Category Archives: Media Release

Circus and Aerial in Nanaimo, Spring Break 2015

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THE 10th ANNUAL SPRING BREAK BODY TALK PROGRAM

Vesta is so excited to be partnering with Aeriosa to bring Circus Dance and Aerials to Nanaimo! We are running a week long program this spring break March 23-28th 2015, at the Romper Room Climbing Centre.  This is for ALL AGES- teens, adults and children over 8.

TEENS: 10AM to 2PM
ALL AGES: 5:30PM to 8:30PM 

We will be teaching Hoop and Poi, while Aeriosa will be teaching their unique style of aerial dance, culminating with a spectacular show on March 28th.

Produced by Crimson Coast Dance Society and their Body Talk Program

More information and registration through Crimson Coast Dance Society!

Register now for BodyTalk2015!

Register now for BodyTalk2015!

taipei_on-earth

Circus Lessons in Nanaimo!

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Vesta Entertainment is SO excited to be able to offer ongoing circus lessons in Nanaimo for both children AND adults!! Circus makes you smarter, more creative and innovative by fostering right/left brain integration and promoting coordination. Not to mention its an amazing workout!

Who: Kids 8-12 years old, 10 – 11 AM. SUNDAYS

Teen/Adults- 11-12:30 pm SUNDAYS 15$ registered, 20$ drop in.

Where: Nanaimo Gymnastics School, 1975 Bollinger Road, Nanaimo BC.

What: Prop manipulation and Circus skills! Don’t be a one trick pony- come learn how to spin ALL the things- poi, staff, hoop dance, rope dart, juggle, contact juggle, stilting, unicycling, and more! Stage presence, character work, movement and choreography will also be explored. Circus is a non-competitive, creative sport that provides the basics of rhythmic gymnastics prop work.

Our children’s class is an ongoing registered program, and we are currently accepting drop ins for our adult/teen lessons from 11-12:30 every Sunday. Come brush up on your technique, or try out a new prop! If you are interested in performing, we often recruit new troupe members from our students. Come Play With Us!

Register Now!

PlayPoi Video Retreat, June 7-16, 2014

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Lasqueti Island, BC, Canada: Special Let’s-Make-Some-Great-Videos-Plus-Play-A-Lot-Of-Poi Retreat!

Lasqueti Island, BC June 7-16 2014

The idea: Join Nick Woolsey, Vesta Entertainment, and guest teachers on a beautiful rainforest island to spend 8-days dividing our time between the following activities:

  • Before breakfast: Yoga and other morning exercises
  • After breakfast: Making fun, silly, and super useful videos about learning poi
  • In the afternoon: Diving into more advanced concepts of dance, rhythm, choreography, and moves
  • In the evenings: Spinning poi, enjoying THE BIG SAUNA, and having an awesome time,
  • In between the rest: Being blown away by the beauty of the gulf islands, eating good food, and running around in the rain forest a lot.

Photo by Peter Paul RubensWhere: At the most beautiful dance studio I’ve ever seen: Leviathan Studios on Lasqueti Island!

Dates: June 7 – 16 2014

Cost: $800CAD for the whole retreat, including 8-days of amazing organic food! However, you all need to help make the videos: It’s a collaborative work-exchange retreat! This is for those who really like this idea. Please don’t attend because you want to come to a “cheaper-than-usual” retreat. I’m really expecting you to chip in. Make sense?

Prerequisites: For this retreat it will be best if you’re comfortable with all the poi basics.
Other notes: Yes, bring other toys! (fire-gear, hoops, levi-wands, juggling balls, slack-lines, unicorns, etc.). Also bring rain gear in case we get rain, swim suits, hiking boots, bug spray, and anything else that may help you enjoy 8 days in a temperate coastal rain-forest paradise.

For more information and To Register visit PLAYPOI.COM

Playpoi and VestaFire- COME PLAY WITH US!

Victoria Juggling and Flow Festival 2014

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Vesta Entertainment is so excited to be sponsoring the Victoria Juggling and Flow Festival, Jan 24-26, 2014! The 3 day event is held at Central Middle School, Victoria BC, starting at 4:00 on Friday and running until 5:00 on Sunday! 3 days of prop, dance, and movement workshops, at all levels. Ever wanted to learn juggling? Contact Juggling? Hula Hooping? Staff? Poi? Clown and Character and Performance? We have instructors coming from as far away as San Francisco to teach and perform at our little festival- Beginning level workshops all the way to advanced brain melting movement classes. Dance too!

Speaking of performance- our public Gala Show on Sat eve showcases some of the top Circus talent in the Pacific Northwest- PLUS, our headliner Stefan Sing, a world class performer all the way from Germany! Vesta is proud to be producing and performing in such a high level show!

Did I mention that kids under 12 are FREE? And Big People Tickets (for the Entire Weekend PLUS show!) are ONLY 40$!!

Tickets, and more information can be found at the Festival Website HERE!

Ongoing updates and information is also on the Facebook Event Page HERE!

Vesta Entertainment at the Victoria Juggle and Flow Festival, 2014-

COME PLAY WITH US!

Click HERE for printable PDF of the workshop schedule!

VestaFire fundraising for SPARK at Victoria International Busking Festival 2013

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VicBuskers2013

VF_promo_20130127_114_printpicture: VestaFire is raising money for Burmese Refugees at Victoria Busking Festival

Nanaimo’s contemporary circus and fire performance troupe VestaFire is performing at the Victoria International Buskers Festival, July 19-29th.  As the festival’s featured fire troupe, VestaFire offers a spectacular evening fire show to dazzle audiences, with breathtaking choreography and elaborate costumes designed by local artisans. During the day, VestaFire will be performing a more traditional comedic circus show, complete with machete-juggling, a strait-jacket escape and death-defying acrobatics. This family troupe will be performing three times every day, so be sure to keep an eye out for them on the program.

VestaFire will be using this festival to fund raise for another trip to the Burmese Refugee camps. Performer Katlan Irvine is travelling to Thailand with SPARK! Circus (www.sparkcircus.org) in January 2014, where he will be teaching circus arts and performing fire shows in Burmese refugee camps, orphanages and hospitals. Troupe co-ordinator Karina Strong, her 9-year-old daughter Jenna Strong, and performer Quinn Beasley have all done tours with SPARK! and now they are helping Irvine raise the money needed to attend and bring joy and play to the children of these camps.

“I’m looking forward to experiencing a culture that is entirely different from my own,” says Irvine, “Play is an essential part of a child’s life and development, and something that can be heavily neglected in a refugee camp. I hope to bring joy and wonder to these war ravaged children.”

SPARK! reaches over 4,000 children each year with circus-style fire shows, playshops and donations of toys, art supplies, and creative tools.  Their goal is to lighten the children’s days with magic, wonder, laughter and smiles.  SPARK! is completely volunteer based through Performers Without Borders, so make sure to throw a couple extra dollars in Vesta Entertainment’s hat so that they can bring a smile to disadvantaged children.
More information can be found on their website http://www.VestaFireEntertainment.ca
http://www.sparkcircus.org
http://www.VictoriaBuskers.com

San Francisco Bound!

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Local Circus Troupe heads to San Francisco!

VestaFire lights the night at Mt.Seymour NYE 2012. Photo by Joy Unaegbu

VestaFire lights the night at Mt.Seymour NYE 2012. Photo by Joy Unaegbu

Lantzville-based contemporary circus and fire dance troupe VestaFire Entertainment has been chosen to perform in San Francisco’s 8th annual Fire Expo on April 27 2013.

The Fire Expo, produced by Temple of Poi, is one of the most renowned festivals in the fire performance community. It started as an illegal renegade show on a street corner in San Francisco in April of 2005. Hundreds showed up to watch that first performance and it has since become the biggest legal fire show in North America, bringing in crowds of over 3000 people. The festival is fully publicly funded by Kickstarter donations.

In December 2012, VestaFire responded to a call for artists, and sent in a video audition. Then, in mid-January they received the news that the troupe was accepted for not one, but two performances in the show. “We are so honoured and incredibly excited to have been chosen to perform at the Fire Expo. Isa ‘GlitterGirl’ Isaacs is one of the icons in our field,” said Karina Strong, troupe co-ordinator. Isaacs is the co-ordinator of the Expo and founder of Temple of Poi. Strong, along with performer Katlan Irvine, will perform a fire hoop and fire staff duet, and Irvine is slated to perform a solo with fire poi. “For Kat to get offered a solo spot on that stage is amazing,” said Strong.

VestaFire began in 2010, and is central Vancouver Island’s only professional circus and fire dance troupe, providing spectacular entertainment for corporate and private parties, costumed stilters for festivals, and teaching circus themed summer camps. They travelled to Thailand in 2012 with Spark! Circus, performing in hospitals, refugee camps and orphanages, and will be performing this July at both Vancouver Island Music Festival, and the International Busking Festival in Victoria.

More information can be found at http://www.Facebook.com/VestaFire or http://www.VestaFireEntertainment.ca

Port Theatre Performance

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VestaFire Entertainment and Andre Nobles backstage at "Harmonies Of Faith" Port Theatre, Nanaimo BC. Dec 2012

VestaFire Entertainment and Andre Nobles backstage at “Harmonies Of Faith” Port Theatre, Nanaimo BC. Dec 2012

This solstice, we were privileged to once again partner with Andre Nobels  to present four acts in Central Vancouver Island Multi Cultural Society’s ‘Harmonies of Faith’- a performance bringing together the multi-faith community to express our spirituality through compassion. As prop dance artists, we at VestaFire express our spirituality through movement and music- how we connect with our Divine- our moving meditation.

The performance sold out the city’s largest venue at 850 seats. It was great performing on such a beautiful stage, to such a wonderful audience. We loved co-creating the experience with the diverse faith groups- Christian faiths, Muslim, Sikh, Pagan, Unitarian- all were represented and all came together to express love and compassion. It was a beautiful night.

The performances were wonderfully recorded and edited by Manly Media. Gratitude! And here the videos are, for your pleasure! Please let us know what you think by commenting on Facebook and Twitter, if you have them! 🙂

My multi-hoop act is featured here, on Hooping.org, a major electronic networking hub in the hooping community.

Our Acrobatic Stilt Dance, and Flowwand, folding fan, and stilt dance jam are also here for your viewing pleasure. 🙂

We have a busy few months ahead preparing for next season- costuming and choreography for two new shows. Remember to ‘like’ us and share on Facebook- we’re very active on our FB page, posting pictures, videos and things of interest there first! And then, our spring/summer season for 2013- already booked up with AMAZING performance opportunities! We’re very excited! 🙂 Thanks so much for your continued support!

VestaFire presentation on 2012SparkCircus Tour!

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Circus entertainers brighten lives of refugee children

KarinaFlagsNuPo

http://www.nanaimobulletin.com/community/185452771.html

VestaFire Entertainment has been delighting Vancouver Island audiences with striking circus performances since the group formed two years ago.

Brilliant fire displays, beautiful costumes, stilt-walking dancers and feats of juggling with multi-coloured hoops have attracted rave reviews.

But there’s more to VestaFire than just entertainment, as founder Karina Strong showed last year when she spent two months in Thailand as part of Spark Circus.

This international group of circus performers comes together to bring joy to disadvantaged children in refugee camps, migrant schools, hospitals and orphanages along the Burmese border.

What made the trip even more special was that Strong was joined by her husband Kevin, and children Jenna, eight, who also performed, and Caden, three.

On Jan. 13, the Strongs will share their stories of this mission and the impact it had on their family in a multi-media presentation at the First Unitarian Fellowship of Nanaimo.

The presentation is part of the regular Sunday service beginning at 11 a.m. in the Unitarian Hall, 595 Townsite Rd. All are welcome.

“It was an amazing trip, full of challenges, but also so incredible, with so many memories,” said Karina. “We had so many touching exchanges with children. Our being there let them know they have worth, and that their happiness is important.”

Fire charming group brings show to Parksville

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http://www2.canada.com/oceansidestar/news/story.html?id=cac4de1c-b5ed-4311-a623-2ea326db0cc1

VestaFire Entertainment will be putting on a night show by the gazebo in the Parksville Community Park on Saturday, August 4th. The group specializes in acrobatic fire spinning.

VestaFire Entertainment will be putting on a night show by the gazebo in the Parksville Community Park on Saturday, August 4th. The group specializes in acrobatic fire spinning.

STEWART BURNETT PHOTO

Stewart Burnett, Oceanside Star

Published: Thursday, August 02, 2012

After a well-attended Community Park performance last week, VestaFire Entertainment is preparing for a bigger show in Parksville this Saturday.

Founded in 2010, the circus arts company travels the island doing choreographed fire-charming, dance and theatre shows.

Karina Strong, performer and founder of the group, began as a social worker and started VestaFire as a way to share joy, hope and the importance of play with this “sometimes crazy” world, she said.

“I think of what we do as therapeutic recreation,” said Strong.

The group practises extensively and also attends regular spinning and juggling conventions. Continue reading →

Article in Parksville/Qualicum News! :)

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http://www.pqbnews.com/entertainment/164338956.html

VestaFire1.jpg

Stilt walking is just one of the skills to be on display with this colourful cast of characters.

Express your inner clown

By Lissa Alexander – Parksville Qualicum Beach News
Published: July 31, 2012 8:00 AM

Bring the whole family down to Parksville Beach this Saturday and enjoy a treasure hunt that comes complete with pirates, fire, jugglers and stilt walkers.

That’s because VestaFire Entertainment from Nanaimo will be hosting the event, specializing in fire and LED shows.  The entertainers also play with poi (swinging tethered weights in a variety of patterns), stilts, hoops and other props.

Founder and Troup co-ordinator Karina Strong recently travelled with Spark Circus to the Burma/Thailand border teaching circus and performance at Burmese orphanages, migrant schools and refuge camps. She took her family with her: husband, seven-year-old  daughter and three-year-old son. Continue reading →