The Canada Dance Festival is a week-long event that takes place every two years in the nation’s capital with a smaller event in the “off-year”. The goal is to celebrate Canadian dance artists of all ages and dance styles of all kinds.
Between June 4 through 11 this year, festivalgoers took in some of Canada’s emerging professional dancers with shows featuring recent graduates from dance programs in Ottawa, Toronto, Québec and Winnipeg, as well as more mature talent in the Older & Reckless program and everything in between.
Performances were held in venues all over Ottawa, including theatres as well as more unconventional spaces like outside in the ByWard Market, in the guest rooms of the ALT Hotel and even the Diefenbunker Museum.
The most remarkable part of the whole experience for me was the amazing sense of community. Every show was attended by people of all different ages. Almost every single show sold out and by the end had almost everyone standing on their feet in applause.
Here are some highlights from the week:
Tagged: Ballet, Contemporary, Festival, On the Ground, Urban, ON , Ottawa
