There is a moment in Manifesto — Australia’s Stephanie Lake Company’s genre-defying sensation — when the line between cohesion and chaos simply dissolves. Nine drummers and nine dancers, locked in the same relentless pulse, push the performance to a fever pitch that is less witnessed than felt. It is, as Dance Australia put it, “a perfectly realised work that celebrates not just the relationship between music and dance, but also the joy of being alive.”
Vancouver gets to find out for itself this April.
Presented by DanceHouse and Vancouver New Music, the BC Premiere of Manifesto arrives at the Vancouver Playhouse April 16–18, 2026 — the final stop on a landmark Canadian tour that has already captivated audiences in Montreal and Ottawa. That Vancouver closes the tour is no accident. “Bringing an Australian company to Canada takes real collaboration,” says Jim Smith, Artistic and Executive Director of DanceHouse. “We’re thrilled to welcome Stephanie Lake Company to the Vancouver Playhouse as the last stop on their Canadian tour.”
What audiences will encounter is unlike anything easily categorized. The nine dancers bring backgrounds spanning contemporary, ballet, salsa, hip hop, jazz, metal, classical, and experimental movement — and together with nine world-class drummers, they share a single stage beneath a towering velvet curtain, summoning what composer Robin Fox describes as a cacophonic wall of sound. Fox’s score — the work of Lake’s long-time partner and collaborator — draws inspiration from the glittering energy of old-time Hollywood extravaganzas, building from whisper to earthquake over the course of the performance.
Lake herself has emerged as one of Australia’s most celebrated choreographers, renowned for a movement vocabulary that combines meticulous control with moments of raw freedom. In Manifesto, that vocabulary is pushed to its outermost limits. Dancers twist and lock into suspended shapes, leap, catch each other in breathtaking displays of acrobatics, and move fluidly between solo, small group, and full ensemble choreography — every burst of sound echoed by an immediate physical response.
The effect is primal. Ancient ritual energy meets Hollywood spectacle. The rhythmic complexity compounds across the performance, building toward what the company describes as a “tattoo to optimism” — an ecstatic, visceral jubilation that erupts from the stage and into the audience.
“There’s something visceral about watching nine dancers and nine drummers locked in the same pulse,” says Giorgio Magnanensi, Artistic Director of Vancouver New Music. “Manifesto is Stephanie Lake at her most fearless — a celebration of joy, power, and the rhythms that connect us all.”
A pre-show chat takes place at 7:15pm each evening in the Upper Lobby, with a post-show social following Friday’s performance in the Salon.
Manifesto is on stage at the Vancouver Playhouse April 16–18, 2026 at 8pm. Tickets at dancehouse.ca.
Last modified: March 28, 2026
