Events

Global Dance Connections series 2018-2019

UPCOMING SHOWS

Simon Mayer
Sons of Sissy
Thursday-Saturday April 4-6, 8pm
Post-show artist talkback April 5

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Sons of Sissy delves into the heart of the Upper Austrian countryside, where traditional folk dances and music reign supreme. These traditions are joyously subverted when four versatile performers/musicians reformulate Alpine dances to liberate themselves from convention. Defying categorization and pigeonholing, the Sons of Sissy live up to their name as they conduct themselves as part weird folk music quartet, part experimentally playful ritual dance combo, using humour to radically disrupt hackneyed male role models. An accomplished choreographer, dancer and musician, Mayer offers an irreverent, affectionate take on his heritage, while demonstrating impeccable timing, bodily control, and musicality.

simonmayer.at

Duration: 60 minutes 
This performance includes nudity
Photo Rania Moslam

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Davida Monk
Ashes for Beauty
Thursday-Saturday May 23-25, 8pm
Post-show artist talkback May 24

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Calgary-based Davida Monk has been an influential figure on the Canadian dance scene for over three decades. A prolific choreographer, performer, teacher and mentor, her rich repertoire of works finds inspiration in myth and literature, as well as the natural environment. This program celebrates her achievements with three pieces. Her evocative Ashes for Beauty, specially remounted for seven Vancouver dancers, explores ideas of metamorphosis and transformation. Monk dances a new solo created for her by Alberta choreographer Helen Husak; and Paras Terezakis of Kinesis Dance somatheatro premieres a duet performed by Monk and Arash Khakpour, based on the classical Greek tragedy Antigone.

m-body.ca

Duration: 65 minutes + intermission 
This performance includes haze
Presented with

Photo Tim Nguyen Citrus Photography 

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PAST SHOWS

WArd/waRD-Ann Van den Broek
The Black Piece
Tuesday-Thursday November 6-8, 8pm
Post-show talkback November 7

Elegant and seductive; reassuring and comforting; frightening and sinister. The many qualities of the colour black are examined in Dutch-Flemish choreographer Ann Van den Broek’s thrillingly audacious The Black Piece. Five charismatic dancers and a camera operator lure the audience into the darkness for a sensory adventure filled with haunting sounds and images. The camera unveils what would otherwise remain unseen, conjuring up a shadowy film noir world punctuated by sudden bursts of frenzied movement. This startling, award-winning work by one of Europe’s most provocative and original creators expertly taps into our deepest emotions.

wardward.be

Duration: 75 minutes
Photo Maarten Vanden Abeele

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Liu Kuan-Hsiang
Kids
Thursday-Saturday January 24-26, 8pm
Post-show artist talkback January 25

Taiwanese choreographer and dancer Liu Kuan-Hsiang is an explosive new talent on the international dance scene, whose luminous works often have autobiographical roots. Kids is a tribute to his late mother: it draws on recordings of conversations between her and Liu during her last days, which touch on family memories, illusion and reality, and her impending passing. From this emerges an unorthodox and dazzling meditation on the eternal cycle of birth, life and death. Three virtuosic dancers veer from calm ritualistic movement to twisted, frantic physical extremes, yet this deliriously wild and undulating work is suffused with serenity and even joy. Kids celebrates the exuberance of life, in the face of death.

Duration: 50 minutes
This performance includes strong language
Presented with 
   

Photo Etan Chen
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Company 605
Loop, Lull
Monday-Tuesday January 21-22, 28-29, 7pm
Post-show artist talkback January 22 

An electrifying force in Canadian dance, Company 605’s trademark hyper-physical style highlights effort, tension, exertion and risk, capturing a fresh and exciting aesthetic. Choreographed by Artistic Directors Lisa Gelley and Josh Martin, this new collaboration is their first full-length ensemble work in three years. It explores concepts of looping and transformation, and how inevitable conflicts and inconsistencies lead to the emergence of something new. The dancers navigate a ceaseless flow of dynamic movement, in a sublime test of stamina, skill, and the human capacity to cope with change.

company605.ca
Duration: TBA 
Presented with

Supported through the Artist-in-Residence program
Photo David Cooper
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Victoria Hunt
Copper Promises: Hinemihi Haka
Thursday-Saturday January 31-February 2, 8pm
Post-show artist talkback February 1 

Australian dance artist Victoria Hunt’s spellbinding solo Copper Promises embodies the cultural and physical journey of Hinemihi – a female ancestor, but also a ceremonial meeting house connected with their own Maori cultural heritage: a carved ancestral house which was ‘acquired’ and transported to Britain after a devastating volcanic eruption in 1886. Hunt’s mesmerizing stage presence and potent physicality, combined with stunning lighting, sound and visual effects, generate a work of fierce energy and emotional power. Hinemihi’s story is interwoven with their own, tracing themes of reconnecting with family and culture, and learning from the land. Copper Promises creates a world of rupture, foreboding, resilience, and catharsis.

victoriahunt.com.au

Duration: 55 minutes
This performance includes loud sounds and moments of intense lighting effects
Presented with 

Photo Heidrun Löhr
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