Scotiabank Dance Centre Announces Open House: 20th Anniversary Edition

Scotiabank Dance Centre, one of Canada's flagship dance facilities, will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a special edition of its popular annual Open House. Highlights include a performance on the outside wall of the building by Vancouver's spectacular aerial dance company Aeriosa; a creative activation of the Granville Street frontage by Company 605 and guests; free classes, events and exhibits; and the online premiere of a short film about the building by filmmakers Milos Jakovic and Hossein Fani.

Full schedule of events to be announced. Events are subject to provincial health orders: all recommended COVID-19 protocols will be in place.

Highlights:

· Aeriosa's Home/Domicile is choreographed by Julia Taffe in collaboration with visual artists Sarah E Fuller and Stuart Ward. This new aerial dance work is inspired by moths, and the dancers, wearing stunning 'moth' cloaks designed by Fuller, will perform on the north wall.

· Company 605's SPLAY: Company 605 is curating a special program of artists who will animate various spaces of the Scotiabank Dance Centre building. Each artist will create encounters for viewers inside and outside, making their process and practice visible, culminating in a sharing of intimate performance experiences across a variety of formats.

· A performance of excerpts of new works in progress from artists including Bharatanatyam exponent Sujit Vaidya, and Dumb Instrument Dance.

· Classes include tap and footwork with Danny Nielsen and Shay Kuebler; flamenco with Kasandra 'La China' of Al Mozaico Flamenco Dance Academy; hip hop, breaking, waacking and contemporary with Cristina Bucci of OURO Collective; and AfroBeats with AKS Bison.

· Our Dance (Working Title) is a documentary by Milos Jakovic and Hossein Fani which will capture the impact Scotiabank Dance Centre has had on the dance community over the 20 years of its existence.

About Scotiabank Dance Centre

Scotiabank Dance Centre opened in September 2001 in the heart of downtown Vancouver. A purpose-built facility designed to provide a home for a diverse dance community, it is believed to have been the only one of its kind in North America at the time. It was spearheaded by The Dance Centre, a non-profit resource organization for dance in BC founded in 1986, which operates the building today in addition to running programs and events. The site, donated by Scotiabank, was formerly a branch of the bank built in 1930; the new building was designed by Architectura (now Stantec) in collaboration with renowned Canadian architect Arthur Erickson.

Housing six dance studios and an intimate theatre, Scotiabank hosts hundreds of rehearsals, classes, workshops, performances and events every year. It has seen an estimated 1.2+ million visits since opening.

Mirna Zagar, Executive Director of The Dance Centre, says: "It has been immensely rewarding to see how Scotiabank Dance Centre, which began as a dream so many years ago, has contributed to the arts scene in our city and the growth of BC's dance community! As hub for dance, it provides high quality studio space, but it is much more than just a building: we have nurtured a stimulating environment that is supportive of the creative potential of dance artists, contributing to a thriving synergy within the arts sector in Canada.

"Scotiabank Dance Centre is a place where people from all walks of life come together around dance. Today it is also an established participant in an international cultural network connecting BC to organizations around the world and facilitating national and international cultural exchanges - even throughout the pandemic as we kept the facility operational and accessible to artists, helping to sustain careers in dance. I am also so happy to continue our longstanding relationship with Aeriosa, who performed on our building both at its opening and for the tenth anniversary."

For more information visit: www.thedancecentre.ca

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