I love Dancing on the Edge. Back in the day when I was a dance artist, living and working in Edmonton, DOTE presented my work thus offering me an opportunity to showcase in a different city and to mingle amongst artists that I’d never met.
Fast forward a few years, and now as President of DOTE, I continue to love it, perhaps even more.
It’s 10 days of the most amazing dance, physical theatre, and live performance featuring every hybrid of multi-disciplinary physical work from the lower mainland, British Columbia, Canada and abroad.
Feeding my soul with some of the most cutting edge fascinating work as well as presenting some work that encourages heated drink-in-hand-discussion on the deck between Edges (“I hated that.” “Oh really, I loved it.”), it opens up a world of possibility where people can disagree, respect each other’s comments, and then go in and see the next show together.
Our intrepid leader, Donna Spencer, continues to program an excitingly diverse festival mixing seven mixed programs; two full shows – Oath Midnight Rain (Beijing Modern Dance Company) and No Fun (Helen Simard); four site specific works that are free or by donation, a youth engagement program led by Heather Lamoureux where people 16-24 build community while seeing shows and taking classes for free; two workshops/discussions: Dance Dialogue: Traditional Dance Meets Contemporary Dance with Natasha Bakht, Yvonne Ng, Olivia C. Davies and others and What is Dance Dramaturgy led by Donna Spencer; and Best of Dances on Screen, a screening of selected international, Canadian and local films from the Festival of Recorded Movement.
It’s a time to celebrate all that the dance arts’ community is in Canada, to greet old friends and meet new ones. And to see some kick-ass dance.
Enjoy.
Andrea Rabinovitch
President, Board of Directors
Dancing on the Edge
Hi Andrea. How great to be scanning my emails, and your name comes up first. I’m not sure which DOTE performances I can come to, but this is a really interesting lineup and I hope to make it to at least one. Your open letter brought back a rush of memories and a chance to do a bit of reflection. How great is it, after all this time, to still be able to do what we love, to still be involved in such a vibrant community. I must apologize for being the world’s worst correspondent, and probably the world’s most easily distracted person. Really sorry for not emailing you. Anyway, I’m sure you have a million and one things to do so I will finish this up. Have a great opening night and a fantastic run!!! Ciao. Wendy