The Wild Moccasin Dancers are a dynamic troupe that displays the beauty and vibrancy of pow wow culture ethrough dance. We engage the audience and encourage participation. As well as performances we also hold workshops. Our workshops are a wonderful opportunity for the audience to experience a more in-depth breakdown of the steps. From schools to festivals The Wild Moccasins have performed and taught at many events.
Categories: Tier 2
Royal Academy of Bhangra Society
In 2012, a group of dedicated arts and bhangra enthusiasts came together to create a professional bhangra organization that would not only raise the platform of Punjabi Folk Arts through quality programming and events, but collaborate with the wider community to create awareness and opportunities for fusion, exploration and connection.
Royal Academy of Bhangra is the first Canadian not-for-profit academy to offer a formal Punjabi Folk Dance education with a syllabus consisting of three grade levels. The Academy’s Dance Director, Hardeep Singh Sahota, was key in the development of the bhangra syllabus program for all Canadian Dance Teachers, BC Branch.
The Academy successfully uses the art form of bhangra as a creative outlet to promote skills, discipline, physical fitness, and provide team building and leadership initiatives for youth. The Academy offers training in Punjabi Folk Dances such as Bhangra, Jhummar, Dhamal and Malwai Giddha, Sammi, Luddi and Kikli along with traditional Punjabi Folk Instruments.
Adalat Dance Company
Adalat Omar is a Professional Dancer, Choreographer and Dance Instructor graduated from the Xinjiang Uyghur Art Institute’s Dance Faculty. Adalat is internationally well-known with her Professional Uyghur Traditional Dance and Middle Eastern Oriental Dance. She was one of the main dancers on the popular TV series “Shimmy”. Adalat and Adalat Dance Company has performed, as a featured artist, with dance and music troupe around the world for many events, theater production, festivals, including TVs and Movies. Adalat Omar also the official dance choreographer of BEAUTIES OF 5 CONTINENTS – 2019. Adalat Omar also holding Middle Eastern Oriental Dance and Uyghur Traditional Folk-Dance classes in a professional studio.
Seishun Youth Academy
Meet Seishun Youth Academy, a Vancouver-based pop group and sister unit to the Japanese rock idol group Seishun Gakuen. This all-Canadian girl group gets the audience pumping with energetic performances, complete with over-the-top dance routines and live singing to their original songs! Seishun Youth Academy aims to start a new wave across the world with their explosive performances, fresh music, and positive message of friendship, acceptance, and perseverance.
Satsuki Kai Japanese Dance Group
The Satsuki Kai Japanese Dance Group was formed in May 2011 by Nishikawa Kayo of the Nishikawa School of Japanese classical dance to give people an opportunity to enjoy learning Japanese dance. The name comes from the pronunciation of the old name for May, “satsuki”, although it is written with a different Chinese character meaning “colour”. The hope is for people to have a more colourful, happier life through dance.
The group participates in many events, especially at the Japanese cultural centre, Nikkei Place in Burnaby, and works hard to showcase Japanese culture through dance. Past events include the annual Powell Street Festival, kimono fashion shows, performances at seniors’ residences and other multicultural events.
ROOTS Peruvian Folk Dance
Roots is a Peruvian Folk Dance group founded in October 2017 and is based in New Westminster, under the direction of Jessica Roca-Muncaster.
The mission of Roots is to bring the beauty, colour and passion of traditional Peruvian dances to Canada. Our repertoire includes dances from the three regions of Peru: the Coast, the Andes and the Amazon.
Our distinct costumes, folk music and enthusiasm reach out to our audiences and gets them on their feet for our final dance.
The dancers are a group of Canadians and Peruvians that have found a second family in Roots where they can connect and share Peruvian culture through dance and music.
Muevete Marimba
Muevete means to move and this dynamic young group will definitely get you dancing!
The members of this marimba ensemble range in age from 11-20 and have been performing at festivals and events around BC under the direction of renowned percussionist Robin Layne. Highlights include the Vancouver World Music Festival and Vancouver Island MusicFest, where they had the chance to share the main stage with another youth marimba group from the island Zazu. They are excited to share their music all over the province this summer at festivals and events!
Phase III
Caribbean Steelband playing hot tropical songs.
Vancouver Okinawa Taiko
Vancouver Okinawa Taiko has been performing in numerous cultural festivals, charity functions, sports ceremonies and anniversary events over last 15 years. The group’s aim is to share Okinawan style drum-dancing Eisa and to promote Okinawan culture. Their membership is made up of several generations to reflect this grassroots folk art. Vancouver Okinawa Taiko performs using Eisa style drums accompanied by traditional and contemporary Okinawan music.
Toque Flamenco
Toque Flamenco is born early in 2014 when Mario Sota and Marilú (who are a couple) shared the vision of creating a truly unique Flamenco experience in order to promulgate the Flamenco
culture in Western Canada. Joined by Karito (dancer and Marilú’s sister), this project has ever since led to the perfect blending of each other’s talents, tons of inspiration, dedication and creativity, which altogether creates astounding shows every single time.
The band performs Flamenco with passion and rhythmic precision, creating festive and breathtaking Flamenco shows that include music and dance. Toque Flamenco performs pure/traditional Flamenco as well as accessible or unrestricted flamenco. They enjoy pushing boundaries and doing songs that are outside the normal Flamenco repertoire such as Rock, Argentinean Tangos and Latin. In a manner similar to Jazz, this band plays with improvisation and complex rhythmic patterns to create exciting and entertaining pieces that are distinctive every time.
They have performed in many of the main festivals in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland such as Vancouver World Music Festival, Richmond World Festival, Harrison Season of Performing Arts, Khatsalano, Surrey Fusion Festival, Carnaval del Sol, Vancouver International Flamenco Festival, Victoria Flamenco Festival, among others.
