Blog

It’s been a busy year! We asked our fantastic staff to share their personal highlights from 2023.

Getting to see Aeriosa perform for the first time (in our Discover Dance! Series) was a highlight for me and made me want to enroll in aerial dance classes myself! Venue-wise, watching a building-wide junk removal take place was weirdly satisfying. And I was super chuffed to have some shiny new portable barres added to our studios, and some shiny new faces added to our Front Desk and Front of House teams.

-Michelle, Venue Services

This was my first year with The Dance Centre and for me, everything about our Power of Dance programs – seniors, youth, and elementary school kids – was my highlight of the year. Being able to work with dedicated professionals to coordinate and offer dance workshops, and to witness program participants’ joy and smiles as they danced, were absolutely my favorite moments.

-Yurie, Outreach

The third edition of Open Stage featured artists working in flamenco, bharata natyam and contemporary dance, which shows just how diverse and varied our membership – and the Vancouver dance scene – is! The audience loved the show, it was a really rewarding experience.

-Linda, Associate Producer

The annual season launch event in September was a wonderful opportunity for me to mix and mingle with our donors and supporters. Since then, the enthusiasm of donors and supporters old and new, together with that of the whole Dance Centre team, makes me excited at the opportunities that await us in 2024 to transform people’s lives with the power of dance.

-Catherine, Development

Matriarchs Uprising was a notable highlight of this last year. I had the opportunity to attend quite a few of their workshops, performances, discussions – and was profoundly moved by the generosity of spirit from Olivia and all the artists involved. I always look forward to the festival, which is one of The Dance Centre’s longstanding partnerships, and felt particularly privileged to be able to spend so much time around this year’s offerings.

-Kaia, Membership

Our free community events – International Dance Day 2023 and the annual Scotiabank Dance Centre Open House – are always great. It’s so nice to see the studios full of artists and dance lovers celebrating together. And in the summer we celebrated the end of the season with a pizza party on the patio!

-Lindsay, Digital Marketing

As we continue our engagement with collaborators through relationships cultivated over the years creating a layered context, we actively seek to expand and explore new relationships. This year, it was a privilege and joy to get to know Dr. Ayasha Guerin through partnering on their inaugural project, Liberated Planet Studio supporting local and visiting artists, activists and academics, via our DanceLab program. Through this we have seeded a pathway to the continuum of engagement for 2024 and into the future in support of a Liberated Planet Studio Summer Intensive and fellowship.

– Raquel, Programming

Our Global Dance Connections shows in 2023 really were both local and global. My highlights included FakeKnot/Ralph Escamillan’s PIÑA, supported through our residency program and presented with SFU Cultural Programs, which subsequently went on to the National Arts Centre; and Hillel Kogan, presented with our friends at Théâtre La Seizième, which finally came to our stage for a sold out run three years after the original dates were scuppered by the pandemic.

– Heather, Marketing

As the Executive Director of this busy and multilayered organization, I find it hard to highlight a single specific. Rather, it is the collective abundance of our desires and efforts in supporting artists in an ever-evolving context. This is what inspires me and what I take away; along with witnessing the curiosity of our audiences, and how perceptive they can be. So, thank you to the artists, donors, patrons, volunteers, staff, and all who choose The Dance Centre as a place to support and to cherish. –Mirna, Executive Director.

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Thank you to everyone who supported us this year. We look forward to seeing you in 2024!

Please consider contributing to our year-end fundraising campaign to support The Dance Centre.

Photo credits top to bottom, L to R: Aeriosa & Butterflies in Spirit/Chris Randle; Power of Dance/TDC; Open Stage: Kiruthika Rathanaswami & Malavika Santhosh/ Mark Enns & Ruchi Pasricha; Season Launch Event/Luciana Freire D’Anunciação; Matriarchs Uprising: Santee Smith/Shane Powless; Open House/TDC; FakeKnot/Rydel Cerezo; Liberated Planet Studio/Ayasha Guerin;  Hillel Kogan, Mourad Bouayad Mirna Zagar, and Cory Haas, Artistic and Managing Director of Théâtre la Seizième/TDC; Dance Centre Staff/TDC