5-8 PM @ The Commons Timber Frame
A sacred solstice ceremony, performance and dance. Gather around the Solstice Hearth and journey through a ritual of shadow and light with contemporary dance prayer-formance and silent disco dance for all. Warm soup and Hot elixirs will be served in the candle lit Timber-frame Solstice lodge.
Schedule:
5 PM: Social solstice soup
6 PM: Opening dance “prayer-formance” and community ritual
6:30-8:00 PM: Silent Disco community dance
Covered open air tent areas with propane hearths and seats will be provided for the audience. Cozy up by bringing your own blankets and wearing toasty layers. We will expand out under the stars and dance our collective dreams around the large solstice bonfire (weather permitting – otherwise, we’ll dance under the timber frame and tents).
Let’s welcome the in the winter season together! $20 ticket reserves dance headset, seat for show, hot soup, and Elixirs for all!
“Every generation should have its Winter” – Shaw Day-Wood
JOSIE BURGESS – DANCER
Josephine (aka Josie) is a mother and dancer with a background in house, hip-hop, breakdancing, wacking, and threading. She’s performed freestyle dance in Las Vegas, San Francisco, LA, Providence and CT. Since moving to Nanaimo with her husband and daughter, Josie has delivered parkour dance fusion workshops, has taught hip hop classes for children and youth, and participated in Lila in 2021. Josie is passionate about gathering community through movement culture and hopes to give more adults of all ages permission to never stop playing!
MELISSA SOLSHINE – DANCER
Melissa has been a student and facilitator of transformational movement for over 20 years and has been blessed to learn and grow with pioneers in the fields of ecstatic dance and evolutionary temple arts. Melissa believes with every cell of her being that through movement we find health. Since graduating with a degree in Kinesiology from University of Western Ontario she has travelled the globe studying, teaching and performing sacred cultural dances and a wide scope of therapeutic dance modalities. A few years ago she returned home to her beloved west coast island community to follow her soul’s calling of co-creating a thriving earth based temple culture with local artists to live and create more closely with the natural world.
VALERIE MERMET
Valérie was born in a very musical family with dance becoming her main art form at a young age. Moved by African rhythms as a young adult, she studied West African dance with many great dance masters. While born in France, Valérie then moved to England to join a 12 piece African dance ensemble where she performed in various festivals including Glastonbury and Womad. In 2000 she moved to Gabriola Island and began to teach African dance. After moving to Canada she studied contact and improvisation dance which opened up a new and wider landscape of movement and creativity. For the past 20 years she has enjoyed contributing to Gabriola and Nanaimo culture by teaching, collaborating with other artists, performing and organizing performances and cultural events. In 2020 she collaborated with Myriam Verzat in an outdoor performance “Freedom is Internal” for Crimson Coast Dance Infringing Festival. In 2021 Dance Infringing Festival, Valerie performed in “Motus Domus” (a duet built around the notion of presence) with Peter Trosztmer, dancing in Montreal, divided by 6000kms. Most recently, in July 2021 she performed in “Lila” in Nanaimo as a dancer. Valérie is the lead artist and coordinator for this project as part of Gabriola Live.
MYRIAM VERZAT – DANCER
Myriam is a life improviser, dancer, and community gatherer. After studying improvisation in Montreal she went on to create her own improvisation troupe called Lindex, performing in all sorts of indoor and outdoor locations throughout Quebec. In 2015, Myriam directed ReCONNECT, an interactive show featuring seven artists in dance, theatre and music. Since moving to Nanaimo in 2017, she has enjoyed contributing to Nanaimo’s culture and fun through teaching, performing, and organizing creative events. In 2020, she presented the outdoor performance “Freedom is Internal” for Crimson Coast Dance Infringing Festival and choreographed the performance “Lila” in July 2021 that will be adapted for Gabriola Island in 2022. Myriam also teaches Compassionate Communication (NVC) courses through her business, Reconnect.
TREVER GEAR – JUGGLER
Trever had his first onstage performance experience with Improv-Eco, a theatre troupe based in Victoria, BC that traveled to schools performing improv theatre with an environmental message. After the troupe disbanded, in order to keep a connection to the stage and performance art, Trever learned to juggle and has been juggling ever since. He is mostly self taught and studies other movement arts such as dance and yoga to compliment his practice as a juggler and clown. Trever believes in participating in the local arts community as much as possible. As a juggler, one of Clever Trever’s specialties is hat juggling and after many years of juggling Smithbilt top hats made in Calgary, Trever had an opportunity to study felting with his partner Dinah D. This was the moment that The Funky Bowler was born. Trever began developing a new and unique hat made specifically for juggling. As a Clown in community, Clever Trever believes in play and connection and practices this as much as possible.
Gabriola Live - Music, Theatre & Dance 