UNews - performance artist

Peers bringing message to campus

trevor.kenney — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 20:52:18 +0000

One of the highlight speaking events of the fall semester will take place Monday, Oct. 1 when the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ welcomes Danielle Peers to campus for her talk entitled Interrogating Disability: The De-Composition of a Recovering Paralympian.

Co-sponsored by the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Office of the President and numerous departments and organizations on campus, this event promises to have wide appeal, as Peers's work is provocative, interdisciplinary and creative.

Peers is a Trudeau and Vanier scholar who studies the relationship between disability, sport and social justice movements in Canada. The timing of her talk could not be better, coming on the heels of the Paralympic Games in London, Eng.

Danielle Peers is a Trudeau and Vanier Scholar.

Bringing Peers to the U of L is a coup for organizers. An activist filmmaker, performance artist, former Paralympic athlete, wheelchair basketball coach and community organizer, Peers is a sought-after speaker. She is currently pursuing a PhD in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta, and has been involved in research projects funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Sport Science Association of Alberta. Her academic writings have appeared in such scholarly venues as Disability and Society, Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, and Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise. Several U of L faculty members teach Peers's work in their classes on campus.

In her talk, Peers will weave personal stories, creative writing and critical disability theory to explore how the daily questioning and storytelling about disability serve to create certain kinds of disabled (and able-bodied) subjects. She will revisit her own experiences of diagnosis, Paralympic classification, basketball games, media interviews, conversations and internal struggles to consider how she has been composed, and has decomposed herself as a disabled Paralympian.

The event provides a valuable forum for intellectual discussion and it is an important opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty and staff, to hear a provocative and engaging speaker who will challenge us all to think about the ways in which particular bodies are constructed as the "Other."

Organizers of the event include Drs. Carly Adams (kinesiology and physical education), Jason Laurendeau (sociology) and Suzanne Lenon (women and gender studies).

The event is scheduled for 7 to 9 p.m. in the SU Ballroom and is free and open to the public. Following Peers's talk, there will be a reception with light refreshments. Peers will also meet with interested graduate students at a luncheon earlier on Oct. 1 as well as speak to undergraduate classes on Tuesday, Oct. 2.

This story first appeared in the September 2012 issue of the Legend. For a look at the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Bursting onto a new stage

trevor.kenney — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 22:16:15 +0000

Heather Steacy is a performance artist who has seen the stage as an elite athlete and musician. She's acutely aware that the stage she's about to enter is grander than anything she's ever seen before.

Steacy will join her brother Jim Steacy (BASc '09) as a hammer thrower, representing Canada at the London Olympic Games this month. While the Horns Athletics product has already represented her country at the World ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Games and the IAAF World Track Championships, the Olympics are on another level.

"I honestly don't know what to expect," says the 24-year-old Canadian champion. "Everyone who has been to the Olympics that I've talked to says that they can't describe it, it really is something you have to experience for yourself and I'm excited about that."

Heather Steacy is the two-time Canadian champion in hammer throw.

Steacy is on virtually the same schedule as her older brother, who experienced his first Olympics at age 24. The goal for him then, and her now, was to soak in the atmosphere, try and make it out of qualifying and build for a medal run in four years.

"I would love to make it to the finals and seeing Jim have that success in 2008 is very encouraging because I see that it as a possibility," says Steacy. "I think that's the main goal, hopefully throw a personal best and anything beyond that, I'm just really excited for the experience."

Steacy is peaking at the right time. She threw her personal best of 72.16 metres and achieved the Olympic A-Plus Standard in her first meet of this season, allowing her to focus her summer on training and gaining strength, rather than grinding to qualify for the Olympic team.

"It was a huge relief to meet that standard the first meet of the season," she says. "It's allowed me to train towards London instead of train towards getting that standard."

Steacy has an obvious mentor in brother Jim but says she hasn't sat down and discussed specifics about performing on the Olympic stage.

"Having spent all of my time training with him and living with him I think I've just learned by osmosis," she says. "He's also really good at letting me learn my own way and not just imposing his way of thinking on me. But it definitely takes some of the pressure off knowing I'll have somebody there who I'm comfortable with."

Her first Olympic experience is seen as a stepping stone to the future.

Jim is excited to relive the innocence of his first Olympic experience through his sister.

"That's going to be so much fun. Having gone through it already, it's going to be cool to watch her do it too and see how much it throws her," he says. "It's a whole different animal than watching it on TV – a shocking experience."

She says she plans to feed off the local support shown at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's Olympic Send-off Celebration held before the team headed off to London.

"It's really cool and really encouraging to have so many people from the community come out for something like this and show their support," she says. "We know, in the backs of our minds that it's there, but to have them come out like this – it's really nice."

Competition Schedule

Hammer Throw Qualifying – Wednesday, Aug. 8 at 10 a.m. GMT (4 a.m. MDT)

Hammer Throw Final – Friday, Aug. 10 at 7:35 p.m. GMT (1:35 p.m. MDT)

Aguilar headlines International Dinner lineup

trevor.kenney — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 22:26:10 +0000

Mexican exchange student Cesar Aguilar came to Canada under inconspicuous pretence – he just wanted to learn English. When he opened his mouth however, everyone quickly took notice.

Blessed with a singing voice as melodic and pure as it is unique, the 18-year-old first-year ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge music student will highlight the ethnic entertainment at the 17th Annual International Dinner, Feb. 12 in the U of L Atrium.

Aguilar has been in Canada since September 2006, turning what was a planned six-month stay into a now burgeoning career as a classical vocalist. He initially shuffled between Sundre and Olds, Alta. as a foreign exchange student who was supposed to spend one semester learning English and Canadian customs. It turned out he liked the Alberta way and decided to stay. He also let us in on a secret – his voice.

"I used to sing a lot and I would sing traditional Mexican music, what they call ranchera," Aguilar says of his childhood in Cuernavaca, Morelos, a city of approximately 400,000 people just 45 minutes south of Mexico City. "I would be all dressed up like this charro with a big sombrero, and I just loved it."

His vocal styling at that time was in a low pitch he used to imitate other popular singers, but under the tutelage of a Mexican teacher, he was encouraged to sing in his natural pitch, which was considerably higher. His sound would mature over time, but as he went through a natural voice change, he somehow maintained a high pitch in his singing. Now he trains as a counter-tenor, an exceedingly rare gift.

"At the beginning, you can see people's reaction when I perform, the looks on their faces," Aguilar says. "I talk low, but then when I start singing high, people aren't sure what they are listening to."

U of L music professor Blaine Hendsbee knew what he was hearing when he adjudicated Aguilar in a 2007 Kiwanis Music Festival. The two struck a chord and it eventually led to Aguilar coming to the U of L.

"I loved how he adjudicated me," says Aguilar. "I asked him at the end, are there universities here in Canada where you would suggest to pursue my singing?
"He told me of several that are good and have very good music programs but I found they are also very expensive. I had heard the U of L was very good and the only person I really knew was Blaine and the cost of the university was so much better I decided to try and go here."

Having completed his first semester, Aguilar is making the most of his U of L experience. He sang with Vox Musica prior to Christmas and is currently performing with the U of L Singers. All the while he continues to train in opera, knowing full well there are few parts written for counter-tenors.

"For tenors and baritones there is a lot of chances to get into the classic operas," he says. "For counter-tenors it's really hard because you are reduced to a certain narrow repertoire, from the Baroque mainly."

Still, it does not dissuade him from his goal, to be a performance artist.

"I want to go as far as I can in performance," Aguilar says. "I do not need to be rich, it's mainly about enjoying what I do. If you are going to pay me enough to live, then that's fine. I want to travel around and sing."

GET THE FACTS

• Aguilar has already recorded three CDs, including an English recording last summer of Canadian gospel songs he learned while living in Olds

• His mother arranges international student exchanges and has been to Canada to visit Aguilar

• Aguilar distinctly remembers seeing snow for the first time, Sept. 15, 2006, while he was living in Sundre

• Other performances at the International Dinner include belly dancing by Ammena Dance Company, the U of L Global Drums and Japan's Makoto Sakurada

UNews - performance artist

Peers bringing message to campus

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Bursting onto a new stage

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Aguilar headlines International Dinner lineup

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