Workshop Tour

Since 1984, the SCES Workshop Tour has offered a day of workshops to schools throughout the province. The workshops are provided by working Saskatchewan Artists. We strive to nurture imagination, independent thinking, respect for each other and enthusiasm for life through balanced programs integrating multiple forms of artistic activity.

This program is unique in Saskatchewan and has long been referenced by artists who have chosen their profession, in part, due to early interaction with the SCES Workshop Tour.

Drama
Theatre is magic: the shy child becomes the expressive clown, or the skeptical hockey player discovers her hidden talent for impersonation. This transformation can occur in under an hour as students who have never seen live theatre are suddenly making it themselves!

Music
"If music be the food of life ... play on!" Be it musical comedy or aboriginal drumming, our talented musicians bring their celebration of world beat to your door.

Dance
Our bodies are not just a form of transportation for our heads. Put thought and emotion into action to create dance –– an intuitive exploration of the physical body, raising each student's awareness of their own movement potential.

Visual Arts
"I can't draw!" But you can. A flick of the wrist and a face appears. A bit of shading here, a little color there and suddenly your eyes open to a new world in front of you. "I can't" becomes "I can." Children must be allowed to experience their own perceptions and not someone else's expectations for how they are to perceive in order to fully realize their own true potential.

The Cultural Exchange proudly presents the following artists as its 2013 Workshop Tour troupe. The troupe is available in schools across Saskatchewan from October to November 2013. For booking information, contact Margaret at mfry@sasktel.net.


ACTOR ON TOUR
DAWN BIRD
Dawn studied at Simon Fraser University’s Summer Symposium for Theatre under the direction of Andrew Macilroy. After several years of performing in the Nelson Capitol Theatre, she decided to try her hand at acting for film and television. She underwent extensive training under the instruction of Tony Barr and studied the Meisner Technique under New York acting coach Andrea Geometti. Even though film and television work in the city of Nelson was limited, she still managed to obtain her first professional role. Shortly after that, Dawn moved to Regina, Saskatchewan and established B.E.ZEE Productions in March of 2009. As the producer of B.E.ZEE Productions, Dawn's first production was the comedic web series Over the Fence. 


DANCER ON TOUR
BAMSWESIGYE EVANS
Bamswesigye Evans brings with him the rich heritage of the East African traditional dances fused with hip-hop.

Born in the undulating hills of western Uganda, Evans has enamoured audiences both small and large. With a charisma that never dims he teaches not only a melange of dances but combines it with drumming and clapping lessons native only to the East African region.

He has taught students from Japan, Europe and North America as well as Southern Africa. His workshop sessions are rife with enthusiasm and the effect lives on long after the session is over.

He currently lives in Saskatoon where he takes part in a many of cultural events.


MUSICIAN ON TOUR
FARIDEH
Farideh (pronounced "fair-a-day") is a fierce and sassy powerhouse from the Saskatchewan prairies. Her music is part “howl at the moon” vocals, part Motown rhythm and part finger-pickin’ guitar.

Similar to Jann Arden’s heartbreaking songs, interrupted by a wicked sense of humour, Farideh is known for her hilarious and sometimes raunchy storytelling. Farideh released her first album, Seasons of Loving, in 2003, which received national rotation on public and private radio. Her musical travels have taken her across Canada, performing at a variety of venues and festivals, as well as several exotic locales including the Australian outback and the National Theatre of Uganda.

Her second album, Symphony of Chemistry, was recorded at her fathers’ home studio in the small Saskatchewan village of Ruddell.

Farideh was recently featured on the CBC Radio 2 series Next! Canada’s Music Future that showcased artists on the verge of becoming national names. Her song “Caterpillar” was a finalist in the 2009 New-Song Mountain Stage Songwriting contest. In February 2010, Farideh undertook her first international tour to New Zealand and continues to tour Canada extensively.


VISUAL ARTIST ON TOUR
JANINE WINDOLPH 
Janine Windolph is an interdisciplinary artist and entrepreneur with a Master of Fine Arts background in Media Production and Indian Fine Arts. Drawing from her combined heritage, Janine, an Atikemak-Woodland Cree/German artist, loves to focus her time on multi-media storytelling along with traditional and contemporary fine arts. As a mother of two children, Janine finds her inspiration in her family, her cultural background, her community and her environment. Currently, she is working as a guest artist filmmaker with the Nisto Awasisak Memorial School in Cumberland House Cree Nation, Saskatchewan.

Janine supports her community as the President of mispon: A Celebration of Indigenous Filmmaking and as a board member of the Saskatchewan Filmpool. Currently, Janine has been working with the community through workshops at the Regina Public Library.


TOUR MANAGER
KELLY-ANNE RIESS
As a freelance journalist, Kelly-Anne Riess' work has appeared in newspapers and magazines across Canada, including such publications as Canadian Geographic and the Globe and Mail. She has travelled across North America working on documentaries that have aired on A&E Biography, History Television and CBC. And her work has sent her to a remote village in China and on a 1,600 kilometre dog sled race called the Yukon Quest. She has interviewed FBI agents in Texas and taken phone calls from celebrities, such as Paul Anka.

The author of the bestselling Saskatchewan Book of Everything, she received the Outstanding Young Alumni Award from the University of Saskatchewan and was shortlisted for a Saskatchewan Lieutenant Governor’s Arts Award and a YWCA Woman of Distinction Award. In 2011, she was a CTV National Fellow at the Banff World Media Festival. And in 2003, she was awarded the C. Irwin McIntosh Journalism Prize from the School of Journalism at the University of Regina.