Just around the corner on February 23-25, experience Gregory Maqoma | Thuthuka Sibisi (South Africa) in Broken Chord, featuring the Vancouver Chamber Choir. From 1891-1893 a group of young African singers travelled by boat to Britain, Canada, and America. This ensemble of missionary-educated Black people, named The African Native Choir, was on a mission to raise funds for a technical school in Kimberley, South Africa. Inspired by photography from that tour and using traditional Xhosa and contemporary dance styles alongside atmospheric soundscapes, choreographer and performer Gregory Maqoma and musical director Thuthuka Sibisi weave together recorded personal accounts of the African Choir, revealing a drama of global dimensions. With a single dancer (Maqoma), four vocal soloists and an onstage a cappella chorus, Broken Chord not only reflects on an archive but triggers, critiques, and comments on urgent issues of migration, dispossession, borders, and paths of forced closure, raising important questions about the relationship between the colonized and the colonizer, and either’s complicity in shaping and shifting a South African narrative—past and present. Check out a teaser of the work here, and there is so much more to learn about the work and the artists here! At the Vancouver Playhouse, 8 pm. Tix

February 13 to 18, the Matriarchs Uprising Festival, offers a program of live performances, educational workshops, and circle conversations led by local and international Indigenous artists. There is so much to see we can only give you a taste here, but check out the full program here. One show you don’t want to miss is Sophie Dow’s new solo work journals of adoption, part of Ñswe niiminwinan (3 dances) on Friday, February 17 at The Dance Centre alongside works by Samantha Sutherland and Kaha:wi Dance Theatre. And closing the Festival on February 18 is Maamawi (ᒫᒪᐏ): Together Through The Fire, a collaboration with Pepper’s Ghost New Media & Performing Arts Collective and co-creators. Maamawi is Anishinaabemowin for “together”. We’re working from a co-creative and collaborative intention to find a way forward that is rooted in Mini Bimaadziwin, or “the good life”. This work is intended to be witnessed as both a live theatrical performance with MOCAP technology and VR interactive experience that takes the viewer on a journey into the teachings of the Anishinaabe 7 Fires Prophecies as shared by Anishinaabe Elder, Gloria May Eshkibok. Dance artists Sophie Dow and Daisy Thompson are accompanied by their digital avatars designed by Ojibway Woodland artist and illustrator, Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley, and their movements are uplifted by the original music and sound design of Michael Red in the multiple environments they travel through the course of the performance. The MOCAP and VR experience are designed and directed by Athomas Goldberg and members of his team at SHOCAP Studios. At the Dance Centre, 7 pm. Tickets for all Festival events, and check out some beautiful teaser videos here.

Also part of Matriarchs Uprising, on Tuesday, February 14, 7:30 on Zoom, check out Talking Truths: Indigenous Futurism – Stories of Transformation. Celebrating the artists of the film series at Matriarchs Uprising 2023, co-hosts O.Dela Arts Artistic Associates Sophie Dow and Samantha Sutherland are joined in circle with Irihipeti Waretini, Bella Waru, Kayla Briët, Sandra Yellowhorn, Olivia Shortt, Artist Page, Kelly Nash, & Nancy Wijohn. What ancestral ties are suspended between the past & present day in our artistic practices? By nourishing our youth of today with our ancestral wisdom, we can create a strong future for our seven generations of caretakers to come. Pay what you can tickets are available here.

Streaming on demand February 21 – March 7, Jamie Robinson and Avery Smith present -273.15: a series of body rituals. Body and camera collaborate to create three distinct visual experiences of ritual. Through rigorous processes of imagination, performers experiment with specific ways of meeting and being with the body. Inspired by the fundamental states of matter, the movement explorations draw on scientific phenomena in the search of reaching an altered state of being. Supported and funded by The Dance Centre. For more information

For any dancers out there, the Dancers Transition Resource Centre, is offering a Career Session #1 on February 12, 10 – 11am PST Plan your Parallel Path/s: You already do more than one thing. Embrace your passions and choreograph a career with intentional rhythm and phrasing. Consider a parallel, portfolio or consecutive approach. Articulate the short- and long-term vision. Evaluate the time demands and balance the practicalities. Broaden your perspective and discover new possibilities for your life in dance. For more info and to register

We wanted to sign off with a reminder for the Louise Bentall Award for Emerging British Columbia Choreographers! The Hawthorne Foundation and DanceHouse have joined forces to offer this $10,000 biennial Award to financially support an emerging choreographer to research, develop, or produce new work. The Award was created in memory of Louise Bentall, who passed away in 2017 and was a long serving board member of DanceHouse. Individual emerging dance artists working in all styles of dance, including collaborative and/or multidisciplinary projects, are encouraged to apply by March 15, 2023. This award is creating much excitement – check out this article in Stir, and another one in the Vancouver Sun. And for all the details on applying, please visit DanceHouse here.