Youth lead ‘hot months’ for dance lovers in city
Performances of all sizes and styles are packing May and June, making them hot months for dance lovers in the city. From a magical rework of Swan Lake to a high-energy showcase by the world’s top hip-hop dance theatre troupes, there’s a performance to suit every taste.
STOMP: Urban Dance Competition/Showcase May 6, at the Sony Centre sonycentre.ca The 17th annual STOMP showcase features youth performers aged 6 to 24 from city of Toronto dance programs and its partners. Participants perform jazz, ballet, Bollywood, contemporary, hip-hop and dance hall routines for audiences and judges, complemented by youth bands, singers, rappers and dub poets.
Alien Grace May 25-26, at the Fleck Dance Theatre harbourfrontcentre.com The Next Steps 2017-2018 festival features Alien Grace, a Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre work that features five seasoned choreographers and11 young dancers seeking grace in savage times through the human form in motion.
Outside Looking In’s Annual Dance Performance May 26, at the Sony Centre sonycentre.ca Ben Mulroney hosts this annual evening of dance performed by Indigenous youth and set to the music of the 1970s. Outside Looking In offers a high school-accredited dance program that brings Indigenous youth from across Canada to a Toronto showcase.
Breakin’ Convention 2018 June 1-2, at the Sony Centre sonycentre.ca Canadian hip-hop dance companies will join celebrated international acts, including the Ruggeds of the Netherlands and England’s Far From The Norm. The performances celebrate the union of hip-hop and theatre, as well as breakdancing and rapart.
Frame By Frame June 1-10, at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts national.ballet.ca Playwright Robert Lepage has collaborated with Guillaume Côté, of the the National Ballet of Canada, on this production that explores the life and work of Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren.
Swan Lake/Loch na hEala June 6-10, at the Bluma Appel Theatre luminatofestival.com Swan Lake/Loch na hEala is a magical and contemporary interpretation of the world’s most famous ballet. The adaptation, which features Irish actor Mikel Murfi and music from Dublin band Slow Moving Clouds, has been met with rave reviews in the U.K.
Dreaming Of Lions and Indomitable Waltz and Tabula Rasa June 22-24, at the Elgin Theatre luminatofestival.com A festival favourite from 2015, Cuba’s Malpaso Dance Company returns. The ensemble will perform three works. Dreaming of Lions is an Ernest Hemingway-inspired work with music by Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble. It’s joined by Barton’s Indomitable Waltz and Naharin’s Tabula Rasa.