Coming Together Through Music and Dance
Join us on Sunday, September 5 for Temporary Steps, featuring new music by Leslie Uyeda, and choreography by Ted Littlemore!
Originally planned as a celebration of the end of Covid restrictions, Temporary Steps is now looking like a chance to safely come together through music and dance before we enter an uncertain fall and winter.
Performances on the hour from 2-5pm (15min), outside the Celebration Hall at Mountain View Cemetery (enter the cemetery on 39th off Fraser). Free, inclusive, fully accessible!
With the Mountain View Cemetery Community Dancers, dance artists Ellie Bishop, Eowynn Enquist, Isak Enquist and Brenna Metzmeier, and musicians Parmela Attariwala, Christine Lin, Sarah Kwok, Minjee Yoon, Mark Haney, Mark Takeshi McGregor, Kathryn Cernauskas and AK Coope, conducted by Leslie Uyeda.
This project began in March, when we commissioned Leslie Uyeda to write a new 10 minute piece for 8 instruments. Leslie chose to write for string quartet, double bass, clarinet and two flutes, and created an incredible piece titled A Dance For All Of Us.
At the end of June, with Leslie as conductor and music director, we rehearsed and recorded the piece to give to our choreographer, Ted Littlemore, to create movement for our community dancers and the professional dance artists who will be leading the performance.
Ted and dance artists Ellie Bishop, Eowynn Enquist, Isak Enquist and Brenna Metzmeier came together in early August to learn and finalize the choreography, and to create videos for the community dancers to learn the piece at home, before we all come together in early September to bring this event to life.
We respectfully acknowledge that our work and gatherings take place on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples– the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.
Composer, conductor and pianist Leslie Uyeda was born in Montréal. She studied piano with the late Dorothy Morton at McGill University and William Aide at the University of Manitoba. She has been coach, pianist and conductor with the Canadian Opera Company, L’Opéra de Montréal, Manitoba Opera, Opera Hamilton, the Banff Centre and the Chautauqua Institute of Music in New York. Uyeda was a CBC Radio Music Producer in Winnipeg before moving to Toronto to become the first Executive Producer of Opera for the network.
Leslie Uyeda’s music is performed throughout Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. Uyeda is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre, a member of the Canadian League of Composers and SOCAN. Her music is published by Classica.ca and the Avondale Press (www.theavondalepress.com), now held within the Canadian Music Centre. Leslie lives very happily with her family in Vancouver, where she enjoys Iyengar yoga classes at The Yoga Space, walking her miniature poodle puppy Puff, reading, swimming, being with friends, watching great British TV, and cheering for her team Les Canadiens de Montréal.
Ted Littlemore is a dance artist, musician, and drag performer. He trained in contemporary dance with Modus Operandi, and is now working with Action at a Distance, FakeKnot, Kate Franklin, Kinesis Dance Somatheatro, Ne.Sans Dance Company, Joshua Beamish and the Vancouver Opera, Social Ritual Collective, Tara Cheyenne Performance, and Vision Impure. He is also developing his own work, fusing contemporary dance with his work in drag. Ted started drag in 2013 to explore the intersection of his musical, theatrical, and dance backgrounds. Performing as Mila Dramatic, he (/she!) took the title of Vancouver’s Next Drag Superstar in 2016, and now performs frequently at local drag venues. Ted also studies and works as a classical and jazz pianist. You can follow Ted/Mila at @MilaDramatic on Instagram.
