Arts Revelstoke:
LUNA Festival
Arts Revelstoke is the founding organisation of LUNA Festival, Noctural Art and Wonder, a three day event featuring installation art, performance and music. In 2019, thanks to programs like Made in BC’s Des Art Dehors (DADAO), LUNA Festival featured several unique indoor/outdoor dance pieces and workshops.
The first was Habiter Sa Memoire, created and performed by Caroline Laurin-Beaucage, where Caroline improvised for 4 hours – from daylight to dark – in a metal box structure with a screen alongside that counted the amount of time she had been dancing. Approximately 7000 people saw the work. In addition to the outdoor performance, two headphone stands offered audience members opportunities to listen to the artist speaking about performing the piece in locations all over the world. Caroline also offered a workshop where she led participants through an exploration of improvised everyday movements and memory.
Isabelle Kirouac, another MiBC DADAO artist, spent a week at an elementary school with The Bird Project. Alongside a puppeteer, students learned about different types of birds, participated in movement workshops and experimented with stilt walking. During the LUNA Festival, the public was invited to make bird puppets and try out the bird costumes at a public workshop held at the farmers market. That evening, the Festival kicked off with a parade through the streets of Revelstoke with students dressed in bird costumes, some of them on stilts, and many carrying the bird puppets they had made.
“I just got home from the amazing movement workshop this afternoon and I wanted to share my thoughts on Luna. I thought it was an amazing event. I really appreciate the fact that the event brings highlights art from our little humans, up and coming local artists and professional artists from around the country. I think it is such an amazing opportunity for people to not only see themselves as artists but also gives the community the opportunity to talk about why art is important and how it can work to help us create our personal and collective identities, build community and simply bring people joy. Last night I saw tourists and locals experiencing art and becoming part of the art as they took pictures, danced, moved and discussed the various installations and performances. As part of country that is still working on developing the vocabulary to articulate who we are as a nation I can think of no better way for a community to become a part of the conversation than to live a shared experience like Luna. What an extraordinary learning opportunity!”
– Feedback from a participant of Caroline Laurin-Beaucage’s Dance Workshop
Website: artsrevelstoke.com
Aeriosa Residency
February 9-15, 2014: Revelstoke. Made in BC is partnered with vertical dance troupe Aeriosa to deliver a series of introductory vertical dance workshops with both youth and adults.
“One other story is about the open bungee try-out in the High School multi-purpose/lunch room. The dancers had the bungees ready to go at lunch but everyone was too nervous to try it in front of their friends, so one of the dancers and some of the girls from the community workshops who had already tried it went first, then someone else, then some of the popular boys at the School went and the atmosphere changed – suddenly everyone was watching and calling out and getting involved. It also happened to be a lunch time when the Community Connections Social Workers were in school having lunch with teenagers with special needs. Soon these students wanted to try the bungees too and had a turn dancing. It was wonderful to see so many different students join in and so many others remain totally engaged and interested in watching their peers ‘dancing’ for the whole lunch period. All of this was perfectly framed by the sun streaming through the wall of windows with the mountain vista in the background.”
– Miriam Manley, CEF and presenter of RAC
