Kokoro Dance Company is pleased to announce the inauguration of their new home in Woodward’s building, here in Vancouver. Searching for a home for over 30 years, the acquisition could not have come at a better time. The state of the art facility will span over more than 5600 square feet, and includes fully equipped dance studios. It will be a cultural hub to inspire creativity, not only for Kokoro Dance, but for the entire cultural community in Vancouver. The director of Kokoro Dance Company, Barbara Bourget, shares her excitement with us in this interview.
How are you feeling about the commencement of the renovation ?
It is so exciting, this new venture that we have going. We have had this company, my partner Jay and I, for over 30 years. We’ve been producing the Vancouver International Dance Festival, and this will be our 16th season. So we feel pretty blessed to have been able to spend our time in the arts, not everybody gets to do that. Some people might want to but it’s a struggle, as you know. Amongst all that we have had the pleasure of having four brilliant children and now five beautiful grandchildren.
Thirty years is a long time and for an artist, and the struggle must make it feel like a lifetime. Would you share your story with us?
When we started we were with a collective in the city called EDAM (Experimental Dance and Music). Before that we had always had other jobs, but collectives are often difficult since people often want to go the same place [but] disagree on how to get there. So we left that company in 1986 and formed Kokoro Dance. We were naive and thought that we would get funding right away. That wasn’t the case. It took us about 8 years to get any Canadian Council funding, so it was really a struggle in the beginning. We also had young children so we had to work other jobs. In the early years I did a lot of teaching. I worked as a janitor, so did Jay.
Mostly because we weren’t alone and had each other, the two of us believed that things would turn around. In the course of the company we’ve created over 190 works, and we have performed over a 1000 times. In my development as a choreographer I also became very interested in women’s issues. We thought the hard work would get easier over time, [but] it is a whole other quagmire to get the money and we are so close to getting the renovation to start. In this chaos we see creativity being inspired. we are glad and feel extremely fortunate we had this journey.
Since it’s the 30 year anniversary, are there any special performances we should look out for in the VIDF 2016?
Well, we did do a celebration of our 30 years called “The Book of Love” in collaboration with Standing Wave company, playing a special commission by award-winning composer Jeffrey Ryan, along with UK based visual artist Jonathan Baldock. We did a two week run on that in [the winter of 2015], but we are going to redo that piece again at the Vancouver Playhouse, one show only, on March 9th as part of the VIDF. So that’s going to be a wonderful experience to go back to that piece after doing 8 shows, because in dance it takes a while to revisit pieces.
How do you aspire the use of this space and its introduction as a state of the art facility to the performing arts community?
On the main floor of the Woodward complex, we’re going to renovate the cafe into a dance studio. The space in the basement we want to be state of the art with LED lights on a lighting grid to make it a flexible performing space for creative use. We want to appeal to the entire performing arts community since in Vancouver there is a need for space not only to live but also to create. We also want to support Downtown Eastside groups who have no access to renting and working; there are so many wonderful ones who need support, we would like to help with subsidized rents or other options. But it’ll be a battle to raise all the money we want to support the things we care about. Moreover, we’ll open it up for everyone who wants to make it a hub of artistic people meeting, working, exploring and creating together. It’s a wonderful opportunity to create something that could be a vital centre in Vancouver.
Any last message for Vancouverites ?
We are really excited about the new space and the Vancouver International Dance Festival website is now up, so check it out! VIDF 2016 is going to be jam packed and there will be something for everyone, so please come see it!
Learn more about Kokoro Dance Company on their website. Her Campus UBC looks forward to VIDF and congratulates Kokoro Dance Company on their past 30 years. We also wish them the best of luck for the future, and the next 30 years to come!
Let the colors fly.
Photos by Kokoro Dance Company