Small Confession about La La La
Posted by Paul Caskey on February 9, 2012OK, if you’ve passed through those lean student times you may sympathise with my predicament… There I am, freshly arrived in Montreal from Vancouver, trying to carve out a little presence in the dance community, cash strapped but very much into seeing every ounce of dance that was exploding off of Montreal’s stages. It was ’91 or ’92, La La la Human Steps was playing at Place des Arts, and I still hadn’t seen this juggernaut of a company… (I had just missed them a few years earlier in Vancouver when their Human Sex show sold out the Cultch in, like, three seconds flat). While my lean-times wallet said no, my heart resoundingly said yes. What’s a boy to do? I went to Place des Arts thinking maybe a scalper? A lucky benefactor with an extra ticket? A sneak? I joined the throng looking for opportunity; as luck would have it I found no one with an extra ticket for my viewing pleasure. I did however catch the eye of a couple of others who also seemed to be looking for a crafty way in. I introduced myself in my broken French of the time and lo and behold: one … Continue reading
The Tedd Factor
Posted by Paul Caskey on January 20, 2012I had the great pleasure of watching a world premiere dance performance last night. (Check out the Arts East review) Premieres are fun as you never know what you’re in store for; choreographer Tedd Robinson summed it up well in a pre-show chat when he discussed the nature of (contemporary) dance and that it is for people who appreciate adventure. Well, adventure is to be had in Tedd’s latest work on Mocean Dance, just as it is in Claudia Moore and Dan Wild’s performance of Robinson and James Kudelka’s choreography that opens the program. For the record: I like adventure and will define it as a voyage of discovery (that does not necessarily imply travel) where our senses are treated to unknown (and unsuspected) information. All that is required of us is to go along for the ride and be receptive along the way. We may not know where we’re going but we should recognise that we’ve arrived (and perhaps even by which path). Claudia Moore’s Dances in a Small Room – comprised of Robinson’s lone some and Kudelka’s Half an hour of Our Time – is an intimate study on inhabiting space that simply reminds me that sometimes the … Continue reading
Arts Nova Scotia is born!
Posted by Paul Caskey on December 2, 2011Yesterday marked a momentous occasion in Nova Scotia, as two pieces of legislation were tabled by Darrell Dexter’s New Democrats, the first to establish Arts Nova Scotia, a new arm’s length arts council, and the second to formalise the structure and mandate of the Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council, an advisory body that will lead the development of a provincial culture strategy. As part of the committee charged with the responsibility of developing the terms of reference for Arts Nova Scotia, the past several months have been an extremely exciting period that I feel privileged to have participated in (A copy of the Arts Nova Transition Committee Report can be found here). Pam Birdsall, MLA for Lunenburg, chaired a committee composed of Leah Hamilton, Chris Shore, and myself, and lead our meetings in a fashion that was wonderfully collaborative and open to very frank discussion. As a relative newcomer to the province, it was amazing to witness the collective wealth of knowledge of this province’s cultural history embodied by this group. We spent a fair bit of time discussing “arm’s length”, looking at existing models, and brainstorming how to apply best practices to our region. Given the, some would say … Continue reading
O Goodness!
Posted by Paul Caskey on November 24, 2011Cycling in to work this morning I was trying to remember the first time I saw O Vertigo founder Ginette Laurin’s choreography. After much wrestling into the murky depths of my grey matter I am convinced the answer goes back to 1988 when I was studying dance at Simon Fraser University and saw Full House (at the Cultch or the Firehall!!??). Curious to refresh those synapses, I googled Laurin + Full House and, if I may digress, two sites of interest popped up: The first was connected to the Government of Saskatchewan’s Grade 6 Arts Education curriculum – Model Unit for Teaching Dance, Lesson 4: Looking at a Choreographer’s work. Holy…! Kids in Saskatchewan are studying Ginette Laurin’s 1987 work Full House! That is SO cool! Here is an excerpt: Explain that sometimes choreographers observe movements seen in daily life and change or abstract the movements for their dances. Discuss what abstraction means to students. Show examples or have students think of examples they have seen in visual art or cartoons. Discuss ways every-day movements could be abstracted (for example, by modifying the elements of dance). Make connections between abstracted every-day or environmental movements and movements seen in the dances … Continue reading
The sky’s the limit
Posted by Paul Caskey on November 15, 2011A quick tour around Bill Coleman and Laurence Lemieux’s website (Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie) reveals a pair of artists who know no bounds. While a good chunk of their individual and collective experience includes an abundance of works made for the stage, it also includes a number of projects others would only dream of. You know, the “wouldn’t it be cool if…” kind of musings born from good drink and spirited company. Wouldn’t it be cool if we took over a town in the middle of the prairies and invited a who’s who collection of artists to come and make work and got all the townspeople to be involved and then did a performance in Grasslands National Park? How about: Wouldn’t it be cool if we made a play list of Sun Ra songs, assembled a kick ass ensemble of dancers from across Canada, and then invited the Arkestra to come and play live us? Ya, we could even go on tour with them!! I don’t know where they get their ideas, but what ideas they get. The Grasslands Project (Where Heaven Meets Earth) happened in 2004 (and the Gros Morne Project in 2006), and Hymn to the Universe has … Continue reading
Latest Blog Post
Small Confession about La La La
Posted by Paul Caskey on February 9, 2012OK, if you've passed through those lean student times you may sympathise with my predicament... There I am, freshly arrived in Montreal from Vancouver, trying to carve out a little presence in the dan... [read more]
Social Sharing
Contact Live Art Dance
PO Box 282, Hfx Central, Halifax
Nova Scotia, Canada, B3J 2N7
(902) 420-0003
info@liveartdance.ca
