News flash: Company Wayne McGregor will perform Autobiography V88 + V99, as the renowned British contemporary troupe makes its first ever appearance in Canada, October 1 and 2 in the at The Creative School Chrysalis (the former Ryerson theatre) for the rock-bottom price of $25 for all seats.

The event is sure to make many newcomers fall for dance, a chief mandate for Fall for Dance North, subtitled “Toronto’s Premier International Dance Festival.” The 10^th anniversary edition of FFDN, with performances running from September 26 to October 6 in multiple venues, makes a suitably grand swan song for founding artistic director Ilter Ibrahimof. 

Ibrahimof passes on the leadership of the festival to co-CEOs Lily Sutherland and Robert Binet, as he leaves a record of success that includes launching works encompassing more than 30 dance forms, including hip hop, professional folk dancing, Indigenous dance, several kinds of Indian classical dance, even ballroom and social dance. In the process he  has annually commissioned work from renowned creators such as Peggy Baker, Aszure Barton, Anne Plamondon, and Mthuthuzeli November and hosted big-name companies from abroad, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Brazil’s Grupo Corpo, Compagnie Hervé KOUBI from France, Nederlands Dans Theater and Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company. 

Under Ibrahimof’s direction, FFDN has attracted audiences in the tens of thousands to experience dance in TO. He leaves the city for a new home in Porto, Portugal. The move is a chance, he says, to be closer to his family in Istanbul and to take a rest for a while, becoming a dance consultant.

Lily Sutherland, the new co-CEO of FFDN will hold the role of festival director, a job she’s well prepared for. Coming out of a theatre background, she has worked with Luminato, The Toronto Fringe Festival and The Hamilton Festival Theatre Company. She joined the FFDN creative team in 2018 and is currently the fest’s executive producer. She and Binet officially take over November 4.

Choreographer, curator and ballet mentor Robert Binet, maker of many works for the National Ballet of Canada, the Royal Ballet and New York City Ballet among other companies, will be leaving a role he’s held since 2013 as director of artist development and choreographic associate at the NBoC to take up the post of co-CEO and artistic director.

The two CEOs already appear to be a good partnership. Says Binet, “We want to use the natural connections that dance has to other art forms, such as music, theatre and the visual arts to get people who love those forms to see that dance engages the same parts of our brain.”

Sutherland and Binet share a passion for getting more bums in seats or other ways of engaging, including actually dancing themselves. “For some people, coming and sitting in the dark with your phone off for two and a half hours is a blissful experience and for others, it can be a bit alienating and uncomfortable. The festival offers such people a chance to meet dancers on their own terms,” Binet notes.

Here’s a punter’s guide to 2024’s Fall for Dance North, September 26 to October 6. For complete details on performances, the International Presenters Program, free workshops, dates and venues, go to Home | Fall For Dance North (ffdnorth.com).

Homecoming: the 2024 Signature Programme: Ilter Ibrahimof has chosen to showcase three female choreographers whose work has been advanced through their participation in FFDN. The three-act program opens with Havana’s  Malapaosoa Dance Company performing The Last Song (La Última Canción), choreographed by Daile Carrazano. The piece was developed in a creative partnership between Toronto Metropolitan University’s Creative School and the FFDN. Act II brings the National Ballet of Canada back to the FFDN stage for the first time since 2019, with islands, choreographed by Emma Portner and first staged at FFDN in 2018. Two of NBoC’s ballerinas will perform islands. Ballet Edmonton returns to the FFDN stage in Act III with the world premiere of the festival’s inaugural artist-in-residence Anne Plamondon ensemble piece Feel no more set to the live music of Zach Frampton. September 26-27 in the Creative School Chrysalis at 7:30 pm.

Tkaronto Open II is a competition designed to celebrate Indigenous culture and showmanship among local Indigenous dancers. Contestant registration is $25, but the event is free to watch on September 28 at Union Station TD Carriageway, starting at 12 pm.

Studio 24 / Celebrating a Decade of FFDN. An evening to honour departing director Ilter Ibrahimof will feature performances by Nederlands Dans Theater,Malpaso Dance Company, Lady C & Raoul Wilke and a world premiere by Peggy Baker. The fundraiser VIP tickets include a cocktail reception, gala performances, followed by a catered dinner and disco dancing on stage with DJ Andrew Tay. Drinks and dinner at $300 (qualifying for a $180 tax receipt). A limited block of tickets at $75 each gets you into the performances, dinner and disco. Saturday September 28 at 6:00 pm in the Betty Oliphant Theatre.

Photos: from left, Ballet Edmonton’s Feel no more, by Nancy Price. Company Wayne McGregor in Autobiography, by Ravi Deepres.