Extention at Victoria School of the Arts

I had the pleasure of attending an art show at my daughter’s school on Friday night. I am always impressed by the performances at Vic and this was no exception. On the way in from the parking lot we enjoyed a multi-media installation in the sculpture garden.

Paris had brought home a schedule with her performances circled, but scanning the events that were going to be taking place in eleven venues clustered around the theatre I wasn’t sure what to expect. She didn’t tell us much except that she was going to be wearing a mask she made.

We happened to be in front of the cafeteria when the music started and shadows started dancing along the paper covered walls of the cafeteria. After a few minutes of dancing the dancers carefully removed paper and continued their dance.

I was struck by the skill of the grade 11 & 12 Contemporary Dance students who were using a line of paper in the middle of the floor like a runway. Then one by one dancers started to bring out paint which they dipped their feet into before performing a dance of colour. It was beautiful.

 

Next we moved to they foyer of the theatre as the grade 8s (Paris’s class) posed on the stairs in their masks for a few minutes before moving upstairs in what was called a Walking Gallery.

Next I was struck by how effectively the Media and Art students displayed their work in the theatre lobby. It took me a few minutes to notice the play buttons on the iPads. What a great way to allow the audience to connect with the creators of the films they were watching.

 

We missed the dance performance among the sculpture in the green room but enjoyed the sculptures anyway.

 

Most of the time when we walked past the jellyfish installation in the lobby fishbowl there was a dancer performing inside.

 

I always love exploring the installations in the Black Tile gallery but the mood created by the bass player really added to my enjoyment of the explorations of Text.

 

As we were about to leave we were encouraged to move to the stained glass hallway because a performance was about about to start outside in the sculpture garden. It was amazing to watch someone dancing in a t-shirt outside at night in Edmonton in December! It was especially strange because the audience was inside with the musician while the dancer performed outside. It was a great end to a great night.