The 28th Annual Dancing on the Edge Festival runs until July 16 at various venues. Visit dancingontheedge.org or call 604-689-0926 for tickets and program information.
In the 1980s, there was no Scotiabank Dance Centre, no Vancouver International Dance Festival, no Chutzpah! Festival. There was, however, a growing number of contemporary dancers and choreographers coming to the forefront of the Vancouver performing arts scene. All that talent and no stage is what spawned the annual Dancing on the Edge Festival.
“We created the festival in 1988 in response to the need for Vancouver contemporary dance artists to have an outlet for their work to be shown,” says festival producer Donna Spencer. “There were very few opportunities for contemporary artists.”
Now in its 28th year, the mandate of the festival remains the same. It’s a chance for dancers to not only showcase their work and entertain audiences, but to take risks and challenge the art form.
“We named it Dancing on the Edge for a number of reasons,” Spencer says of the festival’s moniker. One of those reasons is that the event strives to push the frontiers of contemporary dance. Another,
Spencer notes, is that contemporary dance “seems to sit on the edge, or is a bit marginalized in itself, in the broader arts disciplines.”
“And we’re also sitting here on the edge of Canada,” she adds.
More than 30 choreographers and 80 dancers, both local and international, are involved in this year’s 10-day festival. Highlights of the 2016 program include the Western Canadian premiere of a full-length choreography from Montreal’s Étienne Lepage and Frédérick Gravel (Spencer describes the latter as the “enfant terrible” of the Quebec dance scene). Their piece “is a mix of text and rock’n’roll and choreography and political commentary. It’s pretty wild,” Spencer says.
Other visiting artists include Belgium’s German Jauregui, Ottawa’s Dorsale Dance, Halifax’s Mocean Dance performing a work by Serge Bennathan, Toronto’s Adelheid Dance Projects, and Victoria’s Constance Cooke.
Then there’s a whole host of local talent, including West Vancouver choreographer Jennifer Mascall of MascallDance and North Vancouver choreographer Starr Muranko of Raven Spirit Dance, to name just a couple.
As in previous years, Dancing on the Edge will present site-specific works that think outside the conventional theatre space. High above Stanley Park, suspended performers from Aeriosa Dance Society will float among a grove of trees, their movements accompanied by live music. And at the SFU Woodward’s inner courtyard, All Bodies Dance Project will bring together artists with and without disabilities who will explore different ways to traverse public spaces.
“We’re very interested in supporting that kind of work because I do believe that everyone can dance and everyone should be encouraged to dance and move,” says Spencer, explaining that the classical ballet tradition for many years dictated that all dancers look and move a certain way. “Contemporary dance does not look at dance in that manner, so that piece, I’m really excited about having it as part of the festival.”
Staging performances in the public realm both challenges the dancers and exposes passersby to an art form they might not otherwise seek out.
“People encounter it, they become curious about it, they may come back and see the performance a second time,” Spencer says, noting both the Stanley Park and SFU Woodward’s pieces will be performed four times over two days. “We’ll give them a brochure and quite often they’ll investigate something that’s going on in the theatre as well. It’s one of our ways to encourage people to be curious about dance and perhaps check out something in a theatre. And if they don’t, well that’s fine too, they’ve still seen people dancing, which is really good.”
Admittedly biased, Spencer says Dancing on the Edge is a festival that’s sure to please both die-hard fans of contemporary dance and those with a piqued interest.
“If people are curious about dance, this is really a good place to check it out,” she says. “There’s a lot of opportunity to see a wide range of work.”
