Coming up on March 17 and 18, DanceHouse presents Canadian company Bboyizm (Gatineau) in their work, In My Body.

“Fusing influences of street dance and hip-hop into a modern dance context, they are creating a new extremely physical world that is theatrical, virtuosic and urban at its very core.” – Canada Dance Festival.

The bravest thing a dancer can do is grow old—for a b-boy/b-girl, the experience is approaching heroic. In keeping with hip-hop culture, street dancers present a facade of confidence and invincibility as they engage in battles, and the resulting vocabulary is one of the most physically demanding and visually impressive of the dance genres. It leaves no room for the expression of vulnerability. For In My Body, dancer/choreographer Crazy Smooth (Yvon Soglo) brings together an intergenerational group of dancers and an international creative team for an intensely athletic investigation of the evolution of self and the effects of aging on dancers. Crazy Smooth is one of Canada’s top street dancers, performers, choreographers, instructors, judges, and community leaders. He is the founder and artistic director of Bboyizm, an award-winning street-dance company that has been instrumental in the preservation and proliferation of street dance in Canada and internationally. Check out a teaser of the work here. At the Vancouver Playhouse, 8 pm. Pre-show Talk 7:15pm each night in the Vancouver Playhouse Upper Lobby with Saxon Fraser, Bboyizm Rehearsal Director and Assistant Choreographer. Tix

In a partnership presentation with the Scotiabank Dance Centre and the Italian Cultural Centre, Friday-Wednesday March 10-15 Alessandro Sciarroni shares Save the last dance for me with Vancouver dancers and audiences. In Save the last dance for me, Italian choreographer Alessandro Sciarroni works with dancers Gianmaria Borzillo and Giovanfrancesco Giannini on the steps of a Bolognese dance called Polka Chinata, a courtship dance originally performed by men only and dating back to the early 1900s. Physically demanding, almost acrobatic, it requires that the dancers embrace each other and whirl, as they bend their knees almost to the ground. The work was created in collaboration with Giancarlo Stagni, a Filuzziani dance master who revived this ancient tradition thanks to the rediscovery of some documentation videos dating back to the 1960s. Sciarroni discovered this dance in 2018 when it was practiced by only 5 people in total. The project consists of a performance by the two dancers, and a series of workshops aimed at spreading and reviving this popular tradition in danger of extinction. To buy tickets and to find out where the performance will take place on the day of your choosing, go here. And through the Vancouver International Dance Festival, there are a number of workshops being offered in the Polka Chinata- check them out here.

Speaking of the Vancouver International Dance Festival, we are in the midst of it! Until March 25, check out shows such as La Otra Orilla from Quebec in Debordements, Aakash Odedra Company in the North American premiere of Samsara and Daina Ashbee in J’ai pleuré avec les chiens. Check out all the offerings of the Festival here.

Once again, EDAM is offering it’s Spring Choreographic Series on March 15, 17, 18, 22, 24, 25. Three new dance works will be presented. Everything and Nothing, choreographed By Alexis Fletcher this work in progress explores how cultivating a sense of togetherness with others and a re-bonding with the natural world, can nurture new ways of being as we face collective realities of endangerment, despair and isolation. In Osmocosm: The world of scents and other volatile molecules, choreographed and performed by Delia Brett & Isabelle Kirouac the audience and the performers merge their collective imagination in osmonautical travel. Voyaging from scent to language, to music, to dance and beyond we enter a deep space of volatile construction… And finally, EDAM’s Artistic Director Peter Bingham brings to the stage a directed dance improvisation,  which gives space for the strange, peripheral, vulnerable, and playful to unfold. Building on the ensemble’s research into associative vocal interjections and supported by EDAM’s creative grounds in Contact Improvisation, seven dancers navigate spatial and sensorial parameters. Above all, the work underscores the intrinsic care, trust, and commitment between the eight adept performers. At the EDAM theatre. Tix

Check this out, running on Saturdays January 21 – April 15: The Liberated Planet Studio (LPS) is a free workshop series for artists and activists interested in ecological and movement research at the intersections of social and environmental justice. Fourteen local and visiting artists, activists and academics will lead workshops. The project’s many collaborators will come together to experiment with socio-ecological concepts and collective movement practices. The LPS seeks to mobilize discourse about the intersections of environmental and social exploitation, human and animal experience and intercultural planetary struggles for liberation from the extractive logics of colonial capitalism. A guiding question is: “What would a liberated planet look like? And how might we achieve this together?” For more information on these workshops and to register, go here.

The DEADLINE to apply for the Louise Bentall Award for Emerging British Columbia Choreographers, sponsored by The Hawthorne Foundation and DanceHouse, is next Wednesday, March 15. One emerging choreographer will be awarded $10,000 to research, develop or produce new work! Applications will be awarded based on the overall presentation of the proposal, the innovative qualities of the project, and the vision and potential of the artists involved. For all the details on the application process, check this out.

March 23–30 CADA West is having their “Unconference: It’s been a decade since the last CADA/West members unconference… What’s been happening? What are you working on? Anything irking you? How can we better support you in your career? We invite dance artists of all abilities, from all forms and at all career stages to come together for a jam-packed series of dance workshops, salons and shows. For those residing outside of MST Territories, please join us for a day of hybrid offerings. All events are FREE! This looks like a really FUN conference, so if you are a member of CADA West (or want to join), check out all the events here.