Wow, it’s June already – have a great weekend!
Welcome to the Friday Round-Up, a place for the Vancouver community of dancers and dance lovers to come together and share what is going on in the local dance community. In this new world in which we find ourselves, it is now more important than ever to find ways to connect and share all the many new and innovative ways in which we create, communicate and relate in the world of dance. So if you have something you would like to share with the Friday Round-Up, please send it to debora@dancehouse.ca. We look forward to hearing from you!
June 4 – June 13 check out the Contact Dance International Film Festival! (online) This is the 5th season of the Contact Dance International Film Festival, celebrating films featuring momentum-based dance by creators and dancers in the fields of Contact Improvisation and related dance forms that are momentum, touch, and relationally based. The Festival provides a unique opportunity for both film and dance lovers to experience through film the joy, chaos, and intimacy of human connection through physical movement and touch – needed more than ever in times of COVID! There are many ways to participate in the Festival, such as the Filmmaking workshop with award-winning filmmaker Olya Glotka, and the online BIPOC dance jam facilitated by Leslie Heydon with live music by Nilan Perera. Check out a trailer and this video will tell more about the many aspects of the Festival! Tickets
June 9 at Noon (online), BC-based dance artists Sujit Vaidya and Ahalya Satkunaratnam join Ontario-based dance writer Brannavy Jeyasundaram in a unique virtual conversation South Asian Dance – Exploring What it Means, to discuss and explore the layers and parameters of the term ‘South Asian’ as it relates to Canadian dance. The zoom session is hosted by Pratibha Arts in association with Made in BC – Dance on Tour. Moderated by Pratibha Arts’ Artistic Director Bageshree Vaze, the event is part of Pratibha Arts’ Diversity Dance Initiative (DDI) project addressing the lack of diversity in mainstage dance programming. “This project emerged following conversations with a couple of major dance presenters who claimed they were not aware of diverse artists in Canada and didn’t know how to find audiences for these ‘other’ dances,” says Vaze. “Styles like Bharatha Natyam and Flamenco are so widely practiced and popular, and have been just as much part of the Canadian dance fabric for decades, and yet they continue to be programmed as ‘sideshow’ events or as part of ‘ethnic’ programming.” For more info and tickets FREE!
Also June 9, 6:00 pm (online), please join huulthapi ~ Dancing Airwaves, a conversation about traditional protocols, creative processes and future possibilities for dance in our communities. Speaking from a diverse range of traditional, contemporary, professional and grassroots dance groups, this gathering of esteemed Indigenous dance leaders offers a wide intergenerational perspective into the many kinds of dance works being made locally and carried on traditionally. Speakers include: Margaret Grenier (Executive & Artistic Director, Dancers of Damelahamid, recipient of the Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts 2021), Haa’yuups, Ron Hamilton (Hupacasath, Nuu-chah-nulth cultural leader, and co-curator of the North West Coast Hall renovation at the Museum of Natural History in New York City) and Andrew Peter, Qwun Qwinuhw (leader of the Qwuwustsun Tzinquaw Dance group), and Lindsay Katsitsakatste Delaronde (Founder & Artistic Director for the Visible Bodies Collective, and co-founder and Artistic Director for the Culture Den Society). Moderated and curated by Tsatassaya White, Snuneymuxw (Nanaimo) & (Opetchesaht) Nuu-chah-nulth Nations. For more info and tickets. FREE!
Livestreaming June 18-20, the 2021 Vancouver International Dance Festival (VIDF) presents Before Dawn by Lamondance. Lamondance is a strong, contemporary dance voice in the Lower Mainland led by Artistic Director Davi Rodrigues, who brings 30+ years of professional dance experience and more than 18 years as a dance educator, choreographer and director. “To the first light of day, a new era must come. Let it become light or clear, dark, or bright with ups and downs; there is still time to love and forgive, laugh, and cry. Faith is the bird that feels the light when the Dawn is still dark. With the ramps of life, even so, will you run away with us?” – Davi Rodrigues. Tickets are free/by-donation with advanced registration.
