Meet the artist: Ralph Escamillan

BLOOM 2021 presents:

7PM, December 16, 17, 18 2021 at Left of Main, 211 Keefer Street, 2nd Floor. Tickets are limited. To reserve yours, please email: operations@mascalldance.ca

Introducing choreographer Ralph Escamillan:

\“BLOOM and the space Mascall Dance/Jennifer is able to make has made it possible to procure a sense of creative freedom and possibility. I feel that what I am supported with is just the right amount, allowing myself to have agency to explore what I am interested in - in whatever way that might culminate. Jennifer's mentorship as a person that also works with costumes and objects has been invaluable to my creative process as I listen and feel my way through my ever-evolving creative movement.”

Ralph Escamillan

(he/him/his)

Ralph Escamillan is a queer, Canadian-Filipinx performance artist, teacher, and community leader based on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh Nations - on so-called Vancouver, BC. He is trained in a breadth of dance styles such as Street, Commercial, and Contemporary. With FakeKnot he creates inclusive performance works that strive to understand the complexities of identity and culture through costume, sound, technology, and the body.

The past, present, and future influence his diasporic background, while acknowledging Queer, Trans, Black, and Latinx folks that have founded communities he belongs to today - creating a truly unique choreographic/curatorial perspective.

In BLOOM 2021, he presents Foley (work-in-process), in collaboration with:

Stefan Seslija studied jazz at Wayne State University in Detroit and played music all around the surrounding area.  This included the Detroit Jazz Festival, and Cincinnati Music Festival to name a few.  After which he studied sound design at Vancouver Film School which led him to work in the film and television industry.  Stefan has had the opportunity to compose music and sound design for dance works including Hinkypunk and BLUrm.  Some of the works have been presented at the Push Festival, Dancing on the Edge, and other festivals throughout Canada.

Phil Wizard is a Vancouver-based artist who specializes in breaking. He started dancing in 2009 under the mentorship of Vancouver’s Now or Never and Soul Felons crews and later joined the Wizards, United Rivals, and 7 Commandos crews which he continues to represent today. Phil hopes to further evolve and diversify his craft while continuing to compete and perform internationally.

Phil Wizard is the first Canadian dancer to win the Undisputed World Series and to be invited to the Red Bull BC One World Finals. Over the past few years, he has represented throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, and the UK. Phil has performed in a variety of concerts, festivals, and shows, including the 2018 Takashi Murakami exhibition opening at the Vancouver Art Gallery. He currently holds two solo world championship titles, as well as multiple crew world championship titles