It’s going to be a busy dance weekend – stay warm!

Do not miss this! December 8 – December 19 DigiDance presents Babel(words) (Video-on-Demand (VOD) streaming, link available for 12 days) In 2010, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet joined forces with visual artist Antony Gormley to create Babel(words), a dance performance that explores language and its relationship with nationhood, identity and religion. Taking the tale of ‘The Tower of Babel’ as its starting point, Gormley’s five huge three-dimensional frames hint at a nameless intersection in a faceless city near the borders that define a no man’s land. We watch as the action flows from private to public, intimacy to extroversion, and the individual to the collective – while choices of faith, space and community are made and we are reminded that to some the tale of Babel represents the gates to enlightenment, to others – chaos, confusion and conflict. The piece was performed nearly 150 times in cities all over the world for nearly seven years.

For the 70th edition of the Festival d’Avignon in 2016, choreographers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet created a new version of their Olivier award-winning piece, and transposed it to the Cour d’Honneur of the Palais des Papes under the title of Babel 7.16. Ten new performers were added to the show, ten new characters making the story even more rich and complex. Check out a teaser here and then go online to buy your Tix

Friday-Saturday December 3-4, the OURO Collective is excited to launch their new project entitled 7y98D, choreographed by RubberLegz in collaboration with OURO Collective. The evening will include a short performance by OURO and the premiere of the 7y98D short film directed by Dave Ehrenreich and Jeff Hamada. Check out a teaser of the film, and then register for your place at the event. FREE! At Tangible Interaction
220 Victoria Drive #160, Vancouver, 7-10 pm.

Check this out on Saturday, December 4 when Restless Productions shares an early phase of research/creation for a new interdisciplinary work. Their collaborative process involves sound/movement, brown paper (and the sound and movement of brown paper), architecturally informed spatial design, and digital projection. They are exploring contingency, possibility, and implication through several disciplines, in an installation-like format. Through researching what it is to create work for which the “product” and venue remain speculative—digital/live, performance/installation, gallery/theatre—scale, medium, and the relationships between disciplines take on new generative qualities. Dancers and musicians occupy a speculative world of half-formed and in flux (re)presentations. This lab is a hybrid space; fertile, adaptive, optimistic. At the Scotiabank Dance Centre, 2pm, 2.30pm, 3pm, 3.30pm. FREE! but please register beforehand because there is very limited

Also December 4 (it’s going to be a busy day!), Flamenco Rosario will share it’s new Commissioned Works program, Buena Mezcla, supporting the research and development of work that converses with the rich art form of Flamenco dance and/or music. Flamenco Rosario is curious of the new directions that Flamenco can take through cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary and experimental collaboration. Each selected artist received financial support as well as rehearsal space, and the opportunity to present a 15-20 minute work/work-in-progress performance. This year’s Buena Mezcla artists are: Ralph Escamillan and Linda Hayes! At the Annex Theatre, Vancouver, 7 pm. Live tix here, and online tix here.

Beginning Saturday December 4 (online), Mandala Arts & Culture Society will present the first of a series of 4 bharata natyam performances highlighting the 2 vibrant aspects of the dance form; Nritta/ abstract dance and Nritya/dance with a narrative. The series begins with a performance by Kiruthika Rathanaswami, accompanied by the beautiful voice and music direction of Balasubramanya sharma in Bangalore, and a few others under the direction of late O.S. Sridhar from Delhi. Throughout the series you will find 4 different dance offerings in praise of various deities such as the Surya/ Sun God, Saraswathi/ goddess of fine arts, Buddha, and Devi/ consort of Shiva. Each of the performances will also have one or two expressional choreographies/ abhinaya, and will conclude with thillanas in 4 beautiful contemporary melodies including compositions of Shri Lalgudi Jayaraman and Sri Balamurali Krishna. FREE! Tix

For those dancers out there who want to try something new, Saturday, December 12 check out this Aerial Dance Workshop with Gabrielle Martin, Corporeal Imago (Ci). This workshop will focus on the foundational techniques required to dance in the air using aerial rope. Tailored to advanced level dancers, it will focus on techniques for efficiency, how to weave your body around the rope, locks and keys, proper inversion technique, and creative ways to ascend. Offered by Dance Centre Artist-in-Residence company Corporeal Imago, this workshop is taught by Gabrielle Martin, a former aerialist of Cirque du Soleil and Cavalia. At the Scotiabank Dance Centre, 4 – 6 pm. To register

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!