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Vancouver has the luck of the Irish! This year Irish dancing is coming! It’s been a long time, and Deirdre Penk O’Donnell says it’s worth the wait. “This is the first time in 22 years that this event has been in Western Canada,” says Penk O’Donnell, chairperson for the 2019 North American Irish Dance Championships,…
Vancouver International Dance Festival will take on the city with its 2019 edition. From March 4 to March 30, dozens of celebrated artists perform in several places in Vancouver, showcasing powerful presentations from a diverse group of talented artists. Jeanette Kotowich, a Vancouver based performer, is one of the talents that will enlighten the art scene…
Blood on the Dance Floor, a powerful theatre performance by Australian indigenous artist Jacob Boehme, is currently on tour in Canada. Created in collaboration with ILBIJERRI, one of Australia’s leading theatre companies known for its innovative works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, the Vancouver performance will run in at the Simon Fraser University…
Med’Cine is a performance that reaches out to the soul of the viewer. O.Dela Arts, featuring Olivia C. Davies, has brought together two current feature dance pieces Gateways and Rematriate for a Nov. 17 performance at the Presentation House Theatre (PHT). “For the audience, Med’Cine is a description that represents the healing that can be obtained through the arts,” says Davies, a…
Multimodality is what comes to mind while watching Immigrant Lessons perform. Multimodality describes communication practices using a variety of modes such as visuals, audio and movement to relay a message. In an upcoming performance at the Roundhouse in Yaletown on October 21, the group of experienced young performers will relate a rigorous tutorial through their…
Chichaklar Dance Company will be performing their own variations on Azerbaijani folk dances at the Turkic Festival on May 27 at the North Vancouver Shipyards. “One of the first [goals] has always been to share the culture with the audience… we really wanted [to try] to be a little more innovative and outside of the…
With her first-ever Canadian performance, Norwegian-Sami artist Stina Therese Lorås Hessaa brings her world premiere to this year’s Coastal First Nations Dance Festival from Feb. 27–Mar. 4. Known as a dancer, performer, playwright and theatre director, 41-year-old Hessaa comes to Vancouver from Trondheim, Norway. Her work has toured stages and festivals in countries all around…
pataSola Dance, a local dance company, will be performing Metamorphosis Butoh at the Shadbolt Centre from Feb. 21 to Feb. 24. Choreographed by Gustavo Collini in collaboration with pataSola Dance co-founders Eduardo Meneses and Salomé Nieto, the piece derives its name from the Japanese genre of dance, butoh, as well as the subject the performance’s main themes:…
Adanu Habobo performs a blend of traditional African music and dances at the Roundhouse Theatre on May 11 and 12. The group, headed by co-directors Curtis Andrews and Kofi Gbolonyo PhD., will feature a variety of dance styles and music from Ghana, Zimbabwe and be joined by Cote d’Ivoire native Kesseke Yeo. “For me, dance…
Room 2048, the latest multimedia dance theatre piece produced by Vancouver-based interdisciplinary arts company Hong Kong Exile, explores the realities facing the Cantonese diaspora. “This piece has been in development for a couple of years now. We have received a lot of generosity from the community,” says Natalie Tin Yin Gan, co-artistic director of Hong…
Greek-Canadian choreographer Paras Terezakis will be premiering his work In PENUMBRA as part of the 2017 Vancouver International Dance Festival March 1–4 at the Scotiabank Dance Centre. Terezakis immigrated to Canada from Greece in 1979 where he pursued his dance studies at York University, Toronto Dance Theatre and Simon Fraser University. From a young age,…
Japan’s longest-standing butoh company will be taking audiences on a visually spectacular quest for paradise in all its absurdly elusive forms. Internationally acclaimed butoh dance company Dairakudakan returns to this year’s Vancouver International Dance Festival (VIDF) with its latest work, Paradise, March 10–11 at the Vancouver Playhouse. “Choreographer and director Akaji Maro set his sights…
In the upcoming concert performance, Practices of Everyday Life/Cooking at the Western Front, a group of performers gather together to create a multisensory evening of enchanted play. Boundaries blur between matter, sound and what we perceive to be inanimate, as vegetables and cooking implements come alive. “We work with the idea that the mundane becomes…
