By Dean Broughton

On a damp August afternoon at Arts Umbrella on Granville Island, a studio is alive with bodies—writhing, collapsing, and erupting in bursts of emotion.

To the casual observer, it may look chaotic. To Artistic Director Artemis Gordon , it’s poetry in motion.

“A life spent growing up in the arts is a miraculous one,” she says with the conviction of a teacher who has watched thousands of students discover themselves through movement. “It’s so far beyond creativity or art appreciation. It formulates the mind and the person in the most unique way, allowing someone to fully realize what it means to be human.”

For Gordon, who has led Arts Umbrella’s dance program since 1992, the cutting-edge work happening here is not only shaping dancers—it’s shaping lives.

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