Oh glorious sunshine! Have a great week, and don’t forget to partake in some of the amazing dance that is happening in this fine city!
You just have time to catch your breath from last weeks brilliant performance by Grupo Corpo, as DanceHouse prepares to bring you from Montreal, RUBBERBAND, in Ever So Slightly, March 20 and 21! Choreographer Victor Quijada marshals the forces of ten extraordinary performers and live music from composer/DJ Jasper Gahunia and violinist William Lamoureux to take apart the mechanisms of compliance and control with near-surgical precision. One moment, the dancers look like inmates in an asylum, the next, street dance warriors in boiler-suited conformity. As bodies jerk and flail, dystopic contests of aggression and violence are stripped away. What emerges is a path towards genuine resistance and liberation. Check out a video here. At the Vancouver Playhouse, 8 pm. Tix
Until March 7, you still have time to experience Ballet BC presentation of Romeo and Juliet. For centuries, the tale of tragic “star-crossed lovers” has inspired many an artist. Compelling in its timeless relevance, this deeply human story captures audiences with enduring themes of love, fate and family. In Romeo + Juliet, Walerski offers a fresh and bold retelling of this classic story of forbidden love that continues to resonate today. At the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 8 pm. Tix
Friday-Saturday March 6-7, The Vancouver International Dance Festival (VIDF) opens with Shay Kuebler/Radical System Art in Epilogos. Epilogos is built around the art of rhetoric and the commodification of morality. The appropriation of moral codes and value systems has been used to exert control by dictators, politicians and royalty. In Epilogos, the performance on stage becomes a device of persuasion, persuading the audience to see the power of each value in the moral code and the strength of the characters within these values. Check out a video of the work. At the Playhouse, 8pm Tix
While we are talking about VIDF, do check out ALL there is to see over the course of the Festival, including Hungary based FERENC FEHÉR’s work, The Station, March 11 to 14. This story is not about a nice family who is waiting at a station. We were 3 years old when we disappeared. We’ve been living here in this closed place for 123 years, which is known by the people as The Station. We know exactly who we were then, and what we have become. Escape if you can! Play with me if you dare! Do we know exactly who we were then, and what we have become? At KW Studios, 9:30 pm. Note: Special two show discount! Buy a ticket to both FERENC FEHÉR AND HINKYPUNK shows and receive both shows for $35! Tix
The Practice of Masking, Sunday March 8. DanceLab artists Lee Su-Feh, Tasha Faye Evans, and Zahra Shahab are exploring how masks prompt the creation of new movement vocabularies and generate work. Join them, and special guests Margaret Grenier, Elizabeth Milton, Ocean Hyland, Steven Hill, and Bracken Hanuse Corlett, as they explore how the human body can write choreography into a mask and then, how the mask can write choreography onto another human body. Learn about the use of masks in contemporary art and ancient connections to supernatural beings. At the Dance Centre, Jarislowsky StudioFree admission, refreshments provided. RSVP to associate@thedancecentre.ca
The Friday Round Up is here for you, a place to share anything that is happening in the dance world in Vancouver – performances, workshops, conferences, festivals…all of it! If you have something you would like to announce on The Friday Round Up, please send it to debora@dancehouse.ca We look forward to hearing from you!
