DanceHouse 2026-27 season features U.K. star Wayne McGregor and the return of Crystal Pite’s Assembly Hall

Montreal’s Compagnie Catherine Gaudet to kick off five-show lineup that brings in companies from as far away as Sweden and India

*Assembly Hall*. Photo by Michael Slobodian

THE RETURN OF CRYSTAL PITE’S Olivier Award–winning Assembly Hall and a visit by the U.K.’s acclaimed Company Wayne McGregor are among the highlights of DanceHouse’s just-announced 2026–27 season.

The five-show roster at the Vancouver Playhouse also spans troupes from Montreal, Sweden, and India.

Quebec’s Compagnie Catherine Gaudet kicks off the season on October 23 and 24 with the B.C. premiere of ODE, a work inspired by pagan processions that mixes sacrificial rite and pop-rock spectacle. In it, 11 performers repeat a choral chant to surreal effect, creating a commentary on groupthink.

January 27 to 30, 2027, DanceHouse and The Cultch present Sweden’s Cirkus Cirkör, whose show Knitting Peace conjures an elaborate acrobatic world woven out of rope and recycled yarn.

From India, Aditi Mangaldas Dance Company presents Forbidden on February 26 and 27. The exploration of female sexuality combines traditional Kathak dance and the Kama Sutra. Indian Summer Festival is the community partner for the North American premiere of the solo.

Kidd Pivot, celebrated Vancouver dance artist Crystal Pite’s company, remounts Assembly Hall from March 17 to 20. Created by Pite and Jonathon Young, it won a prestigious 2025 Olivier Award in the U.K. for best new dance production. The dance-theatre hybrid journeys between a community hall and the mythical realm in a show the Guardian called “astonishingly beautiful” and “incredibly rich”. Young and Pite are the same team that have created such critically acclaimed explorations of text and movement as Betroffenheit, Revisor, and The Statement (seen at Ballet BC).

The season wraps April 15 to 17 with a piece by the U.K.’s renowned Wayne McGregor. His Deepstaria is named for a rarely seen species of deep-sea jellyfish that lives in complete darkness. The piece explores the abyss, with the dancers’ weightless movement inspired by the underwater invertebrates. McGregor’s company Random Dance last visited the DanceHouse program in the 2014 season, with Far.

Subscriptions for past subscribers are on sale March 17; new subscribers can join on April 14. Single tickets are on sale May 19. For tickets and further information, visit dancehouse.ca .

*Knitting Peace*. Photo by Joana Magalhaes

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Janet Smith

Janet Smith is founding partner and editorial director of Stir. She is an award-winning arts journalist who has spent more than two decades immersed in Vancouver’s dance, screen, design, theatre, music, opera, and gallery scenes. She sits on the Vancouver Film Critics’ Circle.

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