It’s our 40th Anniversary!
With great excitement we are thrilled to announce this new show featuring live music by the Falling Bullets Jazz Band from New Orleans, led by Marla Dixon. The music will be traditional New Orleans Jazz, yes, music from the birthplace of jazz, and you better believe we are going to respond with all our foot stomping, finger snapping, head nodding, shoulder shimmying, torso wiggling, hip shaking, groove busting ways. We are always glad to part of the High Performance Rodeo and thank our friends at One Yellow Rabbit for including us in their fabulous festival.
PERFORMANCE EVENTS
Opening Night - January 16
Talkback Night - January 17
Regular Run January 18-26
Artistic Director’s Message
Kimberley Cooper
We call and respond all the time. We are doing it right now. I’m calling to you with these words, and you are reading and responding.
We use it in conversation:
How are you?
In anything democratic:
All those in favour say yea!
In sports:
Let’s go sports team let’s go!
In church:
Can I get an Amen?
Did you read those words and respond? Did you think:
Fine
Yea
Clap, Clap
Amen
How hard did you have to think about it? My guess is not very. This automatic response is something that happens to me, and, I’d guess, all the artists on stage when we hear jazz music. We simply respond, with our bodies and spirits and voices.
read more
Featuring Gisele Ardosa
Photo Credit: Laura Kleiner
Featuring Catherine Hayward, Shemar Herbert, Thys Armstrong and Kaja Irwin
Photo Credit: Laura Kleiner
Featuring Sabrina Naz Comanescu, Tasha Korney and Marla Dixon
Photo Credit: Laura Kleiner
Featuring Shemar Herbert, Edward Campbell, Isaac Abriel, Mara Liao Esnard amd Kaja Irwin
Photo Credit: Laura Kleiner
Featuring Gisele Ardosa and Kaja Irwin
Photo Credit: Laura Kleiner
Featuring Shemar Herbert, Isaac Abriel and Kaja Irwin
"Decidedly Jazz Danceworks (DJD) turns 40 in 2025 and they’re kicking off a milestone birthday by throwing a celebration of movement at the High Performance Rodeo. All you need to know about their season-opening show Call and Response, opening Jan. 16, is that it features the Falling Bullets Jazz Band from New Orleans.
That means a performance that the company described in a media release as a “toe-tapping, foot stomping, finger snapping, head nodding, torso wiggling, groove busting” show designed to pump up the energy level of the Rodeo."
Stephen Hunt - CTV News Calgary
VIEW ARTICLE
"A production set in the birthplace of jazz is, of course, a nice way to pay homage to the history of the company. But DJD’s relationship to jazz in the past 40 years has to broadly celebrate the evolving genre in all its many shades."
Eric Volmers - Calgary Herald
VIEW ARTICLE
TRAILERS
DANCERS
Call and Response features the DJD Company dancers Thys Armstrong, Sabrina Naz Comănescu, Catherine Hayward, Shemar Herbert, Kaja Irwin, Mara Liao Esnard, Natasha Korney and Apprentice dancers Isaac Abriel, Gisele Ardosa and Edward Campbell.
MUSICIANS
Call and Response features live music played by Marla Dixon (Musical Director, Trumpet, Vocals), Defne (Dizzy) Incirlioglu (Washboard, Percussion), Haruka Kikuchi (Trombone), Tomas Majcherski (Reeds), John Rodli (Guitar), Julie Schexnayder (Bass)
Parking at DJD
The DJD Dance Centre parkade offers FREE underground parking Monday to Friday after 5PM and on Saturdays and Sundays. The parkade is free to valid ticket holders and students. Please note a code is needed to enter the parkade. (you will receive a code for the parkade 24 hours before the performance you are attending or with your class purchase). You can access the DJD parkade off Centre Street (at the back of the Kahanoff Centre). Walk offs are not permitted, your car can only remain in the DJD parking lot while you are at the DJD Dance Centre.
Please note: There is a 6 foot maximum height restriction for our underground parking.
Additional parking
Two large paid-public parking lots are located at the South and East sides of the building. Two-hour meter street parking is available on Center Street SE, between 12 and 13 Avenue SE. Two disabled parking spaces are available on the south side of the building.
