Lee Su-Feh

Lee Su-Feh is an artist whose work encompasses choreography, performance, teaching, mentoring, dramaturgy, writing and community-organizing.

Born and raised in Malaysia, she was indelibly marked by teachers who strove to find a contemporary Asian expression out of the remnants of colonialism and dislocated traditions. Since moving to Vancouver in 1988, Lee has created a body of work that interrogates the contemporary body as a site of intersecting and displaced histories and habits. In 1995 she co-founded battery opera performance with David McIntosh, and together they have led the company to earn a reputation for being “fearlessly iconoclastic”, producing award-winning works that take place in theatres, on the street, in hotel rooms and in print.

In 1998, Lee received the Prix de Jeune Auteur of the Rencontres Chorègraphiques Internationales de Seine-St. Denis for her work Gecko Eats Fly. In 2003, Lee and McIntosh received the Alcan Award for the Performing Arts. More recently, she received the Isadora Duncan Award (2013) and the Lola Award (2014) for her contribution to dance in Vancouver.

A generous teacher, she currently teaches voice and movement to a wide range of bodies and abilities, within institutions and out of them. She actively mentors young artists across Canada; and works frequently as a dramaturge on other artists’ works. Keenly interested in the different roles and functions that art and the artist plays in society, Lee regularly initiates and participates in forums in various contexts.

She is currently in the middle of a three-year stint at Toronto’s Dancemakers Creation Centre as the National Artist-in-Residence.

Lee Su-Feh is supported by battery opera performance, The Canada Council for the Arts, The British Columbia Arts Council, The City of Vancouver.