Workshop Registrations!
As of a few weeks ago, we opened registration for another set of workshops! Woohoo! While we are working on putting on some workshops of our own (hopefully we'll have some exciting news about that soon!), we are also interested in supporting other arts organizations that are in need of a place to offer online registration. Hence the East Van Dance Summer Camp: a one week children's contemporary dance and craft camp from July 13th-17th.
Now, we won't just put any ol' workshops up on our site. We want to know who we're working with and after sitting down with the creators, we are truly thrilled by East Van Dance's passion, expertise and creativity. They are definitely a group worth your attention and support.
SO.... who are they?
East Van Dance
East Van Dance is a brand new school of dance sponsored by the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians School of Dance and Con8 Collective. The creative minds behind this first summer camp are Gina Alpen and Charlotte Newman - the founders of Con8 and a rocking pair of movers and shakers. Pro creativity and open mindedness, they look forward to engaging kids with little to no dance experience - as well as kids with training - in several styles of dance and crafting this summer, and summers yet to come.
"I think, as Con8, we're very interested in performance and choreography but we're both beginning to become more curious about education and workshop... Since we're both teachers at the Ukrainian Hall, it was the perfect bridge for us and we both really enjoy working with kids. I always find it inspiring to see their creativity and ideas. It often blows me away, what they come up with." - Charlotte
Registration is broken up into three age categories: Racoons (3.5-5yrs), Eagles (6-9yrs) and Bears (10-12yrs); and classes will be held at the Ukrainian Hall as well as surrounding parks.
Our Connection
It is always important to consider connections and how to make meaningful ones - whether in the Arts, business, or while looking for a cat sitter. So how did we meet East Van Dance? Marketing? A networking event? Turns out, we've actually been connected for aa few years! The Purple Stapler's Technical Director - Jacob Holt - first met Gina and Charlotte while the three of them studied at SFU's school for Contemporary Arts. He has done both lighting and set design for their choreography.
Then a few weeks ago, Gina joined our other friends Aeriosa as a dancer where she and Elisabeth worked together in Tofino on the project Birds Land. After chatting, we realized they were in need of registration and we had a website so.... viola! Our first official collaboration and we look forward to potentially working together in a more creative partnership soon!
Why support them?
A Vancouver native, Gina has been taking classes and participating at The Hall since she was three and notes that until recent years, the Ukranian Hall has been a relatively closed community and so this is also a chance to showcase the great space, classes and teachers involved.
"We'd love to do this class multiple times for multiple weeks each summer - definitely annually - and the more interest we get, the more classes we can offer in the fall. If there is interest, The Hall has both the capacity and the facilities to offer great content." - Gina
A melting pot of culture and art, the Ukranian Cultural Centre is everything that we love here at The Purple Stapler and these fantastic women are working to grow its community, engage youth in contemporary styles of dance and promote free, creative thinking. What could be better?