Mira Hunter and Raqib Brian Burke (Vancouver)
www.mirahunter.com

Century of Small

Presented as part of the 2009 CanAsian International Dance Festival

Choreographers and Performers: Mira Hunter and Raqib Brian Burke
Soundscape Artist: Eric Powell

An intimate and haunting glimpse into an emotive reinterpretation of an ancient mystical practice performed by traditionally trained Mevlevi whirling dervishes Mira Hunter and her teacher and father Raqib Brian Burke of the Open Secret School of Whirling, accompanied by Canadian soundscape artist Eric Powell.

Photographer: lovegreg/Jordan Junck

Time Machine 2008 Derek Hunter Mira Hunter

Mira Hunter

It can be argued that Mira Hunter has been whirling for most of her life. A visual artist and second-generation Sufi Mevlevi whirling dervish, she began her traditional training at the age of 16 with her father Raqib Burke. As a visual artist, she studied at NSCAD and Yale, graduating with a BFA in 2001. For the past 10 years she has collaborated with Turkish born, Canadian producer/musician/DJ Mercan Dede, performing all over the world, from New York to Japan. She was recently featured in David Michalek’s Slow Dance project that was exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2008. Mira continues to challenge the fundamental forms of whirling by incorporating innovative movements and concepts, coaxing the 13th century practice into a contemporary context.

Raquib Brian Burke

Raqib Brian Burke has twenty-eight years of study and experience under the Mevlevi Sheikhs Reshad Field, Suleyman Dede and Jelaluddin Loras, and Rifa'i Sheikh Sherif Baba Catalkaya. He performed in the first ever Sema Ceremony by North American dervishes in Konya, Turkey, at the tomb of Mevlana Celaluddin Rumi founder of whirling and has since performed in Canada and the United States at numerous spiritual gatherings, weddings, memorial services, arts festivals and music events.

Eric Powell

Eric Powell is a multidisciplinary artist working with the interrelationship between space, place and sound. This work has found him integrating immersive soundscapes, live musical composition, theatre and dance. In addition to multi-channel electroacoustic compositions, he has created sound and music for several theatrical productions and gallery installations, including Emily Pearlman/Critical Distance's 2007 and 2008 Fringe show Free Range, and Minneapolis artist Margaret Pezalla-Granlund's 2005 installation Sub-Theory: Iceberg Sculptures. In May of 2008, Eric installed sound.garden.scape: Gastown, an interactive short-range FM piece mapping Vancouver's Gastown area into the VIVO Media Arts Centre using portable FM radios. In August of 2007, with Nigel Taylor, he presented sound canoe, a late-night floating concert under a bridge on Regina's Wascana Creek. In August of 2006 Eric presented a lo-fi cassette tape loop entitled Tides: The World Within, as a part of Crossfiring 2006, at the Claybank Brick Factory in Southwest Saskatchewan. Eric recently completed his MFA in Contemporary Art (Electroacousitic Composition) from Simon Fraser University. His research has been made possible through the generous support of the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, Vancouver New Music, VIVO Media Arts Centre, and the Canada Council for the Arts.