Body of Light premiered at the Raven’s Cry Theatre on Oct. 25 to an appreciative audience, as part of the Sechelt Arts Festival.
It’s a collage of performance and video created by Roberts Creek artist Gordon Halloran to explore one of the most complex issues we face as humans: healing from illness or pain.
Body of Light has some rough edges and is very much a work in progress, as associate producer Lolly de Jonge explained before the show, adding that she hoped to inspire sponsors and those interested to step forward and turn the project into a full-length film.
The live performances were stellar, particularly the opening sequence that used entirely non-verbal movement to convey the pain of a woman (Katherine Denham) racked by illness. Dancer and character actor Maggie Guzzi and the rubber-faced mime artist Gerardo Avila explored the lighter side of a deteriorating body, posing as nurse and patient in a hospital.
Jean Pierre Makosso and Yvette Bouiti Makosso told the story of his mother’s last days and how she had cared for his father.
Caitlin Hicks transformed into the persona of a young Quebecois woman suffering burns who learns to accept her ravaged body through yoga.
Video sequences were interspersed with the live performers and showed brief close-up interviews with many familiar faces in the Coast community, most of whom do bodywork of some kind, practise healing medicine or meditation. Some simply explained how they have healed themselves through music, sports or art.
The audience heard about Mary Boulding’s healing herbs, for example, and watched Linda Nardelli paint and Eliya Waxman perform a feat of body strength.
The illnesses were both physical and spiritual, ranging from cancer to alcoholism to emotional wounds. Although the theme was about opening our hearts and embracing life, a sub-theme always shaded the background: preparation for death. However, it was not a gloomy production, but rather a hopeful one, documenting stories from many Coast people of great compassion.
Body of Light was not the only work to have a first showing at the festival. Earlier on Saturday, the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre was the scene for a piano concert with some original pieces by Vancouver composer Paul Alexander who premiered two selections from his five-piece work Earth and Sky.
The Coast’s Katherine Hume played with muscular magnificence on compositions that demonstrated the full power of the instrument.
“It’s very physical playing,” Alexander said later, congratulating Hume on her command of the music.
This Sound (Vibrates with the Earth) had jazz influences but clearly was designed to have each listener feel a dynamic connection through their contact with the earth.
Alexander’s presentation also included a talk about his inspiration, the Spanish concept of duende that suggests the magical and fantastic in art.
The week also included many other workshops and ground-breaking shows, including an exhibition of work at the Seaside Centre. Mind Over Matter saw Native and non-Native collaborating on several significant art pieces.
Kristjana Gunnars, one of the exhibitors, described it as “cross cultural artists finding common ground.”
Performances like these have raised the bar for the Sechelt Arts Festival and have made its co-producers, Nancy Cottingham Powell and Diana Robertson, very proud.
