Multimedia hip-hop to a Madagascar "dance epidemic", as The Dance Centre unveils 2023-24 season
Buzzed-about talents Meagan O’Shea, Ebnflōh, Arno Schuitemaker, and Danny Nielsen are just some of the acts on the roster
Ebnfloh. Photo by Melika Dez
THE DANCE CENTRE has unveiled a genre-spanning and -exploding lineup of shows for its just-announced 2023-24 season.
The season’s main Global Dance Connections series kicks off with Stand Up Dance’s internationally collaborative Anatomalia: anatomy + anomaly + femalia, November 16-18. The work by interdisciplinary queer Canadian dance artist Meagan O’Shea aims for collective healing of the damage done to “femalia”, bringing together five dancers, original sound and design, and local participants in a journey of celebration, survival, and recovery.
That’s followed December 7 to 9 by Ebnflōh, the Montreal company that wowed crowds at last year’s Dancing on the Edge festival. At the Scotiabank Dance Centre, the hip-hop-driven crew founded by Alexandra “Spicey” Landé will present the larger-scale La Probabilité du Néant, which integrates propulsive electrobeats and striking video design. The ambitious work asks how we can make sense of our actions when witnessing extreme situations. It features eight powerhouse dancers.
In the new year, as part of the Push International Performing Arts Festival, the Tangaj Collective performs Ramanenjana—a “docufiction” about a mysterious “dance epidemic” that swept Madagascar for four months in 1863. It brought thousands of people to the streets to dance nonstop to the sounds of drums. It runs January 19 to 20, choreographed by Simona Deaconescu (Romania) and Gaby Saranouffi (Madagascar), collaborating with Malagasy ethnomusicologist and musician Olombelo Ricky and three versatile performers.
On March 14 to 16, 2024, watch for buzzed-about Dutch choreographer Arno Schuitemaker’s If You Could See Me Now, featuring three performers who take a chilled-out club dance and reinvent it through incessant movement, rhythm, and endurance.
The season wraps with local tap sensation Danny Nielsen’s The New Standards May 23 to 25. Working with musician Dan Reynolds, he explores the symbiotic relationship between tap dance and jazz piano, inspired by the concept of contrafacts.
Another date to note is September 16, when the annual Scotiabank Dance Centre Open House takes place, swinging open its doors for a day full of performances, free classes, and more. That evening, head to the centre’s theatre for Rwandan-born Isaac Gasangwa (aka Izo Dreamchaser) and his The African Dream, following the life of a young man growing up amid the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and his determination to create a better world for the future. It features 10 performers, and the intricate choreography draws on African dance, Afrobeats, hip-hop, martial arts, and more.
Meanwhile, troupes like Voirelia Dance Hub and Dance/Novella are just two of the groups set to appear at the facility’s noonhour Discover Dance! series. In addition, The Dance Centre is hosting a full gamut of residencies and studio programs for 2023-24. Among them, Adam Grant Warren and Sophie Dow are Artists-in-Residence; DanceLab Interdisciplinary Research is being done by Celeste English, Isak Enquist, Kaia Shukin, Rebecca Margolick, and V’ni Dansi; and special partnerships will get under way with Circuit-Est centre chorégraphique, Co.ERASGA, Matriarchs Uprising Festival, Nellie Gossen, New Works, Raven Spirit Dance, and Shakti Dance Society.
Subscriptions, and single tickets for most events are now on sale at www.thedancecentre.ca.
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