A desire to present something unexpected in those artistic moments when the audience is already expecting something to happen is behind the SKAMpede production dance like no one is watching.
Meagan O’Shea, the principal of Toronto’s Stand Up Dance company and director of the SKAMpede piece, said the show has been compared to jazz music, where creativity is driven by musicians who improvise and bandmates who respond. The audience follows and is primed for a special moment, but nobody knows what.
“I am really interested in setting up something where the expected unknown can happen,” said O’Shea in a telephone interview.
“It’s kind of like a secret language,” she said. “As dancers we have a whole bunch of ways of understanding what each other is doing and we then respond in a number of different ways.”
The 11th annual SKAMpede runs Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. The festival, completely free, offers 12 short performances at various locations downtown and along the Galloping Goose Trail. This year organizers want to keep it zero-waste, so be prepared to trek out your garbage.
Attendees should register at the festival “Hub,” a tent in Bridge West Plaza near the Johnson Street Bridge. They head off, on foot, bicycle or scooter, to enjoy three to five shows before returning to the Hub for live music, drinks and snacks.
A Friday Night Feast offering 10 performances and a three-course dinner is also available for $66. Tickets can be purchased online at skam.ca along with SKAMpede information.
dance like no one is watching is 10 minutes and features seven dancers from Victoria, Montreal and Winnipeg. O’Shea is choreographer and director and will sit this one out as a performer.
This is her third SKAMpede. But she has been in Victoria many other times over the past five years in roles such as guest teacher, performer and as director and choreographer behind at least one high school performance.
So O’Shea has been in Victoria enough to consider it a home even if she now calls herself an “artistic nomad” with a range stretching from Barcelona to B.C. up to the Yukon and down to Texas.
“I’ve been in Victoria enough to now call it one of my homes,” she said.
Caddies, Fords shine at car shows
Lovers of four-wheeled freedom from bygone days can pursue their passions in two ways Sunday with Ford cars and General Motors vehicles.
GM aficionados will love Classy Caddies arranged by the Cadillac Club of B.C., Vancouver Island Chapter. This year the event is also open to all GM products from 1994 and older.
Come and see those luxury sedans, some dating back as far as the early 1960s and
earlier. It was an era when Cadillac meant style, comfort, engineering excellence and sported flamboyant rear fins.
“People fell in love with them,” said Dewane Ollech, president of the Cadillac Club of B.C., Vancouver Island Chapter. “Now everybody just drives a jelly bean that gets 100 miles to the litre.”
Meanwhile, fans of Henry Ford will the love the 39th Annual Ford and Friends Car Show and Shine hosted by the Early Ford V8 Club #109
Victoria.
The show will feature all manner of Ford vehicles from cars to pickups, stock and souped-up hot-rods. All the vehicles will date to 1984 and older.
Classy Caddies will be at Windsor Park in Oak Bay
Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free for visitors. People who want to show their cars pay $15. All proceeds will support the Eldercare
Foundation.
Ford and Friends Car Show and Shine is also Sunday at the Saanich Historical Artifacts Society at Heritage Acres at 7321 Lochside Dr., 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission for cars is $15, for adult visitors, $5 and children under 12 are free. All proceeds will support the
Salvation Army.
And both these events will be a fine warm-up for Northwest Deuce Days, when
1,400 pre 1953-collector cars and hot rods, 500 of them real deuces, will descend on downtown Victoria for four days, July 18 to 21.
Mexican community shows off food, culture
Call it Fiesta plus, when Mexican Canadians in Victoria kick off their annual Festival Mexicano on
Saturday.
“It’s a fiesta, but it will be about a lot more,” said Miguel Espinosa, president of the Mexican Canadian Community Association of Greater Victoria.
“There will be music and
culture and of course, the food,” Espinosa said.
He said Victoria’s Mexican
community is still small, 700 to 1,000 people. But it is growing as young people attend school and, after graduating, decide the city is a good place to make a home.
Espinosa also said it’s a wonderful experience for him to arrive and see longtime Victorians
welcome, enjoy and show respect for Mexican music, dance and all
elements of culture.
This year’s event will feature the Mariachi Band Los Dorados and the Fiesta Latina Folklore Dancers. There will also be with a bouncy castle and face painting for kids.
The event is also expected to attract local politicians such as Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps and the Mexican consul general from
Vancouver to proclaim ongoing friendship.
Festival Mexicano 2019, the 13th annual, will start at noon and run to 5 p.m. in Centennial Square. Admission is free.
Duncan, Cowichan celebrate summer
Duncan and its Cowichan neighbours will march, chow down and have fun
Saturday with a parade and party.
At 10 a.m., the 2019 Panago Grande Parade begins to wind its way though the
Duncan city streets, featuring floats and marching bands.
The parade, a joint effort by the City of Duncan and the Municipality of North Cowichan, is a fitting launch to Downtown Duncan Day, when merchants, businesses and citizens step up for a
summer celebration.
It all kicks off at 8 a.m., when the Rotary Pancake starts up and runs to 10 a.m. That leaves breakfasters time to line the streets and catch the parade.
Local farmers will present their wares from 9 a.m. to
3 p.m. at the Duncan Farmers Market.
A “Motorcycle Show and Shine” will show off machine-powered glory on two wheels from 11 a.m. to noon.
And a community stage will be operating from noon to
3 p.m.
Throughout the day, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., visitors can watch or enjoy all kinds of rides, activities and sidewalk vendors.
Parksville hosts sand sculptors
Sculptors from all over the world will converge on the beach at Parksville this weekend, drawn by its special clumping sand and the annual Quality Foods Sand Sculpting Competition and Exhibition.
The competition offers prizes of up to $2,600 for the first-prize solo carver and $5,200 for first-prize duo.
Rules state all sculpting must stop by Sunday at
2:45 p.m. Preparation of the various sites and pounding of the sand into forms to make blocks suitable for carving begins this morning, but no visitors are allowed.
Carving, and your chance to see the sculptors at work, begins Friday and continues Saturday and Sunday up to 2:45 p.m. when all carving must stop.
Judging occurs 3 p.m. to
5 p.m. on Sunday and winners are announced at 5:30 p.m. Voting for the popular People’s Choice Award begins after the judging has been completed.
The finished sculptures will remain on display 9 a.m. to
9 p.m. until Aug. 18.
Admission for visitors to the beach comes with a suggested donation of $4 per person.
The 2019 Quality Foods Sand Sculpting Competition and Exhibition is at Parksville Community Park next to the Lion’s Venture Land Playground and Waterspray park.
