Last night I joined a small but enthusiastic crowd of dance supporters at the Vancouver Public Library downtown for Speaking of Dance, a lecture series presented by Dance House (dancehouse.ca). According to producer Jim Smith, Dance House hopes to not only promote dance events, but to encourage "conversations" in the Vancouver community about dance. The lecture opened with a survey of the upcoming dance season by Janet Smith, dance critic and arts editor for the Georgia Straight (straight.com). Smith observed that "...dance in Vancouver constantly leaves [us] with an impression", and she proved it by running clips from a few of the many diverse works being mounted here in the near future. The sheer volume locally produced, choreographed, and danced works demonstrates that Vancouver is teeming with talent. Emerging groups such as the 605 collective (605collective.com) and the Plastic Orchid Factory (plasticorchidfactory.com), established companies like Joe Ink (joeink.ca) and Kidd Pivot (kiddpivot.org), and dance supporters and promoters like Dance House fuel a rich west coast contemporary dance culture. This week is packed with dance events as The Dance Centre (thedancecentre.ca) presents its biannual series Dance In Vancouver. Add to a 4 night showcase featuring 11 dance companies a double bill of choreographer Serge Bennathan's The Strange Adventures of Myself and Joe Laughlin's (In)habitat (firehallartscentre.ca Oct 15-17), and top it off with Unbound from Wen Wei Dance (wenweidance.ca) at the Kay Meek Centre on Friday, and the week really is jam packed with dance!
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