Winterruption Brings Warm Hands and a Fire in the Belly

Granville Island's annual short but sweet festival of free outdoor events and workshops is truly a West Coast phenomenon. Who else but us Canucks would gladly layer ourselves to the nines, package the kids in parkas and walk around with a Starbucks and a smile in the crux of winter? Beyond the featured talent, I think it shows guts.

Saturday night I checked out some of the free events going on, namely Aeriosa Dance's Cold Hands, Warm Heart set and Firebelly's Rainy Day Dream show. I'd never seen a Firebelly performance before, and this one pretty much delivered the expected: cute music, dance moves and fire. For a family event, it was a good time. I would've liked to have seen maybe some stilts or more fire swallowing fare, but when James Brown's "Hot Pants" blared from the speakers, the crowd showed their gratitude via bobbing heads and endearing feet shuffling that always ensues when Mr. Brown's on the scene.

The aerial dance show was fun. Really, you can't go wrong with balletic movements and hovering bodies, and watching the dancers moving up and down underneath the Granville Bridge definitely filed the edge off the setting sun. Again, I kind of expected more of a wow factor. Maybe it was knowing my own level of entertained-dom compared to the nervous Oh's expressed by the crowd of kids that made me feel like I was missing something. Maybe I need more of an imagination. Maybe more stilts. Or maybe Winterruption is just a light and airy distraction from sticky cinemas, wet restaurant line-ups and amateur theatre. And if that's the case, I'll take it.