Dance fuses east and west :By Jeanine Soodeen, Goldstream News Gazette, April 5 2006

Vancouver, Canada -- Like Christo and Jeanne-Claude are to visual art, Bourget and Hirabayashi are to dance, producing site specific work in the Canadian Museum of Civilization's Great Hall, in a coal mine in Poland and on Vancouver's Wreck Beach.

"Theatre is a place of magic. It doesn't matter if it's in a theatre per se or on a beach," Bourget said.

Barbara Bourget and Jay Hirabayashi both practise disciplines where each and every step is carefully thought out. However, they quite literally stumbled upon a form of dance that would transform their careers.

"It was an amazing performance. The quality of movement, the use of time very slow, very potent," said Bourget, artistic director of Kokoro Dance. "These images started to creep into our work. We identified this form, this idea, this concept dealing with the body.

"What we do is a fusion of Western and Eastern esthetic in dance. Butoh is a strong thread in our dance."

Kokoro Dance performs its signature work Sunyata at the McPherson Playhouse April 7 and 8 at 8 p.m.

"Typically audiences can expect something intense and unusual in the imagery presented, how we deal with space and time," said Bourget, who was born in Port Alberni, but spent much of her life in Vancouver.

Bourget's technical dance background includes years with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Les Grands Ballet Canadiens. Hirabayashi's approach is derived from years as a downhill ski racer combined with studies of Buddhist philosophy.

"What we do is a fusion of Western and Eastern esthetic in dance. Butoh is a strong thread in our dance."

Kokoro Dance performs its signature work Sunyata at the McPherson Playhouse April 7 and 8 at 8 p.m.

"Typically audiences can expect something intense and unusual in the imagery presented, how we deal with space and time," said Bourget, who was born in Port Alberni, but spent much of her life in Vancouver.

Bourget's technical dance background includes years with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Les Grands Ballet Canadiens. Hirabayashi's approach is derived from years as a downhill ski racer combined with studies of Buddhist philosophy.