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Audience Location
Trout Lake/John Hendry park
Date and Time
June 20, 2015 at 8 to 10am
Water Locale
Trout Lake (China Creek watershed)
Choreographers
Amy Kiara Ruth, with assistance from Anna Kraulis and in collaboration with the participants of Trout Lake Dances.
Amy Kiara Ruth. A life-long interest in movement has led me to become a kinesiologist and somatic movement educator. I explore what it means to be an embodied being, living in relationship to seasonal rhythms & tides while living & working in an urban setting.
In support of this inquiry, for many years my personal practice has included sensory awareness, perceptual, and movement explorations that are grounded in the approaches of Continuum and Continuum Montage (of Susan Harper), as well as in the Body and Earth work (of Caryn McHose and Andrea Olsen).
Participating in Global Water Dances offered me an opportunity to convene a community movement ceremony to share my love of movement, my appreciation of the poetry of life, and to sense more deeply our interconnection with water.
www.amykiararuth.com
History of Site and Related Water Issues
This little lake is one of the few remaining fresh water bodies in the city of Vancouver and is a community hub in many ways.
The streams & creeks that flowed through this area now flow through sewer piping. This invisibility of the streams inhibits access to fresh flowing water.
Vancouver is located in a temperate rainforest, however with climate change we are experiencing times of relative drought. The health of our local ecosystem is threatened by plans to increase oil & bitumen pipelines and tankers through our bioregion.
Music
ambient sounds of our environment
The Performance
On Saturday June 20th, about sixteen of us gathered for a community movement ceremony to honour water at Trout Lake / John Hendry Park, in the China Creek watershed of Vancouver (unceded Coast Salish Territories). Our movement, our dance, was a movement across a portion of our local watershed; acknowleding the water cycle in our own backyard.
We met at 8am at the Copley Community Orchard (a few blocks from the park). We were grateful to acknowledge that we were sharing connection with others across the globe in honouring water. To deepen the web of relation, each of us shared an experience of connection with water. We then embarked on a ‘watershed / dry stream walk’ through the neighbourhood to Trout Lake. We walked along the route of a stream that once flowed freely into Trout Lake, fabric banners helped to create a visual & kinesthetic echo of this stream.
When we arrived at the park, a local poet shared one of her poems about water, inviting a watershed perspective. After hearing her eloquent words, we offered a blessing to Trout Lake. We then moved to an adjacent area of the park to create an ephemeral mosaic/mandala with flower & plant offerings.
We danced in the space of our natural fibre mosaic and essentially created a movement mandala, a movement mosaic. Everyone participated in a shared movement experience in the spirit of a “nature constellation” – and simple movement gestures were offered and repeated. Following the movement mosaic, we joined in a participatory circle dance, which incorporated the Global Water Dances community movement gestures.
Our ceremony concluded with a continuation of our ‘watershed/ dry stream walk’ through the park; honouring the rainwater stream/garden along the east side of the Community Centre. We concluded our gathering near two willow trees close to the lake – echoing the historic flow of the water into Trout Lake and, through the China Creek watershed, to False Creek (Snauq).
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Directions to the Site of Performance
meet at the Copley Community Orchard, located between Copley and Walker streets just south of East 19th street, near Vanness avenue.
Email for more information
How can I get involved?
Please contact Amy if you would like to be involved in this event.
You are invited to join in any of the three preparatory movement sessions in the park: Saturdays May 30th, June 6th, and June 13th from 9 to 10am. Meet at the east side of the Trout Lake Community Centre by the rainwater stream garden (3360 Victoria Drive).
Local Website
www.vancouverwaterdances.wordpress.com
Other resources and links
for more information about the approach to this event, http://amykiararuth.com/classes-workshops/moving-elemental/