Thursday, October 14, 2010

HipHop workshop in Smithers







Maiko Miyauchi and Lisa Gelley led a high school HipHop workshop for over 30 Smithers Youth. It was a huge hit. Everyone had fun and learned new moves - from the experienced dancers to those that claimed that, "I've never danced before."

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Art = Movement Outreach, Smithers


Smithers was very excited to host The 605 Collective and the response. on their FUSED tour. One of our outreach initiatives was Art = Movement, an outreach collaboration with The Smithers Art Gallery. The month-long exhibit included artwork from 14 artists; all the the pieces were inspired by human movement. Over 110 people enjoyed the opening night event. Photos show opening night and the two artistic co-directors: local visual artist Perry Rath and Miriam Colvin (Outreach Coordinator). The exhibit was also the venue for a Dance on Film night. Films shown include 'Risen' featuring touring artist Shay Kuebler. More soon on the one week FUSED residency in Smithers...

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Prince Rupert dances and talks technology with The 605 Collective and the response.

Cailea Lorette just sent us these notes about their show last week in Prince Rupert.

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We were please to have 105 in the audience, especially on a Thursday night. I would just like to say, what a fun group of people to work with! The audience, coming from dance backgrounds and non dance backgrounds, were impressed by the physicality of the dancers. We had one comment from a non dancer saying “I dare someone to watch that performance and claim that dancing is not a sport” seeing how physically demanding their routines were, which the dancers were delighted to hear.

I think having the MiBC suggested questions was an excellent idea, not only did I have some very good questions to ask to get things rolling, the performers had an idea of what was coming and therefore had their answers ready. Once I had asked a few questions, I opened up the floor to the audience and I think they felt inspired and comfortable by that time that things just flowed. Questions about what discipline of dance each performer started off doing, when and how they knew they wanted to be a professional dancer, and if every dance is completely choreographed or if theres a little improv mixed in. The message of Audible was touched on by a audience member and the reponse from Josh really affected the group because of the wide age range. Some people have grown up with Facebook and texting and cell phones, and others it has been a transition, but Josh's message was simple “Is technology wiping out face to face human communication?” A few of the younger audience members answered this with “sometimes its weird to talk to someone in person that you chat with all the time on the internet because its not the same”. This was an excellent question that resonated with the audience even after they went home. Very powerful. The post show chat was a huge success, and is something that will be again in the future.

The workshops were incredible I was extremely pleased that both filled up quickly we even had a waiting list. One thing that was really exciting was the students actually learned a routine at the end of the 1.5 hour class. This was something new and was well received.