The year 2025 will be a good year to immerse ourselves in music through song and dance.
Katie Wertz’s work with the Bulkley Concert Association, is specific to dance.
Through her journey with dance interpretation she says, “I learned a lot about myself and how dance has been a vessel in which I can connect with others.”
Katie has multiple layers of culture to prod her creative energy. She was born in White Rock, but grew up in Smithers. Both her parents are first generation immigrants: her mother is from Columbia, South America and her father is from Los Angeles, USA.
Katie started formal dance when she was four years old at our local Creative Arts Performing Arts Studio. Continuing with what was to become a passion, she was accepted into an Art Umbrella Undergraduate program – but her artistic practice has been shaped by the “Remote Rural North”
The heart of her work is based on Wet’suwet’en Territory.
The latest work, performed Feb. 23 at the Della Herman, was an opening act for Method Dancers from Prince George.
She said of her piece as the opening act, “a huge part of my creative process was talking to community members. The individuals involved were from indigenous, settler, immigrant, women of colour, femme, youth, parent and caregiver.”
Further she said, “this piece is very much about who I am and how I came to be here on Wet’suwet’en Territory; how, when I ground on this land I better understand who I am.”
She is also ‘Latina’ so she says, “our shared culture of dancing together is really at the centre of my practice."
She started to build her props and her sound as a "kind of playground for her to respond to movement on stage."
She wants to support, cultivate, and nurture a visible culture of dancing together in the greater community of Smithers. However, there are barriers.
Katie has been connecting with Shelby Richardson, the executive director and founder of Method Dance Society, for strategies to overcome the barriers. But for now they are building from the ground up in an effort to establish a sustainable infrastructure for a visible dance presence both regional and in our community.
When we are children it is natural to put our own little dance movements with tunes. For Katie, with support at four-years-old, it has grown into a profession. A profession that encourages finding that place of growth within ourselves through props and dance and song.
Check out the 2025 schedule for Midsummer Music Festival when it comes out. Katie Wertz will be in the lineup.
If you have tips for this column, please email sonja.lester.b.c@gmail.com or call 250-847-4414.
