Nath Keo is a Victoria-based belly dancer who primarily practises Raqs Sharqi, the classical Egyptian style of belly dance. Having grown up in the Cambodian Khao-I-Dang refugee camp, Keo describes how his passion for dance was ignited by watching performances there and later developed by his practice as a monk.
To celebrate our twentieth anniversary, The Dance Current asked dance artists to write about an issue of their choice and offer a call to action. The contributing artists covered everything from consent in contact improvisation, to creativity within a capitalist framework, to dance and motherhood and everything in between.
Does it matter if there is no dance criticism in Canada? Dance criticism is inherently niche and, as such, a difficult form of arts reporting to maintain. How does critique function in today’s media environment?
Justin Many Fingers’ contribution to Blackfoot culture
Krump pioneer Valerie “Taminator” Chartier builds strength and strength of character
Founding editor Megan Andrews on possibilities for change
“You have to almost fall out of love before you’re going to open up to other possibilities,” recalls Karen Jamieson, of her journey into community-engaged dance. A Canadian pioneer of the practice, Jamieson shares with Brittany Duggan how this practice spread through Vancouver and how it was “utterly different from professional dance” as she had previously known and practised it.
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