Tessa Virtue to Make Off-Ice Debut at FALL FOR DANCE NORTH 2026

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The Toronto festival will also present Justin Peck's PARTITA and Alyssa Martin's LANDSLIDE world premiere.

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Fall For Dance North Festival (FFDN), is thrilled to unveil an expansive, energizing lineup for their 12th annual edition, underway this fall from October 15th-25th. The second year under the leadership team of Festival Director & Co-CEO Lily Sutherland and Artistic Director & Co-CEO Robert Binet, the 2026 festival programming comprises four breathtaking Signature Programmes, two full-length feature presentations, and the late-night mixed repertoire series Night Shift. Ticketed programs are complemented by a robust line-up of free public programming throughout the October festival dates, animating Union Station, and public spaces across the downtown core. Including site-specific performances and activations, durational performances, open rehearsals, and workshops - the full line-up of free public programming will be announced in August. Additionally, in the lead up to the festival FFDN again presents the Tkaronto Open IV Indigenous Powwow Dance competition at Union Station on September 26th, co-presented with Union & TO Live, with support from The Native Women's Resource Centre of Toronto. Maintaining a commitment to make extraordinary performance highly accessible, the festival continues to offer all ticketed programs for $25, a welcoming invitation to Torontonians to explore, to discover, to be moved, and to fall for dance.

“Attempting to bring all that dance can offer us under one roof is an honour and a beautiful challenge,” shares FFDN Artistic Director & Co-CEO Robert Binet. “Where else can you experience an Olympic Champion, a flamenco star, jazz icons, and the voices of a new generation - Broadway, street dance, contemporary and modern choreographers, all in one place? At this year's festival, dance will carry us through stories of community, parenthood, aging, legacy, blindness, building a better world, and so much more. I hope that when audiences experience this festival their lives expand with rhythm and the generosity of spirit that can make dance feel like it is for everyone.”

Festival Director & Co-CEO Lily Sutherland adds, “Each year, Fall For Dance North is an invitation to experience the joy, wonder, and connection that dance can inspire, and this year's festival feels especially meaningful. As an organization, we are entering a new chapter with renewed focus on strengthening the festival's artistic vision, expanding audience reach, and deepening our role within the Canadian dance ecosystem. The 2026 program reflects that growth, bringing together extraordinary voices that spark discovery, reflection, and delight. I am deeply grateful to everyone who makes this festival possible, and I hope audiences leave feeling energized, connected, and reminded of the power dance has to bring us closer together.” The festival gets underway with LEGENDS: Signature Programme 1 (October 15th-17th), an international mixed programme of women-led companies that weaves together jazz, classical Indian dance, ballet, and contemporary dance, invoking legends to take the FFDN stage. Co-curated by Alyssa Martin and Robert Binet, the programme welcomes Hubbard Street Dance Chicago performing the Canadian Premiere of Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon 's Sweet Gwen Suite, a collection of trios providing an intimate, joyful look at their early jazz and theatrical influences; Canada's award-winning Sampradaya Dance Creations performing Parampara – Rooted & Rising, highlighting the rigour and beauty of classical Indian Bharatanatyam dance performance and training; renowned French artist Claire Heggen explores aging in Ma P'tit Dame; The National Ballet of Canada returns with a pas de deux to celebrate their 75th anniversary; and the World Premiere of a new work by Alyssa Martin performed by beloved Olympic and World Champion ice dancer Tessa Virtue, performing without skates for the first time in her career.

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Next up is HEARTBEATS: Signature Programme 2 (October 17th-18th), a tribute to street dance as a transformative form of storytelling, featuring artists from Canada, Nigeria, the UK and France. Co-curated by Brampton-based dancer and choreographer Kwasi Obeng-Adjei and Robert Binet, this program includes the North American premiere of A Body of Rumours by UK's acclaimed Liam Francis Dance Company, Roses by Paris's Compagnie KH led by Karim KH, and the return of Echoes of the Same Tree, by Kwasi Obeng-Adjei and Ambrose Tjark. HEAR THE DANCE: Signature Programme 3 (October 22 – 24) reveals the inner world of a dance performance. Dancers become a community, passions are revealed through the percussive language of flamenco, and the inner dialogue of artists are spoken aloud. Encompassing three pieces, HEAR THE DANCE includes the Canadian premiere of Partita by New York City Ballet's Resident Choreographer and three-time Tony Award-winning director and choreographer Justin Peck (West Side Story, 2021) performed by recent graduates of Toronto Metropolitan University and students from Canada's National Ballet School; and the North American premiere of Robert Binet's Newborn Giants, performed by an international cast, with Immersive Descriptive Audio by Devon Healey Signature Programme 4 (October 24-25) is the World Premiere of LANDSLIDE, a singular full-length work choreographed by Alyssa Martin and performed by her company Rock Bottom Movement. Set to an original composition inspired by Fleetwood Mac's iconic ballad, LANDSLIDE explores the primal call of parenthood, and pulses with the question of whether, or not, to usher in a new generation. All Signature Programmes are presented at theBluma Appel Theatre. Presented alongside the Signature Programmes are the two feature length presentations, Svaha! (October 21) at the Betty Oliphant Theatre, a high-energy spectacle, fusing nearly 30 distinct dance traditions – from Bharatnatyam to Butoh, Jazz to Salsa – into a singular, joyful experience; and Lyre Liar (October 24-25) at the Jane Mallet Theatre, an innovative solo work by Liam Francis that is part dance portrait, part lecture-demonstration and part autobiography, illuminating both the joy and the burden of a life shaped by learning through imitation. Rounding out the program, the Citadel again partners with FFDN to co-present its beloved annual late-night new works dance series Night Shift from October 15th to 17th, curated by BaKari IfaSegun Lindsay and presented at The Citadel: Ross Centre for Dance.

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/toronto/article/FALL-FOR-DANCE-NORTH-to-Feature-Tessa-Virtues-Off-Ice-Debut-in-2026-Festival-20260617)._