Vancouver International Dance Festival 2011
The Vancouver International Dance Festival is one, if not my most favorite event of the year. I am a former competitive dancer, as any of you who have read my blog (or my About Raul page) know. The VIDF’s publicist is someone I consider a very good friend, Crystal Kwon. And the lineup of artists this year is nothing short of stellar. I worked with VIDF last year too, as you may remember, and this year they’ve also given me some tickets to give away.
The Vancouver International Dance Festival (VIDF) kicks off on March 1-19, 2011 featuring artists from Vancouver, Nelson, Montreal, Halifax, Seattle, Madrid, Zurich, and Munich in performances, workshops and artist talks. Tickets are now available at http://vidf.ca or by calling 604.662.4966.
Featured companies at the Roundhouse Performance Centre include EDAM (Vancouver) March 1-3, Yvonne Pouget (Germany) March 4-5, Deborah Dunn (Montreal) March 8-9, Cruceta Flamenco (Spain) March 10-12, Marc Boivin (Montreal) and Ichigo-Ichieh (Hiromoto Ida) (BC) March 15-17, Kokoro Dance and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (Vancouver) March 18-19. At the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, SiNS Dance (Nova Scotia) will be performing on March 9-12.
As part of the City’s 125 anniversary celebrations, the VIDF also presents a photo exhibition from the past to the present…a Chris Randle retrospective which chronicles thirty years of dance through the lens of Vancouver’s established photographer Chris Randle. Dance writer Deborah Myers contributes her reflections on these iconic photos of key Vancouver dance artists. Admission is free until 5 pm; thereafter a $3 VIDF membership is required.
Other activities include artist/audience talks hosted by Vancouver Observer, life drawing sessions held every weekday at noon, and master classes with visiting dance artists. In celebrations of their 25th Anniversary season, Kokoro Dance will also be performing at the Vancouver Art Gallery Offsite location, interacting with the pavilion on February 27, March 6, March 13 at 2 pm. Admission is by donation.
The prices for the paid performances are ridiculously reasonable, given the caliber of shows that the Vancouver International Dance Festival is bringing. Adults: $35, Student, Senior, Non-profit Arts Worker: $28. Group of 10 or more: $25 and a Festival Pass (4 shows) goes for $112.
The Cruceta Flamenco performances are at the Roundhouse from March 10-12 and I am giving away a pair of tickets for opening night, March 10th. Show time is 8 pm and you must show up no later than 7:30pm. I love Flamenco and have made it one of my goals this 2011 to learn to dance Flamenco (maybe not at the level I dance Salsa, but still, at a decent level). One particularly fun element of Cruceta Flamenco is that the traditional gender roles are reversed. Cruceta Flamenco has a male dancer and a female musician. The performance uses a short film that won a prize at the first International Flamenco Short-Films Festival. The music is created by Caroline Plante, and her album is the first flamenco CD entirely written and composed by a woman.
To enter my giveaway all you have to do is check the VIDF lineup of events and come back to this post and tell me which show you would most want to see (regardless of whether it’s Cruceta Flamenco or not). I will draw a winner from all entries via Twitter and comments on this blog (a tweet and a comment earn you two entries into the contest) on Monday February 28th at 4pm. The sample tweet is below:
Told @hummingbird604 which @VIDF dance show I’d like to see the most http://ow.ly/40H4S – which one would you want to see?
You can buy tickets to the paid performances online or by phone.
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Raul,
Thank you very much for this! I’m so glad you highlighted the reasonable ticket prices. Indeed, we have ridiculously low ticket pricing as it is a part of our mandate to make the arts more accessible.
I would love to check out La Confidencia (Cruceta Flamenco), fell in love with flamenco dancing while visiting Spain.
Cruceta Flamenco
I would love to feel the fire and intensity of flamenco at a real live performance! Cruceta Flamenco it is.
I really, really, really want to see Cruceta Flamenco. My friend first introduced me to the beautiful dance by taking me to Kino Cafe for one of their Flamenco nights.
I’m a huge fan of VIDF. As a dancer, it’s so nice to have festivals like VIDF showcasing not only the international contemporary dance companies, but also the local guys too.
I love Flamenco and have my heart set on seeing Cruceta Flamenco this year. I also would love to see Kokoro Dance and VSO perform. I saw them a couple years ago during VIDF. They gave a very strong and moving performance.
KOKORO DANCE, which also has the music performed by VSO.
Obviously I’d love to see Cruceta Flamenco, but I also must see Marc Boivin. I took classes from him a few years ago. He’s an amazing teacher and beautiful dancer.
Hi Marina,
Marc is teaching again at the festival this year. He is a wonderful teacher (and performer)! More details at vidf.ca
I really want to see Cruceta Flamenco.