Aryo is an interdisciplinary performer, director, and dramaturg. Born and raised in Tehran, Aryo has been involved in multiple theatre, dance, and film productions in Vancouver, Canada, on the unceded stolen traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations since 2006. He co-founded The Biting School in 2013 and was company-in-residence at the PuSh Festival and The Dance Centre from 2018-2019. Aryo is an infrequent sessional instructor at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts.
In his practice he explores dynamics of power, implications of ideologies, repetition of mythologies, and cultural adaptation. An intersectional feminist, Aryo interrogates the patriarchy and its harmful effects on people. His practice is heavily physical and surrealistic; it moves from theatre to performance art to dance to film and back to theatre; it deals with pain and pleasure; it is sex-positive; and aims to queer the status quo. Aryo was trained in devised practices of non-hierarchical collective creation — this is his favourite way of creating work.
Aryo is the recipient of the 2024 Theatre Replacement Accelerator Lab Fellowship, which focuses on international touring within the context of experimental theatre and interdisciplinary performance, and building relations with the international arts network.