SAMHAIN PARADE AND CARNIVAL 2023
It is rare that the Sechelt Arts Festival repeats programming, but this event was so much fun in 2022 that we decided to do it all again. We met at the Seaside Centre and paraded to Hackett Park to draw the dead to our performance. Gerardo Avila produced and starred in a fantastic shadow puppet show based on El Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) folklore, featuring narrator Steve Schwabl, puppeteers Hazel Bell Koski and Dana Wilson, projection by Mieke Jay, and backed by music by Caravan Paradiso and Susana Williams. The Cool Heat Fire Dancers were back by popular demand, led by Dixie Honey White. Video by Sacha Fassaert.
SAMHAIN PARADE AND CARNIVAL 2022
On October 31st in 2022, the fantastical finalé for the festival combined Latin el Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebrations with Celtic Samhain (whence Halloween) traditions. Those lucky enough to attend Gerardo Avila’s sold out Mask Making Workshops had an opportunity to show their handiwork off as the inaugural parade marched behind Gerardo’s massive Catrina puppet to music by Carnival Paradiso from the Seaside Centre in downtown Sechelt to Hackett Park. We lit up the new bandstand for its first ever evening show and the Junkyard Band (Simon Hocking, Heidi Kurtz, Boyd Norman, John Rule, Barry Taylor) performed their strange, mainly original music on upcycled, handmade instruments. Emily Sheridan’s fantastic Thriller dance group from the Gibsons Dance Centre and the Cool Heat Fire Dancers engaged and entertained hundreds of community members at the final fire, dance, and live music show.
The Buffalo Dreaming
Dance. Decolonize. Repeat. The Buffalo Dreaming dance project premiered on October 22, 2022 with a unique presentation of stories, singing, drumming, and dance performed by south Asian and First Nation (Cariboo-Chilcotin and shishalh) artists and storytellers. Directed by Meera Shah and Mary Thomas. Video by Tamar Kozlov
The Beat Goes On
An evening of drama, beat poetry, and jazz celebrated the life and times of author Jack Kerouac on the 100th Anniversary year of his birth, set within the Upcycle Art Exhibition at the Seaside Centre. The evening featured beat poetry readings and a dramatic vignette of Jim Christy's play Jackie and Jack, performed by Steve Schwabl, Varya Rubin, and Wanda Nowicki. Introduction and reminiscences were provided by author Jim Christy.
Cool live jazz by Graham Ord and Paul Steenhuis.
The Dave Brubeck Centenary Concert
We celebrated jazz icon Dave Brubeck’s 100th birthday with this special homage by Dave’s son, Dan Brubeck, an internationally acclaimed jazz drummer and Sunshine Coast resident. Dan teamed up with some of Vancouver’s finest jazz artists; Miles Black (piano), Adam Thomas (bass), and Steve Kaldestad (saxophone). The live show featured video elements originally produced for The Brubeck Brother’s world tour that had to be cancelled due to COVID.
The centenary concert also featured sensational coast singer-songwriter Katherine Penfold for a truly unforgettable evening.
Joshua Beamish / move: the company
This world premiere contemporary dance event featured Joshua Beamish/MOVETHECOMPANY with choreography by Ballet BC’s Kristen Wicklund and international choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, and dancer Reneé Sigouin (Crystal Pite’s Kidd Pivot) in a special presentation of new solos and duets.
This collaboration in isolation included a piece Joshua will choreograph for two Coast emerging student dance artists, Natalie Martin and Francesca Manson. It was a rare opportunity to see international performer Joshua Beamish LIVE on the Sunshine Coast stage and online.
syiyaya: Our families. Our stories.
This film was produced by Tamar Kozlov as the video component of the live play by Louise Phillips; syiyyaya: Our families. Our Stories., produced by the Sechelt Arts Festival in 2017. Penned especially for the Sechelt Arts Festival by playwright Louise Phillips, the play presented vingettes from Sechelt’s past.
