Anya Saugstad is a dancer, choreographer, and the artistic director of Furious Grace Dance Theatre. She is based in Vancouver Canada, on the unceded territory of the Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh', Stó:lō and Səlílwətaʔ/ Selilwitulh, and xwməθkwəyə̓ m First Nations.

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"My work is concerned with ecological grief, feminine anger, ritual, and juxtaposition of beauty and grit which manifests itself as live performance works, nature based movement art, writing, workshopping, and collaboration. Through performance I devise rooms of artists from many backgrounds, experiences, ages, and identities to imagine and manifest dances for today."

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Furious Grace Dance Theatre creates live collaborative performance works in theaters and outdoors. The company focuses on building choreography through a feminist perspective, and creates work that speaks not to beauty, anger, and strength of humanity and femininity. Anya is inspired by bringing together many upcoming, emerging femme voices and artists in the Vancouver and Canadian dance community to make space to grow together and hold one another through movement.

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​Anya trained at ArtsUmbrella in the professional training program, and has a BFA in Dance from Simon Fraser University. As a dancer she has toured and performed around the world with ‘Action at a Distance’.

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Anya has created works for Springboard Danse, Ballet Edmonton, ArtsUmbrella, LamonDance, Simon Fraser University, Coastal City Ballet, Method Dance Society, and DanceStreams. Anya’s work has been presented throughout Canada (in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver) and recently in the USA. Anya Saugstad was the recipient of The Scotiabank Dance Centre Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award in 2024.