Pam Tzeng 曾小桐 (she/they)

I am a second-generation Taiwanese-Canadian artist, facilitator, somatic coach, conflict practitioner and arts worker.

Things that shape my practice in life and art:

I was born and raised on stolen land, in Mohkìnstsis colonially known as Calgary. I am a settler to the traditional lands of the Niitsitapi Blackfoot Confederacy, the Tsuut’ina Nation and Îyârhe Nakoda Nations in Treaty 7 Territory. I am of the Chinese diaspora, with familial roots and traditions passed onto me from generations of ancestors who call the sweet potato shaped island of Taiwan home.

I made my stage debut at the age of five. Wearing a snug pink bodysuit, baggy at the knee tights, a questionably adorable crochet hair bun cover and the number 88 safety pinned onto my chest. I danced cradling a blonde cabbage patch girl doll. Thirty plus years later, I am now a commitment to holding space for my own and others healing from white body supremacy. I do this through the magic of performance, artist-led community organizing and change work consulting in arts sector. I bring a trauma-informed, anti-oppression and transformative justice lens to all that I do.

I am a Fire Tiger and according to Chinese astrology this means that I am honest, daring, adaptive, care deeply about justice and show up to challenges with sincerity and conviction. I am also an Aquarius, born on the Cusp of Mystery and Imagination. According to my birth chart my purpose in life is to transform. These attributes feel quite aligned to me and I try to be responsible for the gifts and shortcomings of them all.

See below for more details about some of the things I do and have done in the past.

Pam Tzeng (曾小桐) is a second-generation Taiwanese-Canadian artist, facilitator and arts worker based in Moh’kíns’tsis Treaty 7 Territory.

Pam takes pleasure in extremes to craft honest, visceral and animated performances about the politics of the body with objects. Core to their practice is working with costume and materials as energetic extensions of the body and spirit. Pam’s aesthetic imagination is coloured by their training in contemporary dance, mask, clown, puppetry. Led by their embodied curiosities, she graciously traverses charged thematic territories to reveal and empower unseen truths.

Pam’s solo and ensemble works have been presented across Canada and through the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Past works include: “A Meditation on the End” Jo-Lee, “SHE and he…” By Jo-Lee, That ch*nk in y/our armour commissioned by CanAsian Dance KickStart Festival 2018 (Tkaronto) and Cheers & Tears: A Journey Into Whiteness commissioned by Good Women Dance Collective (Amiskwacîwâskahikan).

In Spring 2022, Pam premiered SHED | knowing each other and the same as part of The New Gallery 2022 Main Space Programming, co-produced with Dancers’ Studio West. The immersive performance installation features a collection of six time-based moving portraits that centre the multiplicity and humanity of bodies of culture.

As a performer, Pam has interpreted and contributed to works by Tania Alvarado, Sara Angius, Article 11, Denise Clarke, Amelia Ehrhardt, Noam Gagnon, Helen Husak, Nicole Mion, Gerry Morita, Robin Poitras, Kenji Takagi, Stephen Thompson, Three Left Feet, Making Treaty 7 Cultural Society and The Old Trout Puppet Workshop.

Pam co-founded and co-curate to the AWE – a recurring risk-based performance series from 2017-2021 and co-facilitate Dancers’ Studio West Talking Thinking Dancing Body from 2019-2021. Pam also worked as Artistic Associate Producer and Marketing Director with Springboard Performance from 2015-2019 and was a faculty member and practices of care weaver for the Rozsa Foundations REAL Executive Leadership Program from 2021-2022.

Currently, Pam is an advisor with the Canadian Dance Assembly, an embodied leadership consultant with Generator Toronto, a member of the Cultural Instigators - a collective of artist activists visioning an anti-racist future for Calgary and part of Calgary Arts Development’s Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility working group.

Pam also works with clients as a somatic coach, bodyworker and conflict resolution practitioner.