Co. Erasga - Alvin Erasga Tolentino - Artistic Creator

"Art for art's sake? I should think so, and more so than ever at the present time. It is the one orderly product which our middling race has produced. It is the cry of a thousand sentinels, the echo from a thousand labyrinths; it is the lighthouse which cannot be hidden. It is the best evidence we can have of our dignity." E. M. Forster

Death and passing of great dance artists such as Pina Bausch and Merce Cunningham and, yes, even pop star Michael Jackson in the last months brought an emotional impact, an honouring and resounding jubilee of their creativity, contribution, essence, presence and importance to our lives.

BUT When death comes to artistic works and artists through funding cuts, then I believe it is the killing of an unborn dream, possibilities and some magic in our lives.

As I write this blog, the BC arts community suffers a brutal rate of funding cuts from the government that will leave artists unemployed and organizations closed. It is ill and grave when freedom of expression cannot breath and dies.

Society suffers greatly from this [budget cut] ( impassioned act of irreverence) that prevents the potential benefits that could enrich the cultural sector for generations in BC.

For over 2 decades as a dedicated art practitioner, I witness the rise and growth and potential of Canada?s West Coast artistic field. Beyond expectations, an array of golden arts and artists have flourished in BC and proclaimed our little map of Canada's West Coast on international stages. When I share my work with a global audience, I share a piece of BC where I have been nurtured and provided the essentials to dream, make dance and to live.

Cut the arts in our lives and we are doomed!

What happens next? The doubt, fear, isolation and confusion in this troubled time.

Can artists resurrect and dive into a bigger void, a black hole of uncertainty? Will this troubled time have a next page, how far and deep can it cost us or take us beyond our means?

To my fellow artists in BC: in your dreams may courage and strength always live.

Writing from The Avignon Off Festival in the heart of Provence, France with 10 shows of PARADIS with 1 day off after the sixth.

Avignon is a messy, hot, creative burst of energy!

Tonight I would have performed the 9th show (but cancelled due to electricity failure 15 minutes before the show, power came back 40 minutes after) 1 more show to go tomorrow. I would have performed the full-length 55-minute PARADIS solo 14 times to the public since the Dancing on The Edge Festival at the Roundhouse's outdoor roundtable starting with my tech last July 9. The rigorous work and keeping my body in tune and fresh are challenges as I revitalize every repetitive movement into something new, deeper and meaningful. Each show forced me to value to be fully present beyond bodily pain and emotional stress.

Performing in Vancouver outdoors was rewarding: giving dance another chance in the public space away from the privacy of a private theatre.

The Avignon Off Festival offered 1000 shows daily mainly in theatre and 10% dance. I competed for audiences and marketing but participating and engaging the work at the festival would be a focal point of the experience.

In the last month I struggled to be a singular force. I feel the weight to get things rolling and aligned. I had to stay focus. People have their own agendas, values and issues and indeed they sometime assist or contradict to my own.

Listening and trusting, how to carry the progress and vision without fear?

I sigh with relief when a project is completed with little trouble. I am at awe that another production is conceived. At the end of each performance, perhaps a person is touched, moved, disturbed. Can that person leave with a question about the existence of creative expression? And if so, This I think is continuation, communication, a step, a hopeful progress.

Heels for Ali and a gun for Billy. The rest of you just have to wait and see as ADAM-EVE comes to life as it unveils in December 2009. I'm back in the studio with Alison Denham and Billy Marchenski after months of clearing and figuring out our schedule as we return to the research process of this full-length duet.

Creative process and research without any pressure is honouring! Process is liberating, a time with endless possibilities, but also an edge to the curious unknown.

In our spring process I wanted to explore DUST and if there is an object, what would represent a woman and man?

This month of June also, I enter into reconstruction of PARADIS/Paradise, a 55-minute full-length solo. Alone in the studio before the noise composer Emmanuel St Aubin arrives from France. I feel the life and death of an entity when reconstructing an existing work. I viewed the work on video. I am shocked how I got to that physical dance and place. I fear how to come back to it again. It's like a journey, so far, yet so close, familiar and unfamiliar. In the studio, I ponder, doubt and question: why this dance, that movement; where is the source, why that choice?

I am reading and contemplating an essay or manuscript written by Butoh dance artist Natsu Nakajima entitled "Ankoku Butoh". I had the privilege of watching her small performance work and listening to her dialogue in the recent Vancouver International Dance Festival last March. Seeing Natsu was probably the highlight of seeing dance for me so far this year. (I hope to talk more about this experience shortly). She shared her writings with the audience and in keeping it I knew there was something important about it. I finally read and absorbed it this week.

In her words and writing, the simplest yet prevailing knowledge and mystery of the body is ever present, to express and find dance one can "return to the original body" be invisible, become nothing, not anything ... become empty but ... filled emptiness ..."

I think of my body as my most loyal companion, at times divided, at times together, at times eager, at times frightened. Our body is an impeccable palace of divine essence and expression, it can be empty and be very full.