All in Arts Commons Presents
After what has now been nine months of closed theatres and live performing arts venues, with huge restrictions on our ability to gather due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are realizing now more than ever how essential these forms of human interaction are to our well-being, sense of community, and cultural awareness.
There may be a few reasons that the dance style Flexn could seem familiar to you. Maybe you’re a culture-vulture that took note when New York City’s newest performance venues, The Shed, invited Flexn artists in residence for its inaugural season; or perhaps you caught Flexn as part of Beyonce’s 2018 Coachella performance. Regardless of whether you’ve seen or heard about Flexn before, what becomes clear when you witness this dance is that it’s a powerful grassroots form of movement that connects performers and audiences through kinetic stories and characters that are both deeply personal and wholly universal.
Tim Tamashiro is a celebrated vocalist throughout Canada as well as speaker, entertainer and former national radio host. For a decade Tim was host of Tonic on CBC Radio 2 and he is the creator of the unique "story / song" cabarets featured at Arts Commons. He captivates audiences with story narration weaved together with songs. Get to know Tim Tamashiro better with Arts Commons Questionnaire and learn what makes this artist tick.
I recently had the pleasure of sitting down (virtually) with botanical artist, photographer, and performance artist based in Mohkinstsis/Calgary, Rocio Graham, to talk about her art practice and her latest work. As she joined our zoom-rendezvous, I notice her virtual background of choice is a gorgeous high-resolution picture of her photograph titled When I think of Home #8 one of my favorite pieces by Rocio. I also notice the occasional disembodied hand of her son appearing through the virtual background while we chatted and as he played with the effect, making it spooky and very appropriate for our discussion all things death, rebirth, spirits, and garden funerals.
The last Saturday at Arts Commons was a good one.
It was March 7 at 2 pm, I saw a matinee performance of Actually, presented by Alberta Theatre Projects, at the Martha Cohen Theatre. Matinees are always a little less boisterous than evening shows but Actually was different, for all the right reasons.
As COVID-19 has swept over the world, every performing arts centre has found themselves suddenly in a position where we are unable to share art in a safe and accessible way. Online performances multiplied, and now with the weather warmer, backyard concerts have popped up. With our audience members unable to come to us, Arts Commons started ArtsXpeditions, surprise arts encounters in parks and street corners around the city.
A partner of Arts Commons in arts-based learning and co-producer of the ground-breaking Our Canada, Our Story, ActionDignity provides essential support to many of the diverse ethno-cultural communities in our city. Within their umbrella of vital community support, there is a role for the arts to play.
There’s nothing quite like a live concert. The energy, the music, the power of a shared experience that only exists in that one moment in time. But after the concert is over, there is one person who can help us remember those amazing moments.
Photographer Will Young has been working with Arts Commons to capture these amazing moments for over ten years and has some tricks of the trade to share with aspiring shutterbugs.
