Welcome back! We hope you had a great summer, and are ready for a dance-filled fall!

Today, Friday September 30, in observance of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we gratefully share Nexw7áyentsut (Transform Oneself), a work created by dancer/choreographer K̓esugwilakw, Sierra Tasi Baker.

“Hal7h skwáyel túniyap, my name is K̓esugwilakw, Sierra Tasi Baker, (they/she/he) and I’m from the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxumixw. I’m also Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw, Łingít and Magyar. I am an Indigiqueer dancer, choreographer and Urban Designer. If you’re in a space today to listen to a vulnerable dance piece created with the intention of processing my thoughts and feelings about colonization, from my perspective as a Host Nation person doing their best to thrive despite colonialism, then please follow the link to the film. I’ve titled the piece Nexw7áyentsut, which loosely translates to “Transform Oneself” in Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim. It will only be available for a short time out of respect for the vulnerability in this piece and for the Day of Truth and Reconciliation. This is a process based piece. The spoken word was recorded in one sitting after a movement session processing grief and trauma. The noises of the city in the background reflect the feelings of the weight and heaviness of colonial imposition. The soundtrack was developed in collaboration with my nephew Sekawnee Baker, an Afro-Indigenous sound producer, artist and athlete. The dance itself is improv and was performed 4 times at different locations. Notably at X̱wáy̓x̱way and Skwácháy̓s, locations where my ancestors and families were forcibly removed from to make way for the concrete and glass that we call Vancouver. The movement processing was developed with guidance from Olivia Davies, Anishinaabe, who brought medicine wheel teachings into the work to inform the healing. This piece was performed with the intention of transformation, of myself, the city, and our collective healing. Please view with kindness and gentleness. Chen wanáxwstúmiyap, (Respectfully) K̓esugwilakw”

Nexw7áyentsut (Transform Oneself) available to stream for 48 hours surrounding the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Link: bit.ly/3CkYMc3 It is available from 2pm Thursday Sept 29 to 2pm Saturday Oct 1 (PDT)

DanceHouse is starting off its fall season on October 21 and 22 with the internationally celebrated Hofesh Schecter Company, last here in 2015 – we are so excited to have them back here in Vancouver! Don’t miss this thrilling new double bill choreographed by UK-based Israeli choreographer Hofesh Shechter himself, with two contrasting pieces for our times in an evening entitled Double Murder: Clowns/The Fix. “The mighty contemporary choreographer – a combination of dance-maker and rock-star, but with film-director sensibilities.” – The Times

The evening begins with Clowns, a sarcastic nod to our ever-growing indifference to violence; originally created for Nederlands Dans Theater 1 and later produced as a film and broadcast by the BBC. In a macabre comedy of murder and desire, Clowns unleashes a whirlwind of choreographed anarchy, testing how far we are willing to go in the name of entertainment.

As an antidote to the murderous, poisonous energy of Clowns, Shechter’s new creation, The Fix, brings a tender, fragile energy to the stage. It offers a raw and compassionate moment to balance the forces of aggression that press on us daily. A shield to protect us from the noise of life outside, and a place that allows the performers to be fragile, be seen for their utmost human qualities. Violence, tenderness, and hope are all laid bare through Shechter’s achingly beautiful, cinematic lens. Check out a trailer of the works and then we suggest you buy your tickets soon, because it is sure to sell out! At the Vancouver Playhouse, 8 pm. Tix

Tonight and tomorrow night, Saturday October 1, Jeanette Kotowich presents her solo work, Kisiskâciwan. Originally from Treaty 4 territory Saskatchewan, Kotowich is an independent dance artist and choreographer of Nêhiyaw, Métis and mixed settler ancestry. Her work reflects Nêhiyaw/Métis cosmology within the context of contemporary dance performance, referencing protocol, ritual, our relationship to the natural and Spirit world, and ancestral knowledge. Kisiskâciwan is a creative return to the swift-flowing landscape of Saskatchewan, the robust undulating land of her grandmothers’ mothers and great-great-grandfathers. Conceived and performed by Kotowich in collaboration with Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists, this solo work is a journey to one’s self. As part of the Dance Centre’s Global Dance Collections Series. At the Scotiabank Dance Centre, 8 pm. Tix

This coming Sunday, October 2, New Works presents Chimerik 似不像 003_playback – an interactive movement exploration investigating how surveillance, control, and agency, actively play with our human experience. Performed in Vancouver live and in-person for the first time as a performance in development; 003_playback is an interactive work that invites audience members to vote to collectively decide, in real-time, how the lighting, sound and movement will develop throughout the piece. Drawing from video games and simulation theory, together we explore the many timelines we navigate causing a rippling effect with each choice. Framed as a performance-as-research, 003_playback, investigates how surveillance, control, and agency, actively play with our human experience by constantly shift our current reality or state. The work was originally created to be an online work and is still in development in it’s current in-person performance format. For more information about the work and the artists involved. At the Roundhouse Performance Centre, 5pm. Tix

You may remember streaming École des Sables‘ interpretation of Pina Bausch’s The Rite of Spring in October 2020 ( if you remember anything of that time!) Now DanceHouse is partnering with the Vancouver International Film Festival to bring Dancing Pina to silver screens in Vancouver. The stunning documentary takes us behind the scenes of two dance companies prepare to perform Bausch’s works, including École des Sables, to discover what ‘dancing Pina’ means to dancers today – a journey of fascinating insights into the lives of dancers and the expressive power of movement. For more information and tix, go here.

Reaching into October, Justine A. Chambers & Berlin – based Laurie Young present One hundred more on Thursday and Friday October 13 and 14, as part of the Dance Centre’s Global Dance Collections Series. One hundred more is urgently informed by our current socio-political climate, which has produced a groundswell of bodies resisting and moving in collective anger, captured and replayed in an endless torrent of images. Centred on an iconic gesture of resistance, the work is an incremental choreography of personal physical strategies the artists deploy as women of colour and mothers. This first collaboration by Chambers and Young, Canadian choreographers based in Vancouver and Berlin respectively, creates a steadily mounting tension through rhythmic movements both archival and emergent. Set to a pulsating score, this performance is a physical declaration of friendship and resistance. Check out a trailer of the work and for more information and tix go here. At the Scotiabank Dance Centre, 8 pm.

Available from October 14, check out two digital offerings by dance artist Amber Barton.

1 – The digital performance of MEDITATION by Amber Barton

2 – Amber Barton IN MEDITATION: A Doc

MEDITATION – a reflection on what was, what is and what is to come, created by Amber Barton is an autobiographical dance piece about an artist saying goodbye to a career that has defined their last twenty years. Created and performed by award-winning dance artist Amber Barton, this solo performance and accompanying documentary offer a rare glimpse into an artist’s journey of moving forward to the next significant chapter in their life. Digital presentation on The Cultch RE/PLAY: Digital Playground. For more info on the work, and tix are available here (Pay what you can $0 – $20).

For those of you interested in conversing about dance, on Thursday, October 13 check out Configurations in Motion: The Commons of Colour: A conversation exploring festival, performance and residency curation and the ways that artists and audiences form a commons of colour. Join Dance West Network and a panel of performance curators, artists, and scholars from the U.S. and Canada in a conversation exploring performance curation and the ways that artists and audiences form a commons of colour, wondering at the ways that performance speaks to our diverse assembly. Where do our dances begin?  How do we want them to continue?  When do we think we are?  How do we support each other as we gather as experimental artists in a commons of colour? FREE! Email jane@dancewest.net to register. For more info Organized in conjunction with the Dance Studies Association and Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts, as part of the conference “Dancing Resilience: Dance Studies and Activism in a Global Age, Oct 13-16, 2022.