboration with performers: Brandon Lee Alley, Haruka Leilani Chan, Chang En, Billy Keohavong, Rebecca Margolick
Original Sound / Composer: Matthew Tomkinson
Lighting Design: Adrian Tan
Costume Design: Loo An Ni
Created with the support of the Canada Council for Arts, British Columbia Arts Council, Province of British Columbia, City of Vancouver, and The Dance Centre.
Artist Information
Anthea Seah
Anthea Seah was a full-time dance artist with T.H.E from 2015 – 2021. She has worked with resident and guest choreographers Kim Jae Duk (Modern Table), Dimo Kirilov, Humanhood, Ross McCormack (Muscle Mouth), Iratxe Ansa, Jecko Simpo, and Xin Liang to create original works. With these works, she has performed in Italy, Poland, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Thailand, and Malaysia. From 2017 – 2021, Anthea was also assistant to artistic director Kuik Swee Boon. She has been contributing to the development of T.H.E’s HollowBody™ methodology, as well as facilitating HollowBody™ workshops. Anthea has also been sharing her practice through teaching T.H.E Main and Second Company, Nanyang Technological University’s dance club, and other ad-hoc classes in the form of task-based workshops and technique classes for five years. Through instruction, she finds that a naturally broader and deeper definition of her practice develops. Anthea creates in varying formats: choreographing pieces, designing movement for film, directing full-length performances, making short films. She also did curatorial and artistic facilitation for cont·act Contemporary Dance Festival’s GreySpace platform from 2020 – 2021. Anthea is currently living in New York.
Josh Martin
Originally from Alberta, Canada, Josh Martin is a maker, performer and producer who now lives and works in Vancouver, BC on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the Coast Salish Peoples. In addition to an ongoing career as an interpreter and collaborator for dozens of dance companies and independent choreographers across Canada, for the past 15 years Josh has also been Artistic Co-Director of Company 605, an arts organisation producing and presenting various movement-based projects and films, and valuing collaboration as a critical path to new directions in dance. Through both Josh’s independent practice, and with Company 605, his choreographic work has been presented throughout Canada and internationally, touring to numerous festivals and venues in over 15 countries worldwide. Josh is a past recipient of Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award and, alongside his partner Lisa Mariko Gelley, the 2024 Lola McLaughlin Legacy Award celebrating achievement in Dance.
T.H.E Dance Company
Founded in 2008 by artistic director and main choreographer Kuik Swee Boon, T.H.E has established itself as a leading contemporary dance company in Singapore, premiering more than 200 productions over the past 16 years. They are best known for their HollowBody™ methodology, which shapes the company’s training and choreography, driving its highly textured, nuanced, and sensitive movement quality, and artistic vision. The company also nurtures the next generation of dance-makers through various platforms—including Anthea Seah, who was recently appointed as the company’s second resident choreographer alongside Kim Jae Duk.
Photo Credit: Crispian Chan
