WELCOME TO DANCE IN VANCOUVER + OPENING KEYNOTE DIALOGUE
Wednesday November 24 | 3-4.30pm
WATCH ONLINE
with Co-Curators Angela Conquet, Starr Muranko and Michelle Olson; Mirna Zagar, Executive Director, The Dance Centre
Welcome to Territory by Senaqwila Wyss
A sharing of two short films by Sierra Tasi Baker: K’ayáchten – A Poem on Belonging and X̱wex̱wiy̓úsem – to tell a story; tell a legend.
A short film by Tasha Faye Evans: Cedar Woman: The Prayer.

OPENING KEYNOTE DIALOGUE
WHERE WE STAND with Dalisa Pigram (Australia) and Yvette Nolan (Canada)

This opening keynote dialogue brings in conversation two leading Indigenous thinkers: Broome-based choreographer Dalisa Pigram (Yawuru/Bardi) and  playwright, director, and dramaturg Yvette Nolan (Algonquin). Dalisa and Yvette will be discussing the Indigenous dramaturgies guiding them in their work and life and will be inviting DIV audiences to consider what it might mean to (really)  listen, to (truly) belong and to connect to the lands that hold our (dancing) feet.
This keynote is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and is proudly supported by the Consulate General of Canada Sydney.

CLOSING KEYNOTE DIALOGUE
WHAT WE CARRY with Margaret Grenier (Canada) and Charles Koroneho (New Zealand)
Sunday November 28 | 7.30-8.30pm
WATCH ONLINE

This closing keynote dialogue brings together Margaret Grenier (Gitxsan/Cree) of Dancers of Damelahamid and Charles Koreneho (Māori) to discuss how dance is an act of living in legacy.  In the ‘unraveling’ of our understanding of who and what we are as a sector,  this conversation lands in a place of Indigenous process and perception, offering us to drop deeper into the meaning of why we dance, how we carry it and how it carries us.
Followed by a closing statement from the DIV curators.

PRESENTING DANCE REGIONALLY
Wednesday November 24 | 5-6.30PM
Free: online via Zoom. REGISTER 

Australian and Canadian dance presenters seem to share many realities and challenges related to touring contemporary dance in regional or remote areas in both Canada and Australia. This dialogue will be an opportunity to discuss success stories, struggles and ambitions, and compare artists’ and audiences’ experiences.  How do we cultivate interest and increase greater literacy for contemporary dance? What kind of pre- or post-show audience engagement could be imagined? How to cultivate a longer term relationship to an artist often in passing? These are some of the directions that will be shared this panel bringing in dialogue presenters and artist-presenters.

With Holly Bright, Miriam Colvin, Karma Lacoff (CAN) and Annette Carmichael, Louisa Norman and Simon Hinton (AUS), facilitated by Jane Gabriels.

In partnership with Dance West Network and with support from Australia Council for the Arts and Consulate General of Canada in Sydney.

RE-DEFINING LOCALNESS
Thursday November 25 | 1-2.30PM
Free: online via Zoom. REGISTER 

What does it mean for dance artists to be IN a place when they are not OF that place, and when the dancing body is never of only one place? What does it mean to work in-situ, site-responsively and contextually? What does it mean, for a place, to welcome, to host, to make present (without necessarily presenting) artists and their bodies of thought?

With Masako Masashita (IT) and Roberto Cassarotto (IT), Amaara Raheem (AUS), Gareth Hart (AUS), Dayna Szyndrowski (VAN), Lindsay Delaronde (VAN), facilitated by Norman Armour.

ASIAN ARTISTS’ ECOLOGIES – SHARED STORIES/TOKENIZING CONTEXTS
Thursday November 25 | 4-5.30PM
Free: online via Zoom. REGISTER 

Artists from Asian diasporas are not always seen on main stages, their art is considered ‘traditional’ and their voices rarely included in local dance ecologies. With this artist-centric panel, we take a look at the realities Asian artists are faced with in Vancouver, Melbourne and Singapore.

With Nirmala Seshandri (SN), Priya Srinivasan (AUS) and Bageshree Vaze (CAN).

DANCE AND WRITING AS REFLECTIVE SPACES FOR EMERGING ARTISTS
Friday November 26 | 10-11AM
Free: online via zoom. REGISTER

As part of Re-centering/Margins residencies produced by Dance West Network , emerging dance artists of colour were offered the opportunity to invite emerging writers of colour to accompany their in-studio processes. Working with this form of active and creative documentation has opened new paths of exploration, reflection and introspection, for both dancers and writers. Please join this conversation as they reflect on these spaces between and of creative exploration which may prove useful tools for future inspirations.
With Katie Cassady, Elysse Cloma, Jessica McMann, Haliehana Stepetin, Christian Vistan. Facilitated by Jane Gabriels and Simran Sachar.
In partnership with Dance West Network

CURATING & PRESENTING DANCE DIGITALLY – PROBLEMS, TROUBLES AND POTENTIALS
Friday November 26 | 11am-12.30pm
Free, via Zoom REGISTER 

The pandemic has affected dance in its very DNA – not much dance can happen without the touch and the breath of the other (be it that of a dancing partner or that of the audience). But is zoom-ified dance all that dance can do to project itself in a future world where digitality will continue to occupy increasingly and insidiously bodies, embodiment and audience expectations? Failure of imagination or potentialities yet to discover?
With Mette Edvardsten (NO), Josh Martin (VAN) and Cathy Levy (VAN), facilitated by Laurie Uprichard (USA/IRL).

AND+ NETWORK FOCUS- UNTANGLING ASIA
Friday November 26 | 5-6pm
Online via Zoom REGISTER 

What would a Vancouver-based artist need to know if they wanted to access and connect to the Asian independent dance context? In this knowledge sharing session, members of the Asia Network for Dance AND+ will answer artists’ practical questions and share expert and situated knowledge about the many layers and realities of the Asian independent dance ecologies.
With Anna Chan (HK), Karen Cheung (HK), Bilqis Hijjas (MY), Faith Tan (SN), facilitated by Alvin Tolentino.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE – COMMUNITIES OF/IN ABSENCE
A suite of Vancouver artist-led conversations on what makes community and communitas in pandemic times.
Free: Online via Zoom: REGISTER

Friday November 26 | 1-2.30pm Making Ceremony led by Michelle Olson, Raven Spirit Dance
Saturday November 27 | 1-2.30pm Starting Off – Emerging through an Emergency moderated by Josh Martin & Lisa Gelley, Company 605
Thursday December 2 | 1-2.30pm Generosity and sensitivity in times of pressure and policing facilitated by Arash Khakpour, The Biting School

SPHERES
Morrow, 336 West Pender
Email programming[at]thedancecentre[dot]ca to book.
Very limited capacity for in-person events:

Kinesthetic Strike
A circle discussion led by Daisy Thompson in conversation with guest speakers, guided around the idea of rehearsal as a way to imagine, practice and disseminate joyful, positive and durable relationships.

Centered around the concerns of the disproportionate and fatiguing labour of artists, when our art processes and practices are so closely entwined with the art market, this circle discussion will discuss how dance rehearsal – including the creation of the spaces to rehearse, and the advocacy of the conditions to work – can contribute to healthier connections through interdependent relationships of care.

Sunday November 28 | 2:30-4pm with Ziyian Kwan & Jessica Wadsworth.
In person or via Zoom
Monday November 29 | 3-5pm with Justine A. Chambers, Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg & Deanna Peters.

Our Vancouver Dance History/ies
A Salon hosted by Peter Dickinson and Joyce Rosario
Join Peter and Joyce in conversation as they discuss and reflect upon the past decade of dance history as covered in Peter’s recent book My Vancouver Dance History: Story, Movement, Community. Together, this period is marked by an intensive period of dance spectatorship resulting in parallel bodies of work; for Peter, writing that gave him a new perspective on his own kinaesthetic relationships with the city; and, for Joyce, curatorial practice in performance that placed the city on an international stage. Where does your story of Vancouver dance intersect? Expect impromptu readings, surprise guests, discussion prompts and activities to share your Vancouver dance history.

Drop by to purchase a book (debit only), share a beverage, and browse the items for sale as part of Morrow’s amazing collection of artist wares.

Sunday December 5 | 12-4pm
This is a durational event with limited capacity. Book for one of the following timeslots: 12-1pm, 1:30-2:30pm, 3-4pm.

LEE SU-FEH (BATTERY OPERA) 
TOUCH ME HOLD ME LET ME GO
Live via Zoom: Sunday November 28, 1-3pm PST
Free: REGISTER
Part of Dances for Unusual Times

Touch Me Hold Me Let Me Go
An algorithm for dancing with the planet.
An algorithm for dancing with your beloved.
An algorithm for dancing from enough-ness.
To practice love in the midst of distress,
To practice care in the midst of distress

In this part lecture, part listening-gathering, Lee Su-Feh will talk about the algorithm they have been developing for the past several years and offer instructions on how to use it – in dance or in life. This algorithm is Lee’s counterpoint to the opaque digital algorithms that increasingly mediate human-to-human interactions. The algorithm is open to everyone who is curious about the human body and how it moves in the world: no dance (or IT) experience required.

FIELD | PRACTICE | CONTEXT
Friday December 3 | 2-4pm
Free via Zoom: REGISTER

An experimental conversation series facilitated by P. Megan Andrews:
#4: practicing performing / performing practice

A special Dance In Vancouver edition reflecting on practice and relationality through the disorientation project. With guest conversationalists Angela Joosse, Natalia Esling and other project companions, and inviting participant contributions to the conversation.

How are you practicing? What are the forces and relations that activate your practice? What frames reveal or conceal your work? How are you engaging your ethics of practice with respect to current contexts? How do these shifting contexts both collapse and expand possibility for your work?