The Dance Centre reveals 40th anniversary season for 2026-27
Forecast’s dive into dance and Youtube, Tasha Faye Evans’s Cedar Woman, Wen Wei Wang’s final solo, and Montreal’s Ebnflōh are just some of the highlights
Cedar Woman, with box carved by Xwalacktun OBC. Photo by Alger
Barbara Matijevic and Giuseppe Chico’s Forecasting
THE DANCE CENTRE is marking 40 years, and 25 years in its landmark building, with a 2026-27 season that spans a dynamic take on Youtube from Europe, a final work by a local icon, and a troupe of hip-hop innovators.
The Global Dance Connections series opens with Cedar Woman by Tasha Faye Evans October 1 to 3, bringing to life a Coast Salish story through song, dance, and ceremony.
It’s followed October 23 to 24 with what Vancouver dance veteran Wen Wei Wang says is his last solo. The piece reflects on memory, mortality, and the connection between body, mind, and the universe, drawing on the Wen Wei Dance artistic director’s journey from dance in China to the stage here.
Paris-based Barbara Matijevic and Giuseppe Chico’s Forecasting makes its North American premiere on November 13 and 14. The work looks at the vast, intimate, and often absurd universe of amateur YouTube videos, with a performer and a laptop entering a portal into thousands of ordinary lives.
December 4 and 5, a double bill features Raven Spirit Dance’s Spine of the Mother, a work that explores the body as landscape and the North-South conneciton of the Andean mountain range, with Vanguardia Dance Projects and Aanmitaagzi’s Conversations: Hidden Stories, which integrates soil, fabric, land, and water in an exploration of sovereignty and connection.
The new year marks the return to Vancouver of Montreal’s Ebnflōh Dance Company’s Mōnad (January 30 to 31); presented with PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, the work pushes the troupe’s groundbreaking work with hip-hop in a piece where Alexandra “Spicey” Landé and Jai Nitai Lotus explore the idea of the body encompassing multiple universes.
May 7 and 8, Toronto-based Moonhorse Dance Theatre brings the Vancouver edition of their acclaimed series Older & Reckless to town, with three new short works curated by Justine A. Chambers and Allison Cummings. In collaborative Toronto-West Coast exchanges by Jennifer Dahl and Andrea Nann, Johanna Householder and Margaret Dragu, and Chambers and Cummings themselves, the artists redefine destructive assumptions about age and dance ability, celebrating artists over 45 who continuously take risks.
And Odd Meridian Arts wraps up Global Dance Connections with a world premiere on May 28 and 29. The new creation by Ziyian Kwan features Juolin Lee, Kaya Tsurumi, Lyzah (Alyssa Favero), and Romi Kim (SKIM) plays with ideas of a kinetic garden, a slow-time dwelling, and a “living space furnished with ordinary awe”.
Series subscriptions and single tickets are available at thedancecentre.ca, with single tickets for Ebnflōh Dance Company available in the fall at pushfestival.ca.)
The Dance Centre also unveiled its noonhour Discover Dance series for next year, including tiger princess dance projects at noon on October 29 and a look behind the scenes of Winterbourne, part of Ballet Vancouver’s inaugural program, with duet excerpts and insights from choreographer Joshua Beamish and visual design by Gitxsan fashion designer Yolonda Skelton, on November 19.
And the dance hub’s artists in residence this year are Odd Meridian Arts; Rising Together Arts Futures’ Kaili Che 謝祖弘, Ysadora Dias, Jullianna Oke, and Krystal Tsai; Sarah U 余衍晴; Tara Cheyenne Performance; and Wen Wei Dance.
In other news, the centre will host its annual Open House September 12, with extra 40th anniversary flair.
Throughout its 40th season, The Dance Centre will feature exhibitions, installations, special edition collections, and activations—including a collaborative event illuminating The Dance Centre, neighbourhood, and downtown core. More details will be announced this fall. 
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