So much good dance to see – both live and online! Stay dry!

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!

November 24 – 27, join DanceHouse and SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs in their co-presentation of Red Sky Performance in Trace. Astronomy, astrophysics and ancestral knowledge meet in Trace. Inspired by the origin story of the Anishinaabe people and the mythological figure of Geezhigo-Quae (Sky Woman), who fell to earth, bringing with her the beginnings of life. Under the direction of Executive and Artistic Director Sandra Laronde, and accompanied by composer Eliot Britton’s remarkable score, the Red Sky performers create a richly embroidered constellation, tangled with light, myth, and movement.

“For tens of thousands of years, the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island (Canada and the U.S.A.) have mapped the night sky, studied the stars, and established an expansive multiverse view of the world. Our sky and star stories hold our worldview and cultural psyche, illuminating our profound belief that we are related to all of creation. We are a part of the universe, and it is a part of us.” – Sandra Laronde, Artistic Director Red Sky Performance

DanceHouse audiences were treated to a glimpse of the work in the film More Than Dance, We Are A Movement, offered as part of DanceHouse’s 2020-21 Digidance series. Here is the full manifestation in all its power and magnificence. The winner of two Dora Mavor Moore Awards, Trace walks a path from the spiraling expanse of the Milky Way to the atomic components of all matter. As vast as the night sky and intimate as a fingerprint. At the Vancouver Playhouse, 8pm and also a 2pm performance on November 27. For more info about the company, and for tix.

Tonight and tomorrow, November 5 and 6, Ballet BC returns to live performance featuring a collection of three fresh works, as well as one of Artistic Director Medhi Walerski’s most celebrated creations, Garden. Toronto’s Ethan Colangelo will present his newest work Stadium, dealing with a dialogue and introspective dive into human reflection through memory. In After We Glow, Vancouver’s own Company 605 asks how we envision future in our bodies and how we might move there. Time and place are constantly bent and distorted, and dancers move between unfamiliar forms and rhythms, playing within unknowable spaces. And Vancouver choreographer Lesley Telford creates a compelling new piece with Lean-to, which will be accompanied in part by live music from artists of Early Music Vancouver. At the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 8 pm. Tix

The Chutzpah!Festival is back, and on November 6 and 7, presents Sylvie Moquin and Meghann Michalsky Project InTandem. Creative collaborators since 2017, they explore themes of female struggle and empowerment in the BC premiere of their newest performances. In her piece moving through, it all amounts to something, Moquin is inspired by the concept of neuroplasticity and the journey of rewiring one’s patterning. Michalsky’s work, Deep END, investigates how movement can accumulate and evolve through set rounds and repetition. Check out a video of the work, and then buy your tickets here! AtThe Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre, 7 pm. Also available as a livestream.

Still at the Chutzpah!Festival, November 13 and 14, Shay Kuebler Radical System Art presents Momentum of Isolation. A rather fitting title – when Kuebler heard about the UK’s new Minister of Loneliness who deals with issues of social isolation, he began to research the topic. Made even more relevant by the global pandemic, the first “chapter” of the work was developed via zoom in 2020 as solo performances in isolated spaces. The second “chapter,” M.O.I. – the partitions, was showcased at the 2021 Dancing on the Edge Festival and sold out live performances. Now, after a multi-week residency at the Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre, Shay Kuebler Radical System Art will premiere the completed piece in a performance that promises to be dynamic, active, and reflective of our current moment. At The Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre, 8 pm. Tix

Streaming, on demand November 8 to 15, Rama Vaidyanathan + Ensemble present Sannidhanam – Sacred Space. Commissioned by Vancouver’s Mandala Arts and Culture, Sannidhanam is a new work choreographed by the world-renowned Indian Bharatanatyam artist Rama Vaidyanathan. It is inspired by the significance of symbols in Indian philosophy, using the precise grammar and lines of Bharatanatyam to depict a sacred geometry. Performed by eight dancers including Vaidyanathan, this is an unmissable opportunity to experience the work of one of the most celebrated Bharatanatyam dancers of her generation. To buy online tickets

November 18, as part of the Dance Centre’s Discover Dance series, join V’ni Dansi’s Louis Riel Métis Dancers in a wonderful afternoon performance that is sure to get your toes tapping! The rhythms and images of the Métis spirit come alive through traditional and contemporary styles of Métis dance and music in Red River Special, which combines the Red River Jig – the national dance of the Métis – with the Orange Blossom Special, and square dances. Traditionally, dancers would challenge themselves to perform up to 100 “fancy steps” during the Red River Jig and the company will build on that tradition with a crescendo of steps and “crooked” fiddle tunes. At the Scotiabank Dance Centre, noon. Tix