Sophie Barbarics (left), Acacia Schachte (right). Photos by Jani Lakatos and Soniko Waira.
World-class talent dances into Nelson
by Galadriel Watson
Whether you want to watch dance or practice dance, two additions to the performing arts scene in Nelson will draw you into music and movement. Canada’s Acacia Schachte and Hungary’s Sophie Barbarics are bringing the skills they’ve honed in multiple countries to local audiences and, especially, to students eager to learn.
Impressive resumés
If you listed these dancers’ full resumés, you’d have a small encyclopedia. Here are but a few of the highlights:
Acacia Schachte: Born in Santa Barbara, California; raised in Vancouver; trained at Vancouver’s Arts Umbrella; dancer for Ballet BC, New York City’s Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Belgium’s Royal Ballet of Flanders and Eastman Dance Company; appeared in the movie The Adjustment Bureau, where she was actress Emily Blunt’s dance double.
Sophie Barbarics: From Hungary; university degrees in dancing and dance teaching (plus subjects like the Croatian language); founder of Footnotes Dance Co.; organizer of Connector Dance Fest; teacher of courses and workshops in Europe and Asia; experience with the Hungarian Dance Academy and the Hungarian State Opera.
A large part of Schachte’s training focused on ballet. “It was the most challenging because it required so much precision, so it excited me to excel in that,” she says. “Slowly over time, I transitioned to other types of dance.”
Barbarics leans toward contemporary and improv, and particularly loves teaching, not just to shape better dancers, but to help people more broadly. “They can connect with themselves and make their lives brighter,” she says.
The small-city switch
How did such big talents wind up in Nelson?
Schachte’s mother and brother would stay here while she, as a young student, did summer intensives in Banff. She would then join them. “We would spend time on the East Shore,” she says. When her two family members decided to leave Vancouver and move here permanently, along with her niece and nephew, Schachte’s was living in Europe. Unfortunately, the pandemic had stalled her career there, so she decided to return, and in 2021 Nelson became her home.
Back in Hungary, Barbarics and her husband “were sitting in our car watching an old, grumpy Hungarian couple walking by and we looked at each other and said, ‘We don’t want to be like that.’ If we have only one life that we know about, we want to use it.”
The Budapest residents had already been tourists in Canada, hiking the Rockies. Now they did Googling and more visiting to decide on a location. Eventually, they happened upon Nelson and fell in love. They settled here in 2022 along with their son, Barbarics’ business partner and another friend.
Offering their talents
Dance-curious Kootenay folks can best connect with Schachte and Barbarics through their teaching. Barbarics has opened The Booster on Baker Street. Here, she leads classes based on contemporary dance, with names like “Spiritlifter” and “Floorship.” Teaching improvisation to Canadians is “much easier and much more rewarding” than teaching Eastern Europeans, she says, who have the stricter Russian dance methods instilled in them. “People are so open-minded here that it’s really easy to connect and to find that voice.”
As an “ultimate creative space,” The Booster also hosts events like the screening of the short dance film Daffodils, created by Barbarics, Jonathan Robinson and FMRL Productions. And the space is available for rent to others. “We are wanting to become an art hub for local creatives and businesses to bring their projects to.”
In addition, Barbarics runs YolONE (pronounced Yole-One) with her business partner Janos Lakatos, which combines dance with photography. Audiences were able see her choreography and dancing in action locally in “Saa Zuri” (Beautiful Moment), which was performed during the Dance Educators’ Showcase in November at the Capitol Theatre. “My mission as an educator and artist is to bring contemporary dance to as many people as I can.”
To continue to make a living at dance, Schachte combines working in Nelson with travelling. “It’s a perfect balance for me,” she says, “still staying in touch with the bigger cities and companies, and then being able to come back somewhere that’s so beautiful and much more quiet.”
She has taught a summer intensive in contemporary and improv dance, is offering classes at Slava Doval’s DanceFusion studio for the winter 2026 session and has future workshops and another summer intensive in mind.
Meanwhile, she has taken to the road for opportunities like working with Ballet BC’s Annex program, a company for young dancers transitioning into careers. She also stages dances, meaning she helps dance companies, mostly in Europe, put on productions of existing choreographies, primarily those of Belgium’s Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.
In Nelson, audiences can enjoy Schachte in the work “Imaginal,” which she and Slava Doval are performing at the Capitol Theatre on January 10, 2026, as an opening act to “Croquis.” She has also danced there previously, plus choreographed for young dancers appearing in similar opening acts.
Finding home
Both women are pleased with their choice of relocation.
“I love it here,” Schachte says. “I’m excited to build more connection with the community and the young dancers here.” At the same time, “It’s also really good to stay connected with the outside professional world,” both for her own career’s sake and that of her students. “The art form keeps evolving and transforming, so to stay connected to those bigger companies is really good.”
Barbarics is also forming connections and invites people to come into The Booster to meet her. The benefits, she hopes, will be deep. “I’m proud that when people come to my classes there tends to be an experience that they leave lighter and happier. And sometimes, by coming regularly to dance with me, they find the bravery or the courage to change their lives in a way that they were dreaming of.”
Learn more about the performance “Imaginal” at capitoltheatre.ca. Find The Booster at thebooster.ca.
