BLOOM: Grace Yuen

BLOOM KIDS 2020 is a residency for choreographic creations, in this case by choreographers with their kids. Join us for tea, laughter and short dance films in the safety and comfort of your home, and ring in the new year. This is the 16th season of BLOOM at MascallDance.

Hong Kong-born Grace Yuen became a Canadian when she was 11. Currently raising a family in Vancouver, her background includes studies in psychotherapy and dual careers in creative writing and as a film editor. She and her children (twins, now 8 years old) have participated in MascallDance since 2015.

“In the summer, my kids found a dead bird and mouse near our home.  My son buried, named, mourned  them and decorated their graves. What I would like is for my children to reanimate the animals' imagined spirits in their movement.”

How has CVD-19 affected your participation in BLOOM KIDS 2020?

My mother is 91 and CVD-19 has turned our season into a very quiet one. We’re upended by not only CVD-19 restrictions but also a complicated house renovation. Our living space has become a chaotic, very different environment; my kids in particular are discovering new animals and adventures. In the absence of school structure, creating a film project is a focus in their days.

BLOOM KIDS 2020

How are you working together?

We have been mostly working in different parks that invite experiences of the content.  My daughter has always been attracted to and scared of the feeling of flight, and we’re looking into flight– experimenting with the feeling of flight in skiing and so on.  Generally, the partner we use to create is the environment. 

For instance, we work at a playground with sculptures that pertain to the idea, and the kids interact with that. It’s playful and random, and images emerge.  I proposed to my kids at the outset that the creation fee be divided between the two of them.  So they follow my directions. I know, kind of a bribe – but my hope is that they will always remember that the first money they ever earned was to make creative work. 

BLOOM KIDS 2020

My daughter likes ballet, the allure of costumes, and so on, elements that attract some kids. I want her to know the entire palette before her before she chooses.  I want her to know the relatively unconstrained liberty of art and of contemporary dance.  Anything can be a dance. 

What have you discovered thus far in the process?

The project has unexpectedly reconnected me with worlds I lost sight of from when my parenting life took over. Here’s a friend who is a film editor, another who can shoot footage…and so on. Taking the action has revealed these worlds again, surprising me, and the kids see and share in this. Their experience is “we’re making a dance film and here are all the friends who will help us make it.” They’ve had a good connection with MascallDance since they were 3. 

BLOOM KIDS 2020