Lynn Sheppard, Zack Preece & Cordelia Pentland - 3 Marvels of the Arts Umbrella Dance Company

Lynn Sheppard &  dancers of the Arts Umbrella Dance Company - June 8, 2018

As an obsolete, redundant & retired (soon to be the title of a country song) magazine photographer and writer I have time in my hands which I enjoy in our garden with my Rosemary.

Our granddaughter Lauren Stewart (about to be 16) has been dancing at the Arts Umbrella since she was 7. This gives me plenty of opportunity to experiment with my digital Fuji X-E3 camera at all the rehearsals, Sunday shows and all kinds of finales that the Arts Umbrella Dance Company features throughout the year.

This year (and after the Finale featuring the Graduates, the Senior and Apprentice Dance Company) we further witnessed two of the four Arts Umbrella Dance Recitals, the one on June 8 and the other on June 10.

Chergez l'homme 
The Little Prince


I took pictures at the rehearsal for the June 8 performance and then additional pictures for the two performances. The folks (they look like mothers-in-law from Hades) at the Vancouver Playhouse are often strict about picture taking but this time around they simply said no flash photography was allowed.

This meant that I sat on the front row, centre, and marvelled at how my X-E3 with its electronic shutter does not make even a faint click. I have all of its lights shut off so my camera is not noticed and does not intrude with those around me.

But I have a problem. I have taken 1000 photographs which I have to thin out to place in my blog. My technique these days is the dance swirl/blur. Every one of these pictures is subject to chance and good luck and only after fixing each one can I determine if it stays or goes. So I will be at it for a few days.

But this does not prevent me from writing this pre-blog with my amateur opinions on what I saw.

I have two daughters, HIlary is 45 and Ale is 50. Hilary is the mother of Lauren Stewart who dances at Arts Umbrella. When both Ale and Hilary were teenagers we put them into ballet because that was good parents did. I did not care one way or the other about dance. 

It wasn’t until December 1998 when I was assigned to photograph Evelyn Hart ( I was with her for two whole days) that I fell in love with dance (and Hart). I have been a fan of dance since. This makes me a 20 year amateur of dance so the opinions I hold and state here are to be taken perhaps a bit lightly.

For me the two The Little Prince-themed performances of the Arts Umbrella Dance Company this year had many highlights. Many of my favourite dancers ( a few I have seen and noticed since they were little girls and little boys) were there and the choreographers were all excellent.

But to this amateur there were three standouts.

Left, Zack Preece & Right, Cordelia Pentland

Standout Number One was Lynn Sheppard who is a choreographer, dance teacher and Associate to Artistic Director Artemis Gordon.

This year’s performances featured many of Sheppard’s works. My whole family found themto be our favourites.

I have had the privilege in the past of attending rehearsals in which Gordon and Sheppard hold court where they instruct (never any shouts, with smiles) and transferring to the dancers all sorts of philosophical, metaphysical, suggestions with a dab of Zen Buddhism. There is no doubt in my mind that the dancers adore both these women.

Standout Number Two is a pair of dancers that when they dance together I cannot look at anybody else. The dancers are Pre-Grads Cordelia Pentland and Zack Preece (ably assisted by a most handsome pair of eyebrows).

Cherchez l'homme 
Cordelia Pentland - In Pirouette to Blanche a troupe

Cordelia Pentland

I have been told by those who know that Pentland from the very beginning had a dancer’s body that was all-flexible.

In my Catholic boarding school education in Texas my mentor Brother Edwin Reggio, C.S.C. without mentioning God told us that our goal in life was to find out what we did best and then to do it. Her further told us that it was a tragedy if we did not follow that path once we knew it.

It is my hope that both Pentland and Preece will follow this talent that they share that is one that brings joy and marvel to any that may watch them in future performances.

Should they not do so they might perhaps read here what a former alumnus of Arts Umbrella, Nina Davies took as her experience from the Granville Island dance school when she moved to London.

As soon I as I deal with those 1000 images I will post them (certainly not 1000!) in a further blog.