Organizers today announced the dates and the exciting concerts and events lined-up for the 18th Annual Chutzpah! Festival. Awe-inspiring dance, extraordinary theatre, hilarious comedy and globally-celebrated music highlight this year’s festival with world-class performances and workshops by international, Canadian and local artists from February 15 to March 15, 2018.
An eagerly anticipated and annual highlight of Greater Vancouver’s dance season is the Chutzpah! Festival’s Dance Series. Highlights include Israeli company Roy Assaf Dance in its Chutzpah! debut with a program of intricate and nuanced works, Six Years Later and The Hill. Canadian premiere of Ezralow Dance, a creative home for internationally renowned Daniel Ezralow’s expansive and eclectic body of work known for its explosive physicality, originality and humour (USA); a Chutzpah! first and North American Premiere of choreographer Michele Merola’s MM Contemporary Dance performing Rite of Spring and Bolero (Italy) – presented with the Italian Cultural Centre; as well as critically-acclaimed dance companies from Israel and Bulgaria.
Chutzpah! is excited to present the World Premiere of Salomé: Woman of Valor, a multi-disciplinary show created by Frank London, esteemed composer and bandleader of Grammy-winning superstars The Klezmatics and Adeena Karasick, Canadian poet and performance artist. Their new work seamlessly blends live music, text, video and dance.
Chutzpah! Is also known for presenting outstanding internationally-celebrated music, including leading world music pioneers. Highlights include; the return of Festival favourite, Israeli singer/songwriter and musician Idan Raichel performing his celebrated solo piano show; blurring jazz, rock, mariachi, metal, funk and hip hop, Mexico’s Troker; World-class vocalist Perla Batalla, a long-time singer and touring band member with the legendary Leonard Cohen, brings her special concert Perla Batalla In the House of Cohen to Chutzpah! this year. Local multi-talented Barbara Adler (Canada) makes her festival debut concert in a double-bill with musician/poet Jake Klar (USA); Toronto’s Beyond the Pale has been making its distinctive brand of boundary-busting Eurofolk fusion for nearly 20 years.
Chutzpah!’s theatre highlight includes Michael Rubenfeld’s We Keep Coming Back, a work deconstructing Polish, Jewish narratives that premiered in Krakow, Poland in 2016. Chutzpah! 2018 presents two of Canada’s most revered comedic artists and New Zealand’s only Jewish comic; the former celebrated host and creator of CBC’s Wiretap, humourist Jonathan Goldstein returns with an evening of new adventures and stories. Another Chutzpah! first is the presentation of numerous Gemini, Canadian Comedy and Canadian Screen Award-winning Mary Walsh who brings her new show to the festival stage. Rounding out our comedic theatrical programming is New Zealander Deb Filler’s internationally lauded one woman show I DID IT MY WAY IN YIDDISH (IN ENGLISH)!
Single tickets for Chutzpah! are $24 to $55 (+ gst/sc) and are on sale now and can be purchased online at chutzpahfestival.com, by phone at 604-257-5145 or in-person starting January 15th at the on-site Chutzpah! Box Office at the Jewish Community Centre. Chutzi Packs are also available: see 4 different shows of your choice and back this year is a special 5-Show Dance Pack.
