When I saw an article in the newspaper—Naoko Takahashi wins women’s marathon after drinking an extract distilled from giant killer hornets at the Sydney Olympics—long after Naoko had won at Sydney, I was struck by the imagery that it conjured up, unforgettable, and I immediately thought of the raspy, buzzing sound of bagpipes as a representative, or stand-in for hornets and taiko for pounding of feet on pavement.

I never met Lois Hashimoto, but was saddened to hear of her passing on January 8th in Laval, Québec. Lois was a regular contributor to the letters-to-the-editor section over the years, firing off an e-mail whenever she was offended by an article in The Bulletin. She seemed to have a soft-spot for me for some reason, but there were definitely issues that pushed her buttons.
I remember she came down hard on me one time about a statement I made in a piece I had written about the internment. I don’t …

Two Great Traditions. One Great Story.
This May, Vancouver audiences will be treated to a unique double bill as City Opera Vancouver presents the immortal story Sumidagawa, from the 15th Century, together with its 20th Century twin, Curlew River, a Canadian first.
“We are building great bridges,” said City Opera artistic director Dr Charles Barber. “We are bridging five centuries and two cultures in one narrative. We tell the story of a woman driven mad by the loss of her child. It is agonizing and beautiful.”
Sumidagawa will be told by the Toronto …

by Diane Kadota
Recent cuts to arts funding in BC have had a terrible effect, threatening community arts organizations that have few other sources of funding to support their public programs and activities.
One such group is Katari Taiko, started 30 years ago by a group of young Asian Canadians eager to reclaim part of their cultural heritage lost during the war and the subsequent largely unconscious drive to assimilate.
Members volunteer their time, attending up to three weekly sessions to rehearse and develop original taiko music. Almost all of the group’s repertoire …

When Yayoi Hirano arrived in Vancouver in 1992 on a performance tour she was billeted with Roy Kiyooka, an Order of Canada recipient with a long and storied career as an artist and teacher. She spent two weeks living in his Strathcona duplex and was introduced to many of his friends and acquaintances including Kokoro Dance’s Jay Hirabayashi. Remembers Hirano, “The organizer of the festival said, ‘You are so lucky to stay with him. He is a one of the greatest Japanese Canadian artists in Vancouver.’ But for me, coming …

If the younger generations—the yonsei and the gosei—are the future of the Nikkei community, the seniors are the foundation up which the community is built. The Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association’s annual Keirokai, held at the beginning of each year, is one way of paying tribute to our seniors. On Saturday, January 9, almost 200 seniors over the age of 70, along with a large contingent of volunteers, gathered in the Special Events Hall at the Nikkei Centre for a deluxe bento lunch and a variety of entertainment. Entertainers …

So we are finally about to see the 2010 Winter Olympic Games go into action at venues around Vancouver and Whistler. For Canada, it’s the second winter games she’s hosted since Calgary ’88, while Japan has already hosted two winter games, Sapporo ’72 and Nagano ’98. In the usual scenario when the Olympics are held in Japan, the officials, spectators, local citizenry and the media come together in a spirit of “let’s show Japan’s best face to the folks from around the world,” the competition between athletes turns out to …

Funding the Arts . . .
by Jay Hirabayashi
The BC Government has slashed funding to the arts by 80 to 90 percent over the next two years. 40% of those cuts will be to the BC Arts Council, which funds companies like Kokoro Dance. Gaming funds through Direct Access grants will be cut completely by next year. We will lose $50,000 in funding support from Gaming alone. We will taxed further, when the HST is implemented in July, for things that previously were not taxed such as tickets to arts events. …

Tenth Anniversary of the Vancouver International Dance Festival

We started the VIDF to strategically develop a sustaining audience for dance and to put Vancouver on the international map of dance. Our company, Kokoro Dance, had developed its own audience but its numbers had peaked with the 1,848 people that came to see Sunyata in 1997. Audiences for dance were dwindling after that high water mark. Part of the reason was that there were increasingly infrequent occasions when touring companies would pass through Vancouver. Vancouver audiences and dance artists needed to be …

When we examine the arts, we generally talk in terms of vision, of creativity, even entertainment value. Sometimes the arts thrill us. Sometimes they infuriate us. Hopefully they make us feel. What we don’t often talk about, or even think about, is arts and culture as a component of the business sector and the economy. If we do stop to think in terms of dollars and cents, the image of the starving artist comes readily to mind. Indeed, many artists live close to the bone, often supplementing their art-derived income …