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!
We hope you managed to see some online dance during those very cold days last week. Hold tight, spring is just around the corner! But until then, let some dance bring a spring into your step!
If you have not seen it already, you have until February 23 to watch the DanceHouse presentation of the online Canadian premiere of Body and Soul, choreographed by Vancouver’s own Crystal Pite, and performed by the Paris Opera Ballet. Check out this article by Stuart Derdeyn in the Vancouver Sun where he interviews Pite, as well as DanceHouse Artistic and Executive Director and founding partner of Digidance, a new national initiative that will deliver Canadian and international dance content online across the country. Tix
Take the opportunity to visit the Richmond Art Gallery from February 12 to April 3 to check out Brendan Fernandes‘ Inaction. Fernandes is a visual artist who works with the melding of dance and visual arts. Inaction addresses the potential for change through collective action. The installation comprises two main components: a newly commissioned series of nine sculptural works and the two channel video projection Free Fall: for Camera. Check out a video about the work.
| Working in collaboration with the architecture and design firm Norman Kelley, Fernandes has designed a set of mobile dance supports and platforms for activation by local dancers. The mats, rug, tumblers, and square grid evoke communal spaces of training and play such as gymnasiums and playgrounds. In public performances throughout the exhibition, Fernandes’ choreography guides dancers to utilize the sculpture objects in movements, referencing a mix of childhood play and professional dance warm-up exercise. Performances are scheduled for March/April. Visit our website for details. Paired with the installation is the two channel video work Free Fall: for Camera. Evolved from a live performance piece Free Fall (2017), this new work is in response to the mass shooting of predominantly racialized LGBTQ2S patrons at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida in 2016. Free Fall: for Camera explores the act of falling. Featuring sixteen dancers, the work demonstrates the cataclysmic moments when bodies fall onto a stage. Intimate shots are intercut with stunning aerial views, creating kaleidoscopic imagery reminiscent of film director Busby Berkeley’s visionary style. For more info |
And does it edge closer?
You have until Saturday February 20, 6pm (online) to see Francesca Frewer in her work And does it edge closer? Experience this performance as Francesca dances continuously for one hour. Three separate screens show three different performances of the piece, each shot in a single take. The viewer has the option to cycle through the three videos, to watch them simultaneously, or to experiment with different combinations of playback. And does it edge closer? is a celebration of movement, of being with what arises in the unfolding present, and of the joy, frustration, bewilderment, and, ultimately, satisfaction, of deciding to continue on. To register and watch. FREE
Join Ballet BC on Thursday February 25, 5 – 10 pm as the Ballet BC dancers present Take Form, an online event created, performed and produced by the dancers and Artists in Residence of the company. Take Form is a unique opportunity for these incredible artists to take the lead in creating their own evening of dance works. “It is about creativity, artistic growth, and freedom. We must offer space, time, and opportunity for our dancers to learn and explore the different facets of our art form. I am so excited for them, and I hope that Take Form will become a fundamental tool in the development of future choreographers, leaders, and producers” – Medhi Walerski, Artistic Director of Ballet BC. Note: the duration of Take Form will be approximately 60-90 minutes, but the digital presentation will be available for streaming between the hours of 5:00pm – 10:00pm. Tix FREEhttps://dancehouse.ca/
On Friday February 26, 11am (online), DanceHouse and SFU Woodwards Cultural Programs bring you Speaking of Dance – Future Memory: Session 2. Join this fantastic group of artists, Louise Lecavalier, Stephen Page (Bangarra Dance Theatre) and Rodrigo Pederneiras (Grupo Corpo), as they retrace their memories and ponder the future with questions centred around upcoming creative practice and projects, as well as their individual perspectives and histories. Utilizing the theme of future works is intended both as a protest against the uncertainty of our times, as well as a call to creativity and the importance of hope. If you were not able to see the first session of Future Memory, you can watch a video here. Speaking of Dance – Future Memory: Session 2 is FREE, but please register in order to receive the link.
On Wednesday February 24, 6 pm (online), in an informal studio showing, dance artists Maria Avila, Liat Har Lev, Caroline MacCaull & Indigo Porebska-Smith, and Jhoely Triana will share and discuss their work developed in 12 Minutes Max , a Dance Centre program that aims to foster experimentation and the development of new dance works, along with critical feedback and community dialogue. Dancer bios here. FREE
February 26 to March 21 (online), the Dance Centre’s Global Dance Connections Series presents Joshua Beamish/ MOVETHECOMPANY in PROXIMITY: A collection of short works. The program features two creations choreographed by Beamish – the world premiere of a new solo danced by Renée Sigouin, and Proximity, a duet performed by Beamish and Sigouin. Beamish also dances in two solos choreographed for him: Redemption, by internationally-acclaimed Belgian-Colombian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, and Ablaze Amongst the Fragments of Your Sky by Ballet BC’s Kirsten Wicklund. Falling Upward is a dance film created by Joshua Beamish, Scott Fowler & Stefan Nazarevich. Tix
The annual Vancouver International Dance Festival opens March 4, and will have online programming through June 2021. Opening the Festival is Ne Sans. Opera & Dance in Hourglass. The work is set to 4 Piano Études by acclaimed minimalist composer Philip Glass and features a duet with Racheal Prince & Brandon Lee Alley (Dance//Novella), joined on stage by pianist and celebrated conductor Leslie Dala. Established in 2017 by Artistic Director Idan Cohen in Vancouver, Ne. Sans Opera & Dance is re-imagining and reconnecting Opera & Dance. Directing opera through contemporary dance opens a whole new world of collaborative opportunities: an environment that involves working with singers, dancers, musicians, visual artists, and designers. Tix
