PuSh International Performing Arts Festival
BLUE NÉON by Montreal’s Châu Kim-Sanh. Photo by Kinga Michalska.
Lasa Ng Imperyo (Taste of Empire) from rice and beans theatre and Boca del Lupo. Photo by Emily Cooper
Renata Carvalho in Transpofagic Manifesto. Photo by Danilo Galvão
The multidisciplinary PuSh International Performing Arts Festival is one of Vancouver’s signature events. Produced each January, it’s known for genre-bending work that is startlingly original.
The event was founded in 2003 by Norman Armour and Katrina Dunn, who envisioned a vibrant, mid-winter event series where Vancouver artists could forge connections with the rest of Canada and beyond. In the ensuing years, it’s grown from a small performance series to a citywide event with a strong international and national reputation.
PuSh has also become a hothouse for new creation, and, especially, collaboration: more than just shows, PuSh brokers international partnerships and is known as a meeting place for creative minds.
The festival was a major partner in the 2010 Cultural Olympiad. In 2011, together with the City of Vancouver, PuSh launched the official celebrations of the city’s 125th anniversary with a big outdoor event in Gastown that drew over 7,000 people.
PuSh has opened Vancouver audiences’ eyes to some of the most cutting-edge work being created around the globe. Highlights have included 2016’s Jack Charles v. the Crown, about Australia’s Aboriginal Stolen Generation, and maverick South African troupe Third World Bunfight’s rendition of the opera Macbeth, a co-production with Vancouver Opera. Bold, boundary-pushing, and often immersive or interactive works have come to Vancouver from countries as far-flung as Belgium, Korea, Argentina, and Taiwan.
Locally created milestones have been the massive Queen Elizabeth Theatre dance-concert monumental by The Holy Body Tattoo and Godspeed You Black Emperor and Frontera by Animals of Distinction and Fly Pan Am; the debut of indie theatre hit Winners and Losers by Marcus Youssef and James Long; concert stagings of Veda Hille’s This Riot Life and later Little Volcano; and a Downtown Eastside staging of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment.
At the same time, professional development opportunities at the festival take many forms, with a standout being the PuSh Industry Series, a series of artist encounters and conversations, international artist presentations, and surprise performances. It is designed to connect artists and industry leaders in Vancouver, across the country, and around the globe.
Beginning in January 2021, the organization and festival as a whole has been reimagined through a JEDI (Justice, Equity, Decolonization, and Inclusion) lens.
L’addition from the U.K.’s Tim Etchells with French performance duo Bert and Nasi. Photo by Christophe Raynaud-Delage
