Artists break down communication barriers through comedy

Vancouver choreographer Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg met Italian choreographer Silvia Gribaudi at a dance space in Embra, Scotland. They took an interest in each other’s work. Presented by the Chutzpah Festival and The Dance Centre, Friedenberg and Gribaudi’s collaboration, empty.swimming.pool, a work that includes dance, theatre and comedy, will be on at The Scotiabank Centre Feb.…

Middle Eastern dance connects audience with Iranian culture

Pooneh Alizadeh has been chosen as one of the ambassadors for this year`s Culture Days and will be teaching a dance workshop as her Culture Days activity. BC Culture Days run from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2. Alizadeh has been engaged in dance since she was five years old and since then, her passion for…

Spreading Mexican culture through dance

The Nahualli Folklore Society will be one of many groups performing at the Richmond World Festival to showcase Mexican culture.  Lily Cazares is one of the founders of the non-profit organization. She says that the society started after she met several other dancers who wanted to create a group to perform dances from the more…

Constant change and creation through dance and social interaction

Six dancers with various training and backgrounds came together with the goal of constant change to create OURO Collective, a Vancouver dance group intent on finding innovative ways to challenge ideas and express their love for dance and interaction with other artists and audience members. OURO Collective gets its name from the Greek word ouroboros,…

New production mixes traditions and modernity

A family-run production, Dancers of Damelahamid, brings together a collaboration of various Aboriginal dance forms and innovative ideas and technology in their new production, Flicker. Nigel Grenier, dancer and performer, says Flicker continues some of the threads of previous dance productions, such as Spirit and Transformation: using music to tell a story. Rather than shorter…

South American rhythm, intensity and dance

Argentina-based dance company Che Malambo will be performing their energetic dance act May 20 at the Vogue. Led by renowned French choreographer Gilles Brinas, the all-male company’s malambo dance performance is centered on the tradition of the South American “gaucho” cowboy. “Malambo has always elevated my soul,” says choreographer Gilles Brinas, “the malambo, by nature…

Hong Kong Exile: Otherness and collaboration

  As part of the An Exact Vertigo project, Hong Kong Exile, an interdisciplinary arts company and registered non-profit organization based in Vancouver, will be hosting a talk on Wednesday, April 6 at 7 p.m. and a workshop on Saturday, April 9 at 3 p.m. at UNIT/PITT Projects. An Exact Vertigo aims to engage Vancouver’s…

Valentine’s Day Bhangra-style

Hardeep Singh Sahota, a seasoned bhangra dancer, is making his debut at Dances for a Small Stage 33: the valentine’s edition, a performance series that showcases new and established dance professionals. The show will be hosted at the ANZA Club in Mount Pleasant from Feb. 11–14, where Sahota hopes to share his love for bhangra…

A performance of perpetual movement

“Confronting one’s own demise” is the premise of choreographer and dancer Nacera Belaza’s performance in her work Le Temps scellé. The performance is being presented at the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival from Jan. 27 to Jan. 29. Le Temps scellé was originally commissioned by the Festival d’Avignon in France in 2009. “I had to…

Sunya – the beginning of a new journey

Four dancers and three musicians will be offering an “energetic, sensual and poetic” performance called Sunya on Nov. 10–14 at the Cultch. Sunya is a show about meetings: east and west, music and dance, cultures, men. The work originates from the desire of artistic director and choreographer, Roger Sinha, and musician Kiya Tabassian to work…

Unwrapping culture: An artfully choreographed critique of Thailand

Two Southeast Asian contemporary dancers, Pichet Klunchun and Alvin Erasga Tolentino, are set to perform a full-length duet that explores the cultural complexity of traditional, contemporary Thailand in a cross-cultural dialogue that uses the audience, visual media and decorative toys to get it’s point across. This coming month, the cultural dance will be performed for…

Weaver Woman: A contemporary Kabuki

The 27th annual Dancing on the Edge Festival will take place from July 2 to 11 at various venues in Vancouver. The festival features contemporary dance performances from over 20 dance companies. Colleen Lanki, artistic director of TomoeArts, is set to debut her performance of Weaver Woman, a retelling of a classic Chinese folk tale…

Bhangra love takes over Vancouver

The Vancouver International Bhangra Celebration Society (VIBC) will be putting on its 9th annual City of Bhangra Festival on May 28th through June 6th at various downtown Vancouver venues and SFU’s Surrey campus. The festival will have seven events comprised of 350 performances, all centered on the Punjabi folk dance. Anita Lai, general manager of…