Reviews

Decidedly Jazz Danceworks’ Drive-In Show Is an Innovative Pandemic Performance

There is something in the details closes tonight By Jenna Shummoogum

Decidedly Jazz Danceworks’ There is something in the details takes place through the windows of the company’s building. Music and voice-overs stream through a radio frequency that you can access in your car. Every vehicle is parked on an angle so that each cohort can have the best sightlines, and instead of applause, people honk their horns in appreciation. This is pandemic performance.

Posted March 20, 2021

‘Historians’ Is an Ode to Black Lives and Blackness Dedicated to the Spirits and Soul of Us Black Folx

Kevin Ormsby reviews the short film that won Best Social Justice Film at the Vancouver Independent Film Festival By Kevin A. Ormsby

Posted February 26, 2021

Sweet As Sugarplum

A review of Goh Ballet’s film, The Nutcracker, Beyond the Stage: Fallen Prince By Brannavy Jeyasundaram

Brannavy Jeyasundaram reviews Goh Ballet’s film version of a holiday classic

Posted January 11, 2021

Whitehead / Photo by sweetmoon photography, Tenille Campbell; Landscape photos by Whitehead

Embodied Geographies

Review of Joshua Whitehead’s Making Love With the Land By Jillian Groening

Making Love With the Land is a welcome moment of grounding within the dizzying cacophony of virtual performance events. While digital spaces course with emergent methods through which to experience temporal arts practices, the conversational sequencing of Making Love With the Land evokes a rhythmic embrace that is further supported by the warm timbre of Joshua Whitehead’s voice.

Posted December 22, 2020

Allcock in Fear of Dancing / Photo courtesy of Taro PR

When Dancing Is a Total Nightmare

Fear of Dancing follows filmmaker Michael Allcock, whose fear of dancing keeps him on the sidelines By Philip Szporer

The Toronto-based filmmaker Michael Allcock is terrified of dancing. In his feature documentary Fear of Dancing, Allcock is front and centre, detailing his views on dancing, which he sees as an affliction.

Posted December 8, 2020

My Vancouver Dance History: Story, Movement, Community by Peter Dickinson

The book delves into a decade of contemporary dance in Vancouver but also highlights a barrier between two segments of the city’s dance community By Tessa Perkins Deneault

Dickinson’s new book delves into a decade of contemporary dance in Vancouver but also highlights a barrier between two segments of the city’s dance community

Posted November 2, 2020

Upon Four Pillars

Olivia C. Davies brings ceremony home in Wishing Well at Dancing on the Edge By Tessa Perkins Deneault

Dancing on the Edge’s Wishing Well grows from its foundation in teachings and tradition.

Posted August 12, 2020

A Global Garden

Mile Zero Dance presents a worldwide performance with Garden Party By Olivia C. Davies

Olivia C. Davies reviews Mile Zero Dance’s Garden Party, a global online event demonstrating dance’s adaptability even within a pandemic.

Posted August 11, 2020

Theatre Reimagined

Ismailova Theatre of Dance embraces the digital in Seeking Everyday Magicians By Rachel Silver Maddock Seeking Everyday Magicians

Toronto-based dance-theatre company finds creative ways to connect with a virtual audience.

Posted July 30, 2020

The Privilege of the Pastoral

Grove raises crucial questions during a period of global outcry By Erin Baldwin

Julia Alpin and Terrill Maguire’s pastoral meditation livestream, Grove, raises questions about accessibility and inequity.

Posted June 30, 2020

Rachel Harris / Photo by Jeremy Gordaneer

Extricating Liveness During COVID-19

Thea Patterson’s Silvering in Confinement By Philip Szporer

Philip Szporer reviews Thea Patterson’s digital performance, Silvering in Confinement, confronting disconnection in our virtually connected, COVID-19 world.

Posted June 9, 2020