Happy New Year, and bring on 2021!
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!
Coming up in February 17 to 23 (online), DanceHouse brings to you the online Canadian premiere of Body and Soul, choreographed by Vancouver’s own Crystal Pite, and performed by the Paris Opera Ballet. A work in three distinct parts, Body and Soul articulates Pite’s ongoing fascination with conflict, connectedness and the embodiment of the human spirit. The performance begins with voice-over text that describes, in purely physical terms, a scene of conflict between two individuals. Before the performance, there will be a 15-minute pre-recorded exclusive interview with Crystal Pite and the Kidd Pivot creative team, all of whom contributed artistically to the creation of Body and Soul: Owen Belton (Composer), Eric Beauchesne (Assistant to the Choreographer), Nancy Bryant (Costume Designer), Jay Gower Taylor (Set Designer), Jermaine Spivey (Assistant to the Choreographer) and Tom Visser (Lighting Designer). Please check out the work here. “It’s unity, however, that I’m really looking for. Everything I do stems from a desire to connect with people, and to connect people with each other.” – Crystal Pite, choreographer. Tickets are available here.
On January 10 (livestream), and available online until January 17, TomoeArts presents personal journey, a concert of Japanese classical dance celebrating the life of master dancer and teacher Fujima Yūko (1929-2003). A group or gathering for performance or presentation can be termed “kai” so Yūko-kai is literally “a gathering for Yūko.” This year’s gathering is especially powerful as it is a concert already postponed twice; now we will celebrate music, dance and a gathering with friends across the world in a digital realm. For more info. FREE
The PuSh Festival has just announced the lineup for the newly formed PuSh Rally, January 28 to February 6, 2021. PuSh Rally is a free online series designed to respond directly to this deeply uncertain moment in our cultural sector by connecting PuSh audiences, artists, and industry leaders in Vancouver and around the globe in vital and meaningful dialogue. The PuSh Rally, curated by two of Vancouver’s most celebrated theatre artists, Theatre Replacement’s Maiko Yamamoto and Neworld Theatre’s Marcus Youssef, will provide a global platform for meaningful discourse and idea exchange about the challenges and possibilities inherent in conflict, and the future of live performance. The Rally will include a variety of artist encounters and conversations, international artist presentations, and surprise performances from some of the world’s finest artists, thought leaders, and change makers.
As part of the PuSh Rally, join Vanessa Goodman and Caroline Shaw in Graveyards and Gardens, January 28 and 29 (online), where the two artists construct an entire album before your eyes in this live-streamed experiential performance, which features a fusion of dance and music so unique as to be revelatory. With this work, Goodman and Shaw offer many pleasures, but two are of special note. Firstly, there is the chance to see a visual and sonic album emerge before one’s eyes: what these two artists make will live on, and this live-streamed genesis is, among other things, a powerful display of the creative process. The second pleasure is a unique, revelatory melding of movement and sound. In Graveyards and Gardens, what is heard and what is seen do not merely complement each other, as they might in a more conventional dance performance; instead, they are fused in such a way as to make their effects seem indistinguishable. Tix
