Dancers hopped like frogs, fell like leaves, leapt into star shapes and swept by in waves at the Masset Playhouse last month.
Watched by family and friends who sat on stage so the dancers could have the whole run of the Playhouse floor, the June 22 performance was an end-of-season show by junior and senior apprentices in the Masset Dance Troupe.
Alison Keery is a dance teacher and choreographer who founded the troupe in November 2019. Keery says it’s all about love of dance, rather than learning steps or competing, though dancers can do that too.
“Dance really, fundamentally is a form of self-expression,” Keery said, and most of the movements in the Masset Dance Troupe’s performances come from the dancers themselves.
For example, Keery said she might prompt the dancers by asking everyone to move as if they’re reading a paper, and then she might ask them to read it with their feet.
Dancers in the Masset Dance Troupe range from ages 6 to 15, and not all are from the north-end — two have started coming up from Daajing Giids.
In February, they performed at two Haida Gwaii Arts Council shows together with dancer Kuni Ikeda, and in May the senior dancers competed in the B.C. Annual Dance Competition in Prince Rupert, which drew more than 250 dancers from across northern B.C. and a few from the Lower Mainland.
Among so many performers, Sofia Pages of Masset won second place in the lyrical solo category,
“That was incredible,” Keery said.
One of the senior dancers’ pieces at the end-of-season show, “Rotations,” was choreographed by fellow dance teacher and choreographer Candice Irwin, who came to Haida Gwaii to help the troupe from Manitoulin Island, or Mnidoo Mnis as it known by the Odawa.
“What’s really special about the piece is there aren’t specific counts that the dancers are expecting,” Keery said. Rather than moving or stopping on counts one to eight, the dancers rely on sensing each other’s cues.
Apart from the dancers’ own steps and the music, the show’s mood — psychedelic fairy kingdom — was made thanks to local set designer Rosie Ollirip. Along with brightly painted mushrooms at the foot of the dance area, Ollirip turned coloured Co-op grocery bags into the purple- and green-leaved, Dr. Seussian-shaped trees.
Keery called it “magical genius,” adding that families have helped the Masset Dance Troupe in amazing ways, from building dancing marionettes to travelling to Prince Rupert for a 10-day contest.
“They make my job easy,” she said.