From Oct. 4 to 20, the annual Sechelt Arts Festival will present Fusion, an eclectic combination of cultures, musical styles, dance genres, visual art mediums, and heritage in one explosive two-week package of original stage events, workshops, and exhibitions. Over 100 performers, artists, and technicians are expected to present their works to an audience of over 4,000 attendees during the two week event.
The festival kicks off at the public opening reception on Friday, Oct. 4 at the Seaside Centre in Sechelt. The reception will also open the annual art exhibition Fusion: Pop Goes the Art. The Seaside Centre venue will also feature the 2019 heritage exhibit: Through Helen’s Eyes, a tribute to the Coast’s first commercial woman photographer, Helen McCall, and Helen Dawe, Sechelt’s first archivist.
From Oct. 5 to 20, the Art and Heritage Exhibition will host ten school tours and multiple workshops, and run through the annual Sunshine Coast Art Crawl weekend as a designated Art Crawl venue. The festival will also collaborate with the Syiyaya Reconciliation Movement to present a Sechelt Totem Walking Tour and carving demonstration.
The 2019 festival also presents three all-original premiere stage events. Becoming, on Saturday, Oct. 5, at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. at Ravens Cry Theatre, is a storied dance production about life, love and loss, by Sunshine Coaster and choreographer extraordinaire Becky Izad. In Becoming, Izad will present a show that speaks to the many struggles young women have with myriad coming of age issues. A core group of eight pre-professional Coast student dancers will be joined by 14 additional student and adult dancers to relate stories through popular music, contemporary dance, and projected imagery. A select group of Vancouver dancers will also be featured in the show.
Marvelous Mr. Moysey, on Friday, Oct. 11, 8 p.m. at Raven’s Cry Theatre, is an avant-garde fusion of music, song, tap dance, and immersive audience song creation. M.M.M. promises to be an off-the-wall, never been seen before on the Coast, brainchild of Bill Moysey, better known locally as a lighting director and multi-talented theatre technician. Performance conductor and vocalist Moysey will be backed by the Dartboard Orchestra, created especially for this event, and featuring some of the West Coast’s finest musicians
On Saturday, Oct. 19, the Sechelt Arts Festival will present Forro do Cana for the first time on the Sunshine Coast, at 7:30 p.m., at the shíshálh Nation Community Hall. This multi-cultural new band features two well-known Coast performers in an evening of music and dance that fuses Brazilian forro, frevo, and contemporary musical styles. Vancouver’s only Brazilian forro band, Forro do Cana was founded in 2018 by Sunshine Coaster and violinist/fiddler Serena Eades (Delhi 2 Dublin) and Vancouver’s Andrea Monteiro. Audience members will be invited to learn some of the forro and freva Brazilian folk dances in a special pre-show Saturday afternoon dance workshop and will be welcomed to join in on the dance floor during the evening show.
For more information and ticket details, see www.secheltartsfestival.com
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