Footprints Dance Centre dancers had an absolute blast creating something a little out of the box for the Woodstock Art Gallery’s Taste of Art event this fall. The dancers and I worked together to create a 7-minute contemporary dance piece to perform throughout the event.
Working with the community is something that is so incredibly important to all of us at Footprints Dance Centre. From our DASO Fundraiser and Big Brothers Big Sisters SOAR Program, to our Summer Sass Squad and Holiday Spirit Squad performances, our love for the community that supports and builds us is here.
The opportunity to work with the Woodstock Art Gallery for their third Taste of Art event was brought to us by their amazing director and curator Mary Reid. We had worked on a few other projects for Mary including the breath taking Silent Partners: Prima Ballerina Evelyn Hart’s Signature Costumes from an Extroadinary Career and were so excited when she approached us about working on the Taste of Art Event.
Our performance was to take place on the Gallery’s Second Floor and we could choose the setting and concept of our contemporary piece. The undertaking of a 7-minute long performance is a much larger challenge than the regular 2-3 minute pieces that you see our Recitals. The opportunity to develop a piece of choreography over 7 minutes and in a site-specific setting was definitely exciting for us to take on!
The dancers began rehearsals in our studio basing our work off of the feeling of the music we choose and our ideas surrounding the event. Once we were scheduled to bring what we had worked on into the Art Gallery and test it out – that’s when the fun really started to happen!
Michael Hunter’s work provided a lot of inspiration for our dancers.
Being in the Art Gallery brought us so much more inspiration with the beautiful pieces of art around us. Finding the perfect spot for our performance and for the movement was easy. We chose to set our piece within the works of Michael Hunter’s Taking the Natural and Forcing it into a Constructed State. By viewing Hunter’s work the dancers and I were inspired to edit our beginning choreography and continue the piece using his work as our inspiration. Back in to the studio we went!
Rehearsals came and went and the anticipation and excitement was building. With our final rehearsal at the Art Gallery we were happy with what we had created together. Now it’s showtime!
We performed our 7-minute piece five times throughout the three hour event.
You can take a peek at our performance on our YouTube channel here!
We enjoyed the evening immensely and cannot be more grateful for the amazing opportunities that our community continues to present us with. A huge thank you goes out to Mary Reid and her amazing team at the Woodstock Art Gallery for putting on such an incredible (and delicious) event!
Thank you from all of our dancers!
Dancingly yours,
Miss Lainy
