Happy New Year (if somewhat belated)! We are back for an exciting few months of dance, and hope you will join us!

Frédérick Gravel in Some Hope for the Bastards

It’s that time of the year for the PuSh Festival, and as always there is so much to see! This coming Tuesday, January 16, as part of the festival, Frédérick Gravel will perform his work Some Hope for the Bastards. For the musically adventurous and visually attuned, Frédérick Gravel offers a music-dance spectacle to savour—an unholy hybrid of the highbrow and the high-octane. Onstage, nine dancers move in time to a head-nodding live music mix, their bodies shifting between repose and ecstatic motion. The emphasis here is on rhythm—you’ll struggle to stay in your seat as the propulsive beats roll and the dancers move in finely controlled harmony. “[A]rguably the most significant dance artist to emerge in Quebec in the past 10 years… He produces dance theatre that is sly and subversive.”—The Globe and Mail. Check out the video here.  At the Vancouver Playhouse, 7pm. Tix

Wednesday-Friday January 17-19, The Dance Centre Global Dance Connections series, with the PuSh Festival, present Nicola Gunn in Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster. The piece is a provocative muse on peace and conflict, moral relativism and the very function of art, inspired by an incident where a woman saw a man throwing stones at a sitting duck, and she yelled at him. The result is a gloriously off-kilter dissection of the excruciating realms of human behaviour, and a navigation of the moral and ethical complexities of intervention. Australia’s Nicola Gunn is an irresistible performer, delivering a dizzyingly witty text littered with anecdotes, digressions and philosophical theory, at the same time performing non-stop choreography that shifts from the comically incongruous to the strangely affecting. At the Scotiabank Dance Centre, 8pm. Tix

Silvia Calderoni  in MDLSX

Thursday January 18 to Sunday January 21, also part of PuSh, gender-fluid rebel Silvia Calderoni does a powerhouse star turn in MDLSX, by Italian theatre company Motus. The performer’s own life story is crossbred with fiction, producing a work of genre blending and gender bending. Using dance, text, video, music and the power of plain old speech, Calderoni and company throw haymakers at the patriarchy. You could call this an intellectual dance party—it’s both visceral and theoretical, provoking contemplation and ecstasy in equal measure. Changing identities and costumes at will, Calderoni shows our notions of gender and sexuality for what they are: barriers we can break down. At the Roundhouse Community Arts Centre, 7pm. Jan 21 at 2pm. Tix and more information.

For those of you that have always wanted to try out Contact Improvisation, this weekend Saturday and Sunday January 13 and 14, EDAM is offering a beginner friendly workshop for those wishing to learn Contact fundamentals.You’ll experience learning and playing with skills like rolling, tumbling, noticing sensations, awareness of spherical space, incremental weight sharing with a partner and more. No need to bring a partner - practice will be both alone and through exchanging dances with others in the class. This workshop is designed to give you the confidence to join in Contact jams and classes.T o register, email info@edamdance.org with ‘CI Basics’ in the subject line. At the EDAM studio, 303 E. 8th Ave, Vancouver. For more details

Can you believe it - snow? But don’t let it deter you to go out and see some dance - it will warm your heart!

We are so excited to tell you about DanceHouse’s second show of the season: BJM (Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal) February 24 and 25! Last presented by DanceHouse in 2013, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal (BJM) returns with a triple bill. Rouge, choreographed by Rodrigo Pederneiras of Brazilian company Grupo Corpo, is direct, genuine and raw, an ode to resilience and a tribute to indigenous peoples and their musical and cultural legacy. For Kosmos, Greek choreographer Andonis Foniadakis finds inspiration in the world around us and the excitement people experience every day in a city; moments of reunion, gathering and let go. In Israeli choreographer Itzik Galili’s Mono Lisa, two dancers execute incredible acrobatics in a factory-like atmosphere filled with sounds and visions of iron and steel – a breathtaking pas de deux executed with absolute mastery. Check out some video footage of the upcoming show. At the Vancouver Playhouse, 8pm (pre show chat 7:15pm in the upstairs lobby). Tix

BJM in Mona Lisa. Photo Alan Kohf

The Cultch, in collaboration with the PuSH Festival, presents Quote Unquote Collective in Association with Why Not Theatre (Toronto) continues until Saturday February 4 with Mouthpiece. Mouthpiece follows one woman, for one day, as she tries to find her voice. The push and the pull, the past and the present, the progress and the regression: this is the inner conflict that exists within a modern woman’s head. Interweaving a cappella harmony, text, and movement – Mouthpiece is a harrowing, humourous, and heart-wrenching journey into the female pysche. At the Cultch, 8pm. Tix

Alessandro Sciarroni FOLK-S, Will you still love me tomorrow? Photo Matteo Maffesanti

Thursday-Saturday February 2-4 the PuSH Festival and The Dance Centre present the Global Dance Connections series with Alessandro Sciarroni in FOLK-S, Will you still love me tomorrow? The boundary-busting works of Italian choreographer Alessandro Sciarroni range freely between dance, theatre, performance art and anthropology. In FOLK-S, he deconstructs the Schuhplattler (‘shoe-beater’), a Bavarian folk dance where the performers slap their shoes and legs with their hands, and refines it to its most essential elements, reactivating the movements in a contemporary context. Six outstanding dancers execute a seemingly limitless series of complex rhythmic sequences, giving an extreme exposition of the multiple variations that a form can take, even to the point of exhaustion. The hammering of bodies transformed into percussion instruments creates a hypnotic sense of ritual, in a spellbinding meditation on time, rhythm and effort. Talikback Friday February 3. At the Scotiabank Dance Centre, 8pm. Tix

Thursday February 9, as part of the Dance Centre Noon Hour Dance Series, Grupo America will treat us to a Latin dance extravaganza! Las Americas is an exuberant explosion of colour, which takes us on a journey through the dances of South and Central America and up to the United States. Vibrant Latin dances such as salsa, tango, cha cha and samba will be performed in addition to captivating traditional folkloric routines that are steeped in culture and history, including Mexican Zapateado, Cumbia, Afro-Latin dances, and more. At the Scotiabank Dance Centre, noon. Tix

Are you in the mood for love (And even if you aren’t…)? Small Stage 35 presents The Valentine’s Edition February 9-12. This is a classic Romeo and Juliet story with a twist – a genre-blending,gender bending, time-transcending twist! Immerse yourself in the age-old exposé of the universal story of love and loss. Small Stage 35: the Valentine’s Edition is a dance portrayal of Romeo and Juliet set on the signature distinctly small stage. Genres include hip hop, jazz, urban street, contemporary, and a few other surprises…(Bring your phone to unlock the full experience.)  Emcees: Lisa Christiansen and Andrea Warner, co-hosts of the popular podcast, Pop This! Works By:Josh Beamish, Heather Dotto
Kim Sato, The Darlings Cabaret and Navid Charkhi + Crew. At the Anza Club, 8pm. Tix

February 9,10,11 the SFU School for the Contemporary Arts presents Momentum, an evening of dances choreographed and performed by students in the School for the Contemporary Arts. All work is original and has been developed over the course of the 2016-2017 school year. These students showcase their creative talents by combining dance specific skills with their wider educational interests at SFU. SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts 149 West Hastings Studio D, 8pm. Tix

Thursday February 9 Itinérant – Choreographer’s space is a time and place for sharing and discussing: ideas, fragments, beginnings, questions…Originally conceived by Montreal choreographers Katie Ward and Dorian Nuskind Oder, now in Vancouver with your hosts Alexa, Erika and Sasha. Please join us!! Be ready to show something and discuss your ideas. What you bring can be developed or very sketchy. It can be raw, messy, a seed idea…or you can talk about an idea or read a snippet of writing. You may present up to 15 minutes.
Showing work is first come first serve. Sign-up starts at 4:15 pm, showing starts at 4:40 to 7pm.  At SFU Woodwards, For more info FREE!

Register NOW for on the MOVE, a is a dynamic career planning and networking conference designed specifically for dance students in the graduating year of their professional programs and emerging artists on the cusp of entering a performance career. The February 24th, 2017 on the MOVE conference is geared to students graduating from dance programs. 

Isn’t it wonderful to start seeing these longer days? Gives you a little time in the light before you set off to see some dance…

Tonight Friday January 27, join Raven Spirit Dance for the opening night and premiere of their newest work Salmon Girl. The evening will also include a Traditional welcoming with Elder Bob Baker, performances by Dancers of Damelahamid and Driftwood Dance Academy company dancers. Silent auction, reception, & cash bar. Suitable for family audiences (Ages 6+) Salmon Girl explores the world of water and salmon. Through theatre, dance, music and puppetry, this piece for all ages follows the journey of a young girl into this magical world. A visually stunning work that shares a First Nations perspective on the importance of Salmon.

Choreographer Michelle Olson from the Tr’ondek Hwech’in First Nation and playwright Quelemia Sparrow from the Musquem First Nation bring together their respective cultural perspectives and stories to create a piece that is both meaningful and delightful to all audiences. At Presentation House, North Vancouver, 7pm. Also 1pm performances Sat Jan 28 and Sun Feb 5, and Fri Feb 3 7pm. Tix.

Quote Unquote Collective in Mouthpiece

Jan 31 - Feb 5 Quote Unquote Collective in Association with Why Not Theatre (Toronto) present MOUTHPIECE. The work follows one woman, for one day, as she tries to find her voice. The push and the pull, the past and the present, the progress and the regression: this is the inner conflict that exists within a modern woman’s head. Interweaving a cappella harmony, text, and movement – Mouthpiece is a harrowing, humourous, and heart-wrenching journey into the female pysche. At the Cultch , 8pm and Feb 5  2PM. Tix

Quarentine in Wallflower

February 1-3, as part of the PuSH Festival, Quarentine from England presents Wallflower. In Wallflower the performers endeavour to remember every dance they’ve ever danced. Quarantine gives us a show that will get your head bopping and will evoke some strong memories: of awkward high school dances, of grooving to music in private, of a romantic slow dance you wish you could relive… Here’s how it works: as a memory surfaces the dancers take to the floor under the disco ball, the DJ takes their music requests, and what emerges are memories of dances that are often funny, sometimes awkward and always human. At Performance Works, 7pm. Tix

February 2, co-hosted by Deanna Peters/Mutable Subject, Toronto-based choreographer Amanda Acorn draws from the work and writing of painter Mark Rothko in the solo multiform. A love letter to perpetual motion and testament to body magic, she builds hypnotic cycles of movement repeated ad-infinitum. A singular body is both mechanism and magician; a perpetually pulsating, thrashing and undulating energy object. multiform compels us toward continued, exhaustive watching, dissolving the boundaries between abstract form and its containment through choreography. At the Gold Saucer, 9:30 

And remember, we can’t share your stuff with the dance community if you don’t share it with us first! Send your news, events and other interesting goings on to debora@dancehouse.ca. Thanks, and have a wonderful week!

Happy New Year!! A bit slow to get going, but we are back for 2017!

Warehaus Dance Collective Photo: Juan Contreras

This coming Sunday January 15 New Works presents as part of its Dance Allsorts Series, The Warehaus Dance Collective, a contemporary collective creating work focused on the layers of human encounters and complexity of human progression. Under the artistic direction of Akeisha de Baat and Megan Hunter, the collective incorporates their technical systems that stem from modern and contemporary forms, giving the collective a unique aesthetic. WAREHAUS is focused on developing new works to add to their existing repertoire, all the while continuing to develop their artistic vision and push the limits of their physical and inspired knowledge of their craft. This Sunday’s show is comprised of two works: Warp and Weft, commissioned by dance artist and choreographer Vanessa Goodman, and Untitled, with original choreography by Megan Hunter. As always Performance at 2:00pm, followed by Q&A with the artists. A free workshop is offered at 3:15pm, open to all ages and abilities. At the Waterfront Theatre, Granville Island. Tix 

Alessandro Sciarroni Folk-s, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? Photo: Andrea Macchia

As is always the case, but especially true this oh so cold January, the PuSH Festival, January 16 to February 5, can make getting through these long nights of winter a little easier ! There is so much to see here that it cannot possible all be named here, but for dance lovers a few possibilities might include Jan Martens in Sweat Baby Sweat January 18 - 20, and Alessandro Sciarroni (Italy) in Folk-s, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? February 2- 4.  But please don’t limit yourself to “dance”events - check out the video and the full listing of shows here and if you like what you see, check out the PuSH passes.

Hello and happy Friday! We hope you have had a great week and here’s the line up for this coming week…

Tonight Friday January 20, a full evening of entertainment at the Scotiabank Dance Centre! To begin the evening, Pressed Paradise presents A Game in the Loading Bay, a performance installation in the loading bay of the Dance Centre, featuring players Mr. Bank, Mr. Wall Street, Mr. Oil and Mr. Government. It is a come and go as you like sort of affair, from 6:30 to 7:30 pm. The performers are Arash Khakpour, Diego Romero, Heather Lamoureux, Kelly McInnes and Robert Azevedo and they would like to thank the Dance Centre for Pressed Paradise’s residency. FREE!

Jan Martens Photo by Klaartje Lambrechts

Also tonight, following the Pressed Paradise performance, make your way downstairs to the see Jan Martens in Sweat Baby Sweat, presented in collaboration with the PuSH Festival and the Dance Centre Global Dance Series.  Maverick Flemish choreographer Jan Martens follows up his stunning Vancouver debut last season. Sweat Baby Sweat takes the most clichéd theme in dance - the relationship between a man and a woman – and distills it into an intensely physical, intimate duet depicting all-consuming love. An acrobatic balancing act which demands extraordinary strength and stamina, it focuses on two people who literally can’t let one another go. This is a very modern mating ritual, filled with moments of sensual tenderness, desire, resistance and co-dependence, a highly-charged encounter which both comforts and unsettles. At the ScotiaBank Dance Centre, 8pm. Tix

January 20-21 Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, New York’s infamous all-male ballerinas, return with a fresh batch of highbrow hilarity following Vancouver’s 2015 sold out smash hit! Brimming with breathtaking artistry and rampant sauciness, the cross-dressing company have been making audiences laugh for more than 40 years with their affectionately irreverent tributes to the classical ballet canon. In their hotly-demanded return, ‘The Trocks’ will lovingly skewer such balletic favourites as Swan Lake, La Esmeralda, and Don Quixote with all of their histrionic drama and incessant pantomime. Don’t miss the international dance sensation showcase their extraordinary technical prowess…in size 12 pointe shoes! At the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 8pm. Tix

Tuesday January 24 The Talking, Thinking, Dancing Body (TTDB) will hone in on previous conversations as we look to Butch Morris’ Conduction and Chantal Mouffe’s Agonism as inspiration for developing strategies to challenge the existing power structures and accepted methods of control. TTDB is a facilitated conversation about aesthetics, context and artistic process, and the conversation is open to all present.  It encourages speaking about dance from an awareness of our bodies as well as the world it lives in, and unabashedly interrogates dance through a lens that is concerned with anti-colonialism, anti-racism and feminism. At the ScotiaBank Dance Centre, 5-7pm. FREE!

And of course the PuSH Festival continues with all sorts of fantastic shows, performances and events! Join in the fun until February 5.

And remember, we can’t share your stuff with the dance community if you don’t share it with us first! Send your news, events and other interesting goings on to debora@dancehouse.ca. Thanks, and have a wonderful week!

Happy Groundhog Day! 

February 23 and 24, DanceHouse is thrilled to present Toronto Dance Theatre as they celebrate their 50th Anniversary! The company brings to the Vancouver stage a retrospective of three decades of work in House Mix, a program of five diverse works by Artistic Director and choreographer Christopher House, including the high energy, rhythmically complex Vena Cava (1999), the emotionally stunning Early Departures (1991), and a new work on an old theme titled Thirteen (2017). House’s use of space, ability to construct atmosphere and focus on the quality of interaction between his dancers is on display throughout the evening. Take a read of this Globe and Mail article about the dance philosophy of House, and check out a video here. At the Vancouver Playhouse, 8pm. Tix

Toronto Dance Theatre in Fjeld. Photo Guntar Kravis

Tonight and tomorrow February 2 and 3 The Dance Centre Global Dance Connections series, in conjunction with the PuSh Festival, present Daina Ashbee in Pour, a dark and devastating solo. Pour explores the vulnerability and strength of women, using the taboo subject of the menstrual cycle as a departure point and turning it into an object of painful beauty steeped in symbolism. The piece applies imagery from the seal hunt to boldly tackle complex questions about femininity, blood, and the loss of control, deploying the body and voice in an unflinching depiction of suffering and catharsis. Daina Ashbee has quickly become a prolific and prominent Canadian choreographer, whose work is rooted in her relation to the land, the environment and her ancestors. A BC native of Cree, Métis and Dutch heritage, she is now based in Montreal. At the Scotiabank Dance Centre, 8pm. Tix

Last chance tonight, February 2, to see as part of the PuSh Festival, Vancouver’s Hong Kong Exile Foxconn Frequency (no.3): For Three Visible Chinese Performers. Wildly eccentric and marked by an infectious sense of play, this is a deconstructive take on piano pedagogy, manufacturing ethics, and the relationship between labour and sound. That’s right, this is not your average music performance—local upstarts Hong Kong Exile are known for their crazy creativity, and with this show they’ve outdone themselves.Three performers work with seven video outputs, five speakers and 3D printers, performing piano-keyboard drills in which they play with and against each other. There’s so much to enjoy here: the multimedia excess, the virtuosity of famed pianist Vicky Chow and, most refreshingly, the unabashed intellectualism of the project. This is avant-garde radicalism that plays like a video game: dynamic, exuberant and visually arresting. At Performance Works, 7pm. Tix

Legend Lin Dance Theatre from Taiwan, in The Eternal Tides.

Tomorrow night February 3, PuSh Festival presents Legend Lin Dance Theatre from Taiwan, in The Eternal Tides. The Eternal Tides is a momentous occasion—an adventure in beauty unlike anything seen before on the PuSh stage. In her Canadian debut, choreographer Lin Lee-Chen folds age-old rituals, customs and ceremonial rites into her radical vision, and the result is epic. The show is, above all, a tribute to water: the ocean that encloses the island of Taiwan, and the cycle of renewal it is part of. Using song, dance and striking stage design, Lin evokes the mythology of these elements. You might call it spiritual environmentalism—a tribute to nature as it was, and might be again. With its large ensemble of dancers and musicians, the show has an intoxicating power. Lin carries us through a procession of vivid tableaux; the imagery evokes myth and human reality in equal measure. The costumes and sets are stunning: fabric and silver grass, red-tinted figures and shocks of white, composed with flair and delicacy. At once austere and sensual, intimate and monumental, this show will leave you awestruck. At the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 8pm. Tix

Today’s mantra: spring is around the corner, spring is around the corner….

We know it is early days yet, but a heads up for the upcoming DanceHouse presentation of Toronto Dance Theatre in a celebration of the company’s 50th anniversary with House Mix, February 23 and 24. More details over the coming weeks!

Toronto Dance Theatre Martingales. Photo Guntar Kravis

Tonight, Friday January 26, as part of Club PuSh, Ralph Escamillan presents HINKYPUNK. Striking, subversive and gorgeous to behold, Ralph Escamillan’s dance spectacular has its creator decked out in “sequin skin”—a layer of shiny ornamentation that serves to mask and reveal all at once. The skin conceals identity but expresses intent: to create a walking, breathing signifier. Drag, ballroom and vogue are subcultures that have allowed queer men to express themselves through artifice, and they’re a key inspiration for Escamillan. The HINKYPUNK is a camp cipher for audiences to contemplate—a mystery figure of liberation.The beguiling figure performs on a pedestal—an object for our delight and our study. Everything is up for analysis in this show: the gaze, the body and the artifice with which we create ourselves. This is a sexy, stimulating work—an intellectual swoon. At the Fox Cabaret, 9pm. Tix

Ralph Escamillan in HINKYPUNK. Photo: Richie Lubaton

Thursday-Saturday February 1-3 The Dance Centre Global Dance Connections series, in conjunction with the PuSh Festival, present Daina Ashbee in Pour, a dark and devastating solo. Pour explores the vulnerability and strength of women, using the taboo subject of the menstrual cycle as a departure point and turning it into an object of painful beauty steeped in symbolism. The piece applies imagery from the seal hunt to boldly tackle complex questions about femininity, blood, and the loss of control, deploying the body and voice in an unflinching depiction of suffering and catharsis. Daina Ashbee has quickly become a prolific and prominent Canadian choreographer, whose work is rooted in her relation to the land, the environment and her ancestors. A BC native of Cree, Métis and Dutch heritage, she is now based in Montreal. At the Scotiabank Dance Centre, 8pm. Tix

January 31 - February 2, as part of the PuSh Festival, Vancouver’s Hong Kong Exile presents Foxconn Frequency (no.3): For Three Visible Chinese Performers. Wildly eccentric and marked by an infectious sense of play, this is a deconstructive take on piano pedagogy, manufacturing ethics, and the relationship between labour and sound. That’s right, this is not your average music performance—local upstarts Hong Kong Exile are known for their crazy creativity, and with this show they’ve outdone themselves.Three performers work with seven video outputs, five speakers and 3D printers, performing piano-keyboard drills in which they play with and against each other. There’s so much to enjoy here: the multimedia excess, the virtuosity of famed pianist Vicky Chow and, most refreshingly, the unabashed intellectualism of the project. This is avant-garde radicalism that plays like a video game: dynamic, exuberant and visually arresting. At Performance Works, 7pm. Tix 

Oh Spring - are you finally here? Celebrate the sunshine by going to see some dance!

Lesley Telford  Photo by David Cooper

Friday and Saturday April 21 and 22, Lesley Telford presents Spooky Action at a Distance. Telford’s choreography brings together a technically rigorous vocabulary and a thought-provoking approach, refined by her years dancing with Nederlands Dans Theater and creating for companies at home and abroad, most recently Ballet BC. Spooky Action at a Distance is inspired by Einstein’s famous phrase referring to particles that are so closely linked, they share the same existence. A collaboration with poet Barbara Adler, this new interdisciplinary work uses interactive technology and extends the theory to human connections in our phenomenally interconnected world. The program also includes If, a trio based on Anne Carson’s poem, and the duet My tongue, your ear, with text by Wislawa Szymborska. At the Scotiabank Dance Centre, 8pm. Talkback April 21. Tix.

April 23, New Works presents the premiere of Heather Laura Gray’s THE TUNNEL. Walk into THE TUNNEL and enter the maze of the mind. Set in a dreamlike mind space, a black box theatre is transformed into a complex void of original projections and light art. Dancers move through a staged consciousness, immersed in the evolving light show as they struggle through turbulent thoughts, battling themselves and each other. Perception is the game in THE TUNNEL and the only way out of the dark is through the light. Heather Laura Gray is excited to be collaborating with a team of highly creative and award winning talent to bring THE TUNNEL to life. Collaborators include: cutting edge projection and light design artists Hfour, the genre-bending and versatile music composer Hayden Baptiste, as well as an international cast of powerful dance artists Emily Tellier (New York), Katie Lowen (Vancouver) and Michael Demski (France), along with a dozen emerging dance artists in various apprentice roles. Performance: 2:00pm Workshop: 3:15pm Roundhouse Performing Arts Centre. Tix or at the door.

THE TUNNEL will also be performed April 26 to 29 at Theatre La Seizieme/Studio 16, 1555 7 AVE W, Vancouver. The times vary so go here for schedule and tix. 

Also Sunday, April 23,  the plastic orchid factory hosts The 3 O’s: a dance by limitations project, a peer-driven process designed specifically to challenge, inspire and promote the creative process and new forms of making and exchanging. Modeled loosely on Lars van Trier’s film, “The 5 Obstructions” and the indie theatre community’s Obstructions series produced a few years back, the 3 O’s will see 4 dance companies come together to test the theory that creativity feeds on limits, with the ultimate goal of sharing practice, creative tools and imagination with their peers. First group on the hot seat: The Contingency Plan - join us to see how The Contingency Plan responded to the specific “obstructions” they received from the 3 other groups pertaining to a particular scene from their recent work, “I care what you think”. At Left of Main at 211 Keefer Street, $10 at the door (cash or fist full of change only). Cash bar. 7pm. Moderated talkback to follow.

Thursday April 27 as part of the Dance Centre’s Discover Dance! series, the elegance and precision of ballet comes to life with an exhilarating performance by the award-winning dancers of the Goh Ballet Youth Company and students from the Goh Ballet Academy. Recognized as one of the world’s finest training institutes, the Academy produces graduates who go on to dance with major companies across North America, Europe and Asia. The dancers will perform a rich selection of ballets ranging from the classical repertoire to modern works by the choreographers of today. At the Scotiabank Dance Centre, noon. Tix.

Thursday April 27 ARTS ASSEMBLY: ACT 1, the first annual fundraiser for our summer programming of a week long event with Crazy Dames and installation by Jacob Gleeson. Performances by: Waters / Anybodys / JP Carter+Peggy Lee / Crotch. DJ sets by Minimal Violence / Nancy Dru. Dance Performances by Alexa Mardon+ Erika Mitsuhashi / Emmalena Fredriksson+Arash Khakpour. ARTS ASSEMBLY is a not for profit community-centric arts organization that emphasizes artistic collaboration. With a focus on social practices and research, we aim to foster relationships between the community and professional artists. We hope to expand the notion of what art can be and do, and provide a high caliber of diverse and inclusive arts programming. We seek to fairly compensate artists for their work and research, and acknowledge female leadership in the creative community.We encourage work that doesn’t necessarily end in a product to be sold, but rather builds relationships between communities, allows for in-depth research, and creates unique experiences. At 2625 Kaslo St, Vancouver, 8:30pm  Tix

Emmalena Fredriksson and Arash Khakpour 

Here is something for all those of you who want to try your hand at movement making! Friday April 28 Emmalena Fredriksson offers Intro to Choreography and Composition for Non- Dancers.  In this workshop you will look at practices of choreography and compositional tools for how to engage with time and space, both within the performing body itself and arranging relations between people. You will explore how to create movement phrases, compose a series of gestures and build scenes with multiple moving and non-moving bodies. Through physical actions, sharing of material and discussion we will address social and cultural codes of the body, reading of movement and politics of performing. This workshop is for anyone interested in choreography and composition. Those curious of -, or practicing performance, artists of other disciplines (music, visual art, interactive art, film), directors and facilitators.

Born in Sweden, Emmalena Fredriksson received her training at Balettakademien in Umeå and at SEAD (Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance) in Austria. She holds an MFA degree from Simon Fraser University.  Her work has been presented at Dance in Vancouver’s Choreography Walk curated by Justine A. Chambers, The Dance Centre’s Discover Dance Series and at the Audain Gallery. Emmalena regularly teaches at Simon Fraser University, Modus Operandi, Harbour Dance Centre and Training Society of Vancouver. Continuing her research into choreography as a relational practice in the expanded fields of dance, upcoming work includes collaborations with the visual art platform HAUNT, composer Alex Mah and a virtual reality dance film project through a DanceLab Residency with the Dance Centre. At Gold Saucer Studio, 211-207 W. Hastings. 7-9pm. Register here.

And remember, we can’t share your stuff with the dance community if you don’t share it with us first! Send your news, events and other interesting goings on to debora@dancehouse.ca. Thanks, and have a wonderful week!

Have you recovered from that oh so busy week last week? Still lots to see before we hit the holiday lull…

Modus Operandi at New Works at Night

You still have time tonight, Friday December 1, to experience the talent of some of Vancouver’s emerging artists from the  Modus Operandi Contemporary Dance Program. Over the past 10 years, Modus Operandi has grown from a summer workshop to a nationally recognized post-secondary contemporary dance program, known for nurturing a new wave of radical thinkers and movers. New Works at Night presents a selection of original creations by Canadian choreographers, curated by Out Innerspace Artistic Directors Tiffany Tregarthen and David Raymond, on the next generation of exciting professional dance artists in M.O. featuring the premiere of new work by Serge Bennathan. At the Annex, 823 Seymour Street, Vancouver, 8pm.  $20 online, $25 at the door.

December 1,2, 8 and 18, Casa Om presents The Dance Screen: Take 1. For the past three summers the folks at Casa Om, notably Sylvain Senez and Ballet BC dancer Alexis Fletcher, have produced an intimate, outdoor performance series in their backyard in East Vancouver, called The Dance Deck. They are now bringing their creative intention to the inside of their house and are launching a new project: The Dance Screen. It will be an evening presentation of dance inspired films, projected in the intimate living room setting on a 120” screen. It is intended to showcase the talent of artists and filmmakers who have taken dance as their point of departure and include artists such as Michael Slobodian, Karissa Barry, Scott Fowler, Maya Tenzer & Andrew Bartee (from Ballet BC) and Jenna Mazur, among others. Check out some of the films here. Only 20 tickets will be sold per showing. Snacks and mulled wine will be provided, beyond that BYOB! All proceeds from this event will go towards supporting the future presentations of The Dance Deck summer series. Tickets are $15 online and $20 at the door. At Casa Om, 1745 Napier Street, Vancouver, doors 7:15pm, screening 8pm.

On December 3, Foolish Operations is hosting a workshop called Ensemble Thinking, facilitated by Julie Lebel. This workshop is open to dancers with experience in contemporary dance, theatre, improvisation, and contact improvisation. Yoga, clowning and release technique are great too. The workshop is designed for Dancing the Parenting participants to push their collective improvisation skills further, without the presence of their child, so that the group is stronger when children are present. Julie is currently formally training with the Lower Left Colective to become certified as an Ensemble Thinking teacher/facilitator and uses this set of tools extensively in her choreographic practice. “Ensemble Thinking (ET) is a system of collaborative group performance practices. These compositional exercises refine the individual’s ability to perceive, initiate, and support collective action.” At Templeton Activity Room, 800 Templeton Dr, Vancouver 4-7pm. For more info

Shiny at Left of Main Photo Sophia Wolfe

Wednesday December 6 to Saturday December 9, dance artist Kelly McInnes, in collaboration with performers Maxine Chadburn and Rianne Svelnis, presents Shiny. Shiny is a multi-disciplinary performance that explores and challenges the beauty standards enforced upon women through the media of our culture. The work explores the masking of the individual through the bizarre sameness of the beauty standard and magnifies the surreal, the grotesque, the bizarre,and the mundane involved in the quest for ‘perfection’. Shiny reveals our bodies for what they are while magnifying the absurdity in arbitrary aesthetic. Challenged to question their gaze, the audience is invited into a world of domestic beauty creatures. At Left of Main, 211 Keefer St, Vancouver, 8pm. Tix

Keep it coming - so much dance this month!

Toronto Dance Theatre in Echo Park. Photo Guntar Kravis

Next week, February 23 and 24, DanceHouse brings the iconic Toronto Dance Theatre to Vancouver to celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary with House Mix, a retrospective program showcasing five diverse works by choreographer Christopher House. “As an artist, [House] might be compared to Richard Serra, that most choreographic of sculptors, so attentive to curves, planes, elevations, rises, landings and, above all, footing, reconfiguring ever more ordinary, unadorned and consistent steps into original, affective and solid dance forms.” – Ben Portis, The Dance Current. Don’t miss this exciting program! For more info and to buy tickets. At the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 8pm. Come early to hear the pre-show talk with Christopher House, hosted by Pia Lo. 7:15PM each night in the Vancouver Playhouse Upper Lobby.

With the TDT performance in mind, on Tuesday February 20, DanceHouse’s Speaking of Dance presents Vancouver and Toronto’s Cultural Scenes in the 70s: A Comparison. Moderated by Pia Lo (Dance journalist and blogger at Globe Dancer), in conversation with Megan Andrews (Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Performance Studies, School for Contemporary Arts at SFU), Kate Bird (Author of Vancouver in the Seventies: Photos From a Decade That Changed the City) and Cheryl Prophet (Senior Lecturer, Dance at the School for Contemporary Arts at SFU). Co-presented with Sfu Woodward’s Cultural Programs.Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre, SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 7pm  FREE

And for you dancers out there, don’t miss the opportunity to take a master class with some of the exceptional artists of TDT! For details of time and place, go here. All classes have limited capacity and require advanced registration, and we strongly suggest grabbing your spot now!

The 2018 Chutzpah! Festival opens February 16 and 17 with Ezralow Dance (USA). Award-winning choreographer / director / multi-media artist Daniel Ezralow‘s unique style of physical expression and articulate choreography has earned him a distinguished reputation as a groundbreaking artist worldwide. In his new show OPEN, Ezralow mingles contemporary dance with playful humour, provocative ideas, striking visuals, and an unforgettable classical score. At the Norman Rothstein Theatre. Tix and more info.

On Tuesday February 20, MascallDance presents the first in a series of BLOOM! Twice annually in the West End twilight, historic St Paul’s Church Hall comes alive at cocktail hour.   On two consecutive Tuesdays, local dance veteran MascallDance throws open its doors for an unusual kind of “tasting.” Audiences join up-and-coming dancers and choreographers to sample unique pairings of dances and wines with a comedy chaser.  This year BLOOM is thrilled to announce the participation of Lisa Haley, a young sommelier currently taking the town by storm.  Restaurant & Wine Director of Gastown’s award-winning L'Abattoir Restaurant and recipient of Vancouver Magazine’s 2017 Sommelier of the Year, Haley joins the dance crew to pair wine selections with the flavour and mood of each creation. Well-known local comedian, playwright, poet and actor Jenn Griffin tops off the show, sharing the mic with Haley with short comic commentaries on each dance.  For audiences, it’s a light-hearted way to wind down after work and support the next generation of Vancouver’s best and brightest. For artists, it’s the culmination of a six week residency offering them the rare opportunity to focus on their art with MascallDance resources and consult with Artistic Director, Jennifer Mascall, whose decades of outstanding invention need no introduction locally or nationally.  Don’t miss this opportunity to catch dance creators Luciana Freire D’Ancinciação, Lara Amalie Abadir, Eowynn Enquist, Isak Enquist, Levana Irena, Clay Nikiforuk, Stefan Smulovitz and Marissa Wong as they share a taste of their choreographies in progress.   TICKETS are only $10 and include wine tasters - at the door. At St Pauls Church, 1130 Jervis St. Door open at 4:30, show at 5:30

Tuesday February 20, the Dance Centre has a studio showing of 12 Minutes Max artists Immigrant Lessons (Kevin Fraser, Alyssa Amarshi), Olivia Shaffer, Damarise Ste Marie, and Sujit Vaidya. 12 Minutes Max seeks to foster experimentation and the development of a choreographic idea or work-in-progress, along with critical feedback and community dialogue from a creative community of performers, facilitators, and audience, with a primary focus on the choreographic process from development to presentation. At the Scotiabank Dance Centre, 6pm. FREE

Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg I Can’t Remember the Word for I Can’t Remember.

February 21 to 24, Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg premieres her new work I Can’t Remember the Word for I Can’t Remember. This piece has been described as stand-up comedy with dance. Funny, poignant and intimate. No fourth wall needed. A new solo created in collaboration with Vancouver director/writer/actor, John Murphy. Mining the missing files of memory, the boxes into which we misplace ourselves, and the inexplicably of….you…know…this…thing…Check out a promo video of the work here. Also on the program is a new piece by Chick Snipper, Unnecessary. An older woman seeks redemption and recognition through public performance. Having been inspired by Rabih Alamedinne’s novel An Unnecessary Woman, Chick felt compelled to create a solo for long time collaborator Anne Cooper, revealing the aloneness, vulnerability and vitality of an ‘older woman’. At the Firehall Arts Centre, 8pm. Tix 

DanceLab: Margaret Grenier/Dancers of Damelahamid. Photo Chris Randle

Sunday February 25 come to a studio showing of DanceLab: Margaret Grenier/Dancers of Damelahamid. The Dancers of Damelahamid are developing a new multi-media dance work, Mînowin, that integrates narrative, movement, song, and multi media design, connecting to landscapes from contemporary perspectives of customary Indigenous dance forms. Mînowin describes how we clarify direction, as we recover and reinterpret the teachings that define and redefine who we are, and that are accessed through story, dance and song. The piece will explore the moments where we connect with one another, moments that bring new life into our artistic practices, the upheaval and rebalancing, and places of renewal for each generation as we redefine ourselves. At the Scotiabank Dance Centre, 4-5pm. FREE