Encounters with ghosts. Diasporic memories. Dreams. Grandmothers.
birdcage is an introspective multi-media performance work that reflects on family, migration, and memory through written text (scores and poetry), lanterns, voice, soundscapes, and improvisation. These elements weave together images in a devised form of cross-disciplinary storytelling. The original work is composed and performed by Alex Mah and collaborator-violinist Ilana Waniuk, with an artistic team made up of first- or second-generation Canadians. birdcage explores the hope, longing, and confusion of Mah’s mixed-race, immigrant identity in search of itself by lantern light.
Produced by Alex Mah, birdcage is co-presented by EDAM and Pi Theatre as part of the Pi Provocateurs Performing Arts Series.
EDAM (Experimental Dance and Music) is a Vancouver-based contemporary dance company founded in 1982. Specializing in Contact Improvisation, EDAM’s performance practice is defined by tactile awareness, virtuosic weight-exchange, and spontaneous composition. EDAM offers mainstage productions, classes, jams, and workshops to the public, and professional training and choreographic residencies for dance artists. Learn more at edamdance.org.
Performances are at EDAM (303 E 8th Ave, Vancouver, BC, V5T 1S1).
AlexMah - Lead, Composer, Performer
IlanaWaniuk - Collaborator, Violinist
NatalieGan - Movement Consultant,Outside Eye
elikamojtabaei - Costume Designer
JonathanKim - Lighting Designer
GillianHanemayer - Technical Director
Agnes Hui - Stage Manager
Alex Mah - Lead, Composer, Performer
Alex Mah is an interdisciplinary performing artist, composer-musician, and dancer based on the unceded, ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. He composes experimental music, embodied text scores, and sometimes songs for dance, theatre, and short films.
He has performed in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Denmark, and Germany and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hon.) from SFU and a Master of Research Composition from Bath Spa University (U.K.) under James Saunders. As a songwriter and recording engineer, he contributed to the 2024 Peabody Award-winning narrative video game, 1000xRESIST, by sunset visitor 斜陽過客. He is grateful to have worked with Peter Bingham for 10 years and for other long term collaborations with EDAM, Antoine Beuger & Wandelweiser, Hong Kong Exile, and The Biting School. He is fond of folk music, loves a good cheesecake, and prefers taking things slowly.
Ilana Waniuk - Collaborator, Violinist
Ilana Waniuk is a violinist, creator and curator with interests ranging from improvisation to visual arts. Along with pianist Cheryl Duvall, Ilana is a founding member and co-artistic director of Tkarón:to (Toronto) - based contemporary music ensemble Thin Edge New Music Collective, and Balancing on the Edge (multidisciplinary production company merging contemporary music and circus arts). TENMC was the 2020 winner of the Canadian League of Composers/Canadian Music Centre Friends of Canadian Music award and has commissioned over 80 chamber works since its inception in 2011.
She is also a founding member of in^set, a flexible trio with Teresa Díaz de Cossio (flute) and David Aguila (trumpet) dedicated to creation, improvisation and experimentation. Ilana has performed on concert stages across Canada, Italy, Argentina, Poland, Japan, Iceland, Mexico, the U.S and Germany. Her creative work explores various configurations of digital and analog materials, often merging graphic notation and improvisation with fixed and live projections.
Ilana’s scores have been performed by ensembles such as Duo Lingua, TRAMAS Collective, Acorn Projects, Missing Piece and Bent Frequency (2025/2026 Underscore Call for Scores Winner). Ilana received a doctorate in contemporary performance from the University of California, San Diego where her research explored collaborative audiovisual practices.
birdcage is produced by Alex Mah, co-presented by EDAM and Pi Theatre as part of the Pi Provocateurs Performance Series.
