By: Lauren O'Donnell

‘A Two Piece’ consists of two separate and distinct dance pieces choreographed, respectively, by Georgi DiRocco and Jake Poloz. It is a part of the Hamilton Fringe Festival, and it runs until Sunday, July 28th. ‘A Two Piece’ is being put on at The Westdale Cinema, recently renovated and looking snazzier than ever. 

As the audience filters into the theatre, the dancers are warming up. There are brief flashes of the performance that is to come, interspersed with stretches and laughter. With dance performances it can be easy to feel out of place and confused, but that was not the case with this show. Every movement spoke directly to the heart of summer romance, however fleeting. The performers channelled every emotion from lovesick, to happy, to heartbroken, to disinterested in every boy on every dating app. Truly, the most relatable content.

The stage remained bare except for a small bin of props. The focus remains permanently on the performers. They command the stage. There are brief moments of slam poetry interwoven within the choreography, connecting the movements to the words in another kind of duet. The poetry is good, but the true strength of the performance lies in the dance. 

Each of the two pieces carries a different tone, as well as dramatically different music choices. In other words, if one of the pieces is not your other thing, the other one probably will be. Different as they may be, however, there is a cohesion and unity to the show that makes it feel whole and fulfilling. 

I give this show a solid 2/2 pieces. When you’re compiling your list of Fringe plays to go see, make sure to add this one in. And then go ahead and add in every other Fringe show.

For more information, visit http://hamiltonfringe.ca/shows/a-two-piece/

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Photos C/O Yvonne Lu, James Ramlal

By: Andrew Mrozowski

Stop. Take a second and look up from this article. You’ll most likely see everyone around you on some form of technology, be it on their phones, tablets or computers. We now live in a world where we are so heavily dependent on technology. According to Yvonne Lu, people should be more conscious about how technology affects their identity.

Originally starting off her undergraduate career in commerce, Lu realized her passion laid in a different faculty. Lu began working in marketing and communications but felt like something was missing. She decided to take on a double major between multimedia and theatre and film.

Now in her final year at McMaster, Lu decided to combine her two disciplines into one overall thesis, taking the form of an interactive multimedia installation and a physical performance called interFACE, as part of the School of the Arts Honours Performance Series.

https://www.facebook.com/yvonne.lu.trinh/posts/10157497355097216

 

The concept for interFACE came to Lu over this past summer when she was employed by a music video company to be their social media coordinator. Although typically not very active on social media in her own life, Lu found herself getting jealous from the various platforms that she managed as there was an overall feeling that everyone was doing better than her.

“Although there definitely were positive and negative experiences, always being on social media and seeing that people younger than me were doing cooler things than I was, working with huge producers, big companies and getting more responsibility than I was… a lot of the times I felt jealous. It’s why I felt I was a step back, I understood why others were successful and a lot of it was trying to catch up with people,” explained Lu.

interFACE examines how young women interact with technology and how this oversaturation impacts their identity as they grow up. Stemming from a vignette of experiences, the multi-disciplinary art experience allows attendees to delve into the development of identity to look at similarities and differences between how we portray ourselves online versus in person.

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id="264" gal_title="interFACE"]

“The question to consider is whether or not social media and digital technology enables us to do more things, or if it consumes us and we are at the whim of the mass media,” explained Lu.

This form of installation is experimental as it features two parts. Viewers will first embark through an audio-visual capsule, which is an audio-sensory experience that saturates the audience in a world that Lu and her team have designed to convey the importance of why we should pay more attention to our own identities. Next viewers will be seated to enjoy the physical portion which expands on what they have observed in the audio-visual capsule.

“This is not something that you would see in traditional theatre. It’s not a narrative or linear piece. We are creating a visceral experience for both our collaborators and audience. We want them to feel that they are in the belly of the beast,” said Lu.

For the thesis student, what the audience takes away from the experience is the primary objective of this piece.

“There isn’t a specific message I want people to walk away with. It’s live theatre and it’s all about interpretation. For us, that’s kind of what I want audiences to walk away with. Questions of what they felt. It’s an emotional journey rather than a narrative,” said Lu.

Show times for interFACE will run on March 28 at 12:30 and 8 p.m. and on March 29 and March 30 at 12:30 and 7 p.m. at the Black Box Theatre in L.R. Wilson Hall. Admission is free.

 

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Photos C/O Trevor Copp

By: Jackie McNeill

Tottering Biped Theatre, a Hamilton-based theatre company founded by Trevor Copp, has reached over 600,000 views on a TED Talk about ‘liquid lead dancing,’ a gender neutral form of partner dancing.

Several McMaster alumni are involved in the theatre company, particularly with their summer Shakespeare work held at the Royal Botanical Gardens.

The theatre is social justice-focused, devising works that have addressed issues like poverty, same sex marriage and mental health and different interpretations of Shakespeare.

However, as prominent as the theatre’s work is, it is not what Copp is arguably best known for.

In 2015, he and his colleague Jeff Fox delivered a TED Talk in Montreal on a dance concept they developed called ‘liquid lead dancing.’

Liquid lead dancing, a form of gender neutral partner dance, was born out of Copp’s discomfort with the systems and rules he was perpetuating as a ballroom dance teacher.

As explained in their TED Talk, the strictly gendered partner dancing promotes a relationship shaped by dictation, where the man leads and the woman follows.

He and Fox developed liquid lead dancing to turn this dictation into a negotiation.

It proposes a system where lead and follow are exchanged throughout the course of the dance regardless of gender,” Copp explained.

This change of form will hopefully become normalized as a dance and help to normalize healthy relationships outside of partner dance as well.

The liquid lead dance between Copp and Fox morphed into a play about creating the first dance for a same sex wedding.

After a successful run of the play, a former student contacted Copp about presenting their dance form as a TED talk.

Copp and Fox’s TED talk was picked up by TED.com, and has over 600,00 views to date.

Despite the success of the TED talk, Copp admits that it has not been all smooth sailing promoting liquid lead dancing.

“Most people are comfortable with their given role, and, even though they aren't particularly traditional in their thinking, allow it to decide their roles as dancers. There's comfort in the familiar. I don't begrudge it at all. I just think that if you're going to recreate a culturally outdated form you should be conscious of it by making a choice to do so as opposed to sleepwalking your way through the dance form.”

Acknowledging that the work he had done with liquid lead dance is not that well-known in Hamilton, Copp is aiming to work harder at spreading the dance form in the future.

As explained in the TED Talk, liquid lead dancing is not about dance alone.

By addressing the strict roles perpetuated in partner dancing, Copp and Fox have begun to address the erasure of non-binary people and same-sex couples in dance, in addition to the exclusion of Black, Asian and other non-white bodies.

By bringing these issues that are prevalent within ballroom and partner dance to a wider audience with the TED Talk and Copp’s theatre company, the same issues that are prevalent in everyday life stand a better chance at being addressed.

Copp has performed liquid lead dance at conferences throughout Ontario, New York and Ireland and is looking forward to next presenting at a conference on consent and sexuality with Planned Parenthood in Virginia.

 

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Photos C/O Peggy Baker Dance Projects

It has been said that life is a dance. No one knows that better than celebrated Canadian dance artist Peggy Baker whose dance installation Move captures the duality of caregiving. The free installation will be performed on Feb. 2 at the Art Gallery of Hamilton as part of McMaster University’s Socrates Project.

The dance installation takes place in a 28 by 28-foot square surrounded by a frame.  It is 70-minutes long and is organized into four cycles. The cyclic nature of the piece and the fact that it rotates throughout means audience members can take it in from multiple angles.

 

The performers are not necessarily dancers by trade but members of the community who love dance. There are 16 of them dancing in pairs that reverse roles with each cycle. They were selected in November 2018 during a two-hour workshop and audition.

The story of Move began 10 years ago when Baker first presented the dance as part of Toronto contemporary art event Nuit Blanche. At that time, the dance was 20 minutes long and done on the hour every hour for 12 hours with 12 pairs of professional dancers. When Baker put on Move for the second time at the Art Gallery of Ontario a couple years later, she decided to extend the length of the piece and do it with fewer dancers.  

It was while doing the dance at the Art Gallery of Ontario that Baker thought about using community members as the dancers. She has since put on several performances of Move with non-professional dancers, staging the entire performance in five three-hour rehearsals.

 

Baker’s own experience with caregiving formed a part of the inspiration for the installation. She was the primary caregiver to her late husband, who had primary progressive multiple sclerosis. She found that caregiving involves a beautiful rapport between the one receiving and the one giving care.

Baker was also inspired by art and dance itself. While teaching in Philadelphia, she was struck by the beauty of partnership when she had dancers pair up and help another during some difficult movement sequences. Also while in Philadelphia, she saw an exhibition of paintings by American painter George Tooker and was inspired by the images of people embracing one another.

The dancers changing roles throughout the piece represents the inevitability of being on both sides of caregiving. The choreography for the piece overall is formal and highly organized, mimicking the ritualized elements of human lives. The choice to have four cycles mimics the cyclic structure of the seasons and the fact that there are four cardinal directions.

“[I]t’s something universal. We all receive that kind of intimate physical care and physical nurturing as infants and children. We may all find ourselves in a position where we where we are called upon to give care to a parent or a partner or a child. And we may all eventually need to receive care,” explained Baker.

KITCHENER, Ont. (09/04/18) - Victoria Park

 

The electro-acoustic soundtrack, composed by musician and composer Debashis Sinha, is also organized into four cycles. It is subtle and atmospheric, not quite music but a sonic landscape for the audience and dancers to reside in.

Baker encourages audience members to walk around the square performance space, close their eyes or turn their back to view the art in the gallery. The space allows viewers to feel comfortable arriving after it begins or even leaving before it ends.

I like it to be in a public place. I like it to be in a place that already is claimed by the community as being a place in their town or city like this is… an art gallery, a foyer of a theater, a market… [I]t needs to locate itself in the heart of the community… [I]t's about community building basically,” Baker said.

At the end of the piece, the dancers pour water for one another and drink it. One of the dancers in the group, a ceramic artist, suggested that the group each makes the vessel that they drink out of. At the end of one of their rehearsals, she guided her fellow dancers through making their own bowl.

The creativity and passion brought on by these community dancers give this installation of Move a unique tint. However, the beauty of Move is the universality of the theme and the way in which it can move anyone.

 

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Photos from Silhouette Photo Archives

This weekend, the McMaster figure skating team hosted their first meet in several years. The team, led by one of Mac’s captains Emma Bonafiglia, came in fourth place overall. Ontario University Athletics gold medalist Belvina Mao came in first once again for the Senior Silver Solo Dance category.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BqyL8zMH8e1/

 

We caught up with the two Marauders below:

The Silhouette: What year and program are you in?

Belvina: Third year, kinesiology.

Emma: Fourth year, kinesiology.

 

Tell us, what made you decide to come to Mac?

B: My main reason was for the kinesiology program because it’s one of the best in the country. I was also really attracted to the fact that everyone who came to Mac loved the community feel it had.

E: I originally decided to come to Mac to join the [synchronized swim] team in my first year. I also chose Mac because it is close to home and I heard about its reputable Kin program.  

 

Tell us a bit about the McMaster Invitational.

E: It’s a lot of work to host a tournament, but this year myself and the other captains wanted to host one. The process was a bit challenging, but overall we ended up figuring everything out and it ran smoothly the day of. In terms of skating, we came fourth overall, which is good but it’s still the beginning of the season so we have a lot to work on.

B: It was really nice because alumni, family and friends were able to come out and support [us]. Normally, they’re not able to because competitions are so far. So to be able to perform in front of them was really nice. Even though there was pressure being on home ice, it felt more like a showcase than an actual competition.

 

As the defending OUA Senior Silver Solo Dance gold medalist, it’s no surprise you came in first in the same category this weekend. Tell us a little about that.

B: The person who was behind me was a little close for comfort, but I was still able to skate to the best of my abilities so I was really proud of myself.

 

If you had to tell us one thing about yourself that people don’t know what would it be?

B: I am part of the McMaster Musical Theatre and it’s really fun to be part of something outside of school and skating. (MMT upcoming show “Company” is Feb. 22)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhW3hsZnslp/

E: I don’t like chocolate, but my go-to sweet treat is anything sour.

 

Lastly, what are your goals for this season?

B: I am hoping to defend my title as OUA champion for the Senior Silver Dance and to continue to just skate the best that I can.

E: For the team, our goal is to come top three at the OUA championships in February, and for myself, I hope to come first in my solo dance event.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Br0lmW_Hmu2/

 

Next up, the McMaster Figure Skating team will head to the University of Toronto to take the ice.

 

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Photos by Kyle West

By Kian Yousefi Kousha

When it comes to science, the human mind would inevitably shift towards thinking about chemicals in test tubes, DNA or even the exciting world of quantum physics. However, Leonardo Da Vinci, Nicola Tesla, Omar Khayyam and many others have shown us that science also has a place in art, from paintings to designs and poetry.

Similarly, McMaster University witnessed another combination of art and science during Dance Brain, which took place last week at the university’s Large Interactive Visual Environment Lab, better known as the LIVELab housed in the psychology complex.

Dance Brain is a performance where the dancer’s electrical brain activity is measured through an electroencephalogram cap and brain waves are converted into music in real time. The brain-wave music is then danced to on stage, ultimately allowing the performer to dance to their own biological rhythm.  

This project, which embraces performance practice and neuroscience, is being held by the initiative of McMaster University neuroscientists, Steven Brown and Dan Bosnyak from the department of psychology, neuroscience and behaviour, composer and sound artist, Gordon Monahan and contemporary dancer, Bill Coleman. Bosnyak is also the technical director at the LIVELab.

Brain-wave music was developed three years ago, but Brown justifies the uniqueness of Dance Brain as the first project to incorporate a dance performance based on the music.

“People have done the sonification of brain waves as musical work but never as a dance work…We wanted for the first time to bring this to the domain of dance,” explained Brown.

The project uses varied methods to enhance the frequencies that are obtained from the human brain which are often too quiet to hear and are at frequencies between five to 20 hertz. Composing the music involves using different methods to increase the frequencies to a hearing range.  

Once the audience can hear the brain-wave music, attendees’ eyes are set on Coleman. He believes that his background in art plays an important role in the scientific aspect of Dance Brain.

“Dance or art is a way of exploring the world and understanding it and as is science…so they are both ways of defining who we are and where we live,” explained Coleman.  

According to Coleman, brain-wave music conveys what is happening in the body, especially through contemporary dance. It’s also fascinating to think about how the dancer is placed in a paradox of whether the brain-waves music dictates how Coleman is moving or whether he is the one controlling the music.

https://www.facebook.com/LIVELabMIMM/posts/2210947782517371?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARBc4PIpG1Lh0wdYPUBidGnWiz1YwWKXPtBy1rmHwapWQbnJrQAbVkUohDSddTMj7LM55a0szF-kKjDwpLyzfOUs6ctC2s8RAUR8DJ3B8ovp96E0fAkpQwKVFUAu1AGhmkJ4fbj34NkM1KTrcCMrHvjSrlHwJucVLX52HSASO2qP-il8bB5N3w&__tn__=-R

[spacer height="20px"]From its beginning to the end, the performance amazed the audience.  Coleman’s brain waves were accompanied by complementing lights and instruments such as piano. This makes Dance Brain one of the most challenging performances that has been held in McMaster’s LIVELab.

For Brown, Dance Brain is proof that it is possible to convert electric brain activity into music in real time. As on the most unique feats of arts and science here on campus, Dance Brain opens up the road for more opportunities to explore this principle in the future by involving other scientists, artists and performers in the show.

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As one of the outgoing presidents of Mac Dance, leaving the team after four years of dedication is going to be hard for Chimira Andres, but she knows it will be in good hands.

The Mac Dance team started as an amalgamation of all dance groups on campus. Now, there is a competitive team with 40 members and a recreational team with over 200 members.

The competitive team participates in weekly conditioning and technique classes to prepare for their three provincial dance competitions and their year-end showcase. Meanwhile, the recreational team — which includes jazz, ballroom, lyrical, hip-hop and acro among other styles — focuses on learning one main routine for a final showcase.

The club’s mission, written by Andres, states: “We hope to see any and all dancers who wish to have a space to dance no matter what level or style they call their own.”

While the competitive team has regular auditions to choose to perform in their three competitions throughout the year, the recreational team’s auditions are just for placement.

“You can start at any level that you want, but there is beginner, intermediate and advanced — which is not disclosed initially to make it more fun and inclusive,” said Andres. “Then the execs will separate the dancers according to their styles and levels.”

For Andres, coming into Mac Dance at the competitive level and watching the club grow over the past few years has been one of her biggest rewards.

The Mac Dance team started as an amalgamation of all dance groups on campus. There are now both a competitive team and a recreational team with an average of 40 people on each team.

“It’s nice to see it full circle,” said Andres. “As the president, it is so different playing a leadership role versus just being a member. You see things much differently.”

First taking up dance as a child as a form of childcare, Andres started off in ballet, like many others.

“My mom put my sister and I in it for childcare and we have been going to dance ever since,” said Andres. “And like most people, I started with ballet because it’s the foundation of all dance. Since then, I’ve done jazz and contemporary hip-hop, and I also went to an arts high school.”

Though able to perform several different styles, Andres is most passionate about her first love: ballet.

“Everything that you do in ballet speaks volumes,” Andres explained. “The amount of work and technique it requires shows through not your flexibility, but the strength behind it. If you can hold your leg in the air for 10 seconds, it requires a greater strength than just kicking it up there. This makes it athletic and graceful at the same time.”

That level of athleticism is what makes Andres take the “dance is a sport” side of the age-old debate. In terms of technique and training, she believes that dancers can have even more body awareness than some athletes. Though for Andres, she does recognize how the artistic element of dance makes it different from many other sports.

“If you look at the criteria of the word ‘sport’ I feel like dance falls into the category, but I think the artistry and the creative aspect adds a bit more,” said Andres. “For example, a lot of sports, for the most part, are very easy to judge. It’s a win or a lose, or either you score or you don’t. But for dancing, you can’t always see the win or the loss because it is so subjective.”

Although some still may not see dance as a sport, Mac Dance had the opportunity to perform at one of the biggest sporting events in Canadian university sports: the U Sports Vanier Cup.

“It was fun to be able to do something fun to start are season,” said Andres. “We were able to perform as one group all together and also do separate jazz and hip-hop performances.”

“If you look at the criteria of the word ‘sport’ I feel like dance falls into the category, but I think the artistry and the creative aspect adds a bit more.”

 

Chimira Andres
Co-president
Mac Dance

One of Andres goals for the club during her time as president was to become more involved in the Hamilton community and the opportunity to dance at the Vanier Cup was just the beginning.

“We’ve been working with high school students and are really trying to get involved in the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board,” Andres added.

As Andres prepares to graduate and leave Mac Dance behind her, these goals are part of a framework she hopes to leave behind with the club.

“I want to leave them with enough organization so that they feel more confident to follow up with the plans that they make,” said Andres.

Knowing first-hand how tough and stressful being a student can be, the Mac Dance president always turned to dancing to keep her grounded.

“I know how a much a safe haven Mac Dance was to me, so as I leave, I hope to leave them with guidance and for them to know that they can always reach out to me,” Andres said.

In the home stretch of the school year, Andres and the competitive team are preparing to take their last dance: a year-end showcase entitled All The Stars. The showcase will take place on April 7 and will feature both the contemporary and hip-hop teams.

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MAC Dance hosted their year end showcase on April 8. Check out MAC Dance Competitive Team Year End Showcase for more information.

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Spencer Nestico-Semianiw / The Silhouette

McMaster's ImMACculate dance team came away with a first-place finish at last weekend's North American Culture Show (NACS) competition in Brampton, ON.

On Mar. 9, dance teams from ten universities and six colleges across Ontario competed at the NACS.  The show featured four types of South Asian dance forms: Bollywood, Classical, Bhangra and Western Fusion. McMaster’s team, consisting of 30 undergraduate students and 10 executive members, travelled to Brampton’s Powerade Centre. The team ended up receiving the competition's top award, beating out last year’s winners, Waterloo-Laurier.

McMaster’s team has been practicing since November 2012 for the NACS competition. After winning the competition two years ago, the team hoped to reclaim their position as Ontario’s best NACS team.

Jasleen Singh, one of McMaster’s dance team coordinators, attributed the success of the team to specializing in all four styles of dance.

“We do everything across the board, all the way from South-East Asian to Western dance styles, so we offer a competitive dance team that provides you with the opportunity of learning different styles of dance," said Singh.

Because of low funding, many NACS team students needed to purchase their own costumes this year, costs that rose to more than $100 per person. Due to community sponsorship and receiving a $5,000 prize for their performance, however, the team’s financial status remains stable.

On the morning of the competition, Brampton’s Powerade Centre, which has a capacity of 5,000 people, began to fill up as students, parents and friends from all over Ontario filtered in. The competition opened with Western University’s performance, followed by Brock University's and then McMaster's.

Despite the size of the arena and turnout from fans, McMaster choreographer Avani Dave explained how McMasters’s team, especially its new members, retained their composure.

“You’re never alone, and that motivation and enthusiasm that we all have pushes anybody who is in first year into doing it for their first time as well," said Dave.

Aside from the competing dance teams, performances by Canadian singers Jonita, Joti Dhillon and Karl Wolf were included, in addition to a dance performance by Canada’s Got Talent finalists, Broken Dance.

The announcement of McMaster’s first-place finish was met with ecstatic relief from ImMACculate team members and the over 200 fans who came out to support them. Both Singh and Avani attribute their success to past dance members returning to the school to provide advice and wisdom. As they both graduate this coming spring, there's no doubt they will do the same.

Co-Written by: Aissa Boodhoo-Leegsma and Jemma Wolfe

For one day only, students received a McMaster-issued passport to travel the world, all within the confines of the student centre. On Sunday, March 10, Pangaea 2013 transformed the student centre into a global bazaar and performance hall where students could experience 21 different regions of the world.

Pangaea has taken place at McMaster for over 10 years and is known as the largest multicultural event on campus. MUSC rooms are used as country pavilions where cultural clubs serve food from their culture and have visual displays. Displays featured costumes, masks, historical posters, art and music.

The main feature of the pavilions, the food, was a smorgasbord of flavor. It’s not everyday that students get to accumulate over 50 countries’ traditional food on only one plate. Some particularly standout dishes were served by a variety of nations. The Egyptian stall featured koshary, a popular street-vendor dish in Egypt comprised of rice, noodles, lentils, chickpeas and fried onions, topped with tomato sauce. The West Africa pavilion served spicy Jollof rice, a traditional Senegalese dish. The Armenian room offered boreg, a feta-stuffed phyllo pastry turnover topped with sesame seeds. The Indian section included the sweet gulub jamun, syrupy milk-based dough balls. Yet it was hard to isolate particular dishes amidst the vast selection of sweet and savory items; every pavilion made a mouth-watering effort to proudly represent their country’s culinary achievements.

Some particular exhibits arranged by the cultural groups for display at their pavilion were also notable for their interactive nature and enthusiastic delivery.

On the first floor of the exhibit, Isreal stood out. Israel’s pavilion was unique in the long-term promise it offered attendees: that any wish they wrote and stuck to the poster-board imitation of the Old City of Jerusalem’s Western Wall will be brought to the real Wall. This is a sacred Jewish location where over a million written prayers and wishes are slid into the crevices every year in the hope that they will be answered. During one club member’s trip to Jerusalem this summer, the wishes will be delivered and painstakingly inserted into the auspicious wall.

Moving to the small but vibrant island south of India, Sri Lanka also didn’t disappoint. The Sri Lankan pavilion offered a fun interactive activity: trying on the traditional Kandyan saree. This version of the women’s sari is unique to Sri Lanka, and looks very different from other kinds. Participants were guided through the three segments of the traditional dress - skirt, sash and frilled upper-skirt - while aspects of Sri Lankan culture were discussed. Afterwards, a photo-op in front of their map and artifact display was encouraged.

The Japanese pavilion featured many traditional elements of Japanese culture such as an origami station and the opportunity to try on a kimino. Students were also on hand to teach attendees about Omikuji, a form of Japanese fortune-telling.

The game has a series of fortunes ranging from great fortune to very bad luck. The general fortunes are written on narrow bamboo sticks which are shaken out of a small container. They are then traded in for written pieces of paper with specific adages.

Some examples of fortunes The Silhouette encountered were, “Do not leave your house – certain misfortune”, “Something bad will happen to you soon” and “You will succeed in some of the things in your life.”

Moving away from the Asian subcontinent towards the tropics, the MACaws (or the McMaster Association of West Indian Students), occupied a pavilion where multiple nations were represented. Some countries included were Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica.

The MACaws welcomed students into their pavilion, adorned with a lei curtain and blasting soca music. Students were treated to peanut punch and ginger beer while they took in the palm trees, fishing nets and hammocks that were set up.

The event also featured a dance performance element that was repeated twice throughout the day. Cultural clubs were invited to showcase different cultural dances and submit small write-ups to explain the significance of their culture and its traditions.

Groups invited people of any background to join their dance pieces. For example, the Latin American group featured many types of dances and activities characteristic of Latin America, such as salsa and involved non-Latin American students.

Khurum Shafi, a recent McMaster alumnus and dancer in the Latin American piece and the McMaster School of Bhangra piece, explained how Pangaea created a unique cross-cultural forum for students to learn about other student’s cultures through performance.

“Usually a cultural performance is done in front of people of your own culture and background but Pangaea is one opportunity to do it in front of other cultures.”

The styles of dance presented were as varied and diverse as the nationalities they represented. From sensual Egyptian belly dancing, to ceremonial Assyrian dancing, the audience was introduced to many dance styles they may not be able to encounter on a regular basis.

Such was the spirit of Pangaea in all its forms: introducing students and community members to people, food, dress, dance and cultures they might not have previously encountered, and encouraging an ethic of inclusion, cooperation and respect along the way.

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