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Dance showcases Okanagan talent

Bare Bones Dance Showcase highlights professional artists
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Sean Ling is one of the performers highlighted in the Bare Bones Dance Showcase April 2 at the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre. (Submitted Photo)

The Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre Society, in partnership with Janelle Hardy, presents The Bare Bones Dance Showcase at the Marie Fleming Hall on April 2 at 7:30 p.m.

The Bare Bones Dance Showcase highlights local dance artists who have performed professionally all over the world and now call the North Okanagan their home. The evening will consist of a variety of solo dance performances by the local dancers in the area.

Tickets for The Bare Bones Dance Showcase are $25 for general admission and can be purchased through the Ticket Seller Box Office by calling 250-549-SHOW (7469) or online at www.ticketseller.ca.

Created and produced by local writer and artist, Janelle Hardy, this intimate inaugural showcase features solos from formally trained classical Indian dancer Melanie Piorecky, contemporary dancer Sean Ling of Toronto Dance Theatre, circus and dance artist Jada Tam of Barefoot Sanctuary in Lumby, and former ballet dancer Gilian Kilgour with her ballroom dance partner Jens Groener.

Piorecky is a classical Indian dancer, having trained and performed bharatanatyam for many years. Of the eight classical dance forms of India, bharatanatyam represents the element of fire and uses a combination of fluid movement to rhythm and song, extensive hand mudras and elaborate footwork. She has performed, taught and choreographed bharatanatyam and fusions of Indian dance for various events.

See: Rhythms of India celebrated in Ta Ki Ta

Ling’s professional dance career has spanned 25 years, working with dance companies, independent choreographers, film makers and educators. The early part of his training and career were in classical ballet. Known for his partnering and onstage presence in duets, important moments for Ling include dancing with Yvonne Ng, Louis Laberge-Cote, Sahara Morimoto, Andrea Nann, Robin Dempsey, Julia Aplin, Kristy Kennedy, Johanna Bergfeldt and Yuichiro Inoue.

See: 11th annual Dancing With the Vernon Stars breaks records

Jada Tam is a New Yorker who has travelled around the globe seeking various art and cultural dance forms. Her main dance disciplines are rooted in West African, Middle Eastern, improvised lyrical play, Polynesian fire dance and aerial dance. Tam has studied static and flying trapeze and has performed her fire act for many special events, including specialty acts with Cirque Du Soleil in Las Vegas.

Gilian Kilgour graduated from the Art Ballet and Music School in Johannesburg, South Africa and went on to study dance with the P.A.C.T Ballet Company for several years. Kilgour’s dance disciplines include ballroom, latin and Argentinian tango. She often collaborates with her dance instructor/partner, Goerner, co-owner of Vernon’s City Dance.

Goerner has been dancing for 30 years and has been an instructor for the last 28. He was intensively trained in Europe in ballroom and latin dance before immigrating from Germany, where he owned and operated many dance studios in the Munich area. Along with teaching year-round at his studio, he is also involved with Dancing with the Vernon Stars and Dancing with the Shuswap Stars in support of Hospice.

See: Ready to get this city dancing


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