Vancouver International Dance Festival returns for 23rd year with ambitious lineup
From manic butoh to punk flamenco, the fest features artists from as far away as Senegal, Italy, Japan, and beyond
Josef Nadj, Omma. Photo by Severine Charrier
Vancouver International Dance Festival takes place from February 27 to March 25 at various venues
THE 2023 EDITION of Vancouver International Dance Festival marks its 23rd anniversary, and it’s celebrating with an ambitious lineup that features everything from manic butoh to punk flamenco.
Established in 2000 by Kokoro Dance’s Barbara Bourget and Jay Hirabayashi, VIDF launches with Hungarian choreographer Josef Nadj’s Omma (March 2 to 4 at Vancouver Playhouse). A reflection on Nadj’s hypothesis that dance was born along with humanity, the piece features eight dancers from Mali, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Congo Brazzaville, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Christopher House, New Tricks.
Christopher House’s New Tricks (March 2 to 4 at the Orpheum Annex) sees the former Toronto Dance Theatre artistic director celebrate his freedom to openly express his queer artistic self. The solo is set to a soundtrack by Thom Gill and comes complete with gender-bending costumes.
La Otra Orilla, DEBORDEMENTS.
Montreal’s La Otra Orilla will present the world premiere of DEBORDEMENTS (March 8 to 11 at KW Production Studio). The choreographic and sound-based work is described as being “at the crossroads of the language of flamenco and punk philosophy”.
Alessandro Sciarroni’s Save the last dance for me (March 10 to 15 at various venues)—co-presented with The Dance Centre and Italian Cultural Centre—sees the Italian artist working with dancers Gianmaria Borzillo and Giovanfrancesco Giannini on the steps of a Bolognese courtship dance dating back to the early 1900s, typically performed only by men, called polka Chinata. Physically demanding, the genre requires the dancers to embrace each other and whirl as they bend to their knees almost to the ground. The work was created in collaboration with Giancarlo Stagni, a Filuzziani dance master who revived the ancient tradition thanks to the rediscovery of documentation videos from the 1960s. Sciarroni discovered the style in 2018, when the dance was being practiced in Italy by a grand total of five people. The project consists of a performance as well as several workshops aimed at spreading and reviving the tradition, which is in danger of extinction. (Venues include Scotiabank Dance Centre, Woodward’s Atrium, Italian Cultural Centre, and The School for the Contemporary Arts at SFU.)
Taketeru Kudo, The Foot on the Edge of the Knife.
Japanese dancer Taketeru Kudo brings the manic butoh in The Foot on the Edge of the Knife (March 15 to 18 at the Orpheum Annex). The piece started during COVID lockdowns in Tokyo, when composer Masaru Soga (a John Cage disciple) sent some 100 pieces of music to Kudo, who then spent months in the studio working through his pandemic-fuelled anxiety and irritability. The set design includes a gong that’s nine feet in diameter along with tins of flour, water, and rice.
In Ichigo-Ichieh’s Birthday Present for Myself (March 17 and 18 at Shadbolt Centre for the Arts) dancer-choreographer-actor Hiromoto Ida merges dance, theatre, classical music and voice to tell the story of an old man, raising a glass of sake to himself in celebration on what will be his last birthday. reminiscing about the richness of his life experience, he is visited by the spirit of his wife, soprano Allison Girvan in the piece that features musicians Nicola Everton (clarinet), Sue Gould (piano), Jeff Faragher (cello), and Martine denBok (violin and viola) performing an original score by Russian composer Pavel Karmanov.
Samsara, Aakash Odedra Company dancers Aakash Odedra and Hu Shenyuan. Photo by Nirvair Singh Rai
Samsara (March 22 to 25 at Vancouver Playhouse) is a duet by UK/Indian dancer Aakash Odedra and China’s Hu Shenyuan. The work features an evocative world music score by acclaimed composer and vocalist Nicki Wells; it’s performed with Beibei Wang, a genre-defying international percussionist, and Michael Ormiston, an award-winning Mongolian khöömii (ancestral overtone, or throat) singer.
Daina Ashbee, J’ai pleuré avec les chiens (Time, Creation, Destruction 2021).
Daina Ashbee’s J’ai pleuré avec les chiens (Time, Creation, Destruction 2021) (March 22 to 25 at Scotiabank Dance Centre) is the Gabriola Island-based choreographer’s first group piece. Co-presented by VIDF with The Dance Centre, the anti-colonial work had just a single performance before it had to be cancelled because of COVID.
Barbara Bourget (left) and Jay Hirabayashi. Photo by Chris Randle
Bourget and Hirabayashi will also be offering modern and butoh dance classes for throughout the fest at KW Studios. Bourget’s classes focus on technical training, while Hirabayashi’s include more time for improvisational exploration. The two approaches complement each other and people are encouraged to take both.
Noam Gagnon, being.
A livestream performance by Vision Impure’s Noam Gagnon from KW Production Studio takes place post-fest, on April 20 and 21. Entitled being, the work, with lighting by James Proudfoot, is about accepting a certain lack of ultimate meaning in life and living for momentary beauty.
For tickets and more information, see VIDF.
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