Arts Cuts: Make Your Voice Heard

The BC Liberal Government has proposed massive cuts to arts funding over the next few years. If you are an artist, have artistic children, or if the arts in any form have enhanced your life PLEASE contact your MLA and encourage your tribe to do so too.

Be informed, check out the Stop Arts Cuts website: http://www.stopbcartscuts.ca/

Apparently ‘ink’ petitions are more powerful, so get out your pen and write right now! This blog has some great guidance: http://stopbcartscuts.wordpress.com/

I can’t even begin to articulate how opposed to the cutting of 92% of the funding allocated to Arts in BC over the next few years I am. At the Wrecking Ball, an fund raising event put together by the vibrant theater community, the statistics were presented so colorfully and humorously. In the new year the government is going to be making some big budget related choices, NOW IS THE TIME TO CONTACT YOUR MLA. I don’t feel like reiterating the facts, I just want to remind you that your voice counts and now is the time to speak out.

If you Twitt follow these great tweeps:
http://twitter.com/AllianceArts
http://twitter.com/stopbcartscuts

May BC remain a colorful province. May artists everywhere be victorious. :: Creativity Counts ::

 

Three Veils

The setting sun
and sparkling sea
surround the majestic bluffs, creating a platform
where through her dance, heaven meets earth.

She adorns, embodies, expresses.
With 3 veils she sets herself free.
She is the wind, with limitless movement, able to reach the remote.
She is the sea, soothing, fertile, a great mystery.
She is the sun, warmth, light, disappearing to return after the darkest hour.

On this bluff,
you can see.

On this bluff,
close your eyes.

Choreographed and performed by Yasmina, Yasmina Dance Productions on Hornby Island, BC. ‘Beloved’ by Jesse Cook.

 

Magic Carpets and Master Musicians

Almost one full rotation around the sun ago I found myself weaving in and out of a beautiful crowd fed full on divine music. With my young apprentices ecstatically exploring rhythms so divine, I too danced myself into bliss. It was the weekend of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival. The sun was shining, giving the landscape a blessing of luminosity. The ocean danced with sparkles and sail boats on the surface. I stumbled into The Master Musicians of Jajouka playing music capable of teleporting you to another world. A world of magic carpets, senses appeased with ecstasy, and every moment filled with a story worth telling…

Go ahead, watch the entire 7 minutes if you dare. Just be sure to empty your mind enough for just those few minutes to tune into the perfection that mastering a traditional art can offer.