Saturday, October 31, 2009

Meredith's Tour Blog #8 - Surge Shots etc.

Here is the whole cast/crew of Light & Metal at dinner and below are some shots of Surge taken by Maria and Jeff (they really can do anything and everything.) We loved our time in Northern BC!




Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Tara in Terrace...

This photo was sent to us by Terrace Concert Society's dance outreach coordinator, Lisa McLeod. Tara is sitting in the very front.

Are you one of the students in the photo? We'd love to know who you are and what you thought of the workshop. Please drop us a line by email, or in the comments section below!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Meredith's Tour Blog #7: More of Prince Rupert to Terrace

Its funny how on tour the focus of your day becomes food and sleep. I honestly have never thought so much about my meals throughout the day except when I am on tour. Safeway has been a big staple for us so far that we have now made it our goal to see if we can hit up a Safeway in each town on tour.

Prince Rupert welcomed us on show day with a power outage from a storm the night before. I apparently slept right through it but Maria and Jeff (the tech crew) had to get ready at 7am in the pitch black, showers and all. They were a little concerned that there would be no power at the theater and were already dreaming up alternate plans but the power outage had been solved by the time they got to the theater. Phew!

Us dancers found time to ravish ourselves in the Aveda bath products that the Crest Hotel supplied and we also enjoyed magnificent fish and chips that literally seemed fresh out of the water. We all highly recommend the fish and chips if you ever find yourself in Rupert.

The show in Rupert went well for us but we noted that the audience was a quiet one. So we just want to remind people that its okay to laugh and clap if you feel inspired, in fact we love it when you do.

The next morning we were back in the vans en route to our next destination, Terrace. We were welcomed by a beautiful gift basket in the hotel room and our poster and postcards around the city, which was super exciting! Jeff and I escaped for a walk through Ferry Island that has gorgeous carvings in the trees by a man named Rick Goyette. It was a great feeling indulging in nature for a bit. While we nature walked Day and Tara taught workshops, then we all met up and had a great dinner at Don Diego’s (an excellent restaurant) before crashing early.

The next morning Maria and Jeff had a 5:30am wake up to get started at the theater so when we (the dancers + Marc) showed up we gave them extra love and thanks for all their great work and early wake up.

After warming up, spacing, stretching, tech running and eating it was finally show time. Tara immediately got some laughs from the incredibly receptive audience and they seemed excited and ready for more by the time the three of us got out there to perform Surge.

We had our best talkback of the tour so far in Terrace. There was a brilliant moderator who had obviously done her research and the audience was keen with great questions. The definite highlight of the talkback was one lady who said “what four excellent examples of powerful woman we have sitting up on the stage, “ (referencing that power is a theme in both pieces). Our hearts swelled…Terrace was a hit.

"Put a face to the arts campaign"


A new initiative launched by Kicking Horse Culture in Golden, BC has caught our attention and we thought you should see it!

Check out the slideshow here.

Their press release can be found here (via The Alliance for Arts & Culture).

Monday, October 26, 2009

Meredith's Tour Blog #6: Ferry Island Side-trip

Here are some shots from Jeff's and my excursion to Ferry Island in Terrace. We went in search of the stunning carvings in the trees.

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:

Thursday, October 22, 2009

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.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

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.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

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