ARYO KHAKPOUR
co-artistic director, programming lead
Photo by Yvonne Chew Photography
Aryo Khakpour is an interdisciplinary artist working across theatre, dance, film, performance, and installation. Born and raised in Tehran, he has been involved in multiple theatre, dance, and film productions in Vancouver since 2006. He cofounded The Biting School in 2013, which was the company-in-residence at PuSh International Festival and The Dance Centre 2018 – 2020.
In his practice, he explores dynamics of power, implications of ideologies, repetition of mythologies, and cultural adaptation. He is an intersectional feminist; and he interrogates patriarchy and its harmful effects on people. His practice is heavily physical and surrealistic; it moves from theatre to performance art to dance to film and back to theatre; it deals with pain and pleasure; it is sex-positive; and it aims to queer the status quo. He was trained in devised practices of non-hierarchical collective creation; that is his favourite way of creating.
He is the recipient of the 2024-25 Theatre Replacement Accelerator Lab Fellowship, which focused on international touring within the context of experimental theatre and interdisciplinary performance.
He currently serves on the Boards of Directors for Leaky Heaven Performance and the MENA Film Festival.
ARASH KHAKPOUR | آرش خاکپور
co-artistic director, operations lead
Photo by flaviamash Photography
I am dancer, choreographer, movement dramaturg and facilitator from Tehran and based in Coast Salish Territory (colonially known as Vancouver, Canada). I have been practicing dance and performance for the past 16 years and have been a company member and part of the EDAM Contact Improvisation ensemble since 2017 under the direction of Peter Bingham.
In 2018, I was mentored by Raïna von Waldenburg on presence and embodiment based on the Grotowski method. In 2023, I completed a mentorship project with Benoît Lachambre on deepening his performance and facilitation practice. Most recently, I was one of nineteen participants in ‘The Mystery School of Choreography’ in Lisbon, directed by Meg Stuart and Ana Rocha.
I invest in and tend to the nuances of prejudice within my body as a way of inviting the unconscious into the conscious and as a doorway to embrace unknown emotions. I sees dance as a process of emotional and spiritual discoveries and a mode of transformation. I work with dance as a process that researches the human condition through mythical, social, political and animistic interpretations.
As a first-generation immigrant, I continuously consider what spaces of healing I can bring to the land and communities I works with. I cultivate a culture of relationality and reciprocity that celebrates the multiplicity of presences and approaches. I am the co-founder and co-artistic director of the dance-theatre-film company The Biting School.
ELIKA MOJTABAEI
co-artistic director, strategy and development lead
Photo by Aryo Khakpour
elika mojtabaei الیکا مجتبایی is an Iranian-born writer, costume designer, and dramaturg based on the stolen lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ Nations. Her interdisciplinary practice spans performance, film, installation art, and text.
Through colour, texture, surrealist gestures, and the poetry of the unsaid, her work interrogates how language and apparel have been weaponized to marginalize, control, and erase. The movement and stillness of bodies, the power and limitations of fabric, and the joys and failures of words inspire her.
As a costume designer, she has collaborated with Jin-me Yoon, vAct, Theatre Conspiracy, Derek Chan, Salome Nieto, Company 605, Alexis Fletcher, and others; and has had her work exhibited at Centre A Gallery.
She is currently developing a text- and design-led play, Draw Me a Home, based on children’s experiences of the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988).
elika co-leads the experimental multidisciplinary company The Biting School and is the co-founder of No Small Feat Collective.