[Stria. Photo by Ayelen Liberona]
The Dance Centre will host a series of events this month to kick off National Dance Week and International Dance Day in Vancouver, featuring a program of dance styles including contemporary, flamenco, and historical.
International Dance Day was founded in 1982 by UNESCO and is celebrated annually on April 29 around the world. The date commemorates the birthday of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810), regarded as the founder of modern ballet.
Here’s a few of the week’s highlights:
Vision Impure presents a Dynamic Imagery workshop with Noam Gagnon
Dates: April 24 to April 26; Wednesday and Thursday, noon to 4 pm; Friday, 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm
Registration: Email members@thedancecentre.ca by April 19 (participants must bring a T band, also available for purchase at the workshop for $15).
Venue: Scotiabank Dance Centre, 677 Davie Street, Vancouver
Free with registration
Chartier Danse: Stria
A virtuosic solo work created and performed by Marie-Josée Chartier
Dates: April 25 to 27, 8 pm
Venue: Scotiabank Dance Centre, 677 Davie Street, Vancouver
Tickets: $30/$22 students, seniors; available via Tickets Tonight or by phoning 604.684.2787
The beautiful and unpredictable terrain of the Badlands merges with vivid personal memories in Stria, a stunning solo work by the award-winning Toronto-based choreographer and performer Marie-Josée Chartier. Using a blend of movement, music, text and voice, Chartier travels through a mosaic of evocative images and layers of experience, touching on themes of nature, love and loss.
Stria refers to a linear mark or groove on a surface, particularly on rock or skin. Chartier’s own visits to the Alberta Badlands prompted her to explore her own personal history and the ‘stria’ that lie within our own bodies. Stria premiered in Peterborough, Ontario in 2011.
[Kinesis Dance. Photo by David Cooper]
The Dance Centre presents the Discover Dance! Noon Hour Series
Historical Performance Ensemble in Go 4 Baroque!
Date: April 25, noon
Venue: Scotiabank Dance Centre, 677 Davie Street, Vancouver
Tickets: $12/$10 students, seniors and children; available via Tickets Tonight or by phoning 604.684.2787
Historical Performance Ensemble brings the elegance and courtly manners of dances from centuries past to life for The Dance Centre’s popular Discover Dance! noon hour series. The company will perform a program of authentic social and theatrical Baroque dances recreated from 18th century written notations. There will be a Q&A after the show.
[Karen Flamenco. Photo by David Cooper]
International Dance Day: Flamenco performance by Karen Flamenco, with live music
Date: Monday April 29, 1 to 1:30 pm
Venue: Vancouver Public Library Main Concourse, 350 West Georgia Street
Free
The Dance Centre presents Danse Carpe Diem/Emmanuel Jouthe: When We Were Old
Date: April 29, 8 pm
Venue: Scotiabank Dance Centre, 677 Davie Street, Vancouver
Tickets: $10 at the door only, available one hour prior to showtime
This is a new duet created and performed by Montreal’s Emmanuel Jouthe and Italy’s Chiara Frigo. When We Were Old was inspired by a story discovered during a historical walk in Vancouver: how a forest turned into a city and how in its turn an abandoned gas station was reconverted into a public park. The piece explores the dynamics of deconstruction and reconstruction, and how the organic dialogues with the urban.
Visit the Dance Centre website for more information and program scheduling.