Monday, October 29, 2012

Christmas in Kitimat

Friday, October 26th 2012

My intention was to blog about tomorrow for our last show in Kitimat, but today has been too exciting to consider not sharing.

Yesterday afternoon, we arrived in the town of Kitimat, home to approximately 9000 residents. We flew into Terrace and drove to the Minette Bay Lodge, the most jaw-droppingly luxurious accommodations I have ever experienced in my life. This was clearly made possible by Anna Marie, our Kitimat presenter, and the wonderful Ruth and Howard of Minette Bay Lodge (can we express enough bewildered gratitude?). The lodge is only ten minutes away from the Theatre we are performing at, but feels like its miles away from anything. We’ve been told to not go wandering far, as three grizzly bear cubs have been sighted in the area. You know what they say, cubs = bad news!
The view from the windows of the Lodge
Today we woke up to a homemade breakfast feast, fitted for royalty. Personalized omelettes, homemade granola, cranberry cake fresh from the oven, fresh jam, fresh fruit, baked delicacies, and more—all laid out as if for a classy Christmas cooking photoshoot. We could barely believe it was happening.

Karissa getting in on our breakfast feast at Minette Bay Lodge
The cast then headed for Mount Elizabeth Theatre, not before stopping the van to watch a duo of owls in dancing flight. Darcy warmed us up with an hour of ballet barre to some groovy tunes and then we worked on changes, spacing and lighting. Somehow, it was all of a sudden show time.
Lexi skillfully doing make up on the way to the Theatre
Jennifer in tech for Nail to House
We were performing for a (very) lively crowd of more than 300 high school students. The show was a great run for me and though I expected the audience to be a tough crowd, I was surprised to feel how engaged they were. Jennifer was told by the teachers that the kids loved it. We thought it was intriguing that our Prince Rupert High School crowd had an overwhelming number of questions during the Q&A while our Kitimat crowd did not.

The school has no dance program. However, students have taken it upon themselves to create a dance club, where they teach themselves and choreograph their own pieces…! Again I’m reminded how lucky we are in Vancouver to have all types of dance opportunities relatively accessible to anyone with the hankering.

Yesterday, we had arrived just in time for Kitimat’s first snowfall. Today, upon exiting the theatre, we were met with the clearest skies and stunning sunshine we’ve seen on this Homewerk tour. AND we still had the entire rest of the day to ourselves (save Karissa, who would be teaching a workshop for ages 12-17).

 Karissa, Alex and I headed to the Aquatic Centre for some hot tub and sauna action. We walked out as new people in new bodies, rejuvenated and massaged out. Upon arriving back at the Lodge, I moseyed off for a nature walk, only to immediately discover two of the three grizzly bears. They weren’t close enough for me to sense immediate danger, so I just watched them amble about. With the sunlight reflecting off the water and the mountains, and these bears in front of me amidst such breath-taking quiet and stillness—it was all quite surreal. I stopped taking photos, realizing they couldn’t possibly capture what I was witnessing.



Electrocuted by the Aquatic Centre

Where's Bear?

After some tea by the fireplace with Jennifer and a good book, Alex and I played an impromptu round of croquet until dinner. After our dinner struggles in Stewart, we’ve been proactive about asking locals for good dining destinations open later than... 6pm. We drove out to a little restaurant called Seamaster’s, which turned out to be in Kitimat Village, separate of the borders of Kitimat proper and with a population of 500, mostly Aboriginal residents. Our windy road trip to this highly-anticipated meal would not have happened without Lexi’s iphone and friendly Kitimat pedestrians who've come to be our default GPS system.
Alex, the pro
The Dream Team: Bruce, Darcy and Jennifer-- working away
As we’re become accustomed to, our evening ended in bathrobes with hot chocolate and crumpets (well…cookies) by a crackling fireplace, with us cuddled up together on the couch until we each retired in exhaustion.

Frank keeping the coyotes away

luxury after a hard day's work and play

Friday, October 19, 2012

From Stewart, with love

Monday, October 15 2012

Our first full day in Stewart! With a population of 500, Stewart is a peaceful little ex-mining town surrounded by incredible glaciers and massive mountains veiled in low-floating clouds. With a newly-established Arts Council, the town fundraised extensively to bring Homewerk over! Every shop appeared to have signage in the window of our arrival.

Having been hot glue-gunning velcro to our sets late into the evening yesterday, we all could've used more sleep. Regardless, I woke up feeling fantastic; this town has been nothing but welcoming and generous. The six of us are being hosted under three different roofs. Marg, one of our host, had us over for an incredible waffle and muesli breakfast. Nothing to start the day off like whipped cream..!

First order of business: I aided Jennifer in running the first two of four Mascall dance school workshops for Bear Valley School, with a population of 80 students from K to 12. We had them exploring what is dance and dance-making through the asking: how do you get to your home?  Working with the kids got me so pumped about performing for them in the evening!

We pulled off perhaps our best performance yet to a wonderfully captive audience of more than one hundred, one-fifth of the town! I loved seeing familiar faces in the crowd of people we've met. The reception afterwards gave us a chance to talk to the audience, thank all those involved in making the show possible, and even sign autographs for some kids. Due to weather conditions, the town won't be expecting another arts presentation until the Spring. 

Mary, the school's principal, also mentioned that about half the crowd tonight had never seen a live dance performance before.  All this made me realize how privileged and honoured I feel to have the opportunity to connect with this community through dance and share a bit of what we do as artists.

Once we had packed up the van, we went seeking a place for late-night dinner and notes. As expected, nothing was open. In our exhausted states, we headed back to our respective homes to make our own dinners and pack to head off for Prince Rupert in the early morning...

Until next time!
Stepping foot into Terrace

The only store open at 7:55pm

settling in at Marg's

Jennifer with the morning crowd

Jennifer with Stewart's up and coming choreographers

the backstage set up

mountainous

the estuary boardwalk
~Natalie

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Introducing Natalie Gan, Dancer on Tour with Mascall Dance

Mascall Dance has hit the road! The company has been busy in Stewart and Prince Rupert, performing, teaching and working on community engagement activities. Dancer Natalie Gan will be sharing thoughts with us from the road soon.  Not tonight, though, they are performing in Prince Rupert!