Dance with Chutzpah!

This year is the 10th anniversary Chutzpah! Festival. In additional to an impressive line-up of international theatre and music performances this year, the Festival is renowned for bringing cutting edge contemporary dance companies to Vancouver and it looks like this year is going to be no exception. Aszure Barton & Artists will be returning to Chutzpah! with her full company of nine dancers for a breathtaking and explosive repertoire show (presented with The Dance Centre). Gallim Dance with opening guest company Sidra Bell Dance New York, both based in New York City, make their Vancouver company premieres.

Aszure will be presenting two works. Busk (2009) The word busk comes from the Spanish root word buscar, meaning "to seek"; buskers literally seek the fantasy of fame and fortune. Busk retains Aszure's signature style of precise whole-body expression inflected with an intense and intimate awareness of the fine line between humour and sadness. Blue Soup (2009) is a bubbling mosaic drawn from Barton's notable past creations. This work celebrates distinct personalities and hyper awareness of body, spirit, and sound. Defying the idea of dance as simple spectacle, Blue Soup invites the audience to visit a self-contained, deeply textured and bizarre universe. This choreography has been hailed by the critics and the public internationally.

The work Gallim Dance will be presenting, I Can See Myself In Your Pupil, is a suite of dances set to the vibrant music including the Israeli band, Balkan Beat Box (also appearing in concert at Chutzpah! March 18 at 8pm, The Venue on Granville St). In bundles of outrageously combustive energy the dance exposes the accursed but ever-present awkwardness of attempting physical intimacy.

Opening for Gallim Dance is Sidra Bell Dance New York. The company's repertoire features pieces that are simultaneously haunting, emotionally transporting, complex, dynamic, articulate, sensual, highly physical, risky, elegant, fantastical and darkly romantic.

Tickets, more info about all the shows and a downloadable copy of the Program Guide are available on the Chutzpah! Festival website chutzpahfestival.com

Pulse: Claire French & Julie Lebel

Claire French and Julie Lebel present a mixed program of contrasting solos for the seventh edition of Pulse. French's Inside Outside In is a poetic solo danced by Laura Hicks that explores the link between thinking and doing, while Outside Out, performed by Heather Laura Gray, takes an updated look at the leading ladies of the Hollywood musicals era. Julie Lebel's Field Notes was created through walks on Côte-Nord in her home province, Quebec. Dance, music and video stimulate the senses to challenge the distinction between body and environment in the places where we belong. http://www.restlessproductions.com/ http://www.ensembleindependant.org/

Friday & Saturday September 18 & 19 at Scotiabank Dance Centre, 677 Davie St, Vancouver. Tickets $20/$15 students, seniors, Dance Centre/CADA members from 604.684.2787 (service charges apply to phone bookings) or click here to book online. Pulse is an assisted presentation program of The Dance Centre.

Photo: Field Notes by Julie Lebel. Dancer: Karine Gagné Photo: Nicolas Minns

Scotiabank Dance Centre 8th Annual Open House

The eighth annual Scotiabank Dance Centre Open House takes place on Saturday September 19, 11am- 5pm. From contemporary and flamenco to hip hop and classical East Indian dance, this event is a great opportunity to see and try a wide range of dance, with free open classes, studio showings and workshops. Highlights this year include an open rehearsal on the outside of the building by Aeriosa Dance, LINK Dance's Breakfast Dances, classes with Mandala Arts and Culture, SVS Style and others, a screening of films from the Festival Transatlantique Montreal/Quartiers Danses, and more. Click here for the full schedule.

Photo: Aeriosa Dance by Tim Matheson

Presented with the support of Scotiabank.