WEDNESDAY, July 9, 2025
4 pm - 7:30 pm
Dance Exploration Workshop at the Harris Ranch - with Rachel Harris
Part of the series “Nikkei Art Excursions” offered by Slocan Lake Arts Council. Supported by the Village of New Denver and the Nikkei Memorial Internment Centre.
This dance exploration workshop will take place at the Bosun (Harris) Ranch—a scenic family-owned property near New Denver, and the historic location of a Japanese internment camp.
Contemporary dancer and teacher, Rachel Harris will guide this dance workshop over her family’s ranch. She will share stories and history of the ranch and the Japanese internment there and will explore how this history affects how we resonate with the place and how our bodies can be in dialogue with the world around us. The workshop will begin at the ‘old ranch house’, the historic Harris family home and will continue across the fields to where the Japanese camp was located. Participants will explore how their bodies can be a tool for listening to what the land has to tell. Together, they will make a danced homage to this place, to its past, present and future.
Musician Paul ‘Garbanzo’ Gibbons will accompany the workshop with bamboo flutes and percussion.
Rachel Harris is a professional dancer now based in Montreal but with family roots in the Slocan. She has collaborated with over thirty choreographers in a career that has spanned thirty years and has taken her around the globe. Parallel to dancing, Rachel guides movement workshops in women’s shelters in Montreal as part of Dance Against Violence.
All participants of this workshop receive 40% discount on their entry ticket to the Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre (NIMC).
Location: Meet at top of Harris Road between Silverton & New Denver BC
Cost: $40-75 sliding scale for members | $50-75 sliding scale for non-members*
Included: some light snacks, cool water and 40% discount on a ticket for NIMC.
Participants: Open to all, 12 years and older. Mixed abilities are welcome though participants should be comfortable walking. Max 25 participants.
Bring: water, snacks, sun & rain protection, comfortable walking shoes and a blanket or chair if you like.
*Become a SLAC member / renew your membership here for only $10!
Harris Ranch fields, Silverton BC
Harris Ranch fields, Silverton BC
Photo credit: Paul-Antoine Taillefer
About Rachel Harris
Originally from British Columbia, Rachel moved to Montreal in 1990 in order to continue her dance training at LADMMI (now called L'École de danse contemporaine de Montréal). Since graduating in 1993, Rachel has collaborated with over thirty choreographers and performed around the globe in over forty creations that have touched a wide range of choreographic styles. Rachel has appeared recently in the works of Benoît Lachambre, Aurélie Pedron, Marie Béland, Thea Patterson, Amy-Claire Huestis, Caroline Laurin-Beaucage and Sybille Müller. Since 2010, in parallel to her dance career, Rachel has been guiding movement workshops for women in shelters with Dance Against Violence. These workshops aim to help participants re-appropriate their bodies as a safe space, to offer tools for well-being, to open or re-open the door to creativity and self-expression and to create a sense of community between participants. Rachel continues to return to her family roots in the West Kootenays, often performing at her family's farm, Bosun Ranch, near New Denver, BC.
More about Rachel Harris on Montreal Danse
About Paul ‘Garbanzo’ Gibbons
Paul ‘Garbanzo’ Gibbons is a percussionist, producer, and bansuri (bamboo flute) player from Silverton BC. Before moving to the Kootenays in 1994 he was Co-Artistic Director of Snake in the Grass Moving Theatre which performed nationally and internationally, and was the resident theatre troupe at the UBC Museum of Anthropology for 13 years. He has released four solo albums: The Investigator, Moths Come Back, Flotation Device, and Dream On. He was composer and band leader for Certified Mango and their album Wild Still Yonder. His most recent release is Bodies of Water by Curvesand (a collaboration with guitarist Jeremy Down).
Listen to Garbanzo's music and see more of his work at: www.garbanzomusic.ca
Rachel Harris in Invisible by Aurélie Pedron
Rachel Harris in MOTHLIKE/Silvery-Blue
Rachel Harris in MOTHLIKE/Silvery-Blue
