February 23 and 24, DanceHouse is thrilled to present Toronto Dance Theatre as they celebrate their 50th Anniversary! The company brings to the Vancouver stage a retrospective of three decades of work in House Mix, a program of five diverse works by Artistic Director and choreographer Christopher House, including the high energy, rhythmically complex Vena Cava (1999), the emotionally stunning Early Departures (1991), and a new work on an old theme titled Thirteen (2017). House’s use of space, ability to construct atmosphere and focus on the quality of interaction between his dancers is on display throughout the evening. Take a read of this Globe and Mail article about the dance philosophy of House, and check out a video here. At the Vancouver Playhouse, 8pm. Tix
Toronto Dance Theatre in Fjeld. Photo Guntar Kravis
Tonight and tomorrow February 2 and 3 The Dance Centre Global Dance Connections series, in conjunction with the PuSh Festival, present Daina Ashbee in Pour, a dark and devastating solo. Pour explores the vulnerability and strength of women, using the taboo subject of the menstrual cycle as a departure point and turning it into an object of painful beauty steeped in symbolism. The piece applies imagery from the seal hunt to boldly tackle complex questions about femininity, blood, and the loss of control, deploying the body and voice in an unflinching depiction of suffering and catharsis. Daina Ashbee has quickly become a prolific and prominent Canadian choreographer, whose work is rooted in her relation to the land, the environment and her ancestors. A BC native of Cree, Métis and Dutch heritage, she is now based in Montreal. At the Scotiabank Dance Centre, 8pm. Tix
Last chance tonight, February 2, to see as part of the PuSh Festival, Vancouver’s Hong Kong Exile Foxconn Frequency (no.3): For Three Visible Chinese Performers. Wildly eccentric and marked by an infectious sense of play, this is a deconstructive take on piano pedagogy, manufacturing ethics, and the relationship between labour and sound. That’s right, this is not your average music performance—local upstarts Hong Kong Exile are known for their crazy creativity, and with this show they’ve outdone themselves.Three performers work with seven video outputs, five speakers and 3D printers, performing piano-keyboard drills in which they play with and against each other. There’s so much to enjoy here: the multimedia excess, the virtuosity of famed pianist Vicky Chow and, most refreshingly, the unabashed intellectualism of the project. This is avant-garde radicalism that plays like a video game: dynamic, exuberant and visually arresting. At Performance Works, 7pm. Tix
Legend Lin Dance Theatre from Taiwan, in The Eternal Tides.
Tomorrow night February 3, PuSh Festival presents Legend Lin Dance Theatre from Taiwan, in The Eternal Tides. The Eternal Tides is a momentous occasion—an adventure in beauty unlike anything seen before on the PuSh stage. In her Canadian debut, choreographer Lin Lee-Chen folds age-old rituals, customs and ceremonial rites into her radical vision, and the result is epic. The show is, above all, a tribute to water: the ocean that encloses the island of Taiwan, and the cycle of renewal it is part of. Using song, dance and striking stage design, Lin evokes the mythology of these elements. You might call it spiritual environmentalism—a tribute to nature as it was, and might be again. With its large ensemble of dancers and musicians, the show has an intoxicating power. Lin carries us through a procession of vivid tableaux; the imagery evokes myth and human reality in equal measure. The costumes and sets are stunning: fabric and silver grass, red-tinted figures and shocks of white, composed with flair and delicacy. At once austere and sensual, intimate and monumental, this show will leave you awestruck. At the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 8pm. Tix
