WCD’s season lineup promises to keep audiences on their toes

Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers are putting the Winnipeg part of their name in bold with a hyper-local 61st season.

“It’s the first time in a really long time that all three subscription series shows will feature local dancers,” says artistic director Jolene Bailie. “So that’s huge for us.”

Typically, at least one show in the WCD’s subscription series — which is composed of three shows, usually presented at the Rachel Browne Theatre in the fall, winter and spring — will feature a visiting performer, as when Canadian contemporary dance icon Margie Gillis brought her solo show Old to Winnipeg last season.

This season will, however, feature a visiting choreographer. The first show of 2025/26 is Croquis (Nov. 21 to 23) by Vancouver choreographer/performance artist Ralph Escamillan, who served as a WCD artist-in-residence during the pandemic and could only work with the dancers virtually.

“It’s really exciting to finally have him here in person and on site,” Bailie says. “Ralph is a dancer that performs many genres, from cultural work to vogue to contemporary dance. He has a real multiplicity of his dance practice, and part of his influence is his Filipino heritage as well.”

A “croquis” is a borrowed French term for a rough draft or preliminary sketch. Escamillan was inspired by that idea, and designed architectural costumes constructed entirely out of intricately folded packing paper.

“They are just phenomenal to see,” Bailie says.

Next up, from Jan. 30 to Feb. 1, 2026, is Winnipeg intermedia artist Freya Björg Olafson’s MÆ Motion Aftereffect, which made its première at Prairie Theatre Exchange in 2019 and explores the impact of various technological realities — virtual, augmented, mixed and extended — on the real world.

“It’s really cutting-edge,” Bailie says of the work. “She’s drawing on virtual reality, the hybridization of our world nowadays, video games, pornography, live-feed video.

“It’s delivered a little bit like a lecture demo, but she’s also dancing. It’s a super cool, relevant, unique work that’s had lots of interest and success beyond us, and she’s one of our local sensations.”

The season will conclude with a new work by Bailie, which will be performed April 17-19, 2026. It doesn’t have a title yet, but it does have a concept.

“We will be delving into the impact of accumulation,” Bailie says. “I think that as we get older and have more life experience, the accumulated impact that has on us changes us in a way, changes our point of view.”

The 2025/26 season begins in earnest next month with the annual Emerging Artists Initiative show, which will be presented in the Rachel Browne Theatre Oct. 23 and 24.

This initiative has been part of the WCD season since Bailie came on as artistic director in 2019. Seven dancers will participate in a five-week intensive that culminates in the pair of public performances.

“WCD serves the community through this project by providing this opportunity to bridge the gap from emerging to professional dancer,” Bailie says.

The WCD will also be engaging in other partnerships and projects outside of its core subscription series this season, including hosting NAfro Dance Productions’ Moving Inspirations Dance Festival and a hall-of-fame event put on by Toronto’s Dance Collection Danse, at which the WCD will be performing its founder Rachel Browne’s 1990 work My Romance.

“With the support of the Winnipeg Foundation, we are also moving forward with an entire Winnipeg cast for an amazing piece called The Whole Blooming Thing by Margie Gillis,” Bailie says. Audiences can expect that next November.

“Our focus is always the subscription series, and it’s huge for us. But these ancillary projects are also what makes us who we are, and provide a lot of opportunities for local dancers,” Bailie says.

Longtime WCD dancer Carol-Ann Bohrn is excited about the upcoming season, but mostly what she feels heading into it is gratitude that she can continue to make art.

“Arts in general are really struggling. We’re not seeing increases in funding — even though there’s inflation, there’s been no increases — and there’s actually talks about cuts to funding. We are like cockroaches. You can’t get rid of us. We’re going to keep working however we can,” Bohrn says.

“I think it’s amazing what Jolene can accomplish with her shoestring budget. The fact that we can deliver the quality of work that we do with so little resources is a testament to the fact that this is actually really meaningful to us. This is what we want to do.”

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.ca