FOR THE WILD | JUNE 20th | 8PM | 45 W HASTINGS
We held an informal sharing of dance and music works in progress to raise money for The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society “CPAWS,” to raise awareness of the very real climate crisis we are experiencing and to offer a space for freedom of expression and deepen our connection to nature. This event was organized by Rachel Helten, one of Voirelia’s Consultants, and produced as a collaboration between Voirelia and independent artists.
ABOUT CPAWS (CANADIAN PARKS AND WILDERNESS SOCIETY):
British Columbia is celebrated across the country and around the world for it’s natural beauty. When we think of the province that we call home, we might picture a pod of orcas hunting off the coast, a bird swooping over a rolling grassland, or a herd of caribou roaming a snow-covered mountain. But the reality is much dimmer. We are facing a global extinction crisis, one that is exacerbated by climate disruption and habit destruction. The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society BC Chapter is one of 13 chapters working across Canada to create more space for nature in attempt to save our biodiversity. Our mission is to protect natural land and ocean ecosystems in parks, wilderness and similar natural areas, preserving diverse habitats and the incredible fish, wildlife and plants that depend on them. We work to secure large, meaningful protected areas on land and water, areas that create homes for wildlife and nurse nature through climate change. We hope that you share our vision of a British Columbia that leads the global community by example, protecting nature and giving it a chance to thrive in a changing world.
PROGRAM OF THE EVENING:
Claire Plunkett-Blazi graces us with her beautiful harp playing as guests enter. 730-8pm.
Introduction from Rachel Helten & Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society of BC, followed by:
The rectangular room with 3 big windows and 1 secret brick. Choreographer: Sophie Brassard. Dancers: Sophie Brassard, Rachel Helten, Charlotte Newman, Carly Davis, Jenna Kraychy.
This earth of yours. Composer/ Performer: Nathan Marsh.
You hear the clarity of all that is. Creators/ Performers: Rachel & Ben Helten.
Pendulum, please like me. Choreographer/ Performer: Chelsea Goddard.
Others. Choreographer: Alina Sotskova. Dancers: Alina Sotskova, Sophie Brassard & Rachel Helten
Space Provided. Choreographer/ Performer: Kestrel Paton.
To live with/without.Choreographer/ Performer: Shion Carter.
Dance by Jenna & Kayla. Choreographers: Jenna & Kayla. Dancers: Rachel Helten, Chelsea Goddard, Charlotte Telfer-Wan, Carly Davis
ABOUT THE ARTISTS & WORKS IN THE PROGRAM:
The rectangular room with 3 big windows and 1 secret brick
Choreographer: Sophie Brassard. Dancers: Sophie Brassard, Rachel Helten, Charlotte Newman, Carly Davis, Jenna Kraychy.
A short exploration of our relationships to the spaces we inhabit. We’d like to gratefully acknowledge that the spaces used for rehearsal and performance of this piece are situated on the unceded and ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations. This work was created in collaboration with performers Charlotte Newman, Jenna Kraychy, Rachel Helten, Carly Davis and in a previous iteration, Alissa Merlin.
Music: Caravelle by Polo & Pan, #15 by Aphex Twin.
Bio: Sophie Brassard is a Vancouver-based dance artist primarily interested in site-specific and improvisational work. She has performed in pieces by several local choreographers and has also created works for Leg Up! Performance Series, Bloom, Dance Café and Vines Art Festival. She’s a big fan of Greta Thunberg, a big fan of planet earth, and is happy to be doing something “for the wild”.
Photo credit: Bee N. Kent
This earth of yours
Composer/ Performer: Nathan Marsh.
This earth of yours is a piece that uses recorded elements of natural sound out of their original contexts in order to illustrate the perils of our changing natural environment.
Bio: Nathan Marsh makes sound and leads youth community projects in the arts, including the Sonic Playground project presented by the Western Front Society, in which he worked as an artist mentor for the Music and Technology program at Burnaby North Secondary School. He writes songs, plays the guitar, and at one time completed a degree in classical music composition. He is currently studying to become an elementary school teacher.
You hear the clarity of all that is
Creators/ Performers: Rachel & Ben Helten.
This work is an exploration that probes how memories, trauma and emotions live within our body and the healing power of nature. This process started as a personal exploration to walk through past experiences to bring about more compassion, release and understanding. Rachel explored personal journal writings, drawings and scribbles from when she was 5 to present day to generate movement. Her insatiable desire to aid in the healing of herself and others has inspired her to investigate the varying ways we respond to fear, chaos and how we may move into a place of self love and acceptance. She hopes to continue this process with her brother Ben to contribute to their catharsis and collective healing. Ben has been an integral part of her evolution and has been a source of light and inspiration during this process and all of her life. Rachel is enormously grateful that Ben had agreed to share his minstrel magic and be a creative companion as they share their story.
Bio: Rachel and Ben Helten are interdisciplinary artists based on the unceded indigenous lands belonging to the Coast Salish peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō (Stolo), and Səl̓ílwəta/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. (Vancouver, B.C.). As siblings, best friends and collaborators Ben and Rachel have been creating songs, dances and skits together as long as they can remember. Music, movement, visual arts, acting and writing have served as healing outlets for them throughout their evolution. Much of their creations are explored under starry skies, sun kissed forests, accompanying ocean waves and in their shared apartment. They are blessed to be able to create with their older siblings Sarah and Jeremy Helten and family members who are thoughtful and inspiring artists in their own right. Throughout their journey they have been gifted the opportunity to be in close contact with the wilderness and to have been taught the infinite and precious value of nature through the gentle endeavors to protect and inform by their family members. They hope to continue honoring our planet by sharing wisdom, learning and growing together. Ben and Rachel would like to express their profound gratitude to all the beautiful souls involved with this process and for the enduring support of their family, friends and loved ones.
Photo Credit: Dominic Polubinski
Photo of Uncle Greg Helten, Ben Helten & Uncle Conrad Helten
Title: Pendulum, please like me.
Choreographer/ Performer: Chelsea Goddard.
Some things I do for me. Some things I do for you. I am not sure where this dance falls between the two. (I hope you like it)
Music: Watusi by Humans
Bio: Chelsea Goddard is an emerging performance artist creating on the unceded traditional territories of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh nations. She is immensely humbled to have the opportunity to create art on this stolen land. Chelsea is a SFU graduate with a BFA in contemporary dance. At SFU she had opportunities to work with dance artists: Chengxin Wei, Meredith Kalaman, KT Niehoff, Rob Kitsos, Justine Chambers, Company 605, and Tara Cheyenne Performance. Since graduating she has been studying contact improvisation at EDAM and with Machinenoisy and has had the chance to participate in the Boombox Youth Residency, and the BLOOM residency through Mascalldance. Chelsea currently works as a independent artist, dance teacher, childcare provider for artists, and she serves a mean scoop of ice cream to the masses.
Photo Credit: Bee N. Kent
Others
Choreographer: Alina Sotskova. Dancers: Alina Sotskova, Sophie Brassard & Rachel Helten
This is a work in progress that contains several excerpts from dance poems in the Dracula’s Garden Series, including excerpts from “Slugs in the Cemetery” and other works. The excerpts touch on myth, fantasy, horror, grief, and beauty. Using the Gothic realm as a vehicle, these dance poems explore constructions of monstrosity and of the grotesque. We find the uncanny and the sublime in the fringe and the Othered, re-imagining and re-interpreting the notion of ‘the beautiful.’ We explore the antithetical relationship between ideals of beauty in the history of balletic traditions and the discourses of beauty and deformity in Gothic literature. Choreography by Alina Sotskova with contributions by the dancers.
Music: “Be so” by Unwoman
Bio: Alina Sotskova is the Artistic Director and Founder of Voirelia, a Dance, Psychology, and Philosophy Hub (voirelia.com). Through Voirelia, Alina works with dancers, scholars, and artists from variety of disciplines to create contemporary dance works focused on meaning, community, connection, and exploration of the depth of human experience and imagination. Voirelia also hosts interdisciplinary events on intersections between dance, psychology, philosophy, science, and art. Alina is a practicing psychologist. She continues to maintain an avid interest in philosophy, which continues to shape her work as a dance artist.
Photo credit: Jason Kirkness/Alina Sotskova.
Title: Space Provided
Choreographer/ Performer: Kestrel Paton.
I created this piece almost entirely in front of my big bathroom mirror. As a new graduate transitioning out into the real world, I challenged myself to still be creative despite limitations like spacious studios or “proper” rehearsals. Simply put- I used the space provided. (Special thanks to Beats by Dre Wireless Headphones for helping me jam).
Music: Nita by Njoki Karu and Ignited by Mumbi Kasumba
Bio: Kestrel Paton is an emerging dance artist originally from the mountain community of Crowsnest Pass, Alberta. She holds a BFA with a Major in Dance at Simon Fraser University. Kestrel has previously worked artists such as Desiree Dunbar as part of Catalyst dance mentorship program, as well as an apprenticeship with DezzaDance in 2017. While at SFU, Kestrel has performed repertoire by local Vancouver artists such as Chengxin Wei, Rob Kitsos, Henry Daniel, Judith Garay, Bevin Poole, and Vanessa Goodman. She also worked with Los Angeles based dance artist Taisha Paggett, exploring movement away from a studio context incorporating visual art, installations and art galleries as a performance space. Most recently, Kestrel interned with MachineNoisy in their site specific work Fragile Forms as part of the PuSh Festival 2019.
To live with/without
Choreographer/ Performer: Shion Carter.
This excerpt of to live with/without explores the textural and sculptural abilities of plastic, articulating one human’s relationship to this synthetic material. Plastic surrounds us, clothes us, protects us, hurts us, disintegrates to enter into and move through us. To it, I ask: how do I relate to you? How do I live with/without you? All of the plastic material utilized in the solo is second-hand, collected from local businesses.
Bio: Shion Skye Carter is a performing artist based in Vancouver, Canada. Born in Japan and immigrating to Canada at a young age, she now holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance, with a minor in Kinesiology, from Simon Fraser University. In recent years, she has worked with Vanessa Goodman/Action at a Distance, plastic orchid factory, Anya Saugstad, and Yossi Berg & Oded Graf Dance Theatre. Shion’s own choreographic projects are influenced by her personal ethnographic history, and bring together her interests in other creative disciplines with physical performance. As co-founder of the interdisciplinary duo olive theory projects with Stefan Nazarevich, Shion works collaboratively to experiment at the intersection between embodied performance, installation art, and live sound.
Photo Credit: Bee N. Kent
Dance by Jenna and Kayla
Choreographers: Jenna Kraychy and Kayla De Vos, known as Jayla DeKraychy in collaboration with dancers. Dancers: Carly Davis, Chelsea Goddard, Rachel Helten, and Charlotte Telfer-Wan.
This piece premiered at Ignite! Youth Festival as a continuation of an earlier research process in 2018. A focus for Jayla was to make the process as collaborative as possible with the dancers. The title was given to them by the MCs of Ignite! which they heard for the first time, 30 seconds before the piece began.
Music: Anthropocene by Loscil
Bio: Jenna Kraychy and Kayla De Vos, known as Jayla DeKraychy began their choreographic partnership in 2018 through the Youth Mentorship Program at The Cultch. They are colleagues, roommates, best friends, and now co-choreographers. They are grateful for the connections made while at SFU which has provided a variety of opportunities to continue contributing to the Vancouver dance community as emerging artists.
Claire Plunkett-Blazi, harp.
Claire Plunkett-Blazi is an interdisciplinary artist whose creative exploration has taken shape in many different forms. After having completed a BFA in Visual Art from Emily Carr University, her relationship to creative expression has found a great deepening through her musicianship and movement practice, birthing her lifelong desire to dance her inner worlds to life.
ADDITIONAL EVENT INFORMATION:
We acknowledge 45 W Hastings is located on the unceded, ancestral and traditional Coast Salish territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səlil̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) people. As artist that live, work and play on these lands, we strive to be allies with, to learn from and to acknowledge the rights of indigenous peoples.
RSVP HERE! SPACE IS LIMITED: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/for-the-wild-an-informal-sharing-of-dance-music-works-in-progress-tickets-62612398369
HOW CAN I CONTRIBUTE?
1) Attend our event! Donations will be collected at the door. (Cash or Card). Please RSVP in advance.
2) Contribute to our Online Giving Page: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/pages/for-the-wild-an-informal-sharing-of-dance-music-wo/
3) Educate yourself, contribute to charities, volunteer, learn ways to live sustainably (I have lots to learn), support one another, help raise awareness!
SPECIAL THANKS!
Supported by Future Leisure- https://www.juliannechapple.com/future-leisure
In collaboration with Voirelia: Dance, Psychology & Philosophy Hub- https://voirelia.com/
Thank you enormously to the artists and volunteers for offering their time, energy and brilliance!
We dedicate our performances tonight for our loved ones with a great love of nature who are here with us today and in our hearts.
VOIRELIA: Dance, Psychology, & Philosophy Hub 