Käfig Brasil

April 10 & 11, 2015, 8PM
Vancouver Playhouse

What do you get when you combine a French/Algerian choreographer steeped in hip-hop and circus arts, and eleven male dancers from Rio de Janiero’s notorious favelas? The answer is Compagnie Käfig, which combines the energy and movement vocabulary of the street with the rigour and artistic dimensions of contemporary dance. Käfig Brasil incorporates the work of four innovative French choreographers in collaboration with the Brazilian dancers, performed to a soundtrack incorporating diverse musical styles from Baroque to electronic music. A must for fans of Grupo Corpo.

Top Photo: Compagnie Käfig, Käfig Brasil © Michel Cavalca.

Henri Micheaux: Mouvements & Gymnopédies

February 27 – 28, 2015, 8PM
Vancouver Playhouse

Canada’s reigning queen of contemporary dance returns with a two-part look at two different art forms. With Gymnopédies, Eric Satie’s works for piano become a meditation on human intimacy and desire, with a movement score performed live on stage by the dancers. This sensuous piece brings Satie to life in a series of duets that will amuse, titillate, and surprise.

In Henri Michaux: Mouvements, Chouinard translates the visual into the physical using a 1951 book of abstract illustrations by the French artist Michaux. The book’s transition to dance has been done “word for word”— even the poem in the middle of the book is included in the choreography.

Top Photo: Compagnie Marie Chouinard, Henri Michaux: Mouvements © Sylvie-Ann Paré. Performers: Gérard Reyes, Mariusz Ostrowski, James Viveiros, Lucy may, Lucie Mongrain, Leon Kupferschmid, Carol Prieur

So Blue

January 20 & 21, 2015, 8PM
Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts at SFU Woodwards

Last seen on the DanceHouse program in 2011, Louise Lecavalier returns with a new piece and in a new role. Long celebrated as dancer and creative muse, Lecavalier adds choreographer to her formidable array of talents. With So Blue, she and her partner explore the states of the body, continuing her lifetime of research into the possibilities of movement, strength, lack of constraint, and physical intelligence.

Presented with the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival and 149 Arts Society

Top Photo: Louise Lecavalier, Fou Glorieux, So Blue © André Cornellier.

House

November 14 & 15, 2014, 8PM
Vancouver Playhouse

For many years, Sharon Eyal was muse, dancer, and choreographer at Batsheva Dance (seen at DanceHouse in 2009). With her own company, L-E-V (heart in Hebrew), she and collaborator Gai Behar make work that could be equally at home at a techno club or an opera house. With a sensibility seen here in 2013’s Corps de Walk, House’s fiercely talented dancers move with expressive precision as they explore what a house truly is: a home, a club, an asylum, a way station.

Production sponsor

Top photo: L-E-V, House © Gadi Dagnon.

FAR

September 26 & 27, 2014, 8PM
Vancouver Playhouse

Random Dance’s Entity was one of the highlights of the 2011/12 DanceHouse season. England’s most celebrated choreographer returns with FAR, a fascinating creative journey which draws on a radical cognitive research process. Inspired by the Age of Enlightenment and by the 18th century French philosopher Diderot’s very first set of encyclopedia, the resulting choreography is physical and immediate, with an underpinning of intellectual curiosity. Jaw-dropping visuals, including a computerized pin board of 3,200 LED lights, make this an absolute must-see.

Production sponsor

Top photo: Random Dance | Wayne McGregor, FAR. © Ravi Deepres.