A little early, but Happy International Dance Day (April 29)!
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 29 – May 8, starting 30 minutes after sunset until 10:30 pm at English Bay (On Denman Street at Davie Street), experience Caroline Laurin-Beaucage’s (Montreal)REBO(U)ND. With spring in the air and vaccines rolling out, DanceHouse is thrilled to offer the urban video-mapping work (an outdoor video projection) titled REBO(U)ND. Coinciding with International Dance Day (April 29), this free outdoor public installation is the perfect thing to view on a spring evening’s walk. (Remember to wear a mask and stay socially distanced.) A choreography of suspension and presented in silence, REBO(U)ND reveals and magnifies bodies on the verge of escaping gravity. Created and produced by choreographer Caroline Laurin-Beaucage, Montréal Danse, Lorganisme and Hub Studio, this is an exceptional project and a first in Vancouver! REBO(U)ND reveals the ephemeral moment when the dancer floats, between momentum and fall, between freedom and imbalance, while the body seems to defy space and time.
Projected on the wall of a tower in English Bay, REBO(U)ND will be offered to the gaze of all passers-by, bringing dance out of theatres and studios, and directly into the general public in a celebratory moment for artists, local businesses and neighbours to rebound from the past year’s challenges. The projection plays with perceptions, the notions of time, gravity, scale and space. A visual experience to live, to feel, REBO(U)ND is a vibrant tribute to dance, sharing the feelings of abandonment and freedom. Following a long year of restrictions and many lives and projects put on hold, REBO(U)ND is a metaphor of our resilience, our capacity to bounce back from adversity. Another way art brings us together, looking forward to better days. FREE!
TODAY (a recording will be made available soon) Friday April 23, 11am PDT, presented by Matriarchs Uprising in partnership with DanceHouse and SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs, join us 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.
Now until April 28, 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. This pre-recorded performance will include a conversation with Kasandra. Tickets on a sliding scale.
April 29 is International Dance Day, and the Dance Centre has a multitude of activities to celebrate the day, including open (online) rehearsals, dance short films, and an online discussion exploring ideas of the traditional and (C/c)contemporary in dance. Check out a full listing of events to celebrate our day!
Livestreaming April 29-30, 7pm and May 1, 4pm and as part of the Vancouver International Dance Festival, Company 605 presents Brimming. Created and performed by Artistic Co-Director Josh Martin, Brimming is a new solo investigating the body as a container: a rigid frame holding in and concealing its stored inner contents. The piece imagines the body as a hollow interior space continuously shaped and reshaped, filled and emptied, and inhabited through different states. A performer trapped inside his own form, the dance is a meeting of both the seen and unseen – the invisible contents that slosh up against the sides, pushing against the outer surface from beneath, and occasionally leaking under its pressure. Brimming explores this shape we are in, how it holds us, and what might eventually spill out when the walls begin to bend. Tix Q&A with Josh Martin following the April 30 performance!e
