DanceHouse, in partnership with Dancers of Damelahamid, launches its 2019/20 season with Australia’s acclaimed Bangarra Dance Theatre in the Canadian premiere of “Spirit”, October 25-26, 2019 at 8 pm at the Vancouver Playhouse.
The retrospective piece is a visionary fusion of nine of the company’s celebrated Indigenous and contemporary works. Bangarra Dance Theatre’s style of totemic storytelling reflects the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities—tracing the unbroken connection between people, the land, and creation itself. Established in 1989, the company has played a role in the resurgence of traditional dance expressions.
“Spirit” draws from the multi-award-winning company’s most celebrated repertoire. The company’s full ensemble of 17 dancers, each with a proud Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Island background, performs a series of nine vignettes. Tracing an unbroken song-line, “Spirit” gives voice to a cosmos of plants, animals, and ancestral medicine, laid down one step at a time.
The atmospheric score for “Spirit” is a celebration of the sacredness of ritual from dawn’s first light to the setting sun. The score’s foundation includes a pulsing drumbeat, droning didgeridoo, and dynamic vocalizations.
For tickets and further information, visit dancehouse.ca.
