Introducing the Amazing Eight

Introducing Made in BC's network of Dance Outreach Coordinators!
This stellar team from around the province creates tailor-made dance outreach activities, such as workshops, residencies, talk-backs and other initiatives that fit the unique communities where they live. We’ll be hearing from them on this blog throughout the year, so we've asked each coordinator to send a photo and bio as an introduction!

Anna-Marie Carstens, Kitimat
"I took recreational ballet lessons as a child in South Africa, but I am not a dancer. I have always been passionate about dance as an art form and I enjoy sharing this passion with others as a dance outreach coordinator. I think it is very important that children should see and appreciate contemporary dance, therefore I try to create dance opportunities through workshops in local schools and the community. I feel strongly that dance should be a part of every child's education. A few workshops sponsored by Made in BC - Dance on Tour in order to promote contemporary dance even grew into a small "dance school" in Kitimat. When children want to see a dance performance, they bring their parents too and that is how we build audiences."

Miriam Colvin, Smithers
Miriam is an independent dance artist based out of Smithers, BC. She works to integrate dance in its many forms into community; collaborating to make meaningful art with dancers, visual artists, musicians and people who just love to move. Working as the MiBC Dance Outreach Coordinator has inspired her to scheme creatively to invite her community to engage with contemporary dance in new ways.

Margaret Gobie, Kelowna
Margaret received a BFA in performance from the University of Alberta, and quickly moved behind the scenes as a director and producer of live theatre. She has worked across the country and is an avid fan of theatre, dance and film. She currently works in Public Programs at the Rotary Centre for the Arts in Kelowna, programming the theatre, education and outreach aspects of the Centre.

Anna Haltrecht, Salt Spring Island (Photo by David Borrowman)
Anna has been dancing all her life and teaching dance and movement for over 35 years. She has been active with the Salt Spring dance community since her arrival on the island in 1986, and is always busy calling people's attention to Dance On Salt Sping including the many Made in BC events & the popular “Lobby Dancers”.




Jewel Jerstad, Prince Rupert
Jewel was born and raised in Prince Rupert and is actively involved with many aspects of the Arts community.





Cailea Lorette, Prince Rupert
Cailea Lorette has been involved in the Arts since she was 3 years old, as a performer and currently as a modern dance advocate. "I believe that deep down, everyone urns to be artistic and creative and its become my job to figure out how to tap into that."



Helene McGall, Courtenay
Helene McGall has been proud to work with MIBC since its inception. Working with the outstanding leadership of Deb Renz, Sid Williams Theatre Manager, the Comox Valley has hosted contemporary dance workshops, seminars, talk back sessions, open sessions, and developed a blog, not to mention ongoing local Shaw TV interviews and newspaper advertising.

Lisa McLeod, Terrace
Born and raised in Terrace, Lisa’s family was one of the first to settle the Skeena Valley town. Her love of the arts and dance has grown as her daughters have grown, dancing, singing and participating in Musical Theatre. Facilitating performance arts through community involvement has become a very rewarding and enriching part of her life.

Tripod in action

Earlier this week, we posted a contribution from Lori Hamar, of triPOD dance collective, who is being presented at ArtSpring in Salt Spring Island on September 26th. Here are some shots of some rehearsals, as well as guerilla marketing to promote the event!















Rehearsing on Salt Spring (at Horel Ridge Studio) dancers Ron Stewart, Treena Stubel (foreground), Robbyn Scott, Jung-ah Chung (background)

Guerrilla marketing at the Salt Spring gay pride after-parade event, dancers Ron Stewart, Jung-ah Chung. Photo credit Michael Barnes.

Guerrilla marketing at Salt Spring Coffee Cafe, dancers Robbyn Scott, Treena Stubel, Jung-ah Chung, Ron Stewart, Lori Hamar and musicians Kelby MacNayr (drums) and Kate Richmond (vocals). Photo credit Michael Barnes.

Kim Cattrall stands up for BC arts

Kim Cattrall was inducted to the Canadian Walk of Fame this week, and in her acceptance speech, she thanked BC arts funding for helping her get there. Thanks Kim!

Lori Hamar writes on Tripod's Pourtinade

My name is Lori Hamar. I work with the triPOD dance collective where I live, in Victoria, BC.

We formed in 2003 when Rachel Anderson, Treena Stubel and myself came together to train and perform outside of studio classes. Our goal was to strengthen and evolve our independent work as well as invigorate the professional contemporary dance community as a whole. New dancers moved into the community and triPOD dance collective expanded to become a group of 15 dancers and musicians. We choose to work in the spirit of collaboration and improvisation, drawing upon each member’s expertise throughout our creative process. We also support each members independent work and strive to offer presentation opportunities for them.

We often collaborate with events and artists in our city on an improvisational basis. I grew up in a small northern town in Alberta called Lac La Biche. I began dancing when I was 17 and first trained at Grant MacEwan Community College in night classes with Brian Webb and Chick Snipper. I graduated from the full-time performance program in 1985 and studied for two years at LADDMI.

At the end of this month, we are presenting a program titled Six Mixed, as all of the six pieces are quite diverse and by different choreographers. I will tell you about my piece titled Pourtinade.

Pourtinade was first performed at the Victoria Symphony's New Currents Festival in 2007 at the MacPherson Playhouse in Victoria, BC. I was inspired to make it because I had a revelation about how we, as human beings, work hard to recreate those circumstances that are known to us as we grow up. In doing so, we can never really recreate them because life throws all sorts of unplanned possibilities in the way.

Pourtinade is about literally laying out those possibilities and dancing the outcome. The music, composed by Linda Bouchard (surprise!) is titled Pourtinade (more about that later!) and is made up of sections that can be arranged in any order for a performance. Justin McGrail, a resident poet/performance artist recites 4 of his original poems.

I built a board game titled Pourtinade and at the beginning of the dance piece, we play the game using dice to determine what the order of the 11 sections of music and 4 poems will be. A live camera feed suspended above the board allows the audience to follow the game's progress. The outcome of the game determines what order the dancers will improvise to the elements. They have a scored improvisation they follow, but they do not know what the accompaniment will be - akin to the curves and straight arrows life throws our way as we strive to recreate that which is known to us!

I really enjoy the work because it truly reflects the playfulness and sadness of what those unknown circumstances mean.

The title, Pourtinade, is a coincidence itself. Linda Bouchard wrote in her program notes that it came from a card her young French nephew, Martin, had sent to a friend of Linda's named Tina. The end of the card read "Pourtinade Martin". Tina did not understand this French word and called Linda for a translation. They discovered the young man's script caused them to unite the french phrase "pour tina de Martin". They laughed and Ms Bouchard made note that it was a beautiful word. When she was looking for a title for the work, she found Pourtinade to be entirely appropriate.

Six Mixed will be presented at the Artspring Centre on Sept. 26, 2009 at 8 pm. Please contact artspring.com for more information.

It will also be presented in the new year by Dance Victoria at the Metro Studio Feb. 2, 2010 at 8 pm. Please contact dancevictoria.com for more information.

Dance Centre Open House+ Dance Demo Camp

This Saturday, September 19th, the Dance Centre is holding their annual open house. Amongst many classes and performances, many free to the public (including some choreography by yours truly at 2pm), you will also find a 1:30pm showing by Foolish Operations' Dance Demo Camp, an "unconference" for dancers organized by Julie Lebel and Made in BC dance outreach coordinator in Smithers, Miriam Colvin.

You're wondering what I mean by unconference, aren't you. I had the pleasure of participating the first time, it was interesting, productive and fun. Click on the link for a taste.

Number Nine

As in, 09/09/09, the day of the Grey Rally in support of the Arts.
Photo courtesy Tim Matheson.

Don't Torch the Arts

Alliance for Arts and Culture's Amir Ali Alibhai speaks at yesterday's Vancouver rally in support of arts and culture, and against government funding cuts.

From the British Columbia Dance Community

The Dance Centre just released this statement from Executive Director Mirna Zagar....

British Columbia’s dance community, a vibrant part of our arts and culture sector, is being decimated by a government that is clearly contemptuous of one of the province’s most productive economic sectors.

Arts funding has and is being cut. Many people are losing jobs in a sector that produces significant increased revenue for the province. Despite what we are being told, the figures we have at present tell us that our sector will be cut by up to 92% by the end of this government’s mandate.

We are concerned that the government has not been transparent about its decisions, creating confusion and uncertainty. We demand that government provide clear information about their intentions.

We ask you to consider the ways that arts and culture touch your daily lives at home, in the streets, your children in schools, on TV, your music, on the internet, in videogames and in theatres. We ask you to think about culture as part of our individual and community identities, a way to connect with our origins with who we are today, and with what we care about.

Our world would be a gray place without our art and culture. Art is not a frill. Art matters. Please join us.

Culture Matters

The BC Liberal government has made sudden and devastating cuts to arts funding in the province. 85-92% of core provincial funding for arts and culture will be cut by 2012, from both tax-based (BC Arts Council) and non-tax based (Gaming) streams.

What's devastating to us about this, aside from the loss of jobs for artists and cultural workers, is the loss of access to arts and cultural experiences for British Columbians. The grey square you see here has become a symbol for this world without arts and culture.

Tomorrow: Come join us at a silent rally in support of the arts

In Vancouver: 12 Noon at the Vancouver Art Gallery

In Victoria: 12 Noon Johnson & Blanshard Streets

For more advocacy details:
The Alliance for Arts and Culture
Facebook Group
A Case of Dance (PDF Document)

Some articles we've found useful:
In the Province:
Government is gambling with other people's money: Why the Liberals' gaming-grant shenanigans are everyone's business
In the Tyee:
Who Needs Art, Anyway?
Flex Your Muscles, BC Arts Community
On Plank:
BC arts cuts - gaming money evaporates effective immediately
The Rossland Telegraph:
Editorial: What the hell is going on here?

Most elected officials are people in our communities that are trying to do a good job and need to be reminded about what is important to us. Help us remind them!

Click here to find your MLA and their contact information.
Include Premier Campbell, Minister Krueger (Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts), Minister Coleman (Minister of Housing and Social Development) and Minister Herbert (opposition critic for Tourism, Culture and the Arts) in your correspondence.

Salt Spring Island Lobby Dancers have a new piece up!

Anna Haltrecht, Salt Spring Island's MiBC dance outreach coordinator, writes about the Lobby Dancers' summer adventures with visiting artist Danny McCusker....

"It looked like my dream was about to come true – to have the Salt Spring Lobby Dancers perform on stage with a professional dance company. triPOD dance collective, from Victoria, is the first Made in BC sponsored dance company for the 09/10 ArtSpring season.

One of the community dancers, Robbyn Scott, is a member of triPOD. Robbyn and I organized a week long workshop with Danny McCusker (from Boston), to create a piece of choreography for dancers from both groups to be performed in the September 26 performance.

We began the creation process on Saturday, May 9. Danny gave us different sources to use for creating choreography in duets. As a community Lobby Dancer, it was fun to be paired with a triPOD professional dancer. At the end of the week we had created a 17 minute dance called “Keep Talking”, which we performed at an informal studio showing for friends and family. We were 10 dancers.

Throughout the summer Robbyn and I taught a weekly class where we also rehearsed the piece. Then we learned that triPOD could not have the piece be part of the September performance as their show was already very long. We were disappointed, but we asked the next Made in BC company, MovEnt and Tara Cheyenne if we could be their curtain raiser and they enthusiastically agreed. The bonus is we have more rehearsal time, the performance is November 5.

I will have to wait a little longer to have my original dream come true however what is important is the Salt Spring Lobby Dancers are dancing together and having a super time.

Project sponsored by Made in BC - Dance on Tour, ArtSpring, Salt Spring Coffee Company, Cats Pajamas Studio, Antler Ridge Studio.