Dreamwalker Dance Company presents
Firehorse and Shadow
Firehorse and Shadow is a deeply personal and evocative autobiographical work co-created by writer, choreographer, and performer Andrea Nann, Annie Katsura Rollins (shadow artist/performer), Sarah Chase (director/dance-storyteller), and Cindy Mochizuki (dramaturge). Rooted in family history, the piece traces the matrilineal line of Andrea’s Chinese-Canadian heritage, drawing attention to the generational patterns of silence and self-suppression experienced by the women in her lineage. As a child, Andrea grappled with a sense of voicelessness, often struggling to express her innermost thoughts and feelings. She began to notice a troubling absence in the conversations around her: within her community, people rarely asked their mothers or grandmothers about their passions, their dreams, or the intimate details of their lives. This silence became the catalyst for a profound artistic and personal investigation into the cultural norms that discouraged emotional expression and individuality—particularly among women in Chinese-Canadian families.
Through Firehorse and Shadow, Andrea and Annie transform this inquiry into a rich, multidisciplinary performance that gives shape and sound to the unspoken. Blending contemporary dance, original music, evocative movement, shadow puppetry, and voice, the piece creates a visual and sensory language to explore themes of memory, identity, and ancestral connection. The title itself references the Chinese zodiac—Andrea was born in a Fire Horse year, a sign traditionally believed to be unlucky for women—and the work also draws on the Chinese Body Clock, a traditional wellness system linking time and organ systems, to examine the rhythms of emotional inheritance and bodily memory.
About Dreamwalker Dance Company.
Click here to read an interview by Ontario Presents with Andrea and Allie!
