Fluid Fest
Explore your dance curiosity with Springboard Performance
Featuring extraordinary local, national, and international artists, Fluid Fest ignites the city with performances, workshops, artist talks, and happenings to inspire and connect.
It’s your chance to celebrate outstanding performance and the vast spectrum of what dance can be.
Asking Calgarians to be moved, curious, and fluid, each year Fluid Fest brings artists and audiences together for a celebration of contemporary art, dance, and physical performance. And this year’s lineup is certainly mesmerizing.
“We are excited to showcase this year’s program with a curated focus on artists that capture our contemporary times, including queer ideas and expressions, women’s voices and creative propositions that re-imagine and reframe the body in space,” says Springboard Performance’s Artistic Director and Curator Nicole Mion in a statement. “Fluid Fest invites Calgarians to experience and reflect on the now with a vibrant and audacious lineup of performances from around the world and around the block.”
So, what are we checking out? Here are our not-to-be-missed events of the festival.
HINKYPUNK
October 18, 2019, 8:00pm
DJD Dance Centre (111 12th Ave. SE)
$40
Built through a creative partnership between the members of the Prairie Dance Circuit: Springboard Performance, Brian Webb Dance Company, and New Dance Horizons, HINKYPUNK is an unidentified identity—an archetype, a hero, the unreachable. Created by Ralph Escamillan, a queer, Canadian-Filipinx performance artist, choreographer, teacher, and community leader based in Vancouver, this piece explores the construction of cultural identity.
springboardperformance.com
Split
October 19, 2019, 8:00pm
DJD Dance Centre (111 12th Ave. SE)
$40
Revelling in Lucy Guerin’s sharp, elegant choreographic investigations, this piece reflects the dilemmas of negotiating with oneself and others in a world of increased pressure and reduced resources. The evening includes a reception and post show artist talk about women in art with Guerin, Lois Brown, and Linnea Swan.
springboardperformance.com
Pour
October 23 & 24, 2019, 8:00pm
DJD Dance Centre (111 12th Ave. SE)
$40
Daina Ashbee confronts her audiences with yet another dark and powerful piece about women. Exploring the vulnerabilities and strengths of bodies layered with pain and littered with social oppression, layers of joy and celebration pierce through the tension to make a liberating and transformative experience.
springboardperformance.com
Running Piece
October 25 & 26, 2019, 8:00pm
DJD Dance Centre (111 12th Ave. SE)
$40
A work for dancer and treadmill, watch as a man travels without leaving, constantly forced to go forward. On this confined yet infinite space, he moves through situations and moments that define us as people. This unique composition is certainly one you won’t want to miss.
springboardperformance.com
Fluid Fest at the Library
October 26 & 27, 2019, 12:00 – 4:00pm
Central Library (800 3rd St. SE)
Free admission
A series of pop-up physical performances, this is a great family-friendly event full of dance and movement. Swing by to watch as local artists animate the Central Library with intriguing and site-specific performances.
springboardperformance.com
Fluid Fest runs October 15 to 27, 2019 at venues around Calgary. Head to fluidfest.com to find the full schedule. And if you’re planning on taking in a few shows you can grab a Fluid-4-Pack for $100 or a festival pass for $125.
