I met Salome Diaz ten years ago through recreational dance classes with her. Back then, I was recovering from my first bout with depression. I was becoming a fanatic about dance attempting everything from ballet to modern to jazz to hip hop finding the medium gave me a release and outlet for many of the obsessive impulses I had with dealing with my tide of emotions. I love that I had the opportunity to photograph Salome this month with a concept that dealt with happiness. Salome performed a beautiful and intricate piece of choreography by Barbara Bourget on crevices of the woman’s body described as a sensual and spiritual journey at Dancing on the Edge festival in the summer. I am grateful to have connected with Salome who I admire for her unyielding courage, strength and passion as a woman, an artist and a mother of three. I love having her support through difficult times and this concept of happiness emotes what I need at this point in my life. For many it is a love and acceptance we need to give ourselves before others, an acceptance about the curves and crevices we were born into with aspects of growing apart and coming together again, journeys on life experiences where I discovered paths and doors opening once I accept myself.

When I think of Christie Manning, Editor-in-Chief of Industry Dance Magazine, I can’t help feeling excited about what she has to offer for dance in Vancouver with her unwavering enthusiasm and warm personality. I was starting a new dance photography blog Vancouver Dance Project in April 2011 when an enthusiastic Christie Manning volunteered to be one of my first shoots. At the shoot with her in May 2011, Christie had mentioned she had a magazine about people in the dance industry. With her many friends and connections in the dance industry, she created Industry Dance Magazine giving insightful articles from seasoned to emerging dancers with experiences and helpful tips on what to expect in the dance industry. The magazine keeps the readers informed about projects, auditions and performances that are currently on the go in the dance industry. It has being gaining a strong growing number of readers in several cities from Vancouver to Toronto to New York and Brazil with Christie’s wonderful connections and friendships.

Recently, I bumped into her at the DTRC, Choreographing Change event. Her presence and her growing readership gives a boost and a fresh perspective for dance in Vancouver. She has such a great love and passion for people who make a difference in the dance community that she produced a Limited Edition 2012 Calendar with truly beautiful photographs of well-known dancers at locations around the city. The proceeds from the sale of the calendar go to support the efforts of two valuable and helpful dance organizations, CADA and DTRC. Please check out the Limited Edition 2012 Industry Dance Magazine Calendar at the following link: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.321727604505112.86508.143529268991614 which can be purchased at the following http://industrydancemagazine.com/2011/12/limited-edition-2012-calendar/ website link.

Photo of Christie Manning from my shoot with her in May 2011

On November 23, 2011, I was thrilled to watch MOVE: the company perform a studio showing of Allemande again which I originally saw at rehearsals for Dancing on the Edge Festival in Vancouver in June/July 2011. Half the original cast, Joshua Beamish, Cai Clover and Heather Dotto, in the free studio showing at Harbour Dance Centre, opened with Allemande followed by Marcato which recently premiered in New York City in September 2011.

Here’s a taste of Allemande from the studio showing held at Harbour Dance Centre:

I was blessed to connect with Noam Gagnon, Artistic Director of Compagnie Vision Selective recently. At 48, he is still dancing and in peak physical condition compared to dancers half his age. He is amazing to watch in rehearsal and on stage giving his all with his speed, grace and agility. The beautiful emotive quality of his work transcends any logic for control into letting go of his body in the story-telling of his life or what could be a mix of fiction and non-fiction. Going through his story, he transforms from birth through the trials and tribulations of growing from childhood to adulthood. He tells a story of the wondrous ability of perseverance through poverty, neglect and abuse as a child blossoming into growing and challenging relationships in youth and adulthood.

I was totally engaged by the story of a mother, a prince and swallow, of kindred spirits, and desires. Towards the end, Noam physically re-enacting the narrative with his body stripped every cling of control to show a raw vulnerability of a being falling from grace to be born again. I loved listening to the narrative of the story as he danced his beautiful dance of joy, temptation and delight. Thank you Noam for you are full of grace. You are wonderful for allowing me to photograph this beautiful work.

Thank you, You’re not Welcome
November 16-19 /8 pm
Shadbolt Centre
6450 Deer Lake Avenue
Burnaby, BC

Thank you,You’re Not Welcome walks the tissue-thin line between art and life, ushering audience deep into the wild and maze like world of the performer’s mind. Thank you,You’re Not Welcome is base on a list of things that can shape, haunt and cripple life. With James Fagan Tate as director and playwright, Thank you,You’re Not Welcome employs Gagnon’s signature choreographic language of fierce, hyper speed movement that combine humour, pathos and absurdity to create a gruesome storybook world in a tradition of the Brother’s Grimm.

In my dreams
I paint like Vermeer van Delft.

I speak fluent Greek
and not only with the living.

I drive a car
which obeys me.

I am talented,
I write long, great poems.

I hear voices
no less than the major saints.

You would be amazed
at my virtuosity on the piano.

I float through the air as is proper,
that is, all by myself.

Falling from the roof
I can softly land on green grass.

I don’t find it hard
to breathe under water.

I can’t complain:
I’ve succeeded in discovering Atlantis.

I’m delighted that just before dying
I always manage to wake.

Right after the outbreak of war
I turn over on my favorite side.

I am but I need not
be a child of my time.

A few years ago
I saw two suns.

And the day before yesterday a penguin.
With the utmost clarity.

- Wislawa Szymborska

Linda Arkelian‘s Bringing Artists Together event
Underwater Photographer Josangelica Piñon with dancers Jessie Au, Kristi Germano, Joylyn Secunda, Monica Prentice, Tristan Goffman and dunker David Secunda

In Praise of Dreams

The company has been touring through Toronto, New York, Bangkok, Montreal and is now back touring in its home province of British Columbia with The Red Nocturnal Tour. The two hour experience consists of three dance pieces: The Red Nocturnal, Atonement and Les Oiseaux. The following photos were taken at the first leg of the The Red Nocturnal tour on November 11, 2011 at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre in British Columbia. Thank you Joshua Beamish and MOVE: the company for a beautiful night of dance.

The Red Nocturnal

Atonement

Les Oiseaux

Tour dates and locations are as follows:

Date: November 11th
City: Chilliwack
Venue: Chilliwack Cultural Centre
Tickets: www.chilliwackculturalcentre.ca

Date: November 12th & 13th
City: Kelowna
Venue: Rotary Centre for the Arts
Tickets: www.rotarycentreforthearts.com (VIP tickets available via h.aucoin@movethecompany.com)

Date: November 19th
City: Nelson
Venue: Capitol Theatre
Tickets: www.capitoltheatre.bc.ca

Date: November 25th
City: Vancouver
Venue: Vogue Theatre
Tickets: www.voguetheatre.com (VIP tickets available via h.aucoin@movethecompany.com)

Date: November 26th
City: Nanaimo
Venue: Port Theatre
Tickets: www.porttheatre.com

August 14, 2011, Once Upon a Time, rehearsal
Paul Becker

September 21, 2011, Les Oiseaux, rehearsal
MOVE: the company

This rehearsal was the last leg of my journey with MOVE: the company before its trip to the Bangkok International Dance Festival in Thailand in October 2011 and the Red Nocturnal tour in November 2011. Thank you to the generosity of Joshua Beamish, Artistic Director of MOVE: the company for allowing me to observe and photograph these rehearsals. The stories of these rehearsals has become part of my life delivering me and carrying me through a chapter of my life. Through the rehearsals I attended, I went through stories of courtship in Allemande, the connection and disconnection of sweeping tangos in the Red Nocturnal, changes in perception in Atonement and finally a strange freedom in Les Oiseaux. I believe people enter and leave for a season and a reason in your life. I am very grateful for the kindness and generosity of MOVE: the company dancers and Joshua Beamish for allowing me to be a part of the company’s process. I’m quite surprised at how art mimics life sometimes and the extraordinary gift of changing perceptions that offers an audience a healing process.

Sometimes, I wonder if the artists perform a piece and feel alright about letting the audience interpret for themselves what the piece means to them. They tell stories that engage the audience to start conversation pieces as to what they mean. One of the dancers Marisa just wrote something about November Remember and it triggered me to remember this month, woke me up to find my own interpretation of what the hand gesture meant this morning.

what exactly is unlike taste about
i am not sure but that hand gesture
is that love november remember

almost like love almost like peace
almost like we the thumb
forefinger middle finger what is it
from me to we what is it you’re
telling me

broken up sleep again last night
stomach churning this morning
not of death but of love like the
excitement of meeting an old love
again

power love peace unlike taste
just the thumb power
the thumb forefinger love
forefinger middle finger peace
together they are unlike taste

yesterday i had a different view:
what do i think he is my possession
he doesn’t belong to me anymore
he is free

September 10, 2011, Atonement, rehearsal
MOVE: the company

I remember the typewriter scene of this story. A young girl truly gifted in story-telling was typing the first draft of her first play. She was a gift at making up stories. One day, her eyes deceived her. She was sure she saw something. Her beliefs at that time clouded her judgement and caused her to perceive something that actually was not true to her eyes. So sure was her belief that her story was true, she accused an innocent man of an act that he was not guilty of. What happened after caused much pain and hardship as two lovers who were meant to be together were torn apart and their relationship ravaged by the separation of war. As I look at this dance now, I remember the description well. It was about changing perceptions, how our view of life and our judgement could be clouded by the wrong beliefs, beliefs we thought true at the time which were false in the end causing great pain for people accused based on a false perception or assumption.

MOVE: the company Artistic Director, Joshua Beamish, adapted this story into a dance about changing perceptions. The story has the flight and plight of star-crossed lovers separated by the accusation of a young confused child who saw what she did not understand and perceived it as something else. The pain of isolation, justice based on wrong accusation and the consequences of actions on perceptions is the ideology behind this dance. I was moved by the dance, the search for lost and true love again, that in life there are many sides to a story. Sometimes, what one sees is not reality of a situation and based on a false illusion or perception. Our thoughts and perceptions affect our life. The decisions we make or the actions we choose to take on our perceptions have consequences.

In the story, the girl lived a life trying to atone for her mistake. She found peace through the process of changing her own perception and ending to her story so she could forgive and free herself of misery of the consequences of her actions. Atonement is showing on November 11, 2011 at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre. Atonement is also part of MOVE: the company’s Red Nocturnal Tours in BC this November 2011.

August 24, 2011, The Red Nocturnal, rehearsal
MOVE: the company

Arriving at the Red Nocturnal, rehearsal, on August 24, 2011, I saw some beautiful magic happening in the studio with twenty-four dancers rehearsing intensely for their trip to Bangkok International Dance Festival in October 2011. CBC was filming MOVE: the company at rehearsal and I decided to sit outside in the seating area to wait till they finished before entering. I met a really sweet dance member Marlee Long from Kansas City as I sat outside waiting who was doing some administration duties for the company while waiting outside for her husband, David, who was also part of the cast. Artistic director, Joshua Beamish, had gathered a cast of twenty-five dancers including several dancers from his work in Kansas City and New York to join his Canadian-based company in preparation for his largest production yet in an international event. He had injured his ankle several days before this rehearsal date but was still at the fore-front directing the cast of dancers not taking a day of rehearsal for his injury. While I waited outside till CBC finished filming, I saw some pretty amazing, strong dancers, one of the lead being Angel Jutzi who originated from Kelowna, BC who helped remount this piece, The Red Nocturnal. Here are some pictures of the rehearsal which started in August in preparation of the Bangkok International Dance Festival in October 2011. MOVE: the company has since returned and is currently on tour through Western Canada now through the month of November. The company will be playing The Red Nocturnal at the Vogue Theatre on November 25, 2011 bringing the production it showed in Thailand back to Vancouver for its local dance fans and friends in Vancouver. It will be an exciting night for Vancouver Dance to see this talented ensemble of inspiring dancers at the Vogue who had worked very hard for months in preparation for this production in Thailand.