Scotiabank Dance Centre Open House: 10th Anniverary Celebration

Scotiabank Dance Centre celebrates its tenth anniversary this fall with a special extended edition of the popular annual Open House, Thursday-Sunday September 15-18.

Performance: Aeriosa's Being Thursday-Saturday September 15-17, 8.30pm
Aeriosa's spectacular aerial dance events combine the athleticism of rock climbing with the grace and artistry of dance. Choreographer Julia Taffe's new work Being unfolds inside the performance space, and then takes the audience outside to watch the company dance down the seven-storey exterior wall in cascading duets, trios and quartets. Tickets just $10 from www.ticketstonight.ca

Free events: Saturday-Sunday September 17-18, 10am-6pm
Two days of open classes, workshops, studio showings and special events! Participating artists and companies include: Ballet BC, Dance 4U (salsa), Kinesis Dance, Mandala Arts and Culture, Raven Spirit Dance, Shiamak's Bollywood Jazz, and more. Details at www.thedancecentre.ca

Co.ERASGA/Complot: EXpose

A powerful new full-length duet exploring sexuality, gender and identity, EXpose brings together two exceptional male solo artists: Vancouver’s own Alvin Erasga Tolentino, Artistic Director of Co. ERASGA, whose sophisticated works have toured around the world; and Martin Inthamoussú, a driving force in Uruguay’s contemporary dance scene, whose passionate works grapple with provocative socio-political ideas. These two charismatic performers seek to expose the complexity of the personal and public territories within the gay psyche, creating a spellbinding theatrical and physical dialogue.

April 14-16 at 8pm at Scotiabank Dance Centre, Vancouver. Post-show artist talkback April 15. Tickets $28/$20 from www.ticketstonight.ca Info www.thedancecentre.caNote: this show includes nudity.

Company Drift: sound machine

The Dance Centre's Global Dance Connections series continues in January with the internationally acclaimed Swiss ensemble Company Drift in sound machine. Consider how science might investigate some of life's more absurd scientific questions: how can the inaudible be made audible? How does a fly scream when it bumps into a burning hot light bulb? What does Mr Fish say to Ms Fish when he asks for her fin in marriage? Company Drift gathers these and other 'inaudible' noises and mixes them with dance, theatre, sound and video to exhibit a dreamlike world that is profound and surreal, tragic and witty, and continually surprising.

Thursday-Saturday January 27-29, 2011 at Scotiabank Dance Centre, Vancouver. Tickets $28/$20 from www.ticketstonight.ca. Info: www.thedancecentre.ca

Presented with the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival: www.pushfestival.ca

Discover Dance! LINK Dance

Dance collides with science in Experiments, Gail Lotenberg’s exciting new work for her company LINK Dance. A collaboration with four ecologists – specialists in the study of movement and behaviour – the work combines fluent dancing with sound, light and video, to investigate how two separate disciplines embrace logic, experimentation and creativity. In this special presentation for the Discover Dance! noon series, Lotenberg introduces excerpts from the work and leads a dialogue with the audience around the concepts which drive it.

Thursday November 25, 12 noon at Scotiabank Dance Centre, Vancouver. Tickets $10/$8 from www.ticketstonight.ca Info www.thedancecentre.ca.

Note: the full length production Experiments can be seen at Scotiabank Dance Centre November 25-27 at 8pm. For details visit www.linkdance.ca or www.thedancecentre.ca.
Photo: Peter Eastwood

Discover Dance! Goh Ballet Youth Company

The exciting young dancers of the renowned Goh Ballet Youth Company perform a rich selection of classical ballets for the October edition of The Dance Centre’s Discover Dance! noon series. The company is comprised of senior students from Vancouver’s internationally-renowned Goh Ballet Academy, which has produced five generations of notable dancers and international prize winners since its inception in 1978: its graduates dance with leading companies across North America, Europe and Asia. The program will feature excerpts from Anna-Marie Holmes’s critically acclaimed Nutcracker as well as original contemporary choreography, the signature Red Ribbon Dance and other works ranging from the classical repertoire to modern works by the choreographers of today.

Thursday October 28 at 12 noon at Scotiabank Dance Centre, 677 Davie St, Vancouver. Tickets www.ticketstonight.ca Info www.thedancecentre.ca

Photo by David Cooper

New work by Helen Walkley October 1-2

One of Vancouver’s most distinctive and compelling dance artists brings an evocative new work to the stage this week. Helen Walkley’s How is sleep beautiful? is a richly-textured memoir which explores wishes and dreams, love and aspiration, family and confusion, and death as a transformation. In a career spanning three decades, Walkley has become known for creating original and deeply felt works, and for her extraordinary stage presence and eloquent, supple dancing. Created in collaboration with composer James Maxwell, lighting designer John Webber and sculptor John Noestheden, How is sleep beautiful? is her first full-length work since 2006.

Fri-Sat October 1-2 at 8pm at Scotiabank Dance Centre, 677 Davie St, Vancouver. Tickets $28/$20 from 604.684.2787 http://www.ticketstonight.ca/. Info http://www.thedancecentre.ca/.