Co.ERASGA, Action at a Distance, Plastic Orchid Factory, and more as Dance Centre unveils a 2025-26 season with local names

Offerings also include world premieres from Corporeal Imago and FakeKnot, plus Ame Henderson + Matija Ferlin’s Show Gone

Action at a Distance’s WAIL. Photo by David Cooper

Co.ERASGA’s Eternal Gestures. Photo by Yasuhiro Okada

 
 

WORLD PREMIERES by local bright lights like Co.ERASGA, Action at a Distance, and Plastic Orchid Factory headline the Dance Centre’s just-announced 2025-26 season.

October 9 and 10, the Global Dance Connections series kicks off with Co.ERASGA’s Eternal Gestures trilogy, commissioned from Indigenous Coast Salish choreographers Starr Muranko, Michelle Olson, and Margaret Grenier, and performed by artistic director Alvin Erasga Tolentino.

Action at a Distance’s Vanessa Goodman gets set to premiere her piece WAIL from January 26 to 27, copresented with Music on Main and the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival; it continues her exploration of sound and live-score creation, featuring six dancers. Elsewhere, James Gnam of Plastic Orchid Factory unveils Catching Up to the Future of Our Past from January 30 to 31, a duet he performs with Natalie LeFebvre Gnam that features live cartography, also as part of the PuSh Festival. At the same festival, Justine A. Chambers’s The Brutal Joy receives its West Coast premiere from February 5 to 6; it draws on Black line dancing, Electric Slide, and Black dandyism.

The Dance Centre teams up with the Vancouver International Dance Festival to present Canadian choreographer Ame Henderson and Croatian director Matija Ferlin’s Show Gone, which plays with “snap to black” endings, from March 13 to 14. And the Global Dance Connections series wraps up with world premieres from Corporeal Imago (whose Drift runs May 21 to 23) and FakeKnot (whose Kiki ballroom–driven MY HOUSE debuts June 19 to 20).

Amid other programming next season, the noonhour Discover Dance! series boasts names like Bharatanatyam artist Sujit Vaidya (October 23), Flamenco Rosario (November 20), Idan Cohen and his Ne. Sans Opera & Dance (March 5), and tap icon Danny Nielsen (May 7).

Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award recipient Eric Cheung premieres his trio Contra from November 28 to 29 in a special presentation. The free Scotiabank Dance Centre Open House is planned for September 13, and International Dance Day happenings are scheduled for April 29.

The Dance Centre’s associate artists Chambers and Escamillan, meanwhile, will work through year two of their three-year terms, curating events, sharing the new works above. And the 12 Minutes Max program for emerging artists runs three cohorts under the leadership of facilitators Ziyian Kwan and Tasha Faye Evans. 

There is more; find additional information and subscriptions and single tickets at thedancecentre.ca.  

 

Ame Henderson and Matija Ferlin’s Show Gone. Photo by Noel Pendawa

 
 
 
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Janet Smith
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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