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."

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...

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.

***

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.

Summer Program in Arts, Recreation and Culture, S.P.A.R.C. Terrace

Summer is still in the air. Thanks Lisa McLeod in Terrace for this report and photos!
**

Kat Single-Dain of the Dusty Flower Pot Caberet graciously made the trip up north to teach us clowning. The kids (ages 8 - 13yrs) had so much fun learning some very creative and funny clowning/contemporary dance skits.

The skits were performed as part of our final show.

The show was in our local Terrace gathering place, Spirit Square Stage and was as an outside Circus themed variety show which was free to local families.

We also performed a contemporary dance, played instruments and sang some songs for everyone. Fun was had by all as the day was sunny and the turn out great! Cheers from Terrace.

Outreach Retreat in Smithers!

This is not quite a day in the life of our outreach retreat yesterday- however, we did manage to get together 6 Made in BC outreach coordinators, plus me and new Program Director Sarah Moore to talk shop and make outreach plans for this fall. All in beautiful Smithers! Thanks again MiBC presenter and outreach coordinator Miriam Colvin of the Bulkley Valley Concert Association for hosting us so graciously!



Preparation for everyone's arrival was very serious business.









On our way to the farmer's market, we passed the art gallery where Miriam has planned Smithers' third annual Art & Movement exhibition for this fall.








Us at the Old Church, our beautiful meeting spot, where we: watched video of The 605 Collective's Audible, and drafted post-show talk questions for them; worked together on planning outreach activities for the fall, and, ate yummy food.






The Old Church, and Smithers, circa 1913 (can that be right?)









Always the flip chart.

















After lunch we went on an Outreach Tour of Smithers, where we saw some spots where Miriam has done outdoor events like flash mobs and mobile clubbing, and we talked about identifying potential community partners. We stopped here for a choreographic moment. Video of our dance will be liberated from i movie soon.




Relaxing at Plan B's local brewery at the end of the day....









... followed by really yummy Mexican dinner.

Wen Wei Dance on Salt Spring

This just in from MiBC outreach coordinator Anna Haltrecht... Thanks Anna!


"International Dance Day came early on Salt Spring. On Tuesday April 27, I showed the recent works of Wen Wei Wang on film and talked about his life growing up and studying dance in China. There was no admission charge for this event. I chose to do this for IDD as his company, Wen Wei Dance, was scheduled to perform his newest piece “Cock-Pit” at our local art centre, ArtSpring, the following week. I was thrilled that George Sipos, executive director of ArtSpring, chose to present Wen Wei Dance as part of ArtSpring’s 2009/10 dance season. Salt Spring was the last stop on the dance company’s cross country tour.

The company was presented without the financial assistance of Made in BC – Dance on Tour. The whole event was a success. Forty people attended the film evening which I am sure contributed to a sold out audience for the performance and 15 participants for the community workshop. Wen Wei Dance’s manager graciously sent me DVDs of recent Wen Wei Dance work. I chose excerpts to show plus I found 2 clips on you tube of the “White Haired Girl” and the “Red Detachment of Women”, two iconic ballets from the Cultural Revolution, the period of time that Wen Wei studied dance in China. I researched Wen Wei’s life on-line, finding lots of interesting material to use as a source for my talk. To set the scene, while the audience entered the theatre, I showed a slide show of Wen Wei Dance photos. I started the evening with the story of Wen Wei growing up in China and his love for dance beginning with seeing a performance of the “White Haired Girl”. I then showed the clips of the 2 Chinese ballets to demonstrate Wen Wei’s dance roots.

I continued talking about how he came to Canada and founded his own company, followed by an excerpt from his solo, “One Man’s…”. After telling about Wen Wei’s inspiration for “Unbound”, I showed about 30 minutes of this excellent dance. I then explained about “Three Sixty Five” and showed one excerpt from this piece. The evening ended with comments from the audience and the impressive “Cock-Pit” trailer, with a reminder of the date of the upcoming performance, and the community workshop Wen Wei was teaching. I had a great time, I could have talked all night!

Many of the people that came to the evening already had their “Cock-Pit” tickets, but many others did not and used this showing as an indicator that this dance performance was not to be missed. One gentleman came up to me after the dance performance and said that he had previous plans for that evening but cancelled them on attending the film night, and he certainly was glad he did.

To promote the Wen Wei Dance events, I made a flyer which ArtSpring made into a post card, I wrote 2 press releases one each for the film night and workshop, I sent several emails to my extensive list as well as to the local and provincial politicians. I posted the information on all the local calendars, put up the flyers and distributed the cards, arranged for the local paper to do an interview with Wen Wei and dance review, and arranged company workshops with the high school. As well, ArtSpring put advertisements in the paper, and sent promotion by email and regular post.

I believe all this work had a very positive effect; it got a buzz going on the island. People came to the performance that had never been to a dance performance previously; over 30 high school students came and many artists as well as our loyal dance lovers. Half the audience stayed for the post-performance chat which I facilitated. There was incredible interest in this remarkable choreographer and his fabulous dancers. Many thoughtful questions were asked, Wen Wei was very gracious in his answers and explanations. I also mentioned that Josh Martin would be returning in the fall as part of the Made in BC – Dance on Tour performance of his company, 605.

Wen Wei Dance helped grow our contemporary dance audience, people are still talking about it. The film evening I led, the workshops and the wonderful performance of “Cock-Pit” all contributed. As written in the local paper, the Driftwood: “It seems that ArtSpring, at long last, has found its contemporary dance audience and one only hopes that Tuesday night’s crowd will remember this performance and return to sample the dance fare on the ArtSpring menu in the 2010-11 season.”

Yes, Salt Spring is well on it’s way to putting contemporary dance on the map, however, we know that we can not falter, we still need to continue our work and we still need financial support from our provincial and federal art funding organizations, Made in BC-Dance on Tour, BC Arts Council and Canadian Heritage."

*****
The IDD Wen Wei Dance film and talk evening event was sponsored by: ArtSpring, Made in BC-Dance on Tour, The Dance Centre, Dancer Transition Resource Centre-BC Office and the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists/BC Chapter.
*****
Photos of Wen Wei Dance courtesy of Wen Wei Dance

Photo of Anna Haltrecht courtesy of Anna Haltrecht

Wrapping it up!

I have wrapped up my Made in BC visit with our northern communities' Outreach Workers. I have taken off the official road-trip hat and washed the dust from my official MiBC vehicle. A visit over lunch with Jewel, Prince Rupert's Outreach Worker, was a great way to wrap things up. I have lots of notes that I will share with everyone. But in short:
- Everyone felt a one-to-one check in was valuable and are excited to meet carry on the conversations at our July meeting.
- There were suggestions about adding topics to our July agenda, such as advertising.
- We have passionate and talented Outreach Workers!