What do a thrilling dream flight over stunning Icelandic landscapes, a public sexy Latin American dance lesson, and a non-linear, post-modern manifesto have in common? You guessed it – you can catch all of them (and more) in Vancouver this weekend!
Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Ongoing
Friday March 13
Photo: Cserkuti Gyorgy
2020 Vancouver International Dance Festival: Ferenc Fehér
Where: KW Production Studio
What: Ferenc Fehér’s choreography, in which the dancers act as though animated by some mysterious force, is astonishingly organic and yet mechanical at the same time, simultaneously conjuring up mathematical formulae and natural patterns, the intelligent human particle floating in an abstract plane, and the collective (quantum?) consciousness.
Runs Until: Saturday March 14, 2020
Where: City of Vancouver Archives
What: Take a retrospective look at how lesbians, bisexuals, Two Spirit, queer women and trans folks gave their heart and soul to building a better world for everyone. Bring your device + headphones! Interact with the exhibit and listen to stories through your device – free wi-fi is available through the City of Vancouver Archives! Tablets, smart phones, and any other device with the ability to connect to the internet are compatible!
Runs Until: Friday April 24, 2019
Where: Performance Works
What: In Broken Tailbone, celebrated writer and performer Carmen Aguirre leads a public Latin American dance lesson, woven with hilarious stories of her experiences in the hidden world of dance halls in Canada. DJ Don Pedro creates an irresistible musical environment to get even the most reluctant dancer up on their feet! Daring, sexy, and, above all, fun.
Runs Until: Saturday March 14, 2020
Firehall Arts Centre presents: Trans Scripts, Part I: The Women
Where: Firehall Arts Centre
What: Zee Zee and the Frank Theatre unite to bring this powerful verbatim piece compiled from over 70 interviews with trans women from around the world to the stage. The play follows 7 characters through a series of monologues using the hero’s journey as the structure for the piece. A Zee Zee and Frank Theatre production presented in association with the Firehall Arts Centre.
Runs Until: Sunday March 22, 2020
Inheritance: a pick-the-path experience
Where: Annex Theatre
What: Alley Theatre presents Inheritance: a choose-your-adventure experience. Set on a vast, rural estate, urban couple Abbey and Noah are on a week-long getaway to visit her father. When they arrive, they find him missing and a local Indigenous man, Frank, staying there instead. When it’s revealed that the colonial property rights to this unceded land are up for grabs, the audience—with anonymous voting devices in hand—decides what happens next.
Runs Until: Sunday March 15, 2020
Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.
Where: Frederic Wood Theatre
What: A non-linear, post-modern manifesto, Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. by Alice Birch (2014) reacts ferociously to different aspects of life as a woman: sex, marriage, work, and family responsibility, to name a few. In director Sloan Thompson’s able hands, the humour juxtaposes the visceral hit of the text, using our designers’ considerable talents that transform this amazing play off the page and onto the Frederic Wood Theatre stage.
Runs Until: Saturday March 28, 2020
The Dance Centre and Vancouver New Music present Bill Coleman’s Dollhouse
Where: The Dance Centre
What: In Dollhouse, Canadian contemporary dance master and choreographer Bill Coleman portrays a figure whose whole world is literally falling in around him. Inhabiting a cluttered room which collapses and breaks at his every touch, he shares the stage with sound artist Gordon Monahan, whose unique score accompanies the descent into theatrical disintegration. Coleman resembles a modern fakir, as he suffers through painful yet comical situations on his way to sonic and visual chaos.
Runs Until: Saturday March 14, 2020
Experience Iceland at FlyOver Canada
Where: FlyOver Canada
What: Our FlyOver Iceland experience opened in Reykjavík in the fall of 2019 and quickly became one of the top attractions in Iceland. We are thrilled to be bringing it to Vancouver for the first time ever. During this limited-time experience, you will hang suspended, feet dangling, before a 20-metre spherical screen while our film whisks you away on an exhilarating journey across and above spectacular Iceland.
Runs Until: Sunday May 3, 2020
Saturday March 14
Water Babies: Parenting 101 at the Vancouver Aquarium
Where: Vancouver Aquarium
What: Kicking off in time for Spring Break, the new exhibit Water Babies: Parenting 101 at the Vancouver Aquarium is bound to be a memorable one. This new feature, launching March 14, 2020, will highlight all things babies at the aquarium, while offering tongue-in-cheek Parenting 101 tips inspired by aquatic life. Tired of hearing parenting tips thrown your way? This exhibit will provide a fresh new approach with these amusing words of advice!
Runs Until: Friday May 1, 2020
Where: Contemporary Art Gallery
What: Exhibiting artist Damla Tamer engages with the marks in her exhibition works while speaking to the audience in a semi-spontaneous monologue to explore questions of ethics of care, relation, production and reproduction within our current temporal framework.
Photo: Cserkuti Gyorgy
2020 Vancouver International Dance Festival: Ferenc Fehér
Where: KW Production Studio
What: Ferenc Fehér’s choreography, in which the dancers act as though animated by some mysterious force, is astonishingly organic and yet mechanical at the same time, simultaneously conjuring up mathematical formulae and natural patterns, the intelligent human particle floating in an abstract plane, and the collective (quantum?) consciousness.
Runs Until: Saturday March 14, 2020
Where: Performance Works
What: In Broken Tailbone, celebrated writer and performer Carmen Aguirre leads a public Latin American dance lesson, woven with hilarious stories of her experiences in the hidden world of dance halls in Canada. DJ Don Pedro creates an irresistible musical environment to get even the most reluctant dancer up on their feet! Daring, sexy, and, above all, fun.
Runs Until: Saturday March 14, 2020
The Dance Centre and Vancouver New Music present Bill Coleman’s Dollhouse
Where: The Dance Centre
What: In Dollhouse, Canadian contemporary dance master and choreographer Bill Coleman portrays a figure whose whole world is literally falling in around him. Inhabiting a cluttered room which collapses and breaks at his every touch, he shares the stage with sound artist Gordon Monahan, whose unique score accompanies the descent into theatrical disintegration. Coleman resembles a modern fakir, as he suffers through painful yet comical situations on his way to sonic and visual chaos.
Runs Until: Saturday March 14, 2020
Sunday March 15
Inheritance: a pick-the-path experience
Where: Annex Theatre
What: Alley Theatre presents Inheritance: a choose-your-adventure experience. Set on a vast, rural estate, urban couple Abbey and Noah are on a week-long getaway to visit her father. When they arrive, they find him missing and a local Indigenous man, Frank, staying there instead. When it’s revealed that the colonial property rights to this unceded land are up for grabs, the audience—with anonymous voting devices in hand—decides what happens next.
Runs Until: Sunday March 15, 2020
Photo: Wendy D
Where: Woodward’s Atrium
What: Made and sustained by Alanna Kraaijeveld in collaboration with Modus Operandi artists and Kate Franklin, Line, Starting line, Practical questions, Disappear, Solos and small groups, Swirling, Space, All together is a scored improvised performance. It is comprised of an inventory of relational, movement, visual and textural possibilities.
Runs Until: Sunday March 15, 2020
The Lind Prize 2020 Exhibition
Where: The Polygon Gallery
What: Established in 2016, the Philip B. Lind Emerging Artist Prize is awarded annually to an emerging BC-based artist working in mediums of film, photography, or video. Artists are nominated for the prize by staff and faculty from established arts institutions, organizations, and post-secondary programs from across the province.
Runs Until: Sunday March 15, 2020
Ongoing
Pacific Theatre presents Best Of Enemies
Where: Pacific Theatre
What: Civil rights activist Ann Atwater is fighting a pitched battle for her daughters’ education. C.P. Ellis is the Exalted Cyclops of the local KKK chapter. When a Washington mediator arrives in Durham to institute nationally-mandated desegregation Ann and C.P. are forced into an uneasy truce as they wrestle for control of the future.
Runs Until: Saturday March 21, 2020
Community Olympic 10-Year Celebrations
Where: Various Locations
What: The City of Vancouver and Vancouver Park Board are hosting a series of community celebrations throughout February and March to mark the 10-year anniversary of the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. To celebrate, the City and Park Board are inviting sports fans, past volunteers, and future athletes to participate in events around the city. Mark your calendars for the 2010 Blue Jacket Volunteer Celebration, 2010 Winter Games Pin Exchange, “Wear Red” Family Day Skates, or join “Community Living Rooms” to take in highlights from 2010 and re-live that golden goal.
Runs Until: Saturday March 21, 2020
Where: Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden
What: An ancient Chinese phrase to describe the study of the nature of the world, Investigation of Things focuses on how two different cultures observe, study, and understand individual items and objects, and how they fit into the world around us. Investigation of Things seeks to generate discussions through the differing perspectives highlighted by the ten artists featured in the exhibition, showcasing distinct cultural methodologies, and how these impact our view of the world. The show hopes to open cultural dialogues between Canada and China, through the evocative language of contemporary visual art.
Runs Until: Saturday March 21, 2020
Firehall Arts Centre presents: Trans Scripts, Part I: The Women
Where: Firehall Arts Centre
What: Zee Zee and the Frank Theatre unite to bring this powerful verbatim piece compiled from over 70 interviews with trans women from around the world to the stage. The play follows 7 characters through a series of monologues using the hero’s journey as the structure for the piece. A Zee Zee and Frank Theatre production presented in association with the Firehall Arts Centre.
Runs Until: Sunday March 22, 2020
Arts Club Theatre Company presents The Wedding Party
Where: Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre
What: It’s the big day, but the newlyweds are offstage and the two families are at each other’s throats. The father of the groom saves a seat for the dog, a long-lost twin confuses everyone, and the bride’s mother is cut off from the wine. Grab a ringside seat for all the laughs, debauchery, disagreements, and love as this changing cast of characters keeps you howling right up to the final dance.
Runs Until: Sunday March 22, 2020
Where: Cypress Mountain
What: Pizza, S’mores, Fire Pits, Music and more! Bring the whole family up and hang out, every Friday night.
Runs Until: Friday March 27, 2020
Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.
Where: Frederic Wood Theatre
What: A non-linear, post-modern manifesto, Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. by Alice Birch (2014) reacts ferociously to different aspects of life as a woman: sex, marriage, work, and family responsibility, to name a few. In director Sloan Thompson’s able hands, the humour juxtaposes the visceral hit of the text, using our designers’ considerable talents that transform this amazing play off the page and onto the Frederic Wood Theatre stage.
Runs Until: Saturday March 28, 2020
Where: Various Venues
What: CelticFest Vancouver is Western Canada’s biggest annual Celtic festival.CelticFest is a rich cultural celebration of the seven Celtic nations’ kinship and community.The festival showcases the best of Celtic music, dance, spoken word as well as film, food and fare and the much-anticipated St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
Runs Until: Saturday March 28, 2020
Photo: David Cooper Workshop
Vancouver International Dance Festival 2020
Where: Various locations
What: The Vancouver International Dance Festival (VIDF) presents extraordinary contemporary dance performances from March 6 – 28, 2020. Performed at various venues throughout Vancouver, and featuring an incredibly diverse offering of free and paid events. The VIDF presents a broad spectrum of dance presentation ranging from the slow introspection of butoh to the dynamic precision of ballet.
Runs Until: Saturday March 28, 2020
MOA Presents Playing with Fire: Ceramics of the Extraordinary
Where: Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at UBC
What: Showcasing a group of 11 highly celebrated BC-based artists, this premiere exhibition of ceramic works, expresses strong opinions on urgent social issues and offers subtle perspectives on the state of our contemporary world. In Playing with Fire, the artists defiantly challenge the notion that all things made of clay are required to be functional; in their works, clay is released from this constraint and elevated into extraordinary works of art. Visitors are invited to explore the many layers of understanding each of these provocative works embody, boldly demonstrating clay’s myriad discursive possibilities.
Runs Until: Sunday March 29, 2020
Where: Cypress Mountain
What: Grab your skis and snowboards and get ready for some extra runs! Hours of operation have been extended until 10pm.
Runs Until: Tuesday March 31, 2020
gallery gachet presents Eli Hower: Passageways
Where: gallery gachet
What: Including sculpture, printmaking, book arts, and community engagement, Passageways is a solo exhibition by Eli Howey based on a series of watercolour and gouache paintings of the same title. In the series, characters in shadowy environments interact with surrounding objects and flora. The artwork reinterprets the body through an expansive symbolism, building towards an imaginative–poetic–visual language around human psychology, identity, and gender.
Runs Until: Saturday April 4, 2020
CAG Presents The Artist’s Studio is Her Bedroom
Where: Contemporary Art Gallery
What: The Contemporary Art Gallery is pleased to presentThe Artist’s Studio is Her Bedroom, a group exhibition challenging our society’s profound assumptions about where and by what means “serious” artwork gets produced. Taking place across CAG’s B.C. Binning and Alvin Balkind Galleries, the exhibition shares the perspectives of ten Canada-based artists whose practices are attentive to these assumptions, and to the very real temporal, spatial and monetary constraints that bind and shape their work. Their contributions to the show address a multitude of labours—whether physical, emotional, reproductive or otherwise—that are often inextricable from artistic production.
Runs Until: Sunday April 5, 2020
Xuuya Gaada White Raven by Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson
Bill Reid Gallery: Out of Concealment
Where: Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art
What: Out of Concealment is a solo exhibition featuring the work of Haida artist, performer, activist, and lawyer Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson. Female Supernatural Beings of Haida Gwaii are re-imagined through photomontages, film, and sound to convey origin stories and oral traditions from the Haida Nation. Passed on from generation to generation, these are important narratives that illustrate the Haida laws, values, customs, rituals and relationships with earthly and metaphysical realms.
Runs Until: Sunday April 5, 2020
Ingrid Koenig – Navigating the Uncertainty Principle
CAG Presents Ingrid Koenig | Navigating the Uncertainty Principle
Where: Contemporary Art Gallery
What: Navigating the Uncertainty Principle is a major solo exhibition by Vancouver-based artist and educator Ingrid Koenig, presenting large scale drawings across the gallery façade and off-site at Yaletown-Roundhouse station.
Runs Until: Sunday April 5, 2020
Where: Bill Reid Gallery
What: Seven emerging Indigenous artists will be creating works on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish people that are originally from outside this territory. In What We Bring With Us, the artists’ work speaks to their relationship to this land and kinship founded through displacement in works ranging from photography to performance.
Runs Until: Sunday April 12, 2020
Yellow Peril; The Celestial Elements
Where: SUM Gallery
What: SUM gallery is proud to announce our first exhibition of 2020! Love Intersections curates a visual art exhibit inspired by the Chinese Five Elemental forces, seized by the urgent tensions between Queer Chinese diasporic identities. Featuring artists Jen Sungshine, Kendell Yan, Kai Cheng Thom, Jay Cabalu, and David Ng.
Runs Until: Saturday April 18, 2020
Where: City of Vancouver Archives
What: Take a retrospective look at how lesbians, bisexuals, Two Spirit, queer women and trans folks gave their heart and soul to building a better world for everyone. Bring your device + headphones! Interact with the exhibit and listen to stories through your device – free wi-fi is available through the City of Vancouver Archives! Tablets, smart phones, and any other device with the ability to connect to the internet are compatible!
Runs Until: Friday April 24, 2019
Water Babies: Parenting 101 at the Vancouver Aquarium
Where: Vancouver Aquarium
What: Kicking off in time for Spring Break, the new exhibit Water Babies: Parenting 101 at the Vancouver Aquarium is bound to be a memorable one. This new feature, launching March 14, 2020, will highlight all things babies at the aquarium, while offering tongue-in-cheek Parenting 101 tips inspired by aquatic life. Tired of hearing parenting tips thrown your way? This exhibit will provide a fresh new approach with these amusing words of advice!
Runs Until: Friday May 1, 2020
Experience Iceland at FlyOver Canada
Where: FlyOver Canada
What: Our FlyOver Iceland experience opened in Reykjavík in the fall of 2019 and quickly became one of the top attractions in Iceland. We are thrilled to be bringing it to Vancouver for the first time ever. During this limited-time experience, you will hang suspended, feet dangling, before a 20-metre spherical screen while our film whisks you away on an exhilarating journey across and above spectacular Iceland.
Runs Until: Sunday May 3, 2020
Photo – Pardeep Singh, Vancouver Art Gallery
Where: The Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Grant Arnold, Audain Curator of British Columbia Art, Rapture, Rhythm and the Tree of Life – Emily Carr and Her Female Contemporaries is on view from December 7, 2019 to June 28, 2020. Drawn primarily from the Gallery’s permanent collection, this exhibition presents an expanded view of the diverse creative practices of women in this region during the first four decades of the twentieth century. Presented in conjunction with Carr’s paintings of forest interiors are works by Indigenous creators such as Amy Cooper (Th’ewá:li), Mary Little (Nuu-chah-nulth), and Placida Wallace (Líl̓wat Nation).
Runs Until: Sunday June 28, 2020
What are you up to this weekend? Tell me and the rest of Vancouver in the comments.
