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!

April 14 to 20 (online), DanceHouse is thrilled to share with audiences a new film titled More Than Dance, We Are A Movement, celebrating the 20th-anniversary story of a leading company of contemporary Indigenous performance in Canada and around the world, Red Sky Performance. The film contains excerpts from their award-winning work as well as interviews with collaborators who have participated in this remarkable journey, and captures the creative drive of founder and Artistic Director Sandra Laronde and the exceptional artistic vision that propelled Red Sky Performance to prominence and critical acclaim.

Two works are shown in the film: Miigis represents the “perfect breath” of life, a symbol that informs our origin story of travel from the Atlantic Coast to the Great Lakes. Fusing contemporary Indigenous dance with athleticism in an extraordinary form, Miigis explores the catalysts for movement, ancestral forces and living memory, and the cycle of life. Trace is a highly kinetic contemporary dance work inspired by Indigenous (Anishinaabe) sky and star stories. Our ancestral origins stretch across the Milky Way to the atoms burning inside of us in the here and now. Trace offers a glimpse into our origin as the star people as well as our future evolution. Check out a preview of the film, and then purchase your tickets here!

Presented by Matriarchs Uprising in partnership with DanceHouse and SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs, join us on April 23, 11 am PDT, in Speaking of Dance – Women Weaving Stories of Transformation. In this conversation hosted by Olivia C. Davies (O.Dela Arts) with Matriarchs Uprising artists Michelle Olson (Raven Spirit Dance), Maura Garcia (Maura Garcia Dance), Jessica McMann (Wild Mint Arts), Santee Smith (Kaha:Wi Dance Theatre), and Starr Muranko (Raven Spirit Dance) we consider how contemporary choreography by Indigenous women from across Turtle Island considers our collective responsibility to land, to self, and to one another. At its core, our contemporary Indigenous dances require that artists are accountable to their traditional values while asserting their place in the present as dreamers of potential futures that can be communicated through movement. Defining this reality through dance can reveal the ways our Indigenous worldview strikes a balance between old and new ways of being, thinking, and reacting to the world around us. Audiences are invited to sit in circle with us and listen as we speak to each other, with open hearts, and open minds. To learn more about Matriarchs Uprising and this event, visit their Instagram, Facebook, and on Olivia C. Davies’ Talking Truths page. Matriarchs Uprising festival was launched in 2019 by O.Dela Arts as a way to center Indigenous women who are creating and producing contemporary dance. For more information and to register, please go here.

April 9 at 6:50 PM – April 10 at 6 PM PDT join Winnipeg-based street dance artist Less San Miguel/lessIZM + local experimental dance artist Deanna Peters/Mutable Subject in their new dance duet Orange. Combining their experiences in street, club and stage dance, since 2019 Less + Deanna have been investigating what happens when they turn their gazes to each other, to dance with and for each other. What arises from an intimate state of seeing and being seen? How does a focus on one another invite others to see us?
Due to COVID shutdowns, Orange will be broadcast live via Zoom. The performers control two laptop cameras, with two views in the Zoom room which can be watched side-by-side or separately. Co-creators and co-performers Deanna Peters + Less San Miguel invite you into their experience and ask you to consider our own bodies and desires. Live choice-making is integral to Orange and DJ Adam 2 will live mix music that supports an indeterminate approach. Broadcast from Left of Main, a lighting set-up is being created with lighting designer James Proudfoot. For the costumes, Brooklyn-based visual and textile artist David B. Smith is altering clothes sent back and forth via snail mail. Victor Tran (aka B.Boy Savage Rock) provides digital promo. Presented as a part of the plastic orchid factory’s Adaptive Series. Tickets by donation

April 15 – April 21 (online), Ballet BC is proud to present REACHING U, the company’s featured digital program of the adapted 2021 Season. This special evening will feature works by acclaimed duo Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar as well as Artistic Director Medhi Walerski. Audiences will experience the return of the spectacular and hypnotic Bedroom Folk —a percussive and deliciously punchy choreography in which movement, music, and light are equal protagonists — as well as the North American Premiere of GARDEN, a poetic and refined work set to music by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. Tickets are by donation

April 15 – April 28 (online) Kasandra ‘La China’, Artistic Director of Mozaico Flamenco, shares a vibrant celebration of the many faces of flamenco in a series of virtuosic solos. Using Spanish and Chinese fans, Sevillan silk shawls, and flamenco’s famous rapid-fire footwork, this intimate program is a showcase of the technical skill, passion and artistry of one of Vancouver’s most brilliant flamenco exponents. Check out a trailer here. This pre-recorded performance will include a conversation with Kasandra. Tickets on sliding scale