Inverso Productions' LIFT festival brings generations together through dance
Senior dance artists offer decades of insight to the new event’s joyful collaborations with younger performers
Lesley Telford’s Borrowed Time.
Claudia Moore in Alone with the moon by Lesley Telford.
Inverso Productions presents LIFT: Inverso Intergenerational Festival at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre from May 21 to 23
EVEN AT AGE 78, professional dancer Savannah Walling out-danced preteens at a New Year’s party. “There were all these 11-, 12-, 13-year-old girls who all joined and were all improvising together, spinning around in the room together, and then they got tired and stopped,” recounts her partner and fellow dancer Terry Hunter. “But Savannah kept on going. It was just the most extraordinary thing.”
Walling, Hunter, and Claudia Moore are three of the artists performing in Inverso Productions’ first intergenerational festival, LIFT. The event transcends social barriers by offering a space for artists of all ages and backgrounds to showcase their work and find community.
Lesley Telford, professional dancer, choreographer for companies like Nederlands Dans Theater, and artistic director of Inverso Productions, says she wanted to create a festival that would bring people together and lift people up—hence the festival’s name.
“I was looking for a way to highlight how we can interact across ages through dance,” Telford says. “I know that often dance for older adults is highlighting a specific demographic, and I think the beauty is crossing over, not only ages, but crossing over from professional to community dance.”
The LIFT festival takes place over three days with performances, discussions, and workshops to build connections between age groups. It’s based mostly at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre.
Telford says the celebration works to combat stigma surrounding age. “I feel like anytime there’s representation, that combats ageism,” she says. “It’s also just valuing these incredible artists in our midst, like those who are here. Terry, Savannah, and Claudia have been lifelong artists, and seeing them onstage is quite profound.”
Part of Telford’s interest in intergenerational activities comes from a new report published in March by BC Seniors Advocate Dan Levitt. Called “Reframing Ageing”, the document tracks the prevalence of ageism in the province and the isolation and prejudice it causes. It cites the benefits of intergenerational programs that improve relationships with seniors and quality of life for older people.
Hunter, Moore, and Walling are artists who have been dancing nearly their entire lives and who challenge assumptions about the abilities of aging performing artists.
Hunter and Walling, who are founding codirectors of Vancouver Moving Theatre, will be performing in Telford’s work Borrowed Time. Moore, a contemporary-dance artist and former dancer with the National Ballet of Canada, will be performing a solo work called Alone with the moon, also choreographed by Telford.
Moore explains that as a 72-year-old artist, she still has so much room to grow. “I wanted to continue to evolve as a performer,” she says. “That’s what I’ve done all my life. I still find it fascinating. I still find that there are discoveries to be made.” Her solo explores how a life of performance resonates in her body, integrating the memories of past dances.
As for Telford’s Borrowed Time, it was originally created with five dancers and has now expanded to a group of 15.
“I just feel really supported in the process, but also the choreography itself is really speaking about support and how we support each other across generations, across age as dance artists,” Hunter reflects.
The festival, and the works performed, bring together dancers of all ages and levels of professional experience.
“I’m 78 going on 79 and I’m working with people who could be my children, my grandchildren, or my great-grandchildren, and I find a lot of nourishment in witnessing and being inspired,” Walling says. “One of my favourite moments in Borrowed Time is just this very short duet with one of the younger dancers—to feel the energy and the joy of us working together. And I’m really thankful that I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of these intergenerational dance-based projects.”
Telford’s inspiration for Borrowed Time came from her own familial relationships and the desire to connect her professional dance life to her family life.
“I started the work because I was what you would call the sandwich generation of caring for my mother and my daughter,” Telford explains. “I felt like I needed multiple generations in the work to be able to talk about family, and I do feel like there are multiple underlying narratives because everyone brought to the process their own stories of family and connection.”
Walling describes how continuing to make art and create movement is a crucial part of her existence, regardless of what judgments might come from others about it. “I’ve been aware, too, that it’s been important for me to keep moving in my life,” she says, “to keep walking and to keep that dancing side of myself always present—even if it seems a little ridiculous or startling to other people. But that has been part of keeping that vitality alive and fed.”
Through intergenerational connection and communication, knowledge can be exchanged and community can be built. Telford explains that there is a different kind of depth that is achieved through a lifetime of artistic expression, and that seeing representation over 40 in dance is extraordinary.
“Through my own family connections, my interests have brought me into fighting for the rights of older adults,” the dance artist says. “I saw that with my mother: just really valuing a life of experience and saying that there’s a space for that, you’re welcome.”
As for the festival itself, Telford hopes that it can become an annual event. She is particularly looking forward to the Mascall Dance Party on the evening of May 22. “That will be deejayed and hosted by some young artists,” she says. “I’m really excited to see how people can come together and just have a little dance party.” 
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