Month-long celebration of culture begins at Langley Arts Council

Date: March 5, 2024

Aldergrove Venue hosting dance performances and cultural presentations through March

Langley Arts Council began a month-long Celebration of Culture on Saturday, March 2 with a traditional Chinese dance performance at the Aldergrove Kinsmen Community Centre.

Members of the Lorita Leung Dance Academy, which includes the Little Panda children’s performing group and the Lorita Leung dance company, presented a showcase featuring five different Chinese dances.

Jessica Jone, the principal and artistic director of the Richmond-based dance school, called it an “especially significant opportunity” for the dancers to also share their heritage.

“It’s a very important that they stay connected with their heritage, because a lot of our kids are Chinese-Canadian and they haven’t necessarily even been to China themselves,” Jone explained, “but through their Chinese dance studies, they are able to not only learn about the culture but also stay in touch with the language and the music and the history behind it.”

“It’s fabulous. It’s fun. It’s exercise, and it’s cultural,” Jone smiled.

It is the second year for the event, which aims to celebrate diversity through hands-on cultural programming every Saturday in March.

Next Saturday, March 9 will feature a dance workshop by the popular Wild Moccasin Dancers, an intertribal dance collective, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

In the afternoon, from 12:25 p.m. to 1 p.m. dancer/ choreographer Karthik Nats will hold an Indian Kuthu dance workshop.

There will also be a swing-dance workshop from 1 to 2:30 p.m. by the Rock Step Swing Dance Society.

On Saturday, March 16, from 11 a.m. to noon, activist Ted Lightfoot will give a presentation on creating awareness about saving wetland and salmon habitats with a bald headed eagle sculpture carved out of Juniper, a very slow-growing tree found in the B.C. Interior.

An Indigenous beading workshop will follow from 1:30 to 2:30, or 3 to 4 p.m. Supplies will be provided.

The fourth Saturday, March 23, will feature a Latin dance performance by the Grupoamerica team from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., followed by a workshop by henna artist Baljeet Kaur from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.

Another henna art workshop will conclude the month of cultural celebration on March 30, from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.

All events are free, but require registration in advance, which can be done online at langleyarts.ca.

All will be held in the main hall of the Aldergrove Kinsmen Community Centre, located at 26770 29th Ave.