Welcome to springtime – have a great week!

Friday and Saturday, March 22 & 23, DanceHouse presents Côté Danse (Toronto) in X (Dix). As the global pandemic shrank the world, and the concept of home became a site of comfort, stability and foundational identity, the story of Odysseus took on even greater resonance. Taking inspiration from Homer’s mythic poem, five dancers delve deeply into the idea of an inner compass, not only as a means of navigation but also as a tool of connection to the elemental forces of the earth. Accompanied by the sculptural sounds of American experimental band Son Lux, X (Dix) charts a course into the unknown, as well as the challenges of finding your way home again. Hailed as “one of the finest male dancers in the world” by The London Times, Guillaume Côté brings a depth of knowledge and interpretation to the creation of his own work creating choreography of singular and staggering beauty. Check out this interview with Côté at Stir. And don’t forget to get there early for the pre-show chat with Anisa Tejpar, Associate Producer at Côté Danse and Creative Assistant to Guillaume Côté, hosted by Jean Orr, former dancer at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and board member of the Vancouver Ballet Society. At the Vancouver Playhouse, 8 pm. Tix

You have until Saturday, March 16, to check out the Dance Centre presentation of award-winning Dutch choreographer Arno Schuitemaker’s work If You Could See Me Now. Incessant movement, propulsive music, stunning light – If You Could See Me Now is a mesmerizing experience. Three performers take a chilled-out club dance and reinvent it through constant movement, subtly shifting and transforming, and drawing on deep reserves of strength, endurance and concentration. From a meticulous build-up to its fracturing, the performance goes right to the core of the body and its response to change. At the Scotiabank Dance Centre, 8 pm. Tix

Next Sunday, March 24, New Works is excited to present the Modus Operandi dancers in a special presentation of works in development. Modus Operandi (MO) was founded in 2007 in the heart of Vancouver, and offers pivotal post-secondary contemporary dance training. The mission of MO is to nurture unique emergent voices in dance by continuously investigating and investing in a practice-based curriculum that welcomes all the possible ways to dance. MO seeks to remain nimble and responsive to the evolving dance ecology, to provide meaningful facilitation of dancers’ relationship to the form so it is empowered, long-lasting and uniquely theirs. Alumni are celebrated as some of Canada’s most radical and inspired new artists producing, creating and performing in an enormous range of formats, environments and organizations. Come see these young artists on stage in a mixed program of works by celebrated choreographers Tiffany Tregarthen, David Raymond and Yue Yin. Support this new generation of artists at the Roundhouse Community Centre, 3 pm. Tix

On Tuesday, March 26th at check out Passing Through (Meeting Points), a dance duet choreographed and performed by Carolina Bergonzoni and Luciana Freire D’Anunciação, with music by Matthew Tomkinson. Passing Through (Meeting Points) embraces differences and studies the modulation of encountering and the ways of seeing and being seen in improvisation based choreography. As part of our creative process, we invite the community to take part in a conversation afterwards. It will be a free event 7 pm at The Roundhouse Community Centre. For more info and to save your spot click HERE

April 4 and 5, New Works and Vancouver New Music present:  OSMOSi: 422 Unprocessable Entity – Nancy Lee. Step into the world of OSMOSi: 422 Unprocessable Entity where a delivery app subroutine slowly develops consciousness after a corrupted update. Newly sentient, the performer discovers that the app is shutting down, and must mount a desperate bid for escape. This interdisciplinary work weaves together movement, projection, spatial sound composition and interactive costuming to build an immersive world where the ground is constantly shifting beneath your feet. Reflecting on the religion of workism and precarity of gig economy labour, we are confronted by the everyday within the unexpected, swirling landscape of OSMOSi: 422 Unprocessable Entity.

Monday, March 25 and Wednesday, March 27, join Kaia Shukin, Celeste English and Isak Enquist in Portals, a performance of movement, lighting and sound – in conversation and reaction to each other – inspired by the notion of travel through space, time and body. Collaborators Kaia Shukin (choreography), Celeste English (scenography/lighting) and Isak Enquist (sound) will show and discuss this current iteration of their work. In 2020 the research for Portals began with the notion that travel through space and time was possible within our own bodies. Veins as wormholes, galaxies in viscera, memories and sensation containing a multiverse. The arrival, assembly, disintegration and diffusion of our brief state of being. A way through grief, an act of wonder, a journey through the multiplicity of self. Finding you again, scattered through the cosmos. At the Scotiabank Dance Centre, Monday 7:30 pm, Wednesday 7:00 pm. Artist talkback March 27 Tix