The 29th Annual Dancing on the Edge Festival pushes frontiers of contemporary dance, featuring over twenty-five innovative choreographers and involving over eighty dance artists. From July 6 – 15 2017, Vancouver will host a convergence of Canada's best dance artists and choreographers, as well as two special performances to open up The Edge with Oath-Midnight Rain from the leading professional modern dance company in China, Beijing Modern Dance Company (BMDC).
Oath-Midnight Rain explores Buddhist Samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth and the luminal moment between night and day, between black and white, between ending and beginning. Montreal -based company Helen Simard will close the Festival with their performance of NO FUN, a rockstravaganzaand interdisciplinary dance piece based on the music and movement of legendary punk icon Iggy Pop, all part of the 10-day live performance festival.
The 2017 Dancing on the Edge celebrates dance pioneers and risk-takers. For its 29th year, other Edge highlights include seven mixed programs featuring; Sara Porter (Toronto) Sara does a Solo, a fearless account of aging and the reflective mind, being celebrated on both sides of the border, called “soulful”, “urgent” and a “tour de force” by New York presenters; two works by Yvonne Ng/ tiger princess dance projects (Toronto) Zhōng Xīn, a haunting investigation of Ng’s own Singapore-born past and Weave, using a contemporary dance frame work to braid her mother’s life; Alexandra Elliott Dance/Choreography by Tedd Robinson (Winnipeg) Logarian Rhapsody, an ecstatically unrelenting duet spews whispers of desire, urgency and unattainable need; and Monica Shah/Choreography by Natasha Bakht (Vancouver/Ottawa) Blessed Unrest, a solo work utilizing contemporary expressions of Indian classical dance to explore “blessed unrest.
The festival continues the tradition of placing dance in unusual outdoor settings with by donation site-specific works including Aeriosa Dance Society/Spakwus Slulem Thunderbird Sharing Ceremony, a collaborative performance with Aeriosa Dance and Spakwus Slulem/Eagle Song at its heart. This shared ceremony created by local artists with different cultural traditions journeys from the sandy shores of Stanley Park to the heights of its ancient forest; All Bodies Dance with a new piece In Sights, created and performed by the company, and an exploration of public spaces through the lens of difference and adaptability; LINK Dance Foundation/Gail Lotenberg Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?, performed at three different intersections in Vancouver; and Mile Zero Dance/Gerry Morita RV There Yet? is a transient dance and music pop up that brings art to the unexpecting.
Dancing on the Edge - Festival of Contemporary Dance
July 6 – 15, 2017
Tickets & Passes on sale June 2017 at firehallartscentre.ca or dancingontheedge.org | 604-689-0926
Tickets: $28/26/24 (regular/student, senior/member)
Passes: 4 show passes ($85) | 6 Show Passes ($120)
VENUES: Firehall Arts Centre, Stanley Park, KW Production Studio (Woodward’s Heritage Building), Roundhouse – Turntable Plaza, SFU Woodward’s World Music Studio.
Full program and show info at DANCINGONTHEEDGE.ORG
Photo: Monica Shah in a photo by Ken Dobb
