On its 20th anniversary, the Dancing on the Edge festival commissioned 10 works that made for as much fun as pulling treats from a loot bag.

With personal recollections of his father at the heart of the piece, Brian Webb’s bizarre fusion of bar-band cover songs, candid confessionals, classical piano, and contemporary dance results in a deeply moving experience.

At the outset, the idea of fusing break dance and swing dance might sound contrived. But Montreal-based Solid State’s mashup is so organic and fun-loving that it manages to get the audience members whooping like they’re at a full-blown battle.

It was a surreal opener to the Dancing on the Edge festival when bagpipes cut through the Downtown Eastside’s soundscape of screeching sirens, idling motors, and dope-sick yelling.

The French-born choreographer is one of the artists returning, 20 years later, with new commissions for the Dancing on the Edge, a festival that offers a rare opportunity to innovate.

When it comes to performing outside, the magic moments usually make up for the drawbacks. Dancer and choreographer Sylvie Bouchard should know: for the past 14 years, she’s overseen Dusk Dances, an Ontario-based program that brings the art form to parks in the summer—and which has been a popular fixture at our own Dancing on the Edge festival over the years.

From the outset, the trio of pieces on the Dance Centre’s latest Pulse series program seem to have nothing in common. A performer tapes himself into a cardboard box and then rolls around. Dancers push themselves to physical extremes to embody gluttony. And a quartet moves with modern grace to Arvo Pärt’s haunting music.

Mis Hermanas

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The Montreal choreographer displays her command in strange, daring expressions of joy and curiosity in one of the dance events of the year.

With trademark verve, the East Vancouver choreographer moves to her own coolly inventive beats for International Dance Day.

Peter Pan

Banned from the U.S., Danza Cuba is back with pirouettes and swivelling hips in a fiery new show that’s bound to overcome our national bashfulness.

Victor Quijada’s Rubberbandance Group is known for its street-smart mashup of hip-hop and ballet. But rather than cutting and pasting together moves from each style, his renegade company has spent the past six years aiming for perfect fusion. Asking him to separate out the influences in his choreography, Quijada says, is like asking the Los Angeles–born Mexican-American which parts of him are from which culture.

The best thing about the Tomorrow Collective is that its works are rooted squarely in today. Dance can seem rarefied, but this trio of female upstarts is devoted to capturing the here and now. They make dance cool.