Dancing on the Edge
Company 605, Lossy. Photo by David Cooper.
Dancing on the Edge is a contemporary dance festival that strives to increase public appreciation and understanding of contemporary dance. Every summer, the festival also seeks to stimulate the development of high quality Canadian dance artists and choreography.
Celebrating 36 years in 2024, the event, based out of the Firehall Arts Centre, is the oldest and longest running professional contemporary dance festival in Canada. Each year, DOTE is an eagerly anticipated highlight of the Lower Mainland’s dance season.
The brainchild of the Firehall’s Donna Spencer, the fest launched in 1988 as an upstart, unjuried event aimed at boosting contemporary dance presentations in a city where few venues would host them.
Still thriving under the longtime leadership of festival producer Spencer, the organization has proven itself an important partner and supporter of British Columbia dance artists. Among the Vancouver names that have appeared at the fest over the years: Company 605, Lesley Telford/Inverso Productions, Co.ERASGA, Mascall Dance, Kinesis Dance somatheatro, O.Dela Arts/Olivia C. Davies, Serge Bennathan, and Wen Wei Wang. Dancing on the Edge has also brought in talent from across Canada and as far away as Asia and Europe.
DOTE always delivers high calibre, challenging and gorgeous dance delivering innovative and spell-binding works featuring World Premieres, North American and Western Canadian debuts, and works-in-progress from some of the most sought-after contemporary choreographers.
The Dancing on the Edge Festival Society strives to create a place where contemporary dance artists are supported in the creation, development, and presentation of artistically exciting choreography and where audiences discover and enjoy dance in both traditional and non-traditional settings—the latter has included performances at local parks, street intersections, library courtyards, and the historic Firehall’s own beloved courtyard.
The mandate is to provide affordable public performances by local, national, and international dance artists for the benefit of the general public, and to increase public appreciation and understanding of contemporary dance through performances, workshops, classes, lectures, and more. The fest also helps professional dance artists and dance administrators to develop their skills through presentations, workshops, residencies, commissions, and dialogues. It’s become an essential platform for them to debut new work.
