Partnerships Magnify Festival Offerings

We managed to get Guelph Dance’s Festival Artistic Director, Catrina von Radecki, to sit down for a few minutes so that we could ask her a few questions about how partnerships are making a difference in the Dance Festival’s offerings.

Who are Guelph Dance’s partners are this year during the Festival?

This Festival season, we have expanded our partnerships to include not just our wonderful Fab 5 colleagues (Guelph Jazz Festival, Guelph Film Festival, Hillside Festival, and Eden Mills Writers Festival), but also the 2Rivers Festival, Exhibition Park Neighbourhood Group, Hanlon Creek ParkNeighbourhood Group, and Capacitance.

Of course, our partnerships with our many generous sponsors are also invaluable! We are grateful to have sponsorships with Magic/CJOY, Intrigue Media, CFRU, the Guelph Tribune, Downtown Guelph Business Association, London House Bed & Breakfast, Guelph Youth Dance Training Program, Speed River Physiotherapy, With the Grain, Linamar, Guelph Gryphons, and Brad Barbour Insurance.

 

What are some of the benefits of these partnerships?

The benefits of partnerships cannot be understated! We enrich each other’s programming and assist in promoting each other’s events. The sum is greater than its parts.

The 2Rivers Festival is an annual festival celebrating the beautiful Speed and Eramosa rivers, which meet in the city of Guelph. This year, our Hanlon Creek Park performance (Friday, June 3, 5:30 pm) is included as one of their events, along with a wide variety of activities including nature hikes, heritage walks, opportunities to paddle the rivers, and arts events.
Our partnership with the Hanlon Creek Neighbourhood Group includes their helping us promote the event to their neighbourhood, and….they’re providing free ice cream during our event! The Exhibition Park Neighbourhood Group’s Creativity Picnic takes place immediately following our Saturday In the Park performance, providing a full and rich afternoon of arts activities for people of all ages. EPNG is also helping to promote our Festival to people in their Neighbourhood.

Our partnership with Capacitance, curated by Lynette Segal, is a wonderful example of how we have helped to foster an active dance community in Guelph. Capacitance is our Local Initiatives event this season (Sunday, June 5, 2 pm), and is being co-presented by the Guelph Jazz Festival. The performance is multi-disciplinary and improvisational, and offers a more experimental approach in contemporary performance.

Other Fab 5 partnerships during the Festival include Eden Mills Writers’ Festival co-presenting Sara Porter at the In the Studio show (Saturday, June 4, 4 pm); Guelph Jazz Festival co-presenting the Guelph Youth Jazz Ensemble during the In the Park series (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday); and the Guelph Film Festival co-presenting the screening of ORA, an innovative dance film that will be show during On the Stage B at the River Run Centre (Saturday, June 4, 8 pm).  Our programming is just so much richer with the contributions of our fellow festivals!

What extras can Guelph Dance audience members expect to see due to these partnerships?

·       Live music during the In the Park shows

·       Multi-disciplinary and experimental performance in the Local Initiatives performance

·       An intermingling of dance and storytelling at the In the Studio show

·       Avant-garde films with a focus on dance at Stage B

·       Activities for kids as well as parents during the Creativity Picnic at Exhibition Park

What IS a ‘Creativity Picnic’ anyway?!  

Hosted by the Exhibition Park Neighbourhood Group, the Creativity Picnic offers music, magic, and a wee bit of mayhem from 1-4 pm on Saturday, June 4. It immediately follows the In the Park show. The Children’s Art Factory, Five the Magician, the Making Box, the Art Gallery of Guelph, and Cardboard-ia are among the activities and entertainment that will be available.

Bring a picnic, stay and play for the day on our new playground. J.O.E. coffee will be there with coffee, drinks and treats; and Blue Water Creamery is bringing its delicious ice cream.

We have local and lovely talent such as: The Children’s Art Factory, Five the Magician, The Making Box, and the Art Gallery of Guelph's ‘Inflatable Art Gallery’. Plus we'll have activities from the Guelph Civic Museum, Cardboard-ia, Kids Make Guelph, and more!

Stay up to date on the Creativity Picnic by following EPNG’s Facebook page.

Anything else you'd like to say about GD's partnerships?

Partnerships are fundamental to what we do and are found in all aspects of the Guelph Dance Festival and outreach activities. Partnerships enable us to branch out to new audiences, afford larger scale and a greater variety of work, and access more resources to reach new audiences and to provide artists with great opportunities.  

As the Guelph Dance community grows we are excited to continue to develop and deepen partnerships so that we can be sure we are listening and responding to our community’s needs, that we are intricately immersed in the community we live in, and holding hands with the amazing people that make Guelph such an incredible place to live. 

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Our audience members are our most important partners. Without you, there would be no one to witness the dance. Check out the full festival schedule now!