a community performance
Wednesday, June 21, 2023
Garry Point, Richmond
Ideally all participants should be members of a BCCF choir (though it’s not a deal-breaker) and have singing experience.
You do not need to be a music-reader, but you do need to undertake to prepare material (available in early June). There was one in-person rehearsal offered, but not essential; it was recorded for video reference, The music will be largely improvisational.
Public-Score-for-Summer-Solstice_-MOTHLIKE_silvery-blue-1This event is similar to last fall’s Equinox event at Brunswick Point— it is part of a larger score (link here). The score has three elements over the solstice, June 13 – 29: walking the dike trail over 16 days, performance at Garry Point on the 21st, and performance in the Richmond Art Gallery on the 29th. (Choir members who would like to join the dance performance in the gallery on the 29th, please sign up.)
It will begin around 7pm and end after sunset at 9:30pm. It will involve a welcoming piece, a procession with several stops, and a closing meditative experience. Though it will not all be on pathways, it should be accessible to singers who may have mobility issues.
You will work with artists and will be led by the choir director and dancers, and you will carry a small flag as part of the storytelling piece. The work we did last fall was recorded in audio/video and will be presented at the Richmond Art Gallery in July 2023; we plan to do something similar with this event.
There is no charge for participation.
The event takes place at Garry Point, at the south-west corner of Steveston. Participants are asked to car-pool, and parking is available, but may be crowded.
Photos and information below are from event last fall at Brunswick Point
Richmond Art Gallery, artist Amy-Claire Huestis, composer Omar Zubair and community partners create this site-specific piece for choir, dance, and kinship with nature.
Please join the choir for this community performance in an internationally recognized area of critical ecological importance for migratory birds in the Fraser River Estuary.
We invite you to sing and carry a poetic flag made by an artist—we perform a mytho-poetic story cycle on the beautiful dyke trail. The work celebrates kinship with birds and the interconnectedness of all things—MOTHLIKE/silvery-blue tells a story of human/more-than-human transformation; Silvery Blue is a person, a butterfly (a ghost), the shimmering colour of the land.
Participants follow an experimental score, performing roles in dance, sound, walking, and reading. Attendees will encounter what is a delicate piece in both diffused and congregated elements. The performance culminates at sunset on June 21st, the summer solstice, with a procession from 7-9:30pm.
The full project is in consultation with Hwlitsum First Nation, and is funded by Canada Council for the Arts, KPU, and Richmond Art Gallery. It is in partnership with Birds Canada, and is concurrent with the community guided walk project, walk quietly: ts’ekw’unshun qututhun (walk with respect and care for the shoreline).
Score and project info: www.amyhuestis.com
Link to exhibition at Richmond Art Gallery. More is coming soon from the gallery, in a brochure with performance information. https://www.richmondartgallery.org/exhibitions/upcoming-exhibitions
We humbly acknowledge that this performance takes place on the ancestral and present-day lands of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the Hul’qumi’num Mustimuhw (Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group of Seven Coast Salish Nations), scəw̓aθən (Tsawwassen), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam).
ARTISTS
Amy-Claire Huestis (artwork) lives on the stɑl̓əw̓ (Fraser) river estuary at she-shum-qun (Canoe Pass in Ladner). In her experiential practice she suspends a state of wonder in relation to nature and its mysteries. Thinking through how we might develop kinship to other species, she makes work through ritual and deep attention to the landscape over time. Her work involves collaboration with artists and communities of scientists and conservationists. Her collaborations and partnerships have included North Pacific Cannery Museum, Aadmsteti: Stinging Nettle Net, Time Lapse Dance, Henry Andersen Elementary School, Birds Canada, UCLA Art/Science Center, and many beloved artists and individuals. Amy-Claire is full-time faculty at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
Omar Zubair (music) is a Pakistani American composer based in New York City. He has helped found composer collectives across the country in order to promote radical empathy and empower active listening. He is engaged in the process of integrating a pan-cultural musical sensibility with his work, to peer deeply into foundational empathetic resonances. Until 2020, Omar was a member of the experimental theatre company, The Wooster Group. His work has been shown in the Pompidou Centre, Paris; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Disney Concert Hall, LA; World Stage Festival, Toronto; and National Theatre of Norway, Oslo.
Rachel Harris (dance) listens to the energetic vivacity that inhabits and surrounds her in life and art. Originally from British Columbia, Rachel has collaborated, over her 30-year career in Montréal, with 30+ choreographers in the creation of 40+ works, touching a very diverse range of choreographic styles, performing around the world. Rachel also performs regularly on her great-grandparent’s farm in BC. Since 2010 she has been teaching movement workshops in women’s shelters as part of Dance Against Violence. Rachel is presently in creation with Benoît Lachambre, Aurélie Pedron and Thea Patterson.
Brigid Coult (music) brings together a choir of individuals from the BC Choral Federation Choir for this performance project. Brigid trained and worked in England until coming to Canada in 1982. She has been directing Richmond Chorus since 1994, and in her hands the Chorus has grown both in numbers and musicianship. She has recently retired from a 21-year tenure as Director of Music at St. Mary’s Kerrisdale Anglican Church, and she is Project Manager for the BC Choral Federation.