Kokoro Dance packs June calendar with a collab with Vancouver Inter-Arts Collective and Jazz Jams

The butoh company headed by Jay Hirabayashi and Barbara Bourget offers movement and music performances

KOKORO DANCE IS moving through June with momentum, as it takes part in three performances.

On June 9, the company’s cofounders, Jay Hirabayashi and Barbara Bourget, team up with Vancouver Inter-Arts Collective, a new multidisciplinary ensemble that combines music, visual art, spoken word, and movement to create what it calls “cohesive, communicative, and intentful improvised expression”. The group’s music features acoustic and electronically processed sounds by veteran local improvisors. They include bass-trombonist Brad Muirhead; vocalist Carol Sawyer; Don Klassen (aka Doni ScOb), paint and poetry; Stephen Robb and Isaac Rosen-Purcell on clarinet; and Gary Wildeman on percussion.

Kokoro Dance then hosts two Jazz Jam sessions at KW Production Studio. On June 11 at 9 pm, the artists will perform with musicians Tony Wilson (guitar), Peggy Lee (cello), and Dylan van der Schyff (drums). On June 22 at 9 pm, they appear with Wilson and van der Schyff. Drinks will be available by donation.

Anyone wanting to pursue butoh can take part in Kokoro Dance’s audition for dancers interested in working with choreographers Bourget and Hirabayashi, in collaboration with UK artist Jonathan Baldock, on a new creation entitled Love, Sex, and Death, which will premiere in April 2024. Rehearsals start in September with dancers paid at CADA/West recommended rates of $30 per hour. The audition will be held at the KW Production Studio on June 10 from 9:30 am to 3 pm.

See kokoro.ca for more info.

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