Carol-Ann Bohrn is known locally for work as a dancer. She most recently appeared in The Threepenny Opera, put on by Sick + Twisted Theatre and AA Battery Theatre.

Outside of her dance career, Bohrn has two part-time jobs to subsidize her art practice: barista-ing at Little Sister Coffee Maker and working as a resident advisor at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

“In a dream world, I would just be doing art full time. It’s a tough act to really maintain with any sort of security. I have these part-time jobs to help me feel really happy, because I feel more secure having a regular paycheque.”

Bohrn says there are upsides to having several side-hustles. It allows her the freedom to pursue longer-term projects like Threepenny Opera without saddling her coworkers with extra shifts.

“It feels quite unique, the level of teamwork that happens (at Little Sister),” Bohrn says. “I call it coffeemanship. Workmanship, but with coffee. It’s like a little family that you can depend and count on and that you are there for also. I feel super lucky and grateful that I got to be invited into that family. It’s a small paycheque, but it has a big payoff in interpersonal connections.”

Bohrn has been in her West Broadway house with her partner Matt since November 2017, and they have chosen a few different names for the space.

“Matt calls this place the ‘sluthole’ often, and ‘lost in the barrens.’ He probably just likes the sound of that. ‘Lost in the barrens.’ I think he uses ‘lost in the barrens’ most, but I’ve seen ‘sluthole’ a number of times. There’s the sluthole, and the slutclub.”

In terms of decorating her home, Bohrn acquires trinkets and decorative pieces on an “intuitive level.”

“If that doesn’t sound so pretentious. I guess I’ve always loved homes and home magazines, and the kinds of things that appeal to me are things that are super colourful and really mix-and-match. I love that aesthetic of really kitschy and all over the place, but with a certain type of harmony. So I just trust that the harmony is coming from my own attraction to every object.”

Plants

”I love them. I’m a new plant momma, like in the last two years. Before that, I only killed them. I’ve learned a thing or two.”

Max the cat

“Did a book come out, Max? Did a book arrive? Yeah, this is classic Max behaviour. I’ve had Max for seven years. I got him when he was a medium kitten. My friend Lulu got him on Kijiji for $30, and then she moved to Victoria. He’s my best friend.”

Big gold dick

“This is another gift from Lulu. She found it in like a Bed Bath & Beyond-type of store, so that’s why she thought of me. It’s not that I had an obsession with cock.”

Gold is good

“Gold is so warm, warmer than silver. It has like a feeling of opulence ... Even the fake opulence is kind of a fun aesthetic. This was painted with screen printing fabric paint. This is an apple that you might recognize. It’s a Fisher Price Happy Apple.”

Dance books

“I really like to nerd out on dance. If like the house was on fire, I’d probably grab all of these books, because I’ve been acquiring them over time. Bonnie Bainbridge is a fave, Peggy Hackney’s Making Connections. This is just people who’ve looked at movement from a really unique perspective.”

Published in Volume 73, Number 22 of The Uniter (March 21, 2019)