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Events, contests and other initiatives by The Tyee and select partners.

CONTEST: Win Tickets to Local Theatre for Black History Month

One lucky Tyee reader will get two tickets to ‘Broken Chord’ this February.

DanceHouse and Vancouver New Music 6 Feb 2023TheTyee.ca

A Black woman in a colourful patterned dress and shawl stands on a box while singing. Three Black men in colourful patterned sweaters and black pants stand behind her in partial shadows.
Broken Chord runs from Feb. 23 to 25 at the Vancouver Playhouse. Photo by Lolo Vasco.

From 1891 to 1893 a group of young African singers travelled by boat to Britain, Canada and America. The goal of this ensemble of missionary-educated Black people, named the African Native Choir, was to raise funds for a technical school in Kimberley, South Africa.

Inspired by photography from that tour and using traditional Xhosa and contemporary dance styles alongside atmospheric soundscapes, choreographer and performer Gregory Maqoma and musical director Thuthuka Sibisi weave together recorded personal accounts of the African Choir, revealing a drama of global dimensions in Broken Chord.

With a single dancer (Maqoma), four vocal soloists and an onstage a cappella chorus, Broken Chord not only reflects on an archive but triggers, critiques and comments on urgent issues of migration, dispossession, borders and paths of forced closure, raising important questions about the relationship between the colonized and the colonizer, and either’s complicity in shaping and shifting a South African narrative — past and present.

The hybrid dance and music performance runs for three nights, from Feb. 23 to 25 at the Vancouver Playhouse. One Tyee reader will win two tickets for their preferred performance date. Enter to win below.

Broken Chord is a co-presentation of DanceHouse and Vancouver New Music.

Fill out my online form.

About DanceHouse

DanceHouse connects Vancouver audiences and the local arts community to the international world of dance by presenting exceptional companies that are recognized for their excellence, innovation and international reputation. Since 2008, DanceHouse has presented vibrant and inspiring companies from Canada and around the world.

In addition to the performances on stage, DanceHouse offers a suite of engagement opportunities and a chance for the general public and local artistic community to engage with the presented artists and their work.

About Vancouver New Music

Supporting creativity, innovation, curiosity and a multiplicity of voices and ideas, Vancouver New Music is committed to curating practices, not only works, and embracing the rhizomatic expansion of current modes of sound and music creation.

Founded in 1973, Vancouver New Music regularly commissions and premieres new works by Canadian and international composers, presents an annual festival that focuses each year on a theme within the new music landscape and explores the interaction of contemporary music with other disciplines such as theatre, installation and media arts.

Other activities include lectures and workshops with visiting artists, community presentations, and other sound-, art- and new-music related community events, such as Soundwalks. [Tyee]

Read more: Media

This article is part of a Tyee Presents initiative. Tyee Presents is the special sponsored content section within The Tyee where we highlight contests, events and other initiatives that are either put on by us or by our select partners. The Tyee does not and cannot vouch for or endorse products advertised on The Tyee. We choose our partners carefully and consciously, to fit with The Tyee’s reputation as B.C.’s Home for News, Culture and Solutions. Learn more about Tyee Presents here.

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