Mascall Dance's THE WHITE SPIDER Set for Vancouver's Roundhouse Community Centre

The Vancouver International Dance Festival and the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad are pleased to present the World Première of Mascall Dance's The White Spider. Inspired by Henrich Harrer's book of the same name, which tells the story of Harrer's expedition to scale the North Face of the Eiger Mountain, this dance is an abstract collage of forces that depict the complicated predicaments faced by those confronting life and death and the elements. 

The White Spider runs March 12 and 13 at the Roundhouse Community Centre.

A kinetic sculpture-set, designed by Alan Storey (winner of the Mayor's Arts Awards for Public Artist of the Year), provokes five dancers to climb, rappel, glide and fly across the angles of a landscape that shifts and changes like the abstract face of a mountain. Composer Jeff Corness, a rare designer who truly creates for and with dance, constructs a driving soundtrack that entrances and contextualizes the movement. Cande Andrade's projections and James Proudfoot's lighting invoke, enlarge, enhance, redirect and interpret the images the dancers are making. Jennifer Mascall's eccentric vision results in a fusion that is simultaneously dance, sculptural installation, site-specific musical composition, and mountaineering.

The White Spider runs for two shows only: March 12 and 13 at 8 pm. The running time is 105 minutes plus an intermission. Performances take place at The Roundhouse Community Centre. Tickets are $25-35, with discounts for groups of 8 or more. VIDF passes are also available.

For tickets, visit http://www.vidf.ca.

Photo of Ziyian Kwan in The White Spider. Photo Credit: Chris Randle