Kokoro Dance Reveals Lasting Legacy

Performing Arts and DTES Communities receive a lasting legacy from Kokoro Dance with Unveiling of New Woodward’s Studios this Spring

Renovation project will see portion of historic Woodward’s Building re-purposed into state-of-the-art dance studio and performance space

Kokoro Dance is thrilled to announce the unveiling of their new home located in the heart of the downtown eastside at Vancouver’s beloved Woodward’s building. The state-of-the-art, high tech, dance studio and production/performance space, to be constructed this winter, will officially be named and open its doors in the spring of 2016. A 30-year dream of Kokoro Dance, who just recently celebrated their 30^th anniversary, the mixed-use space will boast more than 5,600 square feet, serving as a vital new infrastructure and cultural bastion for the performing arts and DTES communities.

“We are truly ecstatic to have the opportunity to provide this lasting legacy to the greater dance, performing arts, and DTES communities. Having recently celebrated Kokoro Dance’s 30^th anniversary, the unveiling of these new Kokoro spaces feels like a dream come true,” says Barbara Bourget, Artistic Director of Kokoro Dance and Co-Producer of Vancouver International Dance Festival. “We speak from personal experience regarding the struggle to find affordable, fully-equipped rehearsal and performance space, which, far too often, becomes a barrier to creation. It is our hope that our new Woodward’s premises will be able to serve our purpose of acting as a cultural hub to the performing arts and DTES communities for generations to come.”

The highly coveted cultural amenity space at Woodward’s was unanimously awarded to Kokoro Dance by the Vancouver City Council in October 2014, following a competitive application process that called for proposals to re-imagine the public venue.

The critically-acclaimed dance ensemble, together with its sister company, the Vancouver International Dance Festival (VIDF), has since successfully raised $565,000 to complete renovations necessary for the development of the premier performing arts venue, including the installation of sprung dance floors, showers, dressing rooms, lighting grids, and lighting and sound systems.

Following renovations and the official naming of the venue to be completed this spring, the new Woodward’s premises will be the new home of Kokoro Dance, as well as its subtenants VIDF, Vancouver Moving Theatre, and Raven Spirit Dance. The venue’s studios will be made accessible and affordable to the DTES and performing arts communities, providing much needed rehearsal and performance space in a city lacking options for many small and not-for-profit arts and cultural organizations.

While under construction during this year’s highly anticipated 2016 VIDF, the Woodward’s studios will serve as the future hub for the beloved festival, with free performances and community classes offered throughout the venue beginning in 2017.

Details regarding the inaugural performances at the Woodward’s premises in 2017 will be articulated in the fall of 2016 together with the VIDF’s programming at the Roundhouse and Vancouver Playhouse.

About Kokoro Dance (kokoro.ca)

Kokoro Dance Theatre Society was incorporated as a non-profit society in Vancouver, British Columbia on July 31, 1986. Its mandate is to re-define the meaning of Canadian culture through teaching, producing and performing new dance theatre with an emphasis on multi-disciplinary collaboration and cross-cultural exploration.

Taking its name from the Japanese word kokoro – meaning heart, soul and spirit – Kokoro Dance creates deeply evocative and provocative performances. Inspired by the Japanese art form known as butoh, Kokoro Dance fuses the aesthetics of East and West. Since 1986, Kokoro Dance has created and performed works for the proscenium theatre, for site specific environmental locations, for young audiences in schools, and for impromptu improvisations in site specific locations. The company has performed across Canada, in the United States, in Europe, and in South America.