FALL/WINTER 2016-17

Collaborations: Relic & Reliquary; Hiromoto Ida Preserving History: Ktunaxa at Fort Steele; Fernie Archives Retrospectives: Bridget Corkery and Wayne King

Artist in Residence: Kentree Speirs Booked! Fernie Writers’ Series On Stage: Youth Talent Slam

Arts and Heritage News New Books and CDs

Of Life, Death and Carrot Cake

NUNO FELTING WORKSHOP, PHOTO BY CLAIRE DIBBLE

Working together to strengthen the places we love We proudly support the efforts of the individuals and organizations that help make the Basin a vibrant place to live. ourtrust.org/arts

One of my friends in the Slocan Valley just celebrated her 70th birthday. Turning 70 sounds like you’ve rounded the last corner in the march of time, doesn’t it? Yet there was the birthday girl, eating carrot cake and visiting as if it was just another party. That event reminded me yet again of how inexorable aging is (and how it’s probably a good thing to eat lots of carrot cake while you still can). Seriously, though, contemplating our own mortality is part of the business of being human, and we all face the realities of aging and death with varying degrees of complacency or trepidation. It’s hard to grasp the whole thing, even if we’ve watched our parents and loved ones grow old, or experienced death close up. Will we have the grace (and good luck) to move gently into our own dying? Or will it be a prolonged and sad affair? What constitutes a good death and what will be preserved as our legacy? This fall, Touchstones Nelson will exhibit retrospectives of the work of two beloved Nelson painters whose legacy is their amazing art, Bridget Corkery and Wayne King. As Ian Johnston writes, both Bridget and Wayne lived their art and life by focusing on the things that brought them joy and inspiration: their relationship with nature, their families and friends, and the small details of daily life. Their work is quirky, personal and genuine. The Touchstones shows will run consecutively from September to February 2017. Early experiences and cultural traditions can shape the values that we embrace, or that we return to later in life. Hiromoto Ida grew up in a Tokyo household that included his grandparents, and as a boy he was part of the reality and the rituals surrounding his grandfather’s death. His new production, Birthday Present for Myself, uses the stage as a forum for examining the issues of memory and mortality through the eyes of an old man as he prepares to die. The elements of music, movement and stage play that Hiro brings to the piece moved cast member Allison Girvan to ask, “Is it a concert? Is it a dance? Is it a drama?” The answer is: yes, all of the above. Birthday Present for Myself opens in Nelson and Golden in November. On a more tangible level, in order to preserve the family, business and community histories of Fernie, director Ron Ulrich and the Fernie Museum have initiated the Cultural Memory Project, which will be housed in the new Fernie Community Archives Centre. The project will collect, organize and archive personal stories, documents and photographs from the early days of Fernie and make those materials accessible to researchers and genealogists in the future. Did everyone make it to the Columbia Basin Culture Tour in August? I did the Slocan Valley portion of the tour and tried rather unsuccessfully to stay within the art-buying budget I had set for myself. I met and visited with so many talented artists and artisans over the course of the afternoon and I was uplifted and encouraged by their work. Hopefully you will meet up with some of them in these pages or on future Culture Tours.

Margaret Tessman, editor

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Arts & Heritage News

4

Life & Death: Birthday Present for Myself

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Art & Life: Bridget Corkery & Wayne King

8

Local History: Ktunaxa at Fort Steele

11

On Stage: Youth Talent Slam

12

ARTiculate events calendar

14

Artist in Residence: Kentree Speirs

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Preserving the Past: Fernie Museum Community Archives

21

Collaboration: Relic & Reliquary

22

Reading Tour: Booked! Fernie Writers’ Series

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New & Noteworthy: Book and CD releases

26

Kudos: Leah Best, Jane Merks, Stephanie Gauvin

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Last Word: Editorial

31

on the cover: Kentree Speirs Changes. Oil on panel, 36 x 36 inches, 2016.

FALL/WINTER 2016-17 ISSUE #30 Editor: Margaret Tessman Contributors: Anne DeGrace, Slava Doval, Barbara D. Janusz, Ian Johnston, Dyllan Lachelt, Rita Moir, Michael Redfern, Maggie Shirley, Margaret Tessman, Jessica VanOostwaard, Galadriel Watson Design: Evolution Creative Communications Proofreader: Anne Champagne Project Management: Krista Patterson Sales: Natasha Smith

ISSN #1709-2116

Copyright: Contributors retain the copyright of their own original work. By submitting work to ARTiculate for publication, contributors are granting permission to ARTiculate for one-time use in the print and digital/online versions.

ARTICULATE 3

NEWS

continued on page 30

Hidden Creek

Arts and Ecology Centre

Salon of the Arts at Langham Gallery

by Margaret Tessman For the past 10 years the North Kootenay Lake Arts and Heritage Council has helped chase away the January blues with a Salon of the Arts at the Langham Cultural Centre in Kaslo. This January is no exception. The salon is the major fundraiser for the Arts Council, which has been in existence since 2000.

Tucked in the woods: Hidden Creek artist retreat residence.

Photo: Erica Konrad

by Margaret Tessman Hidden Creek arts and ecology centre opened in June after years of dreaming, planning and building by painter Erica Konrad and husband Mike Bowick, an electrical contractor and green builder. The centre is tucked into the woods at Grohman Narrows on the Kootenay River west of Nelson, and is accessible only by boat. This summer the centre offered summer art camps for youth, two encaustic workshops by Erica and a week-long artist residency sponsored by the Nelson District Arts Council. Participants arrive at the centre after a walk along a forest trail, inviting them to immerse themselves in the natural setting and concentrate on making art. Songbirds, skinks and bats make the heavily treed site home, and wildlife wanders down to the creek to drink. “It’s so relaxing being nestled and hidden in the woods,” says Erica. “Here people can have a full-blown retreat and focus on themselves and their work. We’ve had really positive feedback from our guests.” A yurt and an L-shaped straw-bale residence with a studio, kitchen and living space provide accommodation and work areas for residents, and a huge deck can be used for yoga or as a gathering space for bouncing ideas around, an antidote to the isolation that artists often live and work with. Erica and Mike are open to ideas about how the centre will be used. “We’ve seen there’s interest and know it will work,” says Erica. “It’s organically coming together and will present us with the direction to take, rather than us trying to control it.” hiddencreekbc.com

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Artist participation in the salon has grown exponentially. “The first year we had thirty-five entrants,” says Arts Council member David Stewart. “In 2016 we had fifty to sixty pieces in the show.” The show will hang through all of January 2017, with a performance and fundraising auction held on one Friday evening during the month. Music, poetry and stories from the Langham archives will be interspersed with auctioning off “experiences,” as Stewart calls them. In past years some big-ticket items have included a Zamboni ride at the Kaslo Arena during the hockey playoffs; a day in the field with photographer Jim Lawrence; a ride in a fire truck during the May Days parade; and a tugboat outing replete with wine and cheese. No wonder the Langham’s traditionally low January attendance has been boosted by the event. Contributing artists are asked to bring their work to the Langham on a designated day, and Kaslo painter Philip Pedini will hang the show in the main gallery. “We’ve always received high-quality stuff,” says Stewart. “We haven’t ever had to turn anybody down.” The salon not only provides a showcase for local talent, but also can be a stepping off point for further exposure. For example, Langham curator Arin Fay invited a group of five wood turners who exhibited at the salon to do a group show at the gallery in March 2016. “There’s an awful lot of art activity going on in the community,” says Stewart. For more details and dates for the 2017 Salon of the Arts, consult thelangham.ca.

NEWS

NOW Set

to Wow

Nelson’s Wearable Art Show extravaganza celebrates Canada by Anne DeGrace

Imagine a costume that resembles a cross between a dragon fruit and an octopus, looking for all the world as if it landed from another planet. Imagine a dress made entirely of ceramic, as if a teacup has come to life. A Cinderella ball gown is constructed of mahogany, maple and cedar; another, of welded steel. Nelson’s Over-the-Top Wearable Art Show (NOW) organizers Margaret Stegman and Angelika Werth want artists and designers to push the boundaries of dress. Inspired by New Zealand’s world-famous competition WOW (World of Wearable Art), the Canadian version will ask creative minds across North America to respond to the theme “Canada Is . . . .” Selected entrants will showcase their creations in June 2017 in Nelson in honour of Canada’s 150th birthday. “It’s not a fashion show,” explains Margaret. “It’s a showcase, with models displaying the pieces within an extravaganza of light, sound and dance.” That’s right: If you create, say, a wearable Parliament Buildings of Canada—or whatever Canada means to you—your creation could strut the stage of Nelson’s Capitol Theatre. Making the competition North-America-wide, “allows for a perception of Canada from outside Canada,” explains Angelika. Angelika is a master designer; she once worked at the studio of Yves Saint Laurent. As an independent artist and designer her resume includes awards and exhibitions worldwide, with a decade on the faculty of Kootenay School of the Arts in the fibre department. Originally a Kiwi, Margaret is an educator, clay artist and art enthusiast who has wanted to bring a worldclass wearable art show to Nelson for many years. The organizers have enlisted the expertise of Michael Graham and Pat Henman to ensure excellence in planning, staging, lighting and choreographing the spectacle. “The idea is to be as creative as possible, as expressive as possible,” says Angelika. “We welcome political, societal

Margaret Stegman (left) and Angelika Werth consider the world of wearable art. Photo: Anne DeGrace

and ecological themes.” Creations can be both stunning and statement making. A Trash to Treasure category stipulates that 85 percent of the material be recycled. Entrants may recommend a musical piece to accompany their work on stage, with a hark to Canadiana in all its multicultural glory: throat singing, drumming, French Canadian music, sounds from Canada’s ethnic communities. “It’s a great educational opportunity,” says Margaret. There are substantial cash prizes and a place in a spotlight like none other. Entrants may be amateur or professional, individuals or working in groups of up to three. Specifications are aligned with the New Zealand competition so creations may be submitted to WOW 2018. A declaration of intention to enter is due in January 2017, and a submission of photographs of the finished entry in March. A panel of jurors will select the showcase pieces. More information is available via email at [email protected].

Sono Nis Fire Destroys Warehouse The office and warehouse of Winlaw publishing company Sono Nis were destroyed by fire on August 4. The third-generation company and its authors lost their entire book inventory, although the Sono Nis archives containing the early works of the company’s 50-year history was partially spared‚ along with some paperwork and computers.

Publisher Diane Morriss and husband Jim Brennan plan to rebuild and to reprint some of the press’s titles, and hope to find a new distribution system within the next few months. “We’ve received an enormous amount of support from the community here and the book community,” says Morriss. “It makes a huge difference. It really gets you through the day.”

ARTICULATE 5

LIFE & DEATH

Birthday

Present for

Myself exploring aging and mortality by Margaret Tessman In the rehearsal studio, Hiromoto Ida’s body is slowly being inhabited by an elderly man. His shoulders round, his gait becomes wide and shuffling and he mutters to himself as he moves around the space. This is the last day of the man’s life, so we find him building his coffin and drinking sake to celebrate himself and the occasion. The spirit shape of his wife is present with him as he revisits his memories and prepares for his last journey. Birthday Present for Myself is the title of Hiromoto’s latest dance theatre piece and the result of two years of thinking and planning. “It’s different from what I’ve done before,” he says. “Finding the way to stage my ideas was like putting together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.” The elements that Hiro knew he wanted to include in the production were live musicians, voice, spoken lines, mask and movement.

The music Joining Hiro on stage will be Nicola Everton (clarinet), Sue Gould (piano), Jeff Faragher (cello), Martine denBok (violin) and Allison Girvan (soprano). It was Nicola who introduced Hiro to the music of Russian composer and rock musician Pavel Karmanov. His 1993 trio for cello, piano and viola, “Birthday Present for Myself,” was evocative. “It brought up pictures for me of an old man in the tall grass sitting in a chair and seeing all his life,” says Hiro. “It was his last day on earth. What did he want?” Hiro contacted Karmanov, told him what he saw, and Karmanov agreed to loan his music to the project. In Hiro’s staging the musicians and vocalist become characters on the stage, not just background players, with the piano providing a visual counterpoint to the coffin that is being built. “There is interplay between the composer and the actors,” says Allison. “The music is minimalist, so it allows the mood to simmer.”

The script Japanese playwright Shogo Ohta from Hiro’s underground theatre days in Tokyo in the 1980s was a big influence on Hiro’s style. Ohta’s work takes the subtle interchange of language and movement between characters and uses the spaces in between words to generate emotion and meaning, or to create ambiguity.

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LIFE & DEATH In Birthday Present for Myself, Hiro explores the themes of aging, mortality, the elusiveness of our memories and what makes “a good death.” “I had a moment in my empty garden in the spring when I felt that I wanted to die like this, with this feeling that I was feeling. I thought, ‘Why can’t we talk about this?’ “Talking about death for me is the same as talking about life,” says Hiro. “I could even switch the terms when I talk about them. “That force of going back where we came from is powerful. That is my challenge: to create and show those energy forces . . . that death is not the end, it is the beginning.”

The mask A Noh mask hovers on stage, suspended over the coffin that the old man is building. It is death-like in its aspect, but also represents the super-stylized classical Noh form, which incorporates music, dance and drama. The themes of Noh theatre often relate to dreams, supernatural worlds, ghosts and spirits, the same subjects that Hiro explores in Birthday Present for Myself. Not unlike his connection with Pavel Karmanov, Hiro serendipitously found a carver in Japan, Mitsue Nakamura, who agreed to loan one of her masks to the production.

The movement Although Hiro has worked with numerous professional dance companies and choreographers, he says that he doesn’t find choreographic detail and body movement in the traditional sense that interesting. Instead he places his focus on the way bodies move as they relate, respond and interact with one another dramatically. Characters pick up and send subtle signals with the gestures and postures they use. Inner world and outer world mesh and the audience are pulled into the exploration of a shared moment. Hiro is director, choreographer and performer of Birthday Present for Myself. He has been producing his own original pieces locally since moving to Nelson in 2000. In 2006 Hiro established his own company, Ichigo-Ichieh, which was created to challenge the idea that professional quality dance and theatre can only be made in large cities. The original meaning of “ichigo-ichieh” in Japanese is that if you meet someone it is a unique occasion— that precise moment happens only once in your entire life. Hiro likens a theatre performance to a Japanese tea ceremony, where the host has prepared the ceremony for the guest, with each small thing having its purpose. Each small piece of the jigsaw puzzle has come together to create Birthday Present for Myself, where

Party guests (left to right): Hiromoto Ida, Allison Girvan, Jeff Faragher, Sue Gould, Nicola Everton. Opposite: Noh mask borrowed from a Tokyo wood carver for the production. Photos: James Tucker

death and life are, in Hiro’s words, like moonlight and moon shadows, just two aspects of the same force. “Two years ago my mother visited from Japan. We were on a trip to Algonquin Park and started to talk about the best way to die,” says Hiro. “In Japan I had experienced some people’s deaths and those experiences are quite different than in North America. “Many things around death aren’t hidden in Japan. I watched and experienced what happened when you pass away when I was seven years old. We had to wait almost two hours to cremate my grandfather’s body. I remember going outside the building and looking up at the chimney. The smoke goes up to the blue sky. That’s it. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, good or bad, the smoke all goes up into the sky. “It made me think how life is fragile but precious. This is what I want to share with audiences.” Hiro has brought together production support staff members that include set designer Thomas Loh, technical director Doug Scott, lighting director Sharon Huizinga and sound director John Tucker. Birthday Present for Myself opens at the Capitol Theatre in Nelson on November 18 and 19, and at the Golden Civic Centre on November 26, hosted by Kicking Horse Culture.

“Libraries are not made; they grow” Augustine Birrell Connect at your library: Your local library has much to offer... the hub ofaccessevery community. • 24/7 Online to a vast collection • Extensive children’s programs of information, audio and e-books • Support for literacy and to the print disabled • Free onsite internet access

• Instructive events for personal learning • Research assistance

...and books! ARTICULATE 7

ART & LIFE

ART & LIFE

Bridget Corkery and Wayne King

Retrospectives

“Certainly he helped me with saving a lot of my projects and taught me stuff I’ll never forget.” Tougas-Philibert asked King to be a model for her, but in the end she began the project during one of many visits to the hospital. When King died, Tougas-Philibert finished the sculpture using photographs to create his portrait. The work is a striking likeness of the artist that includes a sculpted homage in the form of a King-like landscape on the inside/back of the figure. Arin Fay, Touchstones Nelson curator, will hang King’s work salon style, with the walls covered in multiple works from multiple local collections. Fay also headed up to the Shambhala music festival this summer where apparently there is a shrine to the painter. She spent a few days working with festivalgoers on a couple of large King-inspired paintings. Central to the exhibition is Tougas-Philibert’s bronze bust on a plinth made especially to bring the artist’s head to its normal standing height. The show runs from November 19 to February 12 with the opening from 7 to 9 p.m. on November 18. Some time ago Bridget Corkery’s long-time friend and painting co-conspirator Boukje Elzinga promised to curate a show of Corkery’s work. The retrospective exhibition at Touchstones that runs from September 17 to November 20 fulfills that promise. The two women often painted together and with Deborah Thompson, another local artist. Together with a group of former Kootenay School of the Arts instructors they co-founded the Nelson Fine Art Centre (Oxygen Art Centre). Corkery was also a founding member of the Red Head Gallery in Toronto in the early ,90s.

Wayne King, Untitled. Woodcut print, 1983.

by Ian Johnston Bridget Corkery and Wayne King both followed a lifelong creative path that led them to spend their final years in Nelson. Corkery passed away in 2013 and King in 2015. Their work is the focus of two consecutive retrospective exhibitions this fall at Touchstones Nelson Museum of Art and History. Although we don’t know for sure if King and Corkery knew each other, we can be pretty certain that their paths crossed. King was known to, and knew almost everyone in Nelson and Bridget was an active and avid member of the arts community. Wayne King was a prolific painter of the outdoors, landscapes, flora and fauna and oft-times mythical creatures. His use of vibrant colour was one of the hallmarks of his work and if a piece didn’t have enough colour a rainbow might be found. As subject matter for painting and as a place to be, it was well known in the community that King preferred the outdoors. In the process of researching this piece I heard time and again

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Photos courtesy Touchstones Museum

how he wasn’t interested in the details and minutia of life but rather speculation about our purpose here on the planet. There were a lot of people who “took care of ” King’s more earthly needs by way of collecting his work and keeping in touch even though he lived outside much of the time. Chris Kölmel, local jeweller, recalled his first encounter with King as being the reason he moved to Nelson 26 years ago. Kölmel was having dinner with friends on a Kootenay Lake wharf at a picnic table when King arrived in a canoe, hopped out, performed a saxophone solo followed by a happy dance, and departed from whence he came. King was a larger-than-life character who lightened people’s lives with his painting, philosophical meanderings and chess. A lot of people, especially younger ones, drew inspiration and guidance from his words and thoughts about life and art. One such person is a young artist named Aimée-Rose TougasPhilibert. They met through a mutual friend and bonded over art. Although they only new each other for a short time she credits him for his guidance as an artist and mentor.

Michael Grace, husband and father of her three children Neil, Gavin and Adam, was quick to point out that Corkery was not just a painter. In fact when one looks at the breadth of her work and artistic explorations it’s easy to understand what he meant. Her explorations included fibre arts, printmaking, furniture design, collage, assemblage, drawing, painting and cera colla, just to name a few. In spite of all of life’s distractions Corkery managed to always find time to make new work and explore new directions, as Grace confirms: “She wasn’t happy unless she was making art or working in the garden. It was something she had to do every day.”

Bridget Corkery, Clocks-Time. Cera colla on wood, 2010. Clock drawing is used as an early screening test for Alzheimer’s and dementia. Bridget completed this piece as her mother was going through that process herself. Bridget Corkery, Dead Bird. Cera colla on wood, 2012.

Bridget was known to say, “Wherever I move, what’s there becomes my focus.” In Port Rowan, Ontario, where she last lived before coming to Nelson in 1995, she harvested hundreds of dead ladybugs, among other creatures, for her artwork. The abundance of creeping and crawling things that captured Corkery’s imagination at her Ontario home became the subject of her 1994 exhibition “Aversions” at the Red Head Gallery in Toronto. “The current body of work came from watching my infant children react to the world around them. I have come to the conclusion that we are born with our fears, they are not learned. Snakes, insects and frogs, cold and slimy textures, certain noises, heights in the dark; we come into the world with all of these fears and more. The work evolved out of these ideas and started to creep and crawl into childhood mythologies.” Drawn to create the awkward and absurd, earlier in her career Corkery made a chest of drawers that you couldn’t actually close and a fan in a Plexiglas box so you could see the fan move but not feel the air. Grace reflects, “She felt that she was this vessel that could never get full because there was so much

ARTICULATE 9

ART & LIFE

Wayne King, Enchanted Morning. Acrylic on panel, ca. 2001. Wayne King, Be Happy. Woodcut print, 1998.

LOCAL HISTORY

Ktunaxa

History at

Fort Steele

Heritage Town by Jessica VanOostwaard The Fort Steele Museum, located in the Wasa Hotel at Fort Steele Heritage Town, has always been a fascinating place to visit and to learn about the history of Fort Steele and the East Kootenay. From displays on 17th-century explorers to dioramas that illustrate life at Fort Steele in the 1880s, the museum educates 100,000 annual visitors.

pulling on her with family, art, work and the whole life thing.” After moving to the Kootenays she continued to produce work in her “frustration” series, which reflected that sentiment with spoons that you can’t really use and bowls that empty if you try to fill them. Some are drawn on massive pieces of paper; others made in wood and ceramic. Keeping true to her mantra, Corkery created in Nelson several bodies of work that responded to both her immediate and her larger surroundings. “Budget Crockery,” shown at the Kootenay Gallery in 1999, comprised a series of de/re-constructed vessels and ceramic objects assembled with silicone. Another body of work was a series of large collaborative drawings made with her children. “My young children have added spontaneity to my work. I was in my studio and the children just started painting on my canvas, so I thought, well, I’ll just go with this … It was also a time when there were lots of things falling over, crashing, splashing and breaking. I like the ‘happy accident’ in work and now I’ve put the ‘happy accident’ there on purpose.” Some of Corkery’s last works created in the company of Thompson and Elzinga were shown in an exhibition at the Capitol Theatre in December of 2012. The group had been working with the cera colla technique or Italian wax paint that has long been a staple of Corkery’s palette as an artist. The subject of that work included dead mice and birds. Corkery had a fascination with death, kind of “funny and dark rather than sinister,” according to Elzinga. That comes through in a lot of her work, including the still lives of dead creatures that resided in the artist’s freezer. Opening on September 16, these works and others will be celebrated in “Bridget Corkery: Retrospective.” touchstonesnelson.ca.

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One aspect that has been lacking from our displays is the history of the area prior to European settlement. The history of early Fort Steele has been closely tied with the local Ktunaxa bands and when the museum was reorganized in early 2016, a space for new exhibits and interpretive panels was created that would showcase the history of the Ktunaxa in the area. Fort Steele Heritage Town received a grant from the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance for not just new interpretive panels, but also for a canvas tipi that the Fort Steele Education department will use for school programs starting in the spring of 2017. The Curatorial and Education department heads met with representatives from the Ktunaxa Nation council in late 2015 about what the council would like to see regarding its history in Fort Steele. The new displays and panels are a result of this meeting and dialogue. We hope to continue an open dialogue with the members of the Ktunaxa Nation and collaborate with them on many future exhibits and projects. This August Ktunaxa elder Bea Stevens set up a tipi on the corner of Main Street and Riverside Avenue and gave demonstrations of the traditional methods of tanning animal hides. Future projects could include inviting members of the Ktunaxa Nation into the Heritage Town to showcase their traditional crafts and expand upon our knowledge of their culture. The new displays in the museum include several artifacts from our collection such as a hide drum, historic beaded vests, a sturgeonnose canoe (the traditional canoe of the Ktunaxa), an elkhorn flesher, fishing harpoon and a reproduction scale model of a hide tipi. These artifacts are in addition to existing displays that include a ceremonial headdress, traditional clothing and beadwork. The new interpretive panels focus on the history of the Ktunaxa and their traditional territory, the Ktunaxa language, creation story and ways of life. Our hope for these new exhibits is for our visitors to garner a wider understanding of the history of Fort Steele and the East Kootenay. In May 2017 the Ktunaxa Native Ways educational program will be made available to the approximately 300 regional youth who visit Fort Steele for education programs each year. The program aims to educate about the Ktunaxa by using hands-on activities, traditional stories and components of our history. The education

Ktunaxa elder Beatrice Stevens with her grandchildren in front of her canvas tipi at Fort Steele. Left to right: Zyzairia Stevens, Zaylyn Stevens, Beatrice Stevens. Photo: Jessica VanOostwaard

program will focus on teaching youth about the importance of the Ktunaxa to the East Kootenay region and about the tumultuous relationship between settlers at Fort Steele and the Ktunaxa. The hands-on activities will include the telling of the creation story, tipi building, reed mat weaving, the telling of traditional Ktunaxa stories and the viewing of precious Ktunaxa artifacts. The program will take place in a 20-foot teepee built for Fort Steele by a Ktunaxa Nation member. Students will help erect a 6-foot tipi and learn about the value and cultural significance of the tipi to the Ktunaxa. The program’s aim is to educate and inform students of the importance of the Ktunaxa and to make them aware of the hardships that native peoples have faced because of settlement. The program will be suitable for all ages, but will not shy away from some of the hard realities of the Ktunaxa-settler relationship, such as historic mistreatment, land appropriation and residential schools. We hope that teaching students about the importance of the Ktunaxa and making them aware of the historic hardships they have faced will leave them with a greater respect for the Ktunaxa Nation and their culture. We would like to thank the Ktunaxa Nation for their consultation in our education program and their support of the project. The lack of diversity in the displayed history of Fort Steele is a problem that has been overlooked in the past, but with the changes we are trying to implement, we hope to communicate a more comprehensive and unbiased look at the history of our area. The town of Fort Steele may have begun with the gold rush of the 1860s but it is important to note the contributions of the people who came before the town’s founding, whether they are of European or Ktunaxa descent. Jessica VanOostwaard is the curator of Fort Steele Heritage Town. fortsteele.ca.

ARTICULATE 11

ON STAGE

ON STAGE

Youth Arts Festival

& Project Soul Project Soul takes flight.

Nelson hip-hop artist Amber Santos describes a cypher as “a dance circle where dancers freestyle. Usually b-boys and b-girls, but also house dancers, lockers, poppers, lyrical hip-hop, krump and other kinds of urban dance. B-boys and b-girls challenge each other and dialogue through dance. Everyone in the cypher holds the energy and keeps it hype. Respect is the rule. We want to encourage dancers of any style to freestyle!”

The Capitol Theatre 29th Season Series The stars are lined up to entertain you Tickets on sale now

Dance is an integral part of life for many Nelson and area residents. There are five or more independent dance studios,

Photo: Keystone Foto Ltd.

2016-2017 SeASON AT A GlANCe Mark Ikeda Sansei: The Storyteller Sat. Sep 24, 2016 8pm Gino Quilico Serata d’Amore Fri. Sep 30, 2016 8pm Chris Gibbs A Legal Alien Fri. Oct 14, 2016 8pm Mike Delamont God is a Scottish Drag Queen Thurs. Oct 27, 2016 8pm

by Dyllan Lachelt The third annual Youth Arts Festival will be getting a little more fly this year. (Fly is an urban dance term for “cool”.) A collaborative effort by Oxygen Art Centre and the Capitol Theatre in Nelson and the Charles Bailey Theatre in Trail, the festival celebrates youth in arts of all disciplines and includes a variety of events. The festival’s goals are to celebrate youth culture and art, while providing the area’s talented youth with a professional space to perform. The festival runs February 23 to March 4, with Talent Slams on February 25 at the Capitol Theatre and on March 4 at the Charles Bailey Theatre. The Talent Slam event showcases the finest in West Kootenay talent ages 15 to 29 in the performing arts: music, singing, dancing, acting, performance art and spoken word. Past Talent Slam performer Zorn Rose noted this diversity: “Many of the major performing events outside of school are geared towards one particular skill—I appreciated the self-directed element, and I think the audience did, too.” The festival aims to connect the wide variety of performing artists with professional artists and mentors, as well as other motivated youth performers. These connections can further the careers of the performers, such as musician Tibo Kölmel, who was asked to join a jazz ensemble after showcasing his cello skills. Selected talent will receive one-on-one mentorship from professionals in their field to develop their acts for the Talent Slam. This year’s mentors are singer Bessie Wapp, comedian Lucas Myers, dancer Slava Doval and actor/singer Nadine Tremblay. The Slam offers youth a chance to perform in a professional

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setting and gives them a goal to work toward. “Giving students a platform to express themselves in a different way from regular life can have a lot of impact,” says Charles Bailey Theatre manager Nadine Tremblay. “I think the audience can learn a lot about youth, too. It’s also super important in all artists’ lives to have a supportive audience for every stage of development. Practice makes perfect and that also applies to performance.” The unique collaboration between cities and theatres will be highly beneficial for the festival. “By joining forces to enhance the festival’s ability to bring in a more regional approach to programming we are able to achieve a lot more than by working in isolation,” says Miriam Needoba, Oxygen Art Centre director. “Also, by bringing in acts from outside the region with abilities, professional experience and specialty skills not always accessible in more rural and isolated communities such as ours, the whole community is able to benefit on so many levels.” The creative forces behind the festival have come together to bring the hip-hop dance group Project Soul to participate in several events. Project Soul is a collection of talented artists under the direction of Kim Sato, who have come together to spread their love for street dance. Based in Vancouver, the members of Project Soul are all working professionals who have appeared in live and commercial work. Their mission is to “inspire one soul at a time through the art of street dance,” which is what they aim to do through their participation in the Youth Arts Festival. Project Soul will be hosting workshops, artist talks and doing demonstrations in local high schools to raise awareness and understanding of hip-hop, street dance and street art culture. They will also be featured in an event called a cypher, which will be held at the Nelson Youth Centre.

as well as school dance programs and presentations. Approximately 900 to 1,000 people are enrolled in dance classes ranging from classical ballet and theatrical dance, to hip-hop and urban dance. Stephanie Fischer, executive director of the Capitol Theatre, describes the importance of dance as a way to “learn the cooperative effort necessary to produce a high quality work of art. Creative thinking skills are developed through dance, as well as learning the value of discipline, commitment and work ethic. Self-confidence develops as young people overcome challenges to master new goals, learning to apply themselves and accomplish any task put before them. Dance teaches us about music, rhythm and beat. We develop a better understanding of spatial relationships and learn to think with both sides of the brain. Dance is a great way to build invaluable social skills. Dancers learn to take turns, to share attention and to cooperate with others as they work within a group.” This all-around life skill will be celebrated and nurtured by the Youth Arts Festival. Sponsors of the festival include the British Columbia Arts Council, Province of British Columbia, Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance, Columbia Basin Trust, Osprey Community Foundation, Can-Filters, Hall Printing and the Nelson Star.

Vancouver Arts Club Theatre Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery Sat. Nov 12, 2016 8pm Juno Productions Julia Mackey Jake’s Gift Fri. Jan 13, 2017 8pm Joëlle Rabu and Nico In Concert – Piaf and more Thurs. Jan 19, 2017 8pm

Ballet Jörgen Canada Swan Lake Sat. Feb 18, 2017 8pm Western Canada Theatre Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash Fri. Mar 10, 2017 8pm Robert Bockstael Getting to Room Temperature Fri. Mar 24, 2017 8pm Shay Kuebler Radical Systems GLORY Fri. April 7, 2017 8pm CAPITOL FAMILY SERIES Four Performances in theatre, dance & comedy NELSON OVERTURE CONCERTS SOCIETY SERIES Four performances in classical music

We are thrilled to continue the Capitol Theatre’s

LIVE PERFORMANCE ON SCREEN With screenings from the National Theatre of Britain and the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company Live. All screenings start at 7pm.

Capitol Theatre Nelson, BC Download your Season brochure & buy tickets online at

www.capitoltheatre.bc.ca

250 352-6363, 421 Victoria Street, Nelson, BC Box Office Tuesday-Friday noon-4:30pm Buy a half or full season and save up to 20% on all tickets! Programming Subject to Change SEASON SPONSORS

The full schedule of events, including audition dates for the Talent Slam, will be posted on the Oxygen Art Centre website, oxygenartcentre.org. Dyllan Lachelt is a Selkirk College student focusing on Creative Writing and English. She runs a small business and spends her spare time reading, writing and exploring the Kootenays with her Bugg puppy, Krieger.

ARTICULATE 13

EVENTS

EVENTS

December Street Festival Miracle On Mackenzie Dec. 10 & 11 Mackenzie Ave., Revelstoke 250-837-5345 [email protected] seerevelstoke.com/event/

Shoot With Camera Only

www.kootenayreflections.com

Ongoing Live Theatre Performance Series Season Series Performances Events calendar & tickets on website Capitol Theatre, 421 Victoria St., Nelson 250-352-6363 [email protected] capitoltheatre.bc.ca Jazz & Blues Concert Series Live@Studio64 Sept. 24, Oct. 15, Nov. 19 64 Deer Park Ave., Kimberley 250-427-4919 [email protected] kimberleyarts.com Experience Taste of the Ashram - day visits & overnight stays Oct. 1-May 15; ongoing in 2017 Yasodhara Ashram Yoga Retreat and Study Centre, 527 Walker’s Landing Rd., Kootenay Bay 250-227-9224; 1-800-661-8711 [email protected] yasodhara.org Concert Series Live Kicks at the Golden Civic Centre Refer to website for details Golden Civic Centre, 806-10 Ave. S., Golden 250-344-6186 [email protected] kickinghorseculture.ca Reading Series 10 years later - Reading series celebrating over 10 years at Oxygen Art Centre Oct. 7-May 5 Oxygen Art Centre, 320 Vernon St., Nelson (enter from back alley) 250-352-5905 [email protected] oxygenartcentre.org

14 FALL/WINTER 2016-17

March

February Summer Fantasy Evelyn Kirkaldy 250-359-6611 www.evelynkirkaldyart.com

Ongoing Gallery Exhibitions In the Gallery at Centre 64 New exhibition every month 64 Deer Park Ave., Kimberley 250-427-4919 [email protected] kimberleyarts.com Art Gallery Exhibition Season Art Gallery of Golden Exhibitions Refer to website for details Art Gallery of Golden, 516-9 Ave. N., Golden 250-344-6186 [email protected] kickinghorseculture.ca Retreat Artist and Professional Retreats Yasodhara Ashram Yoga Retreat and Study Centre, 527 Walker’s Landing Rd., Kootenay Bay 250-227-9224; 1-800-661-8711 [email protected] yasodhara.org Travelogue - Have Camera Will Travel In the Theatre at Centre 64 Every last Tuesday of the month 64 Deer Park Ave., Kimberley 250-427-4919 [email protected] kimberleyarts.com Selfless Service & Personal Development Karma Yoga Oct. 17-Nov. 14; Oct. 17-Jan. 17; ongoing in 2017 Yasodhara Ashram Yoga Retreat and Study Centre, 527 Walker’s Landing Rd., Kootenay Bay 250-227-9224; 1-800-661-8711 [email protected] yasodhara.org

Pearls Of Affection Laura Leeder

October Exhibition Building the World We Want: Kootenay Traditions, Kootenay Visions Sept. 23-Nov. 5 Kootenay Gallery of Art, 120 Heritage Way, Castlegar 250-365-3337 [email protected] kootenaygallery.com

November Performance Dead Crow: Prologue, by Sean Arthur Joyce Nov. 3, 7 pm, The Langham, Kaslo; Nov. 4, 7:30 pm, The Front Room, Nelson; Nov. 5, 7:30 pm, Bosun Hall, New Denver 250-358-2666 [email protected] thelangham.ca; thefrontroom.com; newdenver.ca/amenities Artist Residency/Exhibition Disappearance: Paintings Based on Local Glaciers Open Studio: Nov. 4-Dec. 16, Thurs.-Sun. 1-4 pm; Final exhibition: Dec. 16 Langham Cultural Centre, 447 A Ave., Kaslo 250-353-8796 [email protected] kentreespeirs.com Live Theatre Performance Series Arts Club Vancouver - Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery Sat., Nov. 12, 8 pm; tickets on website Capitol Theatre, 421 Victoria St., Nelson 250-352-6363 [email protected] capitoltheatre.bc.ca

250-254-0083 www.lauraleeder.com

Exhibition and Sale Christmas at the Gallery Nov. 12-Dec. 24 Kootenay Gallery of Art, 120 Heritage Way, Castlegar 250-365-3337 [email protected] kootenaygallery.com Art & Craft Sale Selkirk Weavers’ & Spinners’ Guild Annual Exhibit & Sale Nov. 18, 4-9 pm; Nov. 19, 9 am-4 pm Canada’s Best Value Inn, 1935 Columbia Ave., Castlegar 250-365-7084 [email protected] castlegarculture.com/culture-guide/ selkirk-weavers-spinners-guild/

Film Festival Banff Film Festival World Tour Revelstoke Stop Feb. 6 & 7, 7 pm Revelstoke 250-837-5345 [email protected] seerevelstoke.com/event/ Festival 11th Anniversary Snow King’s MasqueParade Feb. 18, 7 pm Spirit Square, 8 Ave N., Golden 250-344-6186 [email protected] kickinghorseculture.ca

ic an g Or

Christmas Craft Faire Kicking Horse Culture’s Christmas Craft Faire Nov. 25, 12-8 pm; Nov. 26, 10 am-4 pm Mount 7 Rec. Plex, 1310-9 St. S., Golden 250-344-6186 [email protected] kickinghorseculture.ca Christmas Event Moonlight Madness Nov. 25, all day until 10 pm Downtown Revelstoke 250-837-5345 [email protected] seerevelstoke.com/event/

Exhibition Plant Memory, Tsuneko Kokubo & High Muck a Muck: Playing Chinese, director Nicola Harwood Mar. 3-Apr. 15 Kootenay Gallery of Art, 120 Heritage Way, Castlegar 250-365-3337 [email protected] kootenaygallery.com Live Theatre Performance Series Western Canada Theatre - Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash Fri., Mar. 10, 8 pm; tickets on website Capitol Theatre, 421 Victoria St., Nelson 250-352-6363 [email protected] capitoltheatre.bc.ca

Kootenay Gallery of art & Gift Shop Fine Art. Unique Gifts. Beautiful Things. Open Jan. - Nov. Tues. - Sat. 10am-5pm December 1st - 24th 7days/week 10am-5pm

u ce prod Friendly. Healthy. Community owned.

ation c o l w e N

Christmas Art & Craft Market Creston Christmas Art & Craft Market Nov. 19, 9 am-4 pm Creston Community Complex Admission: Food bank donation [email protected] crestonvalleyartscouncil.ca

120 Heritage Way. Castlegar, BC 250.365.3337 | kootenaygallery.com

rue Local s of T red pliers d n p Hu su

TRUE LOC AL

Find your Co-op, our friendly customer service and all the best ingredients, in our new store this Fall! Tru

Jim Lawrence 250-366-4649

Festival Oxygen Art Centre’s 3rd Annual Youth Arts Festival Feb. 23-March 4 Nelson and Trail - multiple venues; see program details 250-352-6322 [email protected] oxygenartcentre.org

desserts & cal -free treats o e L luten g

a de d m e t n a e s p e lection Ex chees &

www.kootenay.coop

u ps & sh so ed foo e r ds F repar p

ents & heal lem re prod thy p ucts p ca Su body

t: 250 354 4077 ARTICULATE 15

EVENTS

StudioGiftShop true reflection of our western mountain culture…direct from the artist to you. Please come in and browse our selection of fine art and home-grown gifts that give everyday pleasure and support the community.

Box 2655, 320 Wilson Street, Revelstoke BC, V0E 2S1 [email protected]

250-814-0261 www.revelstokeartgallery.ca

OctOber 7th – OctOber 28th Seeking the Holy Grail Kip Wiley A Thousand and Two Wild Horses Jacqueline Palmer Revelstoke Roof Lines Eve Fisher Acrylic

Sagrada (detail) Jenna Brown Oil Sharpie on stained mahogany

September 9th – September 30th pattern and play and passion and perspective Two Member Exhibitions

Art classes available throughout fall, please see our website for details

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Dialogue on Motherhood: Visual Interrogations Jewelles Smith Mother and Daughter Susan and Kristi Lind

NOvember 4th – NOvember 25th Art in the Park : Glacier National Park 12 selected provincial artists and the Glacier Adventure Stewardship Program

December 2ND – December 18th The Christmas Shop

visit www.kimberleyarts.com for monthly exhibition schedule and events. Gallery and office hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 1 - 5 pm 64 Deer Park Avenue, Kimberley, BC

ARTICULATE 17

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

Photos: Kentree Speirs

Disappearance Kentree Speirs’ semi-abstract mountainscapes turn toward the plight of glaciers by Galadriel Watson “My art has been a deeply personal, spiritual, emotional process, but it’s also an environmental statement. But I don’t want to hit people over the head with that. Inspiring people to be aware of our environment from a place of beauty is really my approach.” This beauty is boldly apparent in artist Kentree Speirs’ paintings, in which mountains rise out of abstract colours, textures and shapes. A success in galleries in Calgary, Vancouver and Portland, Speirs now intends to bring his work to the public in his own community of Kaslo. For six weeks starting November 4, Speirs will be the artist in residence at the Langham Cultural Centre.

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While Speirs’ work has featured mountains for about a decade, the paintings he produces at the Langham will focus on an additional element: glaciers. Altogether entitled “Disappearance,” these pieces will explore the effects of climate change on these massive bodies of ice. Visitors to the main gallery will be able to watch the artist in action, view his completed paintings and discover how glaciers have changed over time. “All my life, environmental concerns have been a key awareness for me as I’ve watched the destruction of so much wilderness area that I’ve loved and explored,” says Speirs. “Instead of complaining about things, I want to have some positive effect.” The 51-year-old and his family have only been Kaslo residents two years, but are already intending to build a home and settle in long-term. Previously from Portland, they had lived in a couple of other places in British Columbia before latching onto the area Speirs had visited as a climber and backcountry skier two decades before.

Changes. Oil on panel, 36 x 36 inches, 2016.

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It’s this tendency toward nature that has informed Speirs’ art. While he began his university studies in forestry, he completed only one year before deciding to commit himself to art. He then travelled, taught self-reliance skills and spent about four months per year in the backcountry—for about 13 years. When he returned to university at Portland State University, he pursued a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a minor in Geology. “My studies in geology have influenced the work greatly,” Speirs says. “Knowing how mountains are formed informs how I paint intuitively and from memory. This helps me depict a realized sense of place. Many of my paintings show geological stratification in the mountains, for example—and I have made specific tools to help create this effect.” Speirs uses several handmade tools—from squeegees to shapers—to push and pull oil paint across the panel surfaces, in addition to using brushes. Panel sizes range from 2-by-3 feet, to the more typical 4-by-4 feet, to 6-by-4 feet, which he sometimes combines into a diptych of 6-by-8 feet. The larger paintings have stronger impact and are more popular, but it’s the smaller ones that make him less afraid to take risks. It’s these works that often inspire the bigger ones. Speirs doesn’t set out with a set vision in mind. “I’m a process painter. I’m reacting to each different passage of paint and colour and texture to build a composition.” He may start a painting with gestural marks in acrylic paint to find a departure point, then moves on to using oils. If he sees a nice shape, he may further define or abstract it. He may rotate the panel, or lay it horizontally on a table. “Each painting has its own evolution and voice that I’m trying to pay attention to. It’s always trying to find that serendipitous accident, really.” He has five to eight paintings on the go at once. “I’ll have them around me, and so I’ll always be influenced by them and contemplating the composition, and if they’re finished or there’s an area to resolve.” He also tries to push his own boundaries. “I intentionally set up challenges to try to resolve, like colour palettes that are difficult to reconcile, in order to create more push and pull in the colour. As an artist it keeps me interested in the process, because when you’re painting day in, day out, you have to find inspiration.” As a final step, he varnishes the work, which not only protects the paint but intensifies the colour and creates depth. This semi-abstract/landscape style of painting has been Speirs’ main repertoire since 2007. At that time, he was teaching art at Portland State University and primarily painting commissioned

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Ablation. Acrylic and oil on panel, 72 x 48 inches, 2016.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

Taking Chances. Acrylic and oil on panel, 48 x 48 inches, 2016.

ARTICULATE 19

PRESERVING THE PAST

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE portraits. When a fellow professor mentioned she was excited to get to her studio, Speirs realized he had lost his own enthusiasm. To get it back, he decided to take a landscape painting and abstract it. “That was the first painting that launched me into this present abstract landscape. I was intending to go completely abstract, but the horizon line kept appearing. I realized I was really being influenced by my lifetime experience of being in nature.” Speirs is grateful to be able to make a living as an artist, completing 40 to 50 pieces per year and selling 30 to 40 of them. In fact, he had completed a glacier painting to serve as a demonstration for the Langham residency but sold it before the residency even began. He hopes to create six paintings during his six weeks at the centre, which he may then build into a larger body of work. Speirs explains his paintings are a sum of “the events of my life passions: my art discipline, wilderness experiences, spiritual discipline and passion for environmental preservation. I like to think this is an intimate quality that becomes transparent, allowing the work to be honest and accessible to viewers.”

Prelude of What’s to Come. Oil on panel, 48 x 40 inches, 2016. (Detail)

20 FALL/WINTER 2016-17

Kentree Speirs is Artist in Residence at Kaslo’s Langham Cultural Centre from November 4 to December 16, supported in part by the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance and Columbia Basin Trust. Learn more at kentreespeirs.com and thelangham.ca.

Fernie Museum

Community Archives Centre

Fernie Museum director-curator Ron Ulrich shows material from the archives collection to Mayor Mary Guiliano, Randal Macnair and Lindsay Vallance at the opening of the Community Archives Centre, March 2016. Photo courtesy Fernie Museum

by Margaret Tessman Over the years the Fernie Museum has faced ongoing challenges in the housing and management of its archival collections. The museum was left homeless in 1999 when the Catholic Church rectory that held the collections was torn down. The materials were moved to storage until 2004 when a “pop-up museum” was opened in a Fernie strip mall. Complicating the situation was the reality that small museums operate with largely volunteer staff and consequently lack the resources to manage their archival collections to professional standards. The museum moved to its present location in downtown Fernie in 2010 after entering into a 25-year lease with the City on the former 1910 Home Bank building. Even with a new, permanent public space, the archive and artifact collections were still left unattended in four separate storage venues. Scotiabank came to the rescue with the donation of a suite of offices. “It was a huge gift for us,” says museum director Ron Ulrich. “We now have a public reference room, archive storage and office space for our museum intern.” The space was up and running in April and provides the museum with an opportunity to build a new foundation for community programming, a goal of the museum’s strategic plan for 2016–20. “Our primary goals are to enhance community engagement and mount rotating exhibits of our archival collection,” says Ron. Hence, the creation of the Community Memory Project. Ron calls the archival collection “the backbone of the museum,” but its usefulness has been limited by its disorganized state. “The previous director did a good job with oral history and photographs,” says Ron, “but in terms of local history Fernie didn’t have a lot of research that was formalized.” The museum began to do an inventory and started cataloguing its collections, then turned its attention to the preservation of community history. “We had information on major figures from Fernie’s past but little understanding of everyday stories,” says Ron. “From an archive and research perspective, that information could be lost if we didn’t collect history from families now.” Ron cites the example of museum curator Lori Bradish’s grandfather, who was interned at the Morrissey camp during the First World War. Lori and her daughter don’t know the stories of that part of their family’s history. Lori’s mother-in-law, who is frail, is the last generation with those old memories still intact. The goal of the Community Memory Project is to establish research on the period from 1898 to 1921 in a framework that records can be fit into: family histories, community histories and business histories. The project will be undertaken in several phases and with

different segments of the community. The early days of Fernie were marked by an influx of European immigrants who came to work in the mining industry that thrived in the Elk Valley. In late 2015 the museum presented an exhibition entitled “The Rise & Fall of Emilio Picariello,” which looked at the life of this colourful figure from Fernie’s past. A bootlegger and Fernie businessman, Emilio was eventually hanged for murder in 1923. The Picariello exhibit was the catalyst for the development of a pilot project on the Italian community in Fernie. The Italian Cultural Memory Project was spearheaded by Dr. Adriana Davies, former executive director of the Alberta Museums Association and a leading curator and researcher. An August workshop led by Dr. Davies, Oral History 101, was geared to teaching and promoting basic standards of archival collection and research practices for small museums and archives. The workshop expanded to include five interviews with Fernie old-timers and the project will continue to collect material over the next year. Project staff and volunteers will work with local families, organizations and businesses to document their stories using records, oral histories and photographs. “This project will create a template for working with other ethnocultural communities,” says Dr. Davies. “It will build the archival and museum collections and provide opportunities for members of Fernie’s pioneer families to share their stories and artifacts with the museum and the community at large.” The formalization of the archives also means that historical researchers and amateur genealogists will no longer have to dig through random collections to find the material they need. Ron Ulrich hopes that the Slav and Ukrainian communities will be the next subjects whose history will be collected by the project. The next big projects for Fernie Museum will be moving its artifact collection and continuing to digitize its archival photograph collection. Beginning in January the museum launched a digital archive that presently houses 1,250 images on its website, part of the collection of over 9,000 photographs that will be progressively made available online. Funding was also received to create an exhibit for the Virtual Museum of Canada website, the largest digital source of stories and experiences shared by Canada’s museums and heritage organizations (virtualmuseum.ca/virtualexhibits). Ron Ulrich is optimistic that the reorganization of the museum’s collections and the recording and preservation of Fernie’s early history is heading in the right direction. “We are working toward public competence in our collection management,” says Ron Ulrich. “By 2020 we will have made a good start.” ferniemuseum.com

ARTICULATE 21

collaboration

Relic & Reliquary that Graham’s explorations of different mediums in paint and collage were compatible with his own explorations of materials in his sculptures. Toller’s sculptures have a sense of age, of history, through the materials he uses; Graham’s paintings, layering a new coat of paint over older ones, create a sense of time. Both men share a congruent aesthetic sense. Rob Toller started sculpting as a hobby when he lived in High River, Alberta, but it wasn’t until he moved to Kimberley that he entered any of his work in a public exhibition. Since 2011 he has regularly won prizes in the

Michael Graham

Photo: Margaret Tessman

contemporary images from fragments of history By Michael Redfern

Relic: an object surviving from an earlier time, a remaining part or fragment Reliquary: a container for (holy) relics A mutual friend first introduced Nelson artist Michael Graham to the work of Kimberley sculptor Rob Toller in the summer of 2014. Graham was enthralled by Toller’s use of raw materials, such as rusty metal machine parts, that had at one time served a utilitarian function. And when Toller later toured Graham’s studio in Nelson, he realized

22 FALL/WINTER 2016-17

Untitled. Mixed media on board, 2016.

Photo: Michael Graham

annual Arts on the Edge exhibition in the Gallery at Centre 64. His pieces can be found in homes and gardens both in and far beyond the community. In June 2013 Toller held his first one-man show at Centre 64 and sold a gallery record-breaking 17 of the 29 pieces exhibited. Michael Graham’s interest in painting stems partly from his work on set designs in Vancouver during the 1980s. Since then he has managed the Living Room Theatre Company and the Grid Gallery in Nelson, earning a reputation both as an actor and a visual artist. Graham works spontaneously with combinations of materials, creating roughly layered images, sometimes superimposing images of everyday life on areas of unbroken colour or hidden in the layers, leaving the viewer to discover them. His previous exhibition at Centre 64 with Kimberley artist Helen Robertson was entitled “Pentimento,” an exploration of surfaces and the layers beneath.

collaboration Graham and Toller agreed to create an exhibition together, but Toller already had the month of October 2016 booked for a solo exhibition in Kimberley’s Gallery at Centre 64. They made the decision to collaborate on the month-long show, which is sure to create a unique environment for visitors to the gallery. The planned installation will alert viewers’ senses as they move through specific shrine-like spaces, experiencing the history and spirituality of the artworks. The experience will be much more than just looking at pictures on a wall. When the gallery’s administrator demanded a title for the exhibition, the relics of metal, wood, stone and other materials that littered Toller’s studio and the containers he sometimes created from these materials inspired the title “Relic & Reliquary.” Having agreed on the theme, both artists were then presented with the challenge of creating works that addressed it. Toller decided to play with forms that evoke a sense of the rituals, traditions and religions of our culture to create sculptures that suggest a deeper meaning in cultural practice. One such is a copper-bound book on a stand evocative of sermons from the pulpit; another is a birchbark barrel filled with seeds that references harvest traditions. Mixed media, larger-than-life figure sculptures suggest ancient guardians and a boat form might be a container for a funeral pyre in ancient cultures. For Graham the problem of how to infuse the theme into his work took longer to figure out. He started by pulling out old canvases and rusty bits and pieces with a view to redeveloping them. He decided to blow up photographs he has collected of rusty surfaces, graphitized rail cars and textured boards, transfer them onto old paintings so that elements of the painting show through the photo image, and then paint on top to enhance the images. A particular photo of a rotting pile of paper and wire, a fascinating image in itself, overlaid on an old painting, and finished with deft paintwork, will be one feature of the upcoming exhibition. Another is an old canvas of graffiti painted in bright colours that has been put through a washing machine to fade the colours before new paint is applied. Yet another is a rust-dyed old canvas made by soaking it in vinegar and wrapping it around rusting metal, which creates dye patterns. Graham is also making some ceramic pieces. Together Toller and Graham will design the exhibition— Graham’s background in theatre lends itself to staging the show—with the gallery hanging committee merely spectators, an unusual role for them. It speaks much to the trust and admiration in which these two artists are held at the Gallery at Centre 64. “I am really enjoying this collaboration working with Rob,” says Graham. “Rob’s really inspiring to me. Rob and I think a lot alike. We are kindred spirits.” Toller feels this project is taking his work to another level, a greater depth. “Usually my work is process-driven: what can be done with the materials, rock, wood, metal? For this project I am incorporating more natural forms into what I do. This show is more deliberate, a good growing experience. It’s more restrictive at times but it’s good to have a focus.” “Relic & Reliquary” opens in Kimberley at the Gallery at Centre 64 on September 27 and runs until October 22. Gallery hours are 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and admission is free. kimberleyarts.com

Rob Toller Rob Toller’s backyard palette of reclaimed metal and wood.

Photos: John Allen

ARTICULATE 23

READING TOUR

Booked! Fernie Writers’ Series

Caroline Adderson

Photo: Rafal Gerszak

Jon Turk

A night out with authors by Barbara D. Janusz “Terry Fallis had just finished his book tour of Southern Ontario when he came to Fernie,” recalls Randal Macnair during our telephone interview. “And he was amazed that more people showed up for his reading here than in Toronto!” Fallis is the bestselling author of five novels, including Poles Apart and Up and Down, and Macnair—a twenty-year Fernie resident and publisher of Oolichan Books—was paying tribute to the success of Booked! Fernie Writers’ Series. Collaboratively conceived four years ago by Macnair, Fernie library director Emma Dressler and local author Angie Abdou, the series has hosted, thanks to Abdou’s prodigious Can-lit contacts, highcalibre authors and celebrities. Past participants have included John Vaillant, author of The Golden Spruce and The Jaguar’s Children, Will Ferguson, whose recent novel 419 defies his reputation as a witty humorist, and CBC’s host of The Next Chapter, Shelagh Rogers. While Rogers garnered an impressive standing-room-only audience “with fans,” according to Abdou, “coming all the way from Red Deer to see her,” musician and author Dave Bidini two years earlier attracted a younger, particularly male, mountain biking and snowboarding crowd. From the start, Booked! has appealed to the older bookish bracket, but the organizers of the series were intent upon enticing Fernie’s younger demographic to attend the quarterly literary events. Their choice of Bidini, rhythm guitarist with the Rheostatics and bestselling author of On a Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian Rock—a memoir about the touring musician’s life—proved to be a hit with both sets of residents.

24 FALL/WINTER 2016-17

Photo: Erik Boomer

Alix Hawley

Photo: Mike Hawley

Fernie Heritage Library, the venue for the series, has been hosting author readings for decades but Booked! was conceived as not only a celebration of the literary arts but also of the town of Fernie. The library is housed in the restored historic post office building, originally constructed in 1909. Its vaulted ceiling and windows on the main floor face west, and save for the January event when twilight falls in late afternoon, patrons of the series are treated to the breathtaking spectacle of the sun setting over the Rocky Mountains. Whenever I’ve attended the series, the authors, whose backs are to the vaulted windows, can’t help but crane their necks to catch a glimpse of the jaw-dropping alpine backdrop. The evening begins with local musicians—Red Girl, Wild Honey, Hark Sirens and The Bun Ins are just some of the past performers— providing background music for the socializing crowd. Randal and Angie then introduce the guest author or celebrity and after a reading and questions from the audience authors are available to sign books offered for sale by Polar Peek Books, Fernie’s independent bookseller. The interview or question and answer session that follows each reading “makes the audience feel,” says Dressler, “that they’re having an intimate experience with the author. It exposes the audience to something stimulating.” Abdou agrees and adds that Fernie is home to many book clubs. “The series,” she says, “is a way to enhance the experience of book club participants.” It also brings the wider world to a small, isolated community. When I asked Abdou to share a particularly memorable moment with a guest author, she laughed about Amber Dawn, author of How Poetry Saved My Life: A Hustler’s Memoir, asking the audience whether Fernie has any massage parlours. While the audience thought that Dawn was asking about Fernie’s many spas that cater to weekenders and tourists

READING TOUR and answered in the affirmative, Dawn, a former sex worker in Vancouver’s infamous Downtown Eastside, was of course referring to brothels. “We forget how small our town is,” Abdou says, “and what is going on in the big cities.” Prior to donning the hat of publisher of Oolichan Books, Macnair served five terms on Fernie town council, two of them as mayor. For Macnair, the focus of the writers’ series is to boost appreciation of the literary arts and to complement the numerous arts and culture events held at Fernie Arts Station and the museum, the annual

Michael Helm

Photo: Alexandria Rockingham

Wapiti Music Festival, the summer concert series and the seasonal Fernie Mountain Market that connects the public with local food producers and artisans. “Build a better community and they will come,” says Macnair. Drawing upon urban and regional planner Laurence A.G. Moss’ concept of amenity migration, Macnair believes that while the amenities of scenery, wildlife, fresh air and water lure city dwellers to small mountain towns, “urban amenities also attract people to small communities.” Although Fernie has been on the map as a world-class ski and outdoor recreation destination for years, its sustainability as a small community, even while it attracts amenity migrants, can’t be taken for granted. Like many mountain towns, Fernie’s economy has historically been resource based, relying on mining and logging for employment and its property tax base, but as our planet becomes poised to embrace a post-carbon future it’s become critical for rural communities to reinvent themselves. Dressler describes the series as “not only a night out, but about building community.” “More and more,” Abdou says, “the Canadian literary world is hearing about what a great place we have and how welcoming we are to authors.” And while authors hosted by the series are an inspiration to Fernie residents, other small rural communities are looking to Fernie as “the little mountain town that could.” The 2016–17 season lineup has been finalized, with authors Jon Turk, September 15; Alix Hawley, October 14; Michael Helm, January 13; and Caroline Adderson, March 10. Barbara D. Janusz is a Crowsnest Pass-based writer and the author of the novel Mirrored in the Caves.

ARTICULATE 25

NEW & NOTEWORTHY

NEW & NOTEWORTHY

CD and BOOK releases

Holly Hyatt and Jon Burden, Shufflin’ The Blues Shufflin’ The Blues is the fourth recording from duo Holly Hyatt and Jon Burden. Their previous release, 1929: The Summit Sessions, drew rave reviews and won best acoustic blues album categories in 2012. A review from Blues In Britain magazine wrote: “Such is the quality of the original songs, that you could be forgiven for thinking that old classics had been unearthed.” Holly and Jon have chosen to showcase the electric side of their music with this new album. By plugging their instruments in and adding a percussionist, the sound of the duo leans toward the west side Chicago blues trios of the early 1960s. Recorded live in front of a small audience, the CD is a nine-song tour de force that pays tribute to Chicago blues, Delta blues and home style, original blues. Holly Hyatt and Jon Burden have played shows with the likes of Harry Manx, Colin James, Jim Byrnes, Ruthie Foster, Sonny Rhodes, Rita Chiarelli and Leon Russell. They will be touring in the Kootenays this fall in support of the release of Shufflin’ The Blues. Check the website for dates and venues: hollyandjon.com.

Sexton Blake, Granted Sexton Blake’s debut album Granted is out now, a mixture of pop, indie, hip-hop, synth-y, energetic fun from the garage to the studio to you. Trail actor and musician Nadine Tremblay created her alter ego Sexton Blake for the launch of her career as a songstress and DJ. “These songs are the first of many that oozed out of me, mostly about anxiety, dreams of joining the circus, ruminations on this crazy world and love, always love,” says Blake. Sexton explains, “I’m still finding my voice but I am classically trained and have always sung in harmony and can’t help integrating said elements of my background into my song writing.” Sexton’s mandate when playing live is to entertain you so much that there is nowhere else you’d rather be at that moment. She extends her thanks to CKCA for the grant used to create this first album. sextonblakemusic.com

Certified Mango, Wild Still Yonder Certified Mango, the Silverton/Rosebery/Kaslo-based world jazz band, has just completed its first album, entitled Wild Still Yonder—languid tangos, sultry funky rumbas and mellow bossa novas. Recording sessions took place at A Manor of Sight and Sound in Rosebery with band members Aiko Jackson, Shelley Dobie, Tsuneko “Koko” Kokubo, Howard Bearham (who donned another hat as recording engineer) and Paul “Garbanzo” Gibbons. The material was produced, mixed and mastered by Gibbons at Food of Love Records near Silverton, with regular feedback from other band members. “It was great to have input from all the musicians during the technical process, and this has resulted in a more ‘organic’ feel to the album,” says Gibbons. There is a full 70 minutes of music on the CD. Certified Mango would like to thank the Columbia Basin Trust, the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance and the Slocan Lake Gallery Society for assistance in making this album. CDs are available at Raven’s Nest in New Denver, Pack Rat Annie’s in Nelson, Mountain Fruit Folklore Centre in Kaslo and online at cdbaby.com/cd/certifiedmango.

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Out of Poverty: Living and Teaching in Asia, Judy Smith ISBN 9781988186184 Tellwell Talent, 2016 Review by Rita Moir Judy Smith and husband Roger Cristofoli set out on a 13year odyssey that began in 1999 when they sought economic salvation by joining the cadre of Canadians teaching English overseas. Smith had worked as a nurse in northern Canada in difficult and impoverished conditions. She later wrote about that experience in Native Blood: Nursing on the Reservation (Oberon Press, 1994). She and Cristofoli, a teacher and carpenter, ended up teaching in Oman, Thailand, China and South Korea, with brief stints in Jordan and Poland. Over those years contracts went sour, housing was deplorable, students cared less and co-workers were often weird and unpredictable. But that’s not the whole story by any stretch. There were many good times: teaching engaged and intelligent students in China; in the midst of a modern Islamic country, a spontaneous Christmas potluck complete with friends and smuggled ornaments festooning a single branch; Smith singing and Cristofoli on his Gibson, teaching Canadian folks songs. Their years of work overseas became their way of life. It challenged their ability to adapt, negotiate, leave bad situations, and to acknowledge and examine their own preconceptions and stereotypes. With the use of prose, poetry, photos and letters home, Smith provides a primer for anyone thinking of teaching overseas. If you’re looking for a view through rose-coloured lenses, this isn’t the book for you. If you want one woman’s truth of cultures and countries she grew to despise or to love, then this book delivers. As Smith says in retrospect and to her astonishment, “The most difficult travelling experiences were also the most enjoyable.”

Rhoneil, Nature//Cosmos Nature//Cosmos consists of 12 songs, recorded in tandem with one year of lunar cycles. Rhoneil went hiking on each new moon, allowing a song to emerge from the landscape, and would spend the rest of that moon cycle completing the song. The entire recording process was done in her home studio in Winlaw. The end result is an album that tells a story of birth, growth, harvest and death through the lens of human experience. “Nothing real is ever truly lost,” she writes. “Nature is constantly being reborn as are we. Over and over again, we are refined, distilled and shaped by our experiences. The meaning that we create out of our experiences influences how beautiful the pattern of our lives will become.” Nature//Cosmos is available on line at rhoneil.bandcamp.com/album/nature-cosmos.

Margaret Pacaud Jacquie Hamilton Randi Fjeldseth Maureen Cameron

Carol Palladino Anne Helps David Halliday

ARTICULATE 27

NEW & NOTEWORTHY

A River Captured: The Columbia River Treaty and Catastrophic Change

Eileen Delehanty Pearkes

ISBN 9781771601788 Rocky Mountain Books, 2016 A River Captured explores the controversial history of the Columbia River Treaty and its impact on the ecosystems, indigenous peoples, contemporary culture, provincial politics and recent history of southeastern British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest. Jointly signed by Canada and the U.S. in 1964, the treaty governs the storage and management of the waters of the Upper Columbia River Basin. As a consequence of the treaty terms, over 2,000 residents of over a dozen communities were displaced, archaeological sites were flooded and destroyed, and once-healthy fisheries were upended. At the heart of Pearkes’ book is a discussion of the lack of consultation with local people around the treaty process. Stories of affected individuals are interlaced with accounts of betrayal, broken promises and unfair treatment. The stories serve as a reminder of the significant impact that policies, international agreements and corporate resource extraction can have on a particular place and the people who inhabit it. With one of the treaty’s provisions set to change in 2024, the question of whether or not to renew, renegotiate or terminate the agreement is now being actively discussed by governments and policy makers. A River Captured surveys an important piece of history that can influence debate on who owns water, how water should be valued, the management of fisheries, and the call for more affordable electricity.

Yoga: A Path to Awareness

Swami Sivananda Radha Timeless Books, 2016 Swami Sivananda Radha, the founder of Yasodhara Ashram, was a spiritual guide and inspiration to many. She came to the Eastshore in 1963 and built the ashram (sometimes literally pounding nails) step by step. She also founded Timeless Books, the publishing arm of the ashram, which published 15 of her books. Although Swami Radha died in 1995, many of her lectures and teachings were recorded and archived. Yoga: A Path to Awareness is a collection of 20 essays that introduce Swami Radha’s teachings and practices. “The book is not just for people in our ashram,” says Swami Lalitananda, the ashram’s current president. “Swami Radha teaches that yoga is more than asanas. It’s about self-inquiry, building character, how you live your life. The spiritual life is not different from everyday life. How do you get that quality? Swami Radha’s books are an introduction to various ways in.” Swami Lalitananda hopes that Timeless Books will continue to bring Swami Radha’s teachings forward in the future. “Timeless Books is living up to its name,” she says. timeless.org

Acquired Community, Jane Byers ISBN 978-1-987915-22-8 / 1-987915-22-4 Caitlin Press, 2016 In Nelson poet Jane Byers’ new collection, Acquired Community, key moments in North American lesbian and gay history are used as the historical context for her series of first-person poems. Byers’ narratives place her own coming out experience within the larger context of the gay liberation movement but the poems go beyond the historical and are living examples of progress. Acquired Community examines and celebrates community resilience in the context of raising children, lesbian and gay issues, and health and safety in the workplace. Byers has worked as an ergonomist and vocational rehabilitation consultant for many years. She has had poems, essays and short fiction published in a variety of books and literary magazines in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. Her first book of poetry, Steeling Effects, was published by Caitlin Press in 2014.

Life Circles

Nelson mixed-media artist Jane Merks’ modular wall piece entitled Life Circles has been accepted into “World of Threads,” an international textile exhibition in Oakville, Ontario. The piece incorporates over 5,000 circles and measures 16-by-13 feet. “I started crocheting these little circles as a way to relax and de-stress after a long day,” says Jane. “I scrounged secondhand stores for discarded balls of cotton thread, sent out a call to friends and colleagues and asked them to raid the forgotten stashes of all their relatives, all to feed my new habit.” Jane calls Life Circles a metaphor for the passage of time and the changes and repetition in our lives, with bright spots interspersed throughout. “World of Threads” will take place in the gallery of the Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Centre in Oakville from October 29 to November 27. The exhibition will feature over 134 artists from 24 countries.

KUDOS

Mint Condition

Stephanie Gauvin’s art chosen for coin series Four paintings by Stephanie Gauvin, a professional artist from Rossland, are now showcased on $20 silver coins in the Canadian Landscape series. The Royal Canadian Mint commissioned Gauvin in March 2014 because her work stood out as a good fit for the project. “We knew that she specializes in the type of landscape artwork that we were looking for to feature on the coin,” said Christine Aquino, director of communications for the mint. “And we’re always looking to work with new artists, so it was a good fit.” The oneounce coins sell for $100 and are part of a limited mintage of 7,500 coins. The coins feature images of the Rockies, Lake Magog in Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park, a Rossland ski chalet and Idaho Peak, all inspired by natural settings in the region. artiststephaniegauvin.com; mint.ca/store.

Touchstones Executive Director Leah Best Moves On After 11 years at Touchstones Nelson Museum of Art and History, Executive Director Leah Best will be embarking on a new adventure in Victoria, heading up the Knowledge Department at the Royal BC Museum. “Making the decision to leave was very difficult,” says Leah. “I will genuinely miss working in such a close-knit community.” Touchstones Nelson will celebrate its tenth anniversary this fall. Leah credits the board, the City of Nelson and the project staff along with Shawn Lamb for making Touchstones Nelson a reality. “From the beginning, we wanted to establish a trusting relationship with the community with respect to the quality of our work, our financial competency and our commitment to focusing on our local and regional mandate,” says Leah. “I know the future of this organization will be bright and I will look on from my new post in Victoria with great interest.”

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28 FALL/WINTER 2016-17

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news

LAST WORD

continued from page 5

Editorial

cypher. We are keen to continue to offer opportunities for them to develop their skills and appreciation for hip-hop culture.

Power of Dance

Youth in their search for identity and context find valuable tools in dance for community building, self-expression, and discipline building.

The Transformative

Can Art Build the World We Want?

by Slava Doval

Photo: Vladimir Doval

Tsuneko Kokubo, A Child’s Dream of Peace. Acrylic on canvas.

by Maggie Shirley The West Kootenay has long been a haven for immigrants with a vision for social change, such as the Doukhobors, Quakers and war resisters. At the same time, since the arrival of European settlers our Ktunaxa, Sinixt and other First Nations neighbours throughout the region have faced resettlement, residential schools and the desecration of sacred sites. During the Second World War, Japanese Canadians were interned in the Slocan Valley and in Kaslo. With this background of varied history, the Mir Centre at Selkirk College hosted an international Peace & Justice Studies conference in September entitled “Obstructing the Old or Constructing the New? Embracing the Tension to Build the World We Want.” In response to the conference theme, the Kootenay Gallery of Art has created an exhibition, “Building the World We Want: Kootenay Traditions, Kootenay Visions,” that will run at the gallery until November 5. So why create an art exhibition about building the world we want? What role or capacity does art have to play in this context? Political artists and art critics have long struggled with questions such as, “Can art change the world?” The Dadaist movement rose up in response to the horrors of the First World War. It irrevocably changed art, but did it change society? Even with today’s social and political art movements, there are disagreements about the answers to these questions.

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While visual art may not have the same scope of influence or impact on society as other phenomena such as pop culture, it does have a place in our collective consciousness. Artists are often our observers and commentators on both history and contemporary culture. Art can inspire questions, ideas and discussion that add to the dialogue on how to build the world we want. A topic as broad as building the world we want offers a wide range of possibilities from which to construct an exhibition, but also creates challenges in choosing who and what work to include or exclude. The artists chosen for the Kootenay Gallery exhibition present a variety of perspectives on this expansive topic. Some, such as Ian Johnston (ceramic installation), Judy Wapp (collage) and Julie Castonguay (sculpture), offer social and environmental critiques. Both Amy Bohigian (animated film) and Tanya Pixie Johnson (illuminated paper cuts) reach back through time to connect to the present and the future in their work. Kari Burk (digital collage), J.P. Gilhuly (charcoal and painting) and Tsuneko Kokubo (painting) contribute intimate portraits that document narratives of lives lived. George Koochin (sculpture) and Genevieve Gagnon (socially engaged art) speak to hopes and ideas for the future. Collectively, the artists create a collage of insights into our history and our current lives, both joyful and painful. They offer questions, ideas and ways forward to building a better world. Kootenay Gallery of Art, Castlegar, September 23 to November 5. kootenaygallery.com.

Dance as an artistic medium has the power to transform the physical body as well as the emotional life of those who study, create and even view it. Dancers who train regularly develop strength and flexibility that can alter the way they live inside their physicality and psyche. As a dance instructor I am fortunate to witness people of all ages finding a part of their identity in their exploration of music and movement.

There is a sweet spot in my heart for the youth, fumbling through the awkward coming-of-age changes, and the tenderness they bring to class. As their teacher I can get a fairly accurate read on personality in just a few technique exercises. It is hard to hide in dance class; your vulnerabilities and strengths are so visibly expressed in front of your teacher and peers. I have held students as they cried during class, coached them on the phone about social challenges and tried to provide support to families facing eating disorders. Often I am painfully aware of the dynamics the teen girls are having in their social groups or in front of the mirror. It’s almost as if you can hear their internal dialogue through their movements. These moments are tender and raw, and to be nurtured in a creative safe space. I have seen many a shy tweener who may not have the words to express themself socially but find dance as a way to give their emotional world a voice. They connect to a song and all of a sudden their angst, hormones, confusion, melancholy or whatever it may be in that moment has a platform to work itself out. As their bodies strengthen, their wills strengthen and their confidence builds, and their ability to express a range of emotions grows exponentially. “Thank you for being my teacher, for all the opportunities, and for making me realize that dance isn’t just about the steps or the routine, but that it’s about letting your emotions show through every single movement.” Mélodie Giguère, age 13. The handmade cards at the year-end show always bring my tears out; their earnest desire to shine and be seen is so heartfelt and authentic. They start to own the choreography and their contribution to something larger, and it marks a part of their maturation process. What about the boys? At our studio they have found a home in breakdance and hip-hop, and in the culture of the freestyle cypher or circle. In that context they work on their individual expression and flavour and create their own sets to enter into the

Transformation can happen at any age and in a way, as we get older the impact of dance can be more apparent when we take away the changes that biologically happen during youth. Just as with the youth, I have held teary-eyed adults coming to terms with their internal dialogue about their abilities and negative notions about their bodies. Some have had traumatic experiences as children or teens, or feel that it is “too late” to learn something new, or that they lack strength or flexibility and therefore can’t dance. My life has been transformed and then formed by dance, not the other way around, which sometimes feels backwards for a dance teacher. Growing up in a newly landed Slovak emigrant back-to-the-land family, we had no resources for extracurricular activities (we didn’t even have a house), so dance training wasn’t on the agenda. A brief series of East Indian dance classes when I was seven or eight at Yasodhara Ashram served as the entry point for my vivid imagination and love of the mystical. After that I would often borrow my mother’s pearl necklace along with her one skirt, take them outside and create elaborate ritualistic dances in honour of the wind, the moon and imaginary deities. Dance went dormant as an interest until my early 20s when I was living in San Miguel, Mexico, and exploring my creative side by taking classes in lithography, photography, engraving, tango, belly dance, contact improv and flamenco. Still, dance was just an exploration along with many other creative pursuits. In my later 20s I started a youth dance group with my niece and her four best friends. We would drink rose petal tea (that I had wildcrafted) and talk about their weekly struggles and triumphs as 12-year-old budding women, then we would skirt dance to Mexican or Balkan music and sometimes perform at MarketFest. I still never connected the dots of dance being my life path until my early 30s when I found myself with a full-time job teaching and directing my own school, which had grown so organically it surprised me once we were in full bloom. Now my life is fully formed by my passionate pursuit of dance. My own youth was full of melancholy in many ways and a vague sense of directionless floating. I never had a clear path: I had a sense I wanted to share, give and be a part of something creative, but what? So now my advice to my younger friends is to say YES to new opportunities, especially the ones that evoke passion, joy and a tinge of fear, the kind of fear that pushes our growth and comfort. That’s the kind that has the power to transform our bodies, minds and hearts. Slava Doval is the director and founder of DanceFusion, a Nelsonbased dance school with 8 teachers and 250 students of all ages. Slava and her DanceFusion troupes perform at many of the major Kootenay music festivals, as well at the Capitol Theatre for their annual student showcase in April. Slava is the current dance sector representative on the Cultural Development Committee for the City of Nelson.

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TRISTAN UND ISOLDE Saturday October 8 9:00 AM

DON GIOVANNI

Saturday October 22 9:55 AM

L’AMOUR DE LOIN

Saturday December 10 9:55 AM

NABUCCO

Saturday January 7 9:55 AM

ROMÉO ET JULIETTE

Saturday January 21 9:55 AM

RUSALKA

Saturday February 25 9:55 AM

LA TRAVIATA

Saturday March 11 9:55 AM

IDOMENEO

Saturday April 8 9:00 AM

EUGENE ONEGIN

Saturday April 22 9:55 AM

DER ROSENKAVALIER Saturday May 20 9:00 AM

BALLET SERIES

MISS SAIGON 25th Anniversary Performance Thursday November 3 7:00 PM

The Bolshoi Ballet

THE NUTCRACKER Sunday December 11 11:00 AM

The Bolshoi Ballet

THE SLEEPING BEAUTY

Sunday January 22 9:55am

1597 Bay Avenue, Downtown Trail

24-hr. Info (250) 364-2114 • Office (250) 231-5672

Visit us Online @ www.royaltheatretrail.com

The Bolshoi Ballet

SWAN LAKE

Sunnday February 12 9:55am

2016 17

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