Move and Be Moved, art and activism. In support of social justice in housing.
September 27 at 3PM in the Riverview Room of Remai Modern
September 27 at 3PM in the Riverview Room of Remai Modern
Let’s do something!! Because now is the time. Because we can. Because people and the earth need us. Because social action is urgent and it can be fun and beautiful and powerful. Come together for dance, live music, open mic, and group percussion.
With Tiess Mackenzie on trombone and Laurent Boucher on percussion helping ignite our power and passion, KSAMB calls on activists and anyone concerned about the polycrisis and social justice including the very desperate issue of housing here in Saskatoon. Community Samba band Rhythm Agogo will help spark our 'rhythmic engagement'. Using the magnificent facilities of the Remai Modern, and our experience with musicians in the gallery gained throughout this year’s residency, we want to inspire and fortify ways to resist apathy.
The event is free, but we will be collecting donations. The money will be shared between Seventh Generation Rising, who feed and support unhoused people in Saskatoon, and Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME). These causes are not unrelated. The dispossession of people from their homes is a colonial, capitalist project, and we must resist as our Canadian government withdraws funding from social programs and invests in police and international warfare.
Let's not lose hope. Let's continue to envision and embody the possibilities life after capitalism. Let’s do it together!
With Tiess Mackenzie on trombone and Laurent Boucher on percussion helping ignite our power and passion, KSAMB calls on activists and anyone concerned about the polycrisis and social justice including the very desperate issue of housing here in Saskatoon. Community Samba band Rhythm Agogo will help spark our 'rhythmic engagement'. Using the magnificent facilities of the Remai Modern, and our experience with musicians in the gallery gained throughout this year’s residency, we want to inspire and fortify ways to resist apathy.
The event is free, but we will be collecting donations. The money will be shared between Seventh Generation Rising, who feed and support unhoused people in Saskatoon, and Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME). These causes are not unrelated. The dispossession of people from their homes is a colonial, capitalist project, and we must resist as our Canadian government withdraws funding from social programs and invests in police and international warfare.
Let's not lose hope. Let's continue to envision and embody the possibilities life after capitalism. Let’s do it together!
KSAMB Dance Company participated in the 2025-2026 Sustained Artist Mentorship Program at the Remai Modern.
remaimodern.org/art-artists/sustained-artist-mentorship-program/
Our underlying theme was land back. Our understanding of this call for justice has grown as we have applied its lens to colonial oppression, to the enclosure and commodification of the commons as the principle of capitalism, the reappropriation of public space, and the threats to our shared environment. We have understood land back in the sense of breaking down barriers to public use of space for food, recreation, and art. Land should not be for sale. In a true reconciliation, the First Nations of North America should decide how land use should be allocated.
From September 2025 until September 2026, KSAMB Dance Company worked at the Remai Modern, investigating, rehearsing, and performing as part of The Sustained Artist Mentorship Program. We worked in collaboration with curators Troy Gronsdahl and Michelle Jaques to develop a program that included research and public engagement. This took the form of classes, jams, and performance experiments.
We taught and led two classes a week; Contact/Ensemble Improvisation and All Bodies Movement. We presented experimental performances in the public spaces of the Remai Modern every second Saturday from October to January. We held a Sunday performance by the All Bodies group with trombonist Tiess Mackenzie, and Contact Improvisation Jams with Tiess and percussionist Laurent Boucher in the Riverview Room, open to the public. We developed and presented three new works; Bringing In the River using spaces inside and outside the museum and linking site and history, Shaggy Staging with the All Bodies group at Persephone Theatre Backstage Stage, and Urgent Garden: three performances in the exhibit Forecast with dancers from KSAMB and All Bodies, and musicians from SExME.
KSAMB benefited from the financial support of Remai Modern, in particular the generous access to museum space for classes, rehearsals and performances. The artist fees enabled Kyle to dedicate more time to her art, and Miki, already sufficiently supported by her Government of Canada pension, was able to donate her fees to supplement the resources available to KSAMB, primarily to pay for artists’ fees for musicians and dancers. Dance Saskatchewan provided rehearsal and artist fees for the dancers living with disability, and Persephone Theatre partnered to provide additional performance space.
Professional development opportunities included a seminar, meetings with artists and curators, research in historical archives, study of exhibits and meeting with artists. We had many meetings with Troy Gronsdahl, reviewing videos, formulating plans, receiving feedback, and discussing performance art, art, and social activism.
We, KSAMB, were honoured as 2026 Recognized Artists in the category of Dance-Collectives by SK Arts, recommended by Troy Gronsdahl.
remaimodern.org/art-artists/sustained-artist-mentorship-program/
Our underlying theme was land back. Our understanding of this call for justice has grown as we have applied its lens to colonial oppression, to the enclosure and commodification of the commons as the principle of capitalism, the reappropriation of public space, and the threats to our shared environment. We have understood land back in the sense of breaking down barriers to public use of space for food, recreation, and art. Land should not be for sale. In a true reconciliation, the First Nations of North America should decide how land use should be allocated.
From September 2025 until September 2026, KSAMB Dance Company worked at the Remai Modern, investigating, rehearsing, and performing as part of The Sustained Artist Mentorship Program. We worked in collaboration with curators Troy Gronsdahl and Michelle Jaques to develop a program that included research and public engagement. This took the form of classes, jams, and performance experiments.
We taught and led two classes a week; Contact/Ensemble Improvisation and All Bodies Movement. We presented experimental performances in the public spaces of the Remai Modern every second Saturday from October to January. We held a Sunday performance by the All Bodies group with trombonist Tiess Mackenzie, and Contact Improvisation Jams with Tiess and percussionist Laurent Boucher in the Riverview Room, open to the public. We developed and presented three new works; Bringing In the River using spaces inside and outside the museum and linking site and history, Shaggy Staging with the All Bodies group at Persephone Theatre Backstage Stage, and Urgent Garden: three performances in the exhibit Forecast with dancers from KSAMB and All Bodies, and musicians from SExME.
KSAMB benefited from the financial support of Remai Modern, in particular the generous access to museum space for classes, rehearsals and performances. The artist fees enabled Kyle to dedicate more time to her art, and Miki, already sufficiently supported by her Government of Canada pension, was able to donate her fees to supplement the resources available to KSAMB, primarily to pay for artists’ fees for musicians and dancers. Dance Saskatchewan provided rehearsal and artist fees for the dancers living with disability, and Persephone Theatre partnered to provide additional performance space.
Professional development opportunities included a seminar, meetings with artists and curators, research in historical archives, study of exhibits and meeting with artists. We had many meetings with Troy Gronsdahl, reviewing videos, formulating plans, receiving feedback, and discussing performance art, art, and social activism.
We, KSAMB, were honoured as 2026 Recognized Artists in the category of Dance-Collectives by SK Arts, recommended by Troy Gronsdahl.
Listening Bodies.
In this two-part series, KSAMB Dance company and the Saskatoon Experimental Music Ensemble explored composition and perception in a performance laboratory, where the only score was listening. Together, musicians and dancers tracked the unfolding movement of sound and bodies. Curious about how both artists and audiences understand experimental music and dance, separately or simultaneously, both as creators and receivers.
In this two-part series, KSAMB Dance company and the Saskatoon Experimental Music Ensemble explored composition and perception in a performance laboratory, where the only score was listening. Together, musicians and dancers tracked the unfolding movement of sound and bodies. Curious about how both artists and audiences understand experimental music and dance, separately or simultaneously, both as creators and receivers.
August 23, Listening Bodies II in Remai Modern’s Riverview Room began with a brief conversation about the proposal. A deep dive followed!
“…What can you hear right now? You are already improvising…
You have arrived. The room is luminous and open to the green leaves of the trees and the river flowing below. People cluster or hover. Curiosity, uncertainty. How will this unfold? Clarifying words and ideas are shared and then - a hush descends. The air thickens. Your skin tingles a bit as strange sounds start to paint the room. Bodies shift positions. Is this a performance? The invitation is to join, imitate, repeat… you feel like hiding. Or howling. Instead, you brush by the accordion player and two trumpets, to a group of people crouching. You crouch. Now what…??
The improvisation has begun.”
SExME musicians and KSAMB dancers invite you to join our attempts to track the evolving relationship of sound and bodies. Blurring the line between audience and performer, we invite you to experiment with how you pay attention, when you act, and the balance between receiving and giving, listening, witnessing, and doing.
In Listening Bodies II, the second part of our improvisation performance laboratory, KSAMB Dance Company and the Saskatoon Experimental Music Ensemble (SExME) explored composition and perception with the public. Again, the score was listening. The participants responded with absorption and generosity, an emotionally moving participatory performance according to some.
“…What can you hear right now? You are already improvising…
You have arrived. The room is luminous and open to the green leaves of the trees and the river flowing below. People cluster or hover. Curiosity, uncertainty. How will this unfold? Clarifying words and ideas are shared and then - a hush descends. The air thickens. Your skin tingles a bit as strange sounds start to paint the room. Bodies shift positions. Is this a performance? The invitation is to join, imitate, repeat… you feel like hiding. Or howling. Instead, you brush by the accordion player and two trumpets, to a group of people crouching. You crouch. Now what…??
The improvisation has begun.”
SExME musicians and KSAMB dancers invite you to join our attempts to track the evolving relationship of sound and bodies. Blurring the line between audience and performer, we invite you to experiment with how you pay attention, when you act, and the balance between receiving and giving, listening, witnessing, and doing.
In Listening Bodies II, the second part of our improvisation performance laboratory, KSAMB Dance Company and the Saskatoon Experimental Music Ensemble (SExME) explored composition and perception with the public. Again, the score was listening. The participants responded with absorption and generosity, an emotionally moving participatory performance according to some.
July 16, Listening Bodies in Remai Modern’s Riverview Room. SExME Musicians, KSAMB dancers, and witnesses, made choices together, with the primary score of listening. To our bodies, to the sounds, to the space, to our meeting.
We blurred the line between performer and witness and invited all to consider and experiment with how we listen, what we pay attention to, and then what we choose to do. Witnesses were encouraged to choose how and where they experienced the music and movement – sitting, standing, or lying, closer or further from the action.
After a rich process with SExME in the Urgent Garden performance in June, we were compelled to continue the collaboration in a more open format. In the two-part series Listening Bodies, KSAMB Dance company and the Saskatoon Experimental Music Ensemble explored composition and perception in a performance laboratory, with listening as the primary score.
KSAMB and SExME are remarkably similar groups - not only in our 5 letter acronym names! - but in our love of improvisation, particularly as a performance practice. Both groups perform in unusual spaces, including outdoors. Nature and its rhythms are an important aspect of both groups' work, and are appreciated in contrast to the pace of capitalism.
The Saskatoon Experimental Music Ensemble has been meeting regularly since the fall of 2022. They are a community of musical composers and improvisors, working collaboratively to experiment with musical techniques and forms. They have performed at the Strata New Music Festival, the Sounds Like Audio Festival, Nuit Blanche Saskatoon, Remai Modern’s Lugo, as well as many concerts of their own.
We blurred the line between performer and witness and invited all to consider and experiment with how we listen, what we pay attention to, and then what we choose to do. Witnesses were encouraged to choose how and where they experienced the music and movement – sitting, standing, or lying, closer or further from the action.
After a rich process with SExME in the Urgent Garden performance in June, we were compelled to continue the collaboration in a more open format. In the two-part series Listening Bodies, KSAMB Dance company and the Saskatoon Experimental Music Ensemble explored composition and perception in a performance laboratory, with listening as the primary score.
KSAMB and SExME are remarkably similar groups - not only in our 5 letter acronym names! - but in our love of improvisation, particularly as a performance practice. Both groups perform in unusual spaces, including outdoors. Nature and its rhythms are an important aspect of both groups' work, and are appreciated in contrast to the pace of capitalism.
The Saskatoon Experimental Music Ensemble has been meeting regularly since the fall of 2022. They are a community of musical composers and improvisors, working collaboratively to experiment with musical techniques and forms. They have performed at the Strata New Music Festival, the Sounds Like Audio Festival, Nuit Blanche Saskatoon, Remai Modern’s Lugo, as well as many concerts of their own.
Urgent Garden, 2026, from a Remai Modern photo by Carey Shaw
May 22, 23 and 24, 2026, URGENT GARDEN, Collection Galleries, Forecast exhibit, Remai Modern
Artistic direction by KSAMB Dance Company–Kyle Syverson and Miki MappinScore and choreography directed by Kyle Syverson
Curatorial consultant for the Remai Modern–Troy Gronsdahl
KSAMB dancers:
Kyle Syverson, Miki Mappin, Laura Harris, Forest Tremblay, Rozálie Pečínková, Lauren Scruton
All Bodies Movement dancers:
Kristen Schneider, Louise Seidel, Adam Buchko, Nancy Lowry
Musicians from SExME, the Saskatoon Experimental Music Ensemble:
Tiess McKenzie, Helen Pridmore, Nick Arsenault, Rochelle Wright, Colin Grant, and respectfulchild.
Videography by Blair Charters. Thanks to Rawda Shawcat, and the staff of the Remai Modern. With funding from Remai Modern, Dance Saskatchewan and KSAMB Dance Company.
Artistic direction by KSAMB Dance Company–Kyle Syverson and Miki MappinScore and choreography directed by Kyle Syverson
Curatorial consultant for the Remai Modern–Troy Gronsdahl
KSAMB dancers:
Kyle Syverson, Miki Mappin, Laura Harris, Forest Tremblay, Rozálie Pečínková, Lauren Scruton
All Bodies Movement dancers:
Kristen Schneider, Louise Seidel, Adam Buchko, Nancy Lowry
Musicians from SExME, the Saskatoon Experimental Music Ensemble:
Tiess McKenzie, Helen Pridmore, Nick Arsenault, Rochelle Wright, Colin Grant, and respectfulchild.
Videography by Blair Charters. Thanks to Rawda Shawcat, and the staff of the Remai Modern. With funding from Remai Modern, Dance Saskatchewan and KSAMB Dance Company.
Severed Hands, Shary Boyle, Forecast exhibit
The forecast is dire – floods, fire, and famine. The need to act is urgent. KSAMB explores the power of dance in the face of hopelessness, using the garden as both metaphor and community action. Land back is central. Indigenous wisdom teaches us that this planet is our parent, not our property. The partition and commodification of the commons for private greed has led to the depletion and destruction of our only home. Capitalism will not stop, in fact it is accelerating its destruction. Have we no agency? Once capitalism has eaten itself, what will happen then? Let's imagine, and actualize, the beautiful possibilities of life after capitalism, of land back.
"The future is obvious, but the potential impossible is calling softly and knocking gently." – Sun Ra
SOCAR Oilfields, Edward Burtynsky, Forecast Exhibit
Urgent Garden Movement workshops:
May 21, Ensemble and Contact Improvisation. An introduction to our core practices, Contact Improvisation, and ensemble improvisation. All levels.
May 22, Moving Together, Rotary Community Garden. A group warmup, a smudge with David Fineday, a silent movement meditation, planting and watering. Connecting the earth, the neighbourhood and the reality of colonial genocide with the the hegemonic symbol that is the Remai Modern.
May 22, Improvising for Activists. Exercises in ensemble improvisation useful for group action, and the creation of an environmentally themed protest score. With option to perform with the evening showing of Urgent Garden.
May 23, Creative Movement for Kids of All Ages. Improvisation games, and the creation of a short, environmentally themed sequence. With the option to perform at the beginning of the afternoon showing of Urgent Garden.
May 24, Just Dance in Optimist Park. As its name suggests, this event is just dance. With recorded music and contemplative silences people move and enjoy the beauty of this inner city park. This Sunday we will feature some laments, such as Anohni’s Why am I Alive Now, and some Afro-futurism by Sun Ra and Parliament. Held every Sunday from 2015, and since 2020 in all seasons, it is a true dedication to dance, the environment, and community.
May 21, Ensemble and Contact Improvisation. An introduction to our core practices, Contact Improvisation, and ensemble improvisation. All levels.
May 22, Moving Together, Rotary Community Garden. A group warmup, a smudge with David Fineday, a silent movement meditation, planting and watering. Connecting the earth, the neighbourhood and the reality of colonial genocide with the the hegemonic symbol that is the Remai Modern.
May 22, Improvising for Activists. Exercises in ensemble improvisation useful for group action, and the creation of an environmentally themed protest score. With option to perform with the evening showing of Urgent Garden.
May 23, Creative Movement for Kids of All Ages. Improvisation games, and the creation of a short, environmentally themed sequence. With the option to perform at the beginning of the afternoon showing of Urgent Garden.
May 24, Just Dance in Optimist Park. As its name suggests, this event is just dance. With recorded music and contemplative silences people move and enjoy the beauty of this inner city park. This Sunday we will feature some laments, such as Anohni’s Why am I Alive Now, and some Afro-futurism by Sun Ra and Parliament. Held every Sunday from 2015, and since 2020 in all seasons, it is a true dedication to dance, the environment, and community.
January 25, 2026, Connect Contact Improv Jam, at the Remai Modern, Riverview Room.
Connecting percussionist Laurent Boucher with trombonist Tiess McKenzie and dancers: Contact Improvisation (CI) practitioners and students, All Bodies dancers, Sunday Just Dance movers, and members of the public interested in improvised dance and music.
Connecting percussionist Laurent Boucher with trombonist Tiess McKenzie and dancers: Contact Improvisation (CI) practitioners and students, All Bodies dancers, Sunday Just Dance movers, and members of the public interested in improvised dance and music.
December 27, Falling Queer Remai Modern. From 10 AM to 5 PM, Miki Mappin performed a durational solo in the Remai Modern entrance Atrium. Falling Queer is a score KSAMB has been working on since 2022, exploring its possibilities in different environments and configurations.
December 13, we performed Navigations on 3 floors of the public space of the Remai. We danced with our eyes closed, and wondered, who feels more exposed, the viewer who happens upon it, or the performers?
December 7, the All Bodies group performed with trombonist Tiess McKenzie in the open spaces of the Remai Modern, in preparation for Shaggy Staging at Persephone.
November 27, we hosted a Contact Improvisation Jam with percussionist Laurent Boucher in the Riverview Room of the Remai Modern.
November 15, was Time Back. This was a 58 minute exploration of very slow unfolding movement performed by Kyle Syverson in the Marquee Gallery with the Great Plains exhibition.
Bringing In the River, Nov 1, 2025
November 1, Bringing in the River, was a ritual of sorts, celebrating and considering our personal experiences of the South Saskatchewan River and the socio-political context in which the river and the Remai meet. A trio of dancers, inspired by our 2022 Carte Blanche, embodied the wild and cultured, fantastical and mundane, sacred and profane, without fearing the ridiculous and sublime.
October 18, we performed our first movement intervention The Stand in the public spaces of the gallery. Performed three times, the intervention was a re-contextualizing of the Contact Improvisation practice of The Stand, originally conceived by the founder of Contact Improvisation, Steve Paxton, which is a meditation on the movements that keep us upright.
“Taking a stand” can also be a political act.
“Taking a stand” can also be a political act.
All Bodies Movement Program, 2025