EDAM Dance

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EDAM Dance

Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from EDAM Dance, Nonprofit Organization, 303 East 8th Avenue, Vancouver, BC.

EDAM's mandate is to provide a stable and fertile environment for the development of contemporary dance through teaching, training and the creation and production of choreography and the art of contact improvisation.

09/02/2026

Morning class begins NEXT WEEK🍁⁠
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Morning Class
Monday to Friday⁠
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM⁠
starting September 8th

Morning Class offers professional dancers and those at an advanced level of Contact Improvisation a dedicated space to engage in consistent, technical and critical CI training at a high level of practice.

✅️ Permission to attend is required for new participants (check the EDAM website for more details and our New Participant form).
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In a typical class, the teacher offers prompts to guide attention and practice with an emphasis on expanding awareness and skill development. Warm-up organically leads into open contact duets or more structured explorations. Class usually concludes with an ensemble score. Facilitated opportunities for conversation and questions occur halfway and/or at the end of class.
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*NEW* EDAM will pilot a new sign-in process at our Morning Class. Please be prepared for a slightly different flow at the door, and bear with us as we work out this transition 🌱

🌙 $25 per class, or pay by Class Card⁠
🌙 *NEW* Drop-in registration is available at the door by cash or credit. ⁠
🌙 No pre-registration is available, no payment by e-transfers. ⁠
🌙 Our Class Card promo is going strong. Link in bio for details on how to save, or visit www.edamdance.org/classes

08/31/2026

EDAM is pleased to announce our BIPOC CI class, taking place every Sunday this semester!⁠
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BIPOC Improvisation All-Levels⁠
with Natalie Tin Yin Gan (顏婷妍)⁠
Sundays, 3:30-5:30PM⁠
First class September 13th⁠
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A class for BIPOC dancers and movers, Natalie holds a welcoming space to learn Contact Improvisation.

Every class will begin with an opening circle and a warm-up, to bring us into our bodies and our sense of awareness. Natalie will offer CI foundations through individual, partnered, and/or group exercises. Each prompt is an invitation to be in inquiry and creativity together as we train our capacity for listening, responsiveness, and play. We will improvise with our many dance partners: the floor, the space, ourselves, and our fellow dancers.
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BIPOC: This class is for those who self-identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Person of Colour).⁠
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♦️ $25 per class, or pay by Class Card⁠
♦️ *NEW* Drop-in registration is available at the door by cash or credit. ⁠
♦️ No pre-registration is available, no payment by e-transfers. ⁠
♦️ Purchase a Class Card during our promo and save, going on now. Link in bio for details or at www.edamdance.org/classes

08/27/2026

Sundays are back starting September 13th!

Contact Improvisation All-Levels
with Anne Cooper
Sundays, 12:30-2:30PM⁠
starting Sept 13th⁠

This class is a weekly, open level, drop-in class with Anne Cooper, who has been teaching Contact Improvisation at EDAM for over 20 years. She brings her extensive experience and continuous inquiry to this class, meeting participants where they are at in their dancing and offering ways to dig deeper into the practice.

🌙 $25 per class, or pay by Class Card⁠
🌙 *NEW* Drop-in registration is available at the door by cash or credit. ⁠
🌙 No pre-registration is available, no payment by e-transfers. ⁠
🌙 Purchase a Class Card during our promo and save, going on now. Visit www.edamdance.org/classes⁠ to purchase.
⁠

photo:

08/25/2026

✔️✔️ Mark your calendars, EDAM classes are starting up two weeks!

Contact Improvisation Fundations
Thursdays, 6:30-8:30PM
starting Sept 10th

A beginner-friendly class focused on introducing (and re-introducing) Contact Improvisation basics. While the class is targeted for those with 0-3 years of CI experience, we welcome all-levels to sharpen their foundational skills and take part in this shared research of Contact Improvisation.

Teacher Schedule
💫 September 10th to October 29th: Arash Khakpour
🔸 October 1st: Special Class with Nica Portavia
💫 November 5th to December 17th: Francesca Frewer

This class will explore a variety of fundamental CI principles including:
- rolling point of contact
- sloughing (sliding)
- meeting pressure (continuity of connection)
- weight sharing
- under-dancing (offering mobile support)

$25 per class, or pay by Class Card
*NEW* Drop-in registration is available at the door by cash or credit.
No pre-registration is available, no payment by e-transfers.

Psst...don't forget our Class Card promo is going on now! Link in bio for details or at www.edamdance.org/classes

photo:

08/17/2026

The start of EDAM’s 26/27 season begins September 8th, less than a month away! To celebrate our coming offerings, we’re having a Class Card Deal 💫

This promo won’t last long, so now is your chance to start your Fall off on the right foot—moving in community.

5-Class Card deal - $90 ($18 per class)
10-Class Card deal - $135 ($13.50 per class)

Class Card Policy⁠
☄️ Limit purchase up to three 10-Class Cards during this deal.
☄️ Class Cards are valid until June 2027.
☄️Class Cards are non-refundable and non-transferable, though can be purchased as a gift.⁠
☄️ Class Cards cannot be shared.⁠
☄️ Class Cards may be used towards all drop-in classes at EDAM - Morning Class, Thursday Foundations, Sunday CI All Levels with Anne Cooper, and BIPOC CI with Natalie Tin Yin Gan.⁠

Link in bio or visit our website at edamdance.org/classes

08/13/2026

FUNDAMENTALS WORKSHOP
Saturday, September 26th
12:30 - 4:30pm
with Hayley Gawthrop

Early Bird: $70 until September 7th
Regular: $92

Registration required, no drop-ins.

This workshop will introduce Contact Improvisation basics, providing you with the fundamentals to begin your practice. Hayley’s teaching is dynamic and physically engaging, balancing practical skill-building with open exploration. Using Contact Improvisation as a framework for inquiry, you'll move, listen, and respond — exploring questions of care, support, and flight while building confidence in the unknown. If you are new to Contact, this workshop is for you!

⭕️ What is Contact Improvisation? ⭕️
Contact Improvisation (CI) is an improvised dance, involving non-verbal communication between bodies moving through physical contact. It is a meditation on presence and somatic awareness, as well as a play of physics using gravity, momentum, and inertia to inspire dancing together. Every moment is a collaboration with a focus on “listening” through the skin surface at the physical point of contact.

⭕️ Workshop Structure ⭕️
This workshop will begin with a guided warm-up to deepen awareness of ourselves in relation to gravity. We will practice moving in and out of the floor with ease and efficiency. Through individual, partnered, and/or group exercises we will explore specific Contact partnering skills such as rolling point of contact, sloughing (sliding), meeting pressure (continuity of connection), weight sharing, and underdancing (offering mobile support). We will conclude with a scored improvisation, allowing time to integrate the skills we’ve learned into dancing.

⭕️ About Hayley ⭕️
Hayley Gawthrop is an independent artist born and raised in Semiahmoo territory (South Surrey) and based on the unceded ancestral lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (Vancouver). Hayley has been singing and dancing since their beginning and is passionate about gentleness, bodily autonomy, and listening with curiosity. Since 2015, Hayley has studied Contact Improvisation under Peter Bingham and has danced professionally with EDAM since 2021.

Learn more about our Fundamentals Workshop and register on our website, www.edamdance.org/workshops

07/15/2026

EDAM is delighted to host guest artist Nica Portavia (Italy) for a two-day Workshop intensive and special Class, Sept 28-Oct 1 at EDAM.

🌀 DEAR GRAVITY
Experienced CI Level Workshop

Mon-Tues | Sept 28 + 29th
10:30AM - 4:45PM (lunch break 1 - 2PM)
$125 - Early Bird rate until Aug 4th
Single day and full series registration available online

Dear Gravity, thanks for inviting us to fall.

A body-mind-anthropological-imaginative journey to study the weight of our sensations, our reflexes, to study our attention and how it moves and is being moved.

🌀 (UN)STABLE Togetherness
Open CI Level Class

Thurs | Oct 1st
6:30 - 8:00PM
Sliding scale $25 - $41

We are beings made of relationships — with ourselves, others, and the world around us. In a world that shifts faster than we can predict, CI offers tools to navigate presence, unpredictability, and connection. This practice invites us to feel, to fall, to listen, to be supported by gravity and one another. It’s a way to study our attention, our reflexes, our ability to adapt, re-direct, transform.

For full Workshop/Class descriptions, or to register online, visit the link in our bio, www.edamdance.org/nicaportavia

06/29/2026

EDIT from June 12th:⁠
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Say hello to our next round of BIPOC Jam Guest Hosts, George Zheng Berking + Sierra Megas! Together they will facilitate this ongoing BIPOC gathering.⁠
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BIPOC Jam⁠
Sunday, June 14th⁠
3:30-5:30PM⁠
Drop-in $15⁠
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About George Zheng Berking:⁠
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George Zheng Berking (he/they) is a multidisciplinary artist, facilitator, and community organizer based in Vancouver, on unceded Coast Salish territories. Their practice moves between contact improvisation, clown, and interactive sculpture. Drawing from community-based arts and somatic practice, George creates playful relational experiences that invite curiosity, tenderness, and transformation.⁠
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About Sierra Megas:⁠
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Sierra Megas is an artist and arts worker of Chinese, English, and Eastern European ancestry, living as a settler on traditional, stolen, and occupied MST territory. Her practice spans Contact Improvisation, contemporary dance, teaching, and artistic producing. Sierra performs occasionally, and sometimes makes sculptures, textiles, and drawings.

06/22/2026

EDAM’s 2025/2026 season is coming to close. It’s been a momentous, beautiful year for us, and we’re grateful for the community that’s been by our side through it all. As we come to a close for some much needed R&R, here are your last chances to move with us:

🪴 Final Offerings - by class type

Foundations in Contact: Thurs, June 25
BIPOC Jam: Sun, June 28
Morning Class: Tues, June 30
Open Jam: Sun, July 19
CI Class: Sun, July 19

Don’t forget Class and Jam Cards 🚨 expire at the end of the Season 🚨, and are not transferable to next year. So if you have cards left to use, this is your final call!

Have a great summer, classes will resume September 8th, 2026.

06/15/2026

Call for EDAM Training Scholarships⁠
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Training Period: Sept 08, 2026 - Dec 18, 2026 (15 weeks)⁠
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We are now accepting applications for Fall 2026 Scholarships. This program offers participants an opportunity to intensify their Contact Improvisation practice and professional dance training. Scholarship recipients will immerse themselves in EDAM’s distinct lineage, rich community, and ongoing research within the practice of Contact Improvisation.
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Requirements: To participate in EDAM’s Scholarship, recipients must attend a minimum of three Morning Class per week, held Monday to Friday, from 10AM to 12PM.⁠
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Who Should Apply?⁠
💠 Professional or pre-professional performing artists (in any physical discipline) with foundational experience in Contact Improvisation.
💠 CI practitioners who have already been training at EDAM and wish to deepen their practice.
💠 Priority may be given to applicants who are already familiar with Morning Class at EDAM, or those who have demonstrated consistent attendance in EDAM’s Thursday evening or Sunday classes over a number of years. We also encourage interested artists who are newer to EDAM to apply.
💠 Priority will be given to artists based in Vancouver.
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View more call details & the application form at edamdance.org/scholarships.⁠
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Application Deadline: July 15 at 11:59PM⁠
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If you have any questions about the Scholarship Program or the application process, please email us at: [email protected]⁠
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Applicants will be notified of results by July 22, 2026⁠
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photo: Luciana Photography

Address

303 East 8th Avenue
Vancouver, BC
V5T1S1

Telephone

+16048769559

Website

http://www.edamdance.org/

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