Meredith's Tour Blog #5: Prince Rupert to Terrace

Here's some shots of the drive from Rupert to Terrace. We have Amber reading, some gorgeous mountains and Jeff at the wheel.

Meredith's Tour Blog #4: Tara in Tech

Here are some shots of Tara in her tech run of Banger in Prince Rupert. She was rocking out hardcore!

Sir Ken Robinson talk

In a discussion this past weekend with presenters from dance presenting networks across the country, this video came up:

Meredith's Tour Blog #3: Light & Metal in Prince Rupert

We made it after a slightly bumpy plane ride and a ferry ride too. There's Jeff and Maria our fabulous tech crew on the way to the plane. And Marc and Jeff in the PR airport looking lost.

Meredith's Tour Blog #2: Kelowna Sandwich

Well everyone, we are back from our first stop along the tour. In case you are curious about the title of this blog, it earned its name from Day titling this leg of the tour due to the fact that the night before we left for Kelowna we performed an excerpt of Surge at Dance in Vancouver and then a few hours after our arrival home we performed once again at Dance in Vancouver. It has been a whirlwind of a last three days but enough about the sandwich; let me tell you about Kelowna.

It is such a treat to get to travel around BC to some of the most beautiful parts without having to travel half way around the world. We all loved the less than one-hour flight to K-Town as some call it. Upon arrival I ended up in my bed for about a 3-hour nap, as did Amber (needless to say we were a little beat from our performance the night before) but Day took off to teach a workshop. She ended up teaching just two 9 year old boys who loved learning the knee slide and karate kick-like choreography from Surge and the boys even ended up sharing some of their hip hop moves with Day.

Steak dinners for some of us, vegetarian meals for others and we were pretty much all off to bed. We spent the next full day in the theater in tech mode. The Kelowna crew was fantastic and efficient and we were lit and looking good in no time.

Hours later all of a sudden its show time and we are pacing ourselves to be warm in time for our turn but are trying not to get too warm too soon, its something dancers always seem to struggle with timing perfectly.

Tara was a hit, as always. The best comment of the night in the post show chat came from an audience member who clearly related to the character in Banger. He raved about Tara's performance and the head banging that went along with Marc Stewart's brilliant guitar riffs. His excitement about Tara's piece made me realize that at the end of the day if your art makes that much of a difference in some one's life, even in just one persons life, than that is all that matters. That is completely why we do what we do.

The response to Surge from one audience member was that it made her want to take a modern dance class again which she hadn't done in about 5 years. Needless to say, inspiring someone to want to dance again made us feel pretty special. We also heard some feedback about how Surge and Banger matched each other well in a split bill, which thrilled Day and Tara. So in the end, we met some lovely art supporters in Kelowna, felt that our presence was appreciated and came home knowing more than before that what we do has an impact.

Meredith's Tour Blog #1: Tour Prep

First off I wanted to say thank you to Joyce and Caroline for asking me to blog for the tour! I am so excited to share our experiences on the road.

Day, Amber and I have almost made it through week one of rehearsals. We are having a blast putting Surge together and are amazed at how much of the choreography has stayed in our bodies since it has been 2/3 years since we last danced the piece. I find it to be an incredibly rewarding experience to get to return to this work as I feel like my understanding of it is completely different 3 years later.

Surge is also an incredibly physically demanding piece. I have already gone through a bag of epson salts this week and Arnica cream is my savior at the moment. But despite the aches and pains, dancing in Surge makes me feel so alive that the sore muscles are all worth it.

I also heard that Tara is rocking it in rehearsals with Banger. I know its going to be a fantastic tour and we can't wait to hit the road next week and perform in some of the most beautiful parts of BC. Our first stop is Kelowna next Friday night and we are pumped!

Dancer on Tour - Meredith Kalaman!

October is suddenly upon us, and Tara Cheyenne Performance and MovEnt are getting ready to hit the road with their MiBC touring program Light and Metal. We will be hearing more from Tara and Day, Light and Metal's choreographers, soon, but even sooner we will be hearing from Meredith Kalaman, a Vancouver-based independent dancer, teacher and choreographer who will be performing in MovEnt's piece Surge. Meredith has graciously agreed to keep us all in the touring loop via this blog, so keep checking in over the next few weeks to hear how the tour is going. Take it away, Meredith!

Photo by Melissa Skoda