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| Aeriosa Fall 2009 Newsletter |
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Aeriosa Dance Society
305-2181 West 38th Ave
Vancouver BC V6M 1R8
www.aeriosa.com
Artistic Director
Julia Taffe
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UPCOMING AERIOSA PERFORMANCE
CACHOEIRA
October 1, 2009
5:00 PM (30 minutes)
Scotiabank Dance Centre
677 Davie Street
Dancing down the North wall -rain or shine
FREE - donations welcome
Choreography by Julia Taffe
Performed
by Julia Carr, Theresa Carroll, Lisa Gelley, Meghan Goodman, Kira
Schaffer, Keely Sills, Cara Siu, Julia Taffe, Charlie Wilson
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Aeriosa Fall Newsletter
September 2009
A Message from Julia Taffe, Artistic Director
Dear Members and Friends,
Happy Fall! The
dancers and I are in our fifth and final week of rehearsals on the 22m
north wall of the Dance Centre Building in downtown Vancouver. It
is a unique workspace - a vast rectangle of gray concrete above a
narrow parking lot just off Granville and Davie. The setting is
gritty and urban and we've been attracting attention from casual
bystanders on the street. I've received some great feedback while
sitting at the base of the wall with boom box and picnic chair in my
dusty dance clothes. The weather has been mostly warm and sunny
and even though rain was forecast on September 19th - a magic blue hole
appeared in the sky right above the Dance Centre and we shared our Open
House Rehearsal with 160 people. Thanks to all of you who made it
out, it was a pleasure to see so many upturned faces as we poked our
heads over the building.
If you missed the Open House you still have the chance to see the premiere of Cachoeira
on October 1st. Cachoeira is Portuguese for waterfall and it
refers to the sultry Latin music and cascading flow of dancers down the
wall as the work unfolds. There will be one performance only, at 5 pm on October 1st,
and then we wrap up our residency and say a fond farewell to the
building for a while. A very special thanks to the City of
Vancouver and The Dance Centre for their support of this project.
Next up for Aeriosa is phase two of In Situ
creative development. San Francisco choreographer Amelia Rudolph
will be back in Vancouver working with the dancers and composers Jordan
Nobles and Jocelyn Morlock at Library Square from October 5th to
17th. On October 17th at 3:15 pm Aeriosa will share a sneak peak of new work at the corner of West Georgia and Homer.
All are welcome to join us for this brief 15-minute showing presented
as part of Dance in Vancouver and sponsored by EasyPark.
In
November Aeriosa will be heading into hibernation until March 2010.
When we return we'll be partnering with the 2010 Cultural Olympiad and
presenting the world-premiere of In Situ - a major new work featuring 12 dancers and musicians from The Vertical Orchestra. In Situ
has been in the works for over a year now and it promises to be a very
special performance, so mark your calendars March 17th to 20th 2010,
you won't want to miss this one.
Yours Truly,
Julia Taffe A special thanks to our VPL rehearsal sponsor  |
Cachoeira Images at the Scotiabank Dance Centre. Photographer Tim Matheson.
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Thoughts
on Government Investment in the Arts and Cultural Sector
If you've been following the news recently you've probably heard
about the announcements of massive funding cuts to arts and cultural non-profit
societies in the last provincial government budget update. Aeriosa has been directly impacted by these cuts
through the loss of our Direct Access Gaming Grant for 2009/10. Our gaming grant supported the Aeriosa Free
Performance Program, and went exclusively towards purchases of replacement
safety equipment and fees for artists and technicians for free public
performances around BC.
Although the cuts to Direct Access Gaming
Grants are very important, they are really just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, the provincial government has
announced plans to reduce spending on arts and cultural programs by 85-90% over
the next two years. This will result in
significant job losses across BC.
The
most disappointing aspect of these cuts
is that the arts actually provide an excellent investment opportunity
for
governments. Statistics Canada figures
show that the current provincial funding for the BC Arts Council
represents
only 1/20th of 1% of all government spending in BC, yet the arts and
culture industry creates 78,000 jobs and generates 5.2 billion dollars
in the
BC labour force (figures provided by BC Art Council). According
to the BC government's own studies,
every $1 invested in the arts sector provides a direct return between
$1.05 and
$1.38. With numbers like these, does it make
sense to put so many modest income earners at risk in difficult
economic times? This is a question I encourage you to ask your
elected representatives. It's not to late to make a difference
and the
government needs to know that many people do not support such drastic
cuts.
Please help to make this issue a priority for the
government by contacting your MLA and the Honourable Kevin Krueger, minister of
tourism, culture, and the arts.
You can use the MLA Finder link at http://www.leg.bc.ca/Mla/3-1-1.htm to find
the constituency office address for your local MLA. The Victoria office address for the Honourable
Kevin Krueger, minister of tourism, culture, and the arts is Room 124
Parliament Buildings Victoria, BC V8V 1X4. Just copy and paste the address above into your web browser.
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OUR MISSION
Vancouver-based Aeriosa Dance Society was founded by artistic
director/choreographer Julia Taffe in 2001 to manifest art,
performance, 21st century culture, and express human perception and
sensitivity through dance.
The company's artistic objectives include creating dance in
non-traditional environments, exploring aerial choreography and
revealing dance in the vertical realm to new audiences. The company
combines contemporary dance technique with expert knowledge of safe
rope rigging systems to create three-dimensional performances that
re-interpret gravity and respond to the performance location.
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