KAPWA HOUSE JAM

ENERGY NEVER DIES: Community Sharing & Celebration

featuring 

Students from John Oliver Secondary School

With lead artists: Josh Ongcol, James Cabrera 

March 20, 2026

7 - 9 pm

333NERGY STUDIO

345 W. Broadway, Vancouver

This March 20 sharing is the culmination of an eight week + program offering youth training with local artists in Breaking, Hip Hop, Vogue, and Waacking to explore how movement, music, and performance are tools for increased wellbeing, creativity and confidence.

Created through a partnership between Dance West Network, John Oliver Secondary School, led by community artists Josh Ongcol, James Cabrera, and Mar Cortez, the program centers youth mentorship through street dance culture. Rooted in Filipino values of kapwa (shared self) and bayanihan (collective care), this project creates space for expression, connection, and collective healing. Guest Artists include: Jojo Zalina, Katria McKinnon, Jamal Ali, Daylin Willis, Sevrin Emnacen and Jamal Ali.

Dance West Network supported the artists and youth program through project administration. Funded by United Way BC Kapwa Strong Fund.

20th ANNIV, BOOK LAUNCH

On January 30, Dance West Network celebrated it’s 20th Anniversary year (2026) with a launch of our new book, Conversations and Essays on Dance in British Columbia: A Dance West Network Anthology, published by DCD, Dance Collection Danse with the support of the School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser Universtiy

For local Vancouver purchases contact jane@dancewest.net 

or to order directly from DCD, please click HERE

Chapter excerpts were published in Northword Magazine, DCD Magazine, and thank you Marco Esccer for your interview with Queer FM!

RAFFLE WINNER

Conversations and Essays on Dance in British Columbia: A Dance West Network Anthology

THANK YOU TO OUR RAFFLE WINNER - SOPHIE BARBARICS

To learn more about Sophie’s work in Nelson BC, click HERE

 Anneke Rosch

CDC - sn ayckstx Sinixt Arrow Lakes and the Yaqan Nukiy Lower Kootenay Band peoples, Nelson

In January, FakeKnot’s artistic director, Ralph Escamillan, travelled to Nelson to offer two unique workshops. 

Ralph offered a wonderful textile workshop, sharing his unique process for building the paper dress for his recent work, Croquis. The participants were invited to explore the packing paper medium and his techniques to create their own paper garments.

Ralph also offered, in collaboration with Slava Doval's DanceFusion Studio, a workshop for local dancers, encapsulating his current interests of integrating textile/weaving techniques through the body—Scraping, Knotting, Shuttle, Hit, and Plucking.

For more on Ralph’s workshop, click HERE

Emily Carlson

CDC - the Sinixt, the Secwépemc, the Syilx Okanagan, and the Ktunaxa, Revelstoke

In January 2026, Artist Nick Miami Benz  and videographer Vita Spinelli travelled to Ktunaxa, Sinixt Territory, Revelstoke in a wonderful weekend of a community workshops, performance and conversation.

Nick offered a workshop to local dancers, teaching some great Runway poses to participants! On Saturday evening, Nick and local Drag and Burlesque dancers shared the stage at the Revelstoke Visual Arts Gallery to a full house!

”That was incredible. The variety of storytelling and talent was so amazing. We need to have more events like this in Revelstoke! -“ Audience member

Thanks to funding from Tourism Revelstoke, videographer Vita Spinelli filmed the activities and interviews with local artists, and has produced a short documentary offering a window into the local community to raise the visibility of LGBTQ2S+ voices.

Thank you to funders : Cascadia Credit Union and Tourism Revelstoke.

Photo: Nick Miami Benz performing Orange, photo by Vita Spinelli. For more on Nick’s residency, click HERE

Towards building a Northern BC Collaborative Network

Ts’msyen La̱xyuup homelands/ Prince Rupert

From May to November 2025, a group of six artists, Fior Saoirse, Nicholas Blackwater, Miriam Colvin, Katie Wertz, Natu Bearwolf and Lindsay Delaronde, participated in a series of online conversations and meetings, culminating in a five-day residency on Ts’msyen La̱xyuup homelands (Prince Rupert). Conversation and reflections centred around how to be a better guest on Indigenous territories.

”It was powerful to connect with other artists on Ts'msyen Territory.  We started with sharing protocol, sharing soup and sharing stories. It was stormy outside but within the circle it felt settling, incubating, warm, calming and rich with movement. At the end of our days together, we felt connection and also more clarity of why we do what we do."- Miriam Colvin and Katie Wertz, Witsuwit'en Territory, Smithers BC

Co-created with Myriad Dance Projects and Change Makers' Education Society.

Funded by Canada Council on the Arts Sector Innovation and Development. For more info on this residency, click HERE

In the Winter issue of Northword Magazine, check out the wonderful article by Lisa Dickson about Method Dance’s Festival Community Moves, and some of the Dance West Networks Re-Centering/Margins Residency artists who participated in the festival.

“By embracing experimental methodologies, we cultivate a thriving ecosystem of dance, music, and visual arts - one that is deeply responsive to the land, it’s people, and the ever evolving cultural landscape of Northern BC.” - Lisa Dickson

Dance West Network offers seven recorded conversations featuring 14 local and primarily IBPOC artists who share their reflections and stories on the role dance plays in their lives, and how dance can impact all our lives.

Each newsletter we will share with you the podcast of one of these conversations for you to listen to, and to share if you wish.

This month we highlight the conversation between artists Tristan Ghostkeeper and Erika Mitsuhashi, when they met and had a conversation on Lheidli T’enneh territory/Prince George, where Tristan grew up and Erika was in residency.

If you would like to see the full conversation with performance excerpts in video form, as well as a beautiful tool-kit - great if you are working with youth as a dance teacher or mentor - please contact: debora@dancewest.net.

NEW WORKS

Fall(se) Circ(us) - Choreography by Isak Enquist | 

March 21, 2026,  7:30pm 

The Roundhouse Community Centre. 

Experience the world premiere of Little Room Productions in their first full-length contemporary dance work of Fall(se) Circ(us), an exploration of the notion of rebellion against everyday complacency through shifting cycles of “work” and “rest,” inviting improvised movement as a form of resistance. 

More info

Leadership in Practice Symposium 2026 

Sunday, March 22, 2026, 10 - 4 pm

Roundhouse Community Centre

Discount Code: IPSYMPOSIUM_NW15OFF ($15 off)

Leadership In Practice Symposium brings together dance educators, dancers, choreographers, and cultural workers who are curious about how leadership in dance can be more sustainable, inclusive, and responsive to the world we are shaping together. 

More info 

221A

825 Pacific Street Vancouver

Wednesday, March 25, 6pm-8pm

Sector Equity for Anti-Racism in the Arts (SEARA) is excited to launch our seminal report, ARTSTATUS, surveying the status of racial equity in BC’s arts, culture, and heritage landscape!

https://221a.ca/event/artstatus-report-launch/

The ARTSTATUS report culminates two years of sector research, data collection, and qualitative interviews. With this report, SEARA will continue to advocate for racially-equitable conditions for BIPOC artists and cultural workers, in areas of governance, funding, and operations.

Join us for an evening of celebration, including original works created by four artists and writers in response to the report.

Food and refreshments will be served.

More info and to register

THE DANCE CENTRE

Scotiabank Dance Centre, 677 Davie St, Vancouver

Craft Development Workshop: lossy bodies, Company 605

Wednesday, April 1,  12:30pm-5pm

Lisa Mariko Gelley and Josh Martin of Company 605 guide participants through movement vocabulary and approaches from their stage work lossy (2024), alongside conversation about their evolving concept of the “video body” - a digitally mediated understanding of the body present in their earliest creations. More info and to register

Dance Dialogues

Wednesday, April 8, 6pm
Please join us for the last of our Dance Dialogues series of talks this season - Choreography and Coast Salish Art and Design with Indigenous dance artist, educator and curator Tasha Faye Evans.

Tasha’s work initiates a choreographic study of Coast Salish art and design with master carvers and cultural mentors. Through dialogue and demonstration, Tasha will introduce her dance making methodology of landing and presencing based on the fundamental shapes and cultural teachings of the Salish eye. In this intimate gathering, witness ancestral shapes and storytelling translated in the body and carved into space, connecting us to these lands, culture, and all our relations. She will be joined by special guest, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh master carver Xwalacktun OBC.

Tickets are on a sliding scale starting with a FREE option. Details and tickets here.

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING DANCE WEST NETWORK

Individual donations happily accepted, click HERE