Joshua Beamish/MOVETHECOMPANY To Host 20th Anniversary Gala

Joshua Beamish/MOVETHECOMPANY will celebrate 20 years of choreographic innovation with a dazzling, two-night-only 20th Anniversary Gala at the Vancouver Playhouse on May 29 & 30, 2025.

Featuring five captivating pieces – from a playful, Beach Boys-inspired ballet to the jazz-infused tonality of John Adams and more – the evocative mixed program is a virtuosic journey through the company’s evolution over the past two decades.

The diverse retrospective will showcase a line-up of some of North America’s finest artists from San Francisco Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, American Ballet Theatre, Ballet Edmonton, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, as well as former artists from Ballet BC.

“When I reflect upon 20 years of creation with MOVETHECOMPANY, I feel immensely grateful for the inspiring and exceptionally talented artists I’ve been privileged to work with,” says company founder, artistic director, and choreographer Joshua Beamish. “I’m thrilled to mark this major milestone by welcoming a phenomenal group of performers from ballet companies across Canada and North America – some of them my closest friends and dear colleagues and others I have been dreaming of working with – to breathe new life into the five compelling works that represent some of my favourite choreographic creations over the past two decades. I can’t wait for Vancouver audiences to experience their brilliance in this celebratory homecoming production.”

The 20th Anniversary Gala will open with an excerpt from Trap Door Party, which returns to Vancouver for the first time since 2010, featuring original cast member – and one of Vancouver’s most beloved performers – Amber Barton. The iconic work from 2007 solidified Beamish as “one of Canada’s most promising choreographers” (The Globe and Mail) and is one of the company’s most widely toured productions. Painting a dystopian picture of conformity, Trap Door Party will also feature dancers Ariana Barr (former Ballet Edmonton artist), Juan Daurte and Justin Rapaport (former Ballet BC artists), Calder White, and Kirsten Wicklund (former Ballet BC artist and current Artistic Director, Ballet Edmonton).

In addition to the remount of Trap Door Party, the program will showcase four Vancouver premieres. Lollapalooza is Beamish’s first work for The National Ballet of Canada, which premiered at the company’s Mad Hot Gala in 2018. A playful, bombastic tribute to ballet’s athleticism, set to John Adams’ dynamic composition of the same name, original cast member Harrison James (Principal Dancer, The National Ballet of Canada and San Francisco Ballet) will perform alongside Vancouver-raised ballerina Frances Chung (Principal Dancer, San Francisco Ballet), who trained at the Goh Ballet Academy. 

Originally created in 2011 for New York’s Joyce Soho Theatre, Marcato explores shifting power dynamics between five male dancers, as the arrival of an outsider upsets the established hierarchy. Featuring “sharp articulation, accents that hit and run,” (The New Yorker), Marcato will feature dancers Julian Hunt (current Kidd Pivot apprentice), Jordan Lang (former Ballet BC artist), and Diego Ramalho (current Ballet Edmonton artist), as well as Duarte and Rapaport.

A “sensual, meditative” (The New York Times) duet, the Vancouver premiere of STAY will also feature James, in duet with Stephanie Petersen (former American Ballet Theatre artist), who originated the role with MOVETHECOMPANY in 2015. Commissioned by Dancers Responding to AIDS’ Fire Island Dance Festival, the work follows the uncertain future of a relationship suspended in space and time

The program will conclude with one of Beamish’s latest creations, Endless Summer, which premiered at New York’s Gerald W. Lynch Theater in 2022. Set to the sun-drenched sounds of The Beach Boys, this celebration of idyllic summer gradually reveals the longings and desires hidden beneath peace, love, and rock ‘n roll. The Vancouver premiere of Endless Summer will be newly reworked for a larger ensemble featuring Barr, Duarte, Hunt, James, Lang, Petersen, Ramalho, Rapaport, and Wicklund, as well as Ballet Edmonton’s Paula Cobo Botello and Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s Kyra Soo, who was raised in Port Coquitlam and trained at the Goh Ballet Academy.

Born and raised in Kelowna, Beamish adopted Vancouver as his hometown after moving to the city for his last year of dance training with The Source Dance Company and Pacific DanceArts in 2004. Determined to carve out an unconventional path for himself within the dance world, Beamish founded MOVETHECOMPANY in 2005, at the age of just 17. Over the past 20 years, his works have toured throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, and have included commissions from The Royal Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Vancouver Opera, Cape Town Opera, New York Choreographic Institute, Compania Nacional de Danza de Mexico and Toronto Dance Theatre, among others.

In celebration of MOVETHECOMPANY’s 20th Anniversary Gala, Beamish has partnered with Goh Ballet to offer two special master classes taught by Principal Dancer Frances Chung on Sunday, May 25.