MigARTion aims to create critical and creative space where professional artists and the migrant community, create art together, in a shared environment of planning, integration and eventual execution of the project. It is engaging art practices through dancing, writing, singing, painting and acting, as a social intervention to marginalization and intercultural alienation, and a process that nurtures the everyday practice of criticality and empathy.

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The mobilization of MigARTion project is led by Co. ERASGA artistic director, choreographer/dancer Alvin E. Tolentino with his project artistic team of Filipino artists - theatre director Dennis Gupa, music and opera trained singer Jeremiah Carag, poet/writer Karla Comanda and visual artist Christopher Nazaire.

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Open to school aged children to seniors. No previous art experience required.

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To participate in the workshop, register here - https://forms.gle/oWgtZz5AYvE7KgN26

Workshop participants will receive an honorarium upon project completion.

Workshop observers are also welcome.

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DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES

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Dance   

Classes encourage flow and freedom of movements, play and rigour of movement investigation, stationary and across floor works lead to full body use of expression and joy.

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Music   

Singing through strengthened breathing. Participants learn the basic skills of sound production and will be able to apply them in various approaches to music production such as singing solo and creating harmonies collectively.

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Creative Writing   

A generative writing workshop, participants will be guided to excavate the mundane nuggets of their lived experiences to write poems - or at least parts of one - that speak, through prompts and exercises, to the human condition.

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Visual Art   

Never too late to draw - understand the basic premise of drawing and explore the power of colours in a collaborative paint/draw together experience.

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Theatre 

This workshop adheres in the belief that theatre is for everyone and created communally, and one must be facilitated in that state of creativity to perform their stories of their everyday experiences for social cohesion to happen.

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ARTISTS and FACILITATORS

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Alvin Tolentino 

The artistic director of Co.ERASGA Dance renowned for its contribution as arts leader, curator, cultural programmer, teacher and advocate to the Asian diaspora in Canada spanning three decades.

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Dennis Gupa

A Ph.D. theatre director, transnational scholar and educator of intercultural theatre.

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Jeremia Carag

An accomplished musician and singer for stage who is also an educator passionate about immigrant adult learning and community engagement working as a learning initiatives coordinator with the University of BC.

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Karla Comanda

A poet, editor, translator, educator and arts administrator, an MFA graduate of Creative Writing at the University of BC.

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Christopher Nasaire

A queer writer, editor, and visual artist born and raised in Mindanao. He writes fiction and creative nonfiction, with his works appearing in W49 Magazine and in Magdaragat: An Anthology of Filipino Canadian Writing.

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