This isn’t an everyday dance company. Making dance performances for ages 6 and up arch8 views theatrical traditions as a resource, using them to create new forms, then sharing these new forms in public space, architectural space and theatrical space. arch8 received IPAY’s Victor Award at Montreal in 2016 for their production of Tetris.
There is a high degree of interactivity in the work. arch8 consistently encourages an active viewing, a participatory imagining on the part of the audience. With its innovative approach, the company has performed around the globe, including St. Petersburg, Istanbul, Cairo, New York, San Francisco, Vancouver, Senegal, Shanghai, and throughout Europe.
Choreographer Erik Kaiel has been making dances for many years in subway stations, sculpture gardens, empty swimming pools, city streets as well as on stage. In 2003, after a decade in New York City, he moved to the Netherlands. He performs, choreographs, and teaches throughout the Netherlands, Europe, and the world. In 2010 he won the Dutch national prize for choreographic talent and the No Ballet Competition in Germany.
Having grown up in Portland, OR, Erik earned a masters degree in dance and choreography from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. He danced and choreographed in New York City for ten years before moving to the Netherlands where he has focussed on arch8, working on a mix of performing, choreographing, collaborating and teaching.
Erik led the choreography program at the ArtEZ Institue of the Arts, Arnhem for a number of years, and regularly teaches composition workshops globally. Erik is a founding artist member of Fresh Tracks Europe and a Danslab research fellow.