Movies of War

1 of 3 2 of 3 Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday. Sign up for our free newsletter. Coastal Dance Festival: To March 8 @ Museum of Anthropology Dancers of Damelahamid’s 19th annual Indigenous movement art festival spanned two locations, with the bulk of proceedings taking place at UBC’s Museum of Anthropology. Expect a mix of performances and screenings of So Surreal: Behind the Masks, with two days of signature evening dance events on March 6 and 7. Nine performing groups from Nations across Turtle Island will be gracing the stage, as well as Indigenous Sámi performers Sarah Marielle Gaup and Lawra Somby from Sápmi (Sámi territory in northern Scandinavia and Finland).Vancouver International Dance Festival: To March 14 @ various venuesAcross Vancouver, six venues are hosting a wide-reaching celebration of contemporary dance this March. Movement arts can be anything you can dream of, as proven by the huge range of performances happening; from Charles Koroneho (Aotearoa) exploring epilepsy and Indigeneity in the shape-shifting solo Bird of Passage, to Tanzania’s Nantea Dance Company musing on shared experiences in a lyrical duet (A MOMENT — WAKATI), to local collectives like OURO and Chimerik sharing intimate works grounded in Vancouver’s flourishing dance scene. There are also plenty of ways to get involved, such as workshops, Stage Crasher! Métis fiddle dance party, or cheering on a bombastic street dance battle produced by Kristen KatchFlow.Fall(se) Circ(us): March 21 @ Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre Vancouver’s Little Room Productions company is ticking off a couple of firsts with Fall(se) Circ(us). Not only is the work having its world premiere, but it represents the first full-length ensemble production from the emerging Vancouver dance company. Choreographed by the company’s co-director Isak Enquist, Fall(se) Circ(us) considers the push and pull between labour and play. What does it mean to rest in a world obsessed with hustle? Enquist pulls on his background in martial arts and snowboarding to put seven performers to work in this intriguing production.Monday: March 27-28 @ Scotiabank Dance Centre How many people do you interact with on a daily basis—and how might those interactions impact the rest of their days? Shape of Circus’s new acrobatic creation follows six people, and the way their actions affect one another. The world premiere features an innovative rocking prop like a crescent moon that looms over proceedings, as the performers flip, twist, and fall from one side to the other. For you, it might be the highlight of the week—and for the performers, it’s simply Monday. Manifesto. Manifesto: April 16-18 @ Vancouver Playhouse Sitting in the intersection of dance and drumming, Manifesto offers a heart-pounding look at the power of rhythm. Nine drummers accompany nine dancers in this ambitious work from Australia’s Stephanie Lake Company, brought to Vancouver stages in a coproduction from DanceHouse and Vancouver New Music. The production promises to be propulsive, percussive and electric. Different dance styles merge and meet, channeling everything from old Hollywood parties to the Edinburgh Tattoo, as various teams of dancers weave their distinct paths through a whirling milieu. Imagine jazz, if each melody had a trio of dancers dedicated to that single line. After the Rain & Other Works: April 23-25 @ Vancouver Playhouse Ballet Vancouver, the new company from veteran choreographer Joshua Beamish, celebrates its inaugural program with three days of shows at the Playhouse. The centrepiece of the bill is After the Rain, an elegant duet from Christopher Wheeldon, which is getting its Vancouver premiere (and hopefully gestures towards the weather we can expect in the coming months). The eponymous other works include a new piece from Beamish himself, created in collaboration with Gitxsan artist and designer Yolonda Skelton; a solo performance of Redemption that was last seen digitally at PuSh 2021; and a reprise of Wen Wei Wang’s en pointe ensemble work Swan.Juliet & Romeo: April 29 to May 3 @ Historic Theatre April 29 is International Dance Day, and the perfect opening date for this humorous take on Shakespeare’s lovelorn tragedy. In this duet, Romeo and Juliet didn’t die; they got married, got older, and didn’t exactly have a happily-ever-after. The couple are now dealing with everything from midlife crises to the pressure of being poster children for romance. Performers Emily Terndrup and John Kendall deliver a two-person performance fusing dance and theatre, examining our cultural fixation on youth—and what really happens when you grow up. Enemy Lines: May 6-9 @ Firehall Arts Centre Choreographer Mayumi Lashbrook examines a dark time in Canada’s history with this tender five-person work. After the Japanese military attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, Japanese Canadians in B.C. were forcibly rounded up and incarcerated in internment camps, stripped of their homes and businesses, and banned from returning west of the Rockies. In this thoughtful piece from Hamilton, ON’s Aeris Körper company, Lashbrook explores what happened to her grandfather, and how that trauma carried through into her own life.Unity: May 7-9 @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre Ballet BC’s spring showcase is filled with punchy, dynamic movement fit for the season of new beginnings. Choreographic duo Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber present a full-length world premiere, simply called New Smith/Schraiber, set to compositions by Philip Glass. The work is inventive and intimate despite the grand stage of the Queen E, promising to deliver a whirlwind for the senses. Fall(se) Circ(us). Lula-Belle Jedynak. Join the discussion Facebook comments not loading? Please check your browser settings to ensure that it is not blocking Facebook from running on straight.com