Page 22 - the NOISE October 2013

22 • october 2013 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us
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Canyon Movement Company’s Halloween Concert is performing October 25 & 26 at Coconino High School.
piece. But most frequently we start by laying out Sharon’s inventory of dyed fabric to see if any of the pieces or part of a piece speak to us,” Ms. Borthwick tells me. “Depending on what is said, either Sharon will do her stitch work and then give the piece to me to create the ironwork to go with it, or we do those steps in reverse order. For Raven’s Playground, we both loved the colors and saw rocks and land- scapes in the fabric, most often our pieces do celebrate the natural world in general and our corner of the world in particular.
“Sharon took the fabric to add the stitching and by the time it got to me, it had buttes and formations that reminded me of Southern Utah. I actually thought the fabric was beauti- ful as it was and wondered what, if anything, I could add to the piece. After sitting with the piece for a while I began to see ravens playing in the skies above the buttes. We had done a couple of pieces in the past that had utilized steel sandhill cranes but these had been at- tached to the frame surrounding the fabric.
“For this piece, I felt the ravens had to be part of the scene, not just on the perimeter; but that created a technical conundrum about how that could be accomplished. So the piece sat with me for awhile longer until I thought of magnets. I found some strong magnets, that I attached to the backs of the ravens, which were forged from angle iron, and then created a metal latticework behind the fabric. Now the ravens could fly above the buttes and could even be moved around to create a changeable piece of art!” TheGalleryInWilliams.com
HALLoWeen reVeLrY
On October 25 and 26, Canyon Movement Company will be hosting a Halloween Dance Concert.
Director Gina Darlington tells me, “We have a variety of dances. Some are about spirits, some about zombies, and some about good vs. evil.”
I ask about the stories behind the dances. “One dance by our youth company is loosely based on the 300 Spartans,” Ms. Darlington explains. “It’s about the warriors who knew
they would die, yet fought bravely and val- iantly. The music is an original composition by one of the dancer’s brother. Another piece is done on aerial silks. It is about how we trans- form our bodies into something we think the world wants.”
This is Canyon Movement Company’s 20th year in Flagstaff. “The dancers we currently have are young, full of ideas, and ready to share their art form!” Ms. Darlington says. “Four of the new dances were choreographed by new dancers in the company in the past year.”
Canyon Movement Company’s Halloween Concert takes place at Coconino High School’s mini-auditorium October 25 and 26 at 7:30PM. 928/774-3937.
GreAteSt HitS
If you read Music for the Masses in last month’s issue of the Noise, you would have aquired a taste for Arizona Handmade Gal- lery’s featured artist’s work. Photographer Debbie Leavitt tells me about her upcoming show.
“Just like when your favorite band puts out a Greatest Hits collection and there’s a couple new pieces that aren’t hits yet but they just know you’re gonna love ‘em, my ‘Greatest Hits’ photo collection at Arizona Handmade fea- tures the best-sellers, the ones the public has shown their love for, plus a couple new faves,” Ms. Leavitt says. “Many of the greatest hits were taken at the bottom of Grand Canyon, one of my inspiration places.”
She tells me about two pieces in particular, “Cloudpool, for example was taken at a little spot off river, and river-runners look at it and think they know where it is, but only Okie knows ... It’s probably my most iconic image by this point in my career. Another black and