And from Kelowna...

Thanks to Margaret Gobie from the Rotary Centre for the Arts in Kelowna for this!
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The 605 Collective and the response. were in Kelowna at the Rotary Centre for the Arts on Oct 15 & 16. Amber Funk Barton and Josh Martin lead a community workshop on the Friday evening and had 17 enthusiastic students ranging in age from 14 to 40 (see photos) Two days before the workshop we only had 2 students signed up, but the word went around and many of the students came from the performance program in the Creative and Critical Studies Department at UBC Okanagan. One of these students marveled later “His (Josh Martin) body is so fluid – he has no physical blocks at all.” There was a real appreciation for the skill and athleticism of the dancers. Some members of our audience in Kelowna were seeing this kind of dance for the first time.

After the Performance on Oct 16, we had a talk back session with the dancers in the Theatre. 38 people, out of 121 total audience members, stayed for the chat, including members of the dance community – three teachers, an administrator, and most of the students from the workshop, who also brought their friends. Amber started the Q&A while the 605 group caught their breath and a drink of water. We had dancers and dance teachers in the audience who picked up the questioning rather quickly asking everything from the dancers backgrounds to details on their daily training.

An audience member, who was in the front row with her friend, told the dancers that she’d never seen contemporary dance before and that she had loved the show. All in all a great success for us and a real opportunity to give Kelowna audiences a look at what is happening just down the road in Vancouver and in contemporary dance.