Squamish youth will be dancing with the stars when the Vancouver production Dancers Dancing comes to town. The Nov. 10 performance will feature five professional dancers skipping away from their companies to tour across the province. Their day in Squamish will begin with a morning workshop for dance students.
"It's just a super opportunity for the girls...to see something new," said Howe Sound Dance Academy's Donna Kirkham.
Dancers Dancing involves a modern style with undertones of ballet. The hybrid defies categorization.
"They really go beyond the norm of any really technical discipline," said Kirkham.
Although the Howe Sound Dance Academy teaches modern, she said this exposure opens the young students up to new possibilities.
The star-studded class also gets them thinking about post-secondary training. Artistic director Judith Garay is a faculty member at Simon Fraser University, which offers a Contemporary Arts program with a specialization in dance.
Not just for Squamish youth, producer Kristine Miles said the evening show is aimed at an older crowd.
"The complexity of the performance is geared toward an adult audience but the content is still pretty appropriate toward kids," she said.Miles said the night would allow the public to get up close and personal with dancers who are usually rows away from their audience. "What they'd do in a big city, they're bringing here to our little theatre, which is pretty neat," she said.
Dancers Dancing incorporates education throughout their seven-stop tour making school presentations or hosting workshops in each place.Miles said their work walks a fine line to satisfy both the most hair-splitting critic and the simply curious.
"The program is going to be balanced out with more accessible dance that people will just automatically enjoy and then it will have some newer stuff in it that may be things you haven't seen before," she said.
Youth interested in joining the workshop can register with Miles by calling 604-898-2834. Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for kids at Billie's Bouquet, Mostly Books and the Adventure Centre.
