March 14 + 15, 2025 • 7:30 pm
Running time: 154 minutes (including two intermissions)
The Royal Theatre is located on the traditional lands of the Lekwungen peoples, also known as the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations. We extend our appreciation for the opportunity to live, create, and perform on this territory.
Please, no video or audio recording of any kind. No photographs.
Costumes include sheer tops; partial nudity may be visible.
World Premiere: March 6, 2025
Artistic Direction: Andrea Peña
Choreography: Andrea Peña in collaboration with the artists of Ballet BC
Choreographic Assistant: Frédérique Rodier
Rehearsal Director: Renée Sigouin
Music: Original composition by CIBER1A
Scenic Design: Andrea Peña
Lighting Design: Bonnie Beecher
Costume Design: Kate Burrows
Weight, resilience, and interdependence—this creation transforms the body into a site of effort, adaptation, and agency. Moved by Andrea Peña’s Colombian Indigenous ancestry, with its histories of endurance and surrender, the work explores the body of labour, tethered to industry yet often unseen, invoking a universe where the labouring body is no longer invisible, but sacred—a force that moves the world forward. Harnesses become prosthetic extensions, binding performers in real-time negotiations within an environment that frames a world where tension and collaboration shape movement and meaning. The work also queers strength and vulnerability, sculpting other possibilities of partnering,
reimagining lifting and being lifted as acts of mutual dependency.
Set against a vast metal monument, informed by Peña’s background in industrial design—the performers move within its presence, as if negotiating with something greater than themselves. Accompanied by a score from Peruvian composer CIBER1A, whose soundscape echoes Indigenous resilience and the rhythms of labour, the work becomes a humble collective agreement—bodies tethering to one another in acts of negotiation and care, reflecting the urgent need to stand together in today’s shifting social landscape.
- Intermission -
World Premiere: March 6, 2025
Choreography: Fernando Hernando Magadan
Rehearsal Director: Renée Sigouin
Music: Original composition by Ben Waters
Lighting Design: Bonnie Beecher
Costume Design: Fernando Hernando Magadan
Associate Costume Design: Kate Burrows
Production Design: Fernando Hernando Magadan
Associate Set Design: Matthew Piton
CAELUM in Latin, refers to the “cosmos,” as in the sky or heavens. It carries a more poetic and ethereal connotation, often associated with the vast expanse of celestial bodies and their enchanting beauty.
This work is inspired by the concept of space in its broadest sense, by our relationship to it, and by the miracle of life with its vital, driving pulse. It reflects the fact that, despite seeming trivial—or even insignificant—in the grand scheme of things, we are still able to contemplate, admire, and be inspired by the immensity of space and its colossal forces.
As we look up, we are simultaneously confronted with the limits of our knowledge, and a deep sense of mystery as we wonder about our connection to it all.
- Intermission -
PASSING (2023)
World Premiere - May 2023
Choreography: Johan Inger
Choreographic Assistants: Yvan Dubreuil, Carolina Armenta, Fernando Hernando Magadan
Music:
“The Joy of D. H. Lawrence”
Composed and performed by Erik Enocksson
Used with permission / courtesy of Söndregård Ton
“Westward, Ho!”, “Barn Dance”, “Bumbo”
Written & performed by Louis T. Hardin. Published by and
courtesy of Songs of Virtual o/b/o Managarm
Musikverlag
“Harsh and Stubborn that River Bends”
Composed and performed by Erik Enocksson
Used with permission / courtesy of Söndregård Ton
“Theme - Instrumental”
Written & performed by Louis T. Hardin. Published by and courtesy of Songs of Virtual o/b/o Managarm
Musikverlag
Composition by Amos Ben-Tal
Lighting Design: Alan Brodie
Costume Design: Linda Chow
Stage Design: Johan Inger
Human beings. In the unstoppable flow of life and the multiple variations of connections, Inger seeks for the sensitive, the vulnerable and the intimate that makes every individual trajectory unique. The work dissolves itself in anonymities as the group emerges: individual behaviors influenced by the concrete or the imagined presence of the others; dynamics and potentials floating between the self, the others, us or them. Where will this unconscious fast paced and self-created environment, relentlessly overruled by an intangible source and force, lead our communities to?
Scan the QR code to read the company’s full biographies.
Founded in 1986 by David Y.H. Lui, Jean Orr, and Sheila Begg, Ballet BC is Canada’s leading contemporary dance company. Based in Vancouver and led by Artistic Director Medhi Walerski, the company performs at venues throughout British Columbia and on the world’s best stages. Ballet BC dancers are a group of open-minded and curious artists, each unique for their exceptional artistry while sharing an intuitive passion for movement. Deeply committed to new creation in addition to presenting masterworks from today’s most sought-after
voices in dance, Ballet BC’s diverse repertoire includes works by choreographers such as Crystal Pite, Johan Inger, Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar, Medhi Walerski, Out Innerspace, Imre and Marne van Opstal, Roy Assaf, and Micaela Taylor. The company offers a variety of professional development and educational opportunities in the community, aiming to bring the power of dance to the widest audience possible. Learn more at BalletBC.com.
Choose a DFH realtor below and mention Dance Victoria when you buy or sell your property. Ten percent of the realtor’s commission helps bring the World’s Best Dance to our community.
Maureen Vincent maureenvincent68@gmail.com 250-656-0131
John Melvin john@johnmelvinproperties.ca 250-477-7291
Katie Wilson katie@dfh.ca 778-677-0982
Gary Sims homes@garysimsvictoriahomes.ca 250-881-4117
Rosemary Tulett Unlicensed Assistant 250-891-4465
Terry Moore tlmoore@shaw.ca 250-477-7291
Dorothee Friese Unlicensed Assistant dorothee@shaw.ca 250-477-7291
Board of Directors
President: Colette Baty
Vice President: Brendan Ralfs
Treasurer: Sarah Millard
Secretary: Marlon Murr
Directors:
Kemi Craig, Linley Faulkner, Joost Pelt, Philip Pierce, Carrie Smart, Emily Zeng
Dance Victoria is supported by:
Staff
Executive Director: Gillian Jones
General Manager: Dayna Szyndrowski
Development & Operations Manager: Shireen McNeilage
Marketing Manager: Anne-Sophie Cournoyer
Production Manager: Holly Vivian
Community Engagement Manager: Larissa Sharma
Artist Programs & Studio Manager: Kiera Shaw
Graphic Design: Rayola Creative
Advertising Sales: Bonnie Light Advertising
Dance Victoria Studios 111 – 2750 Quadra St. Victoria, BC V8T 4E8 P: 250-595-1829 F: 250-590-7209
info@dancevictoria.com
Dance Victoria wishes to thank its many donors and volunteers.
Help sustain Dance Victoria’s investment in commissioning and presenting new works – so we may continue to champion Canadian dance talent and support the creation of the World’s Best Dance.
Buy raffle tickets today in the lobby! Or buy tickets online here
Total Number of Tickets: 200 @ $10, and 750 @ 5 for $40
Sales end: April 17, 2025, 5:00 p.m.
Draw: April 24, 2025, 2:00 p.m.
Draw Location: Dance Victoria Studios, 111-2750 Quadra Street, Victoria, BC
Chances are 1 in 950 (total tickets for sale)
BC Gaming Event Licence #158838