Activities

Pasos de Venezuela

Since December 1999, Pasos de Venezuela has been teaching Venezuelan folklore to the community through musical expressions and dances. Our classes are a safe space where any generation and nationality are welcome to participate, learn, perform and enjoy Venezuelan rhythms with colorful costumes and traditional dances from each region.

The group consists of dedicated professional choreographers willing to share their insights and expertise with the participants, helping them widen their knowledge and broaden their scope in dancing. They take pride in focusing on execution and a high standard of technique in all dance disciplines they teach.

As part of Pasos de Venezuela, you will train in body awareness, step execution, and expressing emotions, all while enjoying yourself through music and movement.

Objectives

Pasos de Venezuela has the purpose of teaching the Typical Venezuelan dances to participate in the most important festivals in Calgary like Lilac Festival, Expolatino, FiestaVal, GlobalFest, Heritage Day, and in some community events, to educate the community with the Venezuelan dances and music.

Kids Classes
Once a Week Friday 6 -9 pm
Evergreen Theater & Community Spaces
1709 8th Ave NE, Calgary, Alberta, T2E 0S9
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, all classes are suspended until further notice.

Adult Classes
Once a Week Friday 6-9 pm
Community Wise Dance Studio
223 – 12 Ave SW, Suite 307, Calgary, AB, T3R 0G9
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, all classes are suspended until further notice.

Highlights
21 years of experience High-quality teaching Offers plenty of training and performance opportunities Warm and approachable Choreographers

Parents & Grandparents Club

The Venezuelan Canadian Association of Calgary launched a fantastic initiative which consisted in the foundation of The Parents and Grandparents Club to gather the senior members of the community to share experiences that allow them not to feel the loneliness or helplessness that could affect the spirit at any given time.

Objective

The VCAC is helping the Latin senior community through the Parents and Grandparents Club who face disadvantages with social isolation and support them to become established in Canada due to their lack of English skills.

Over time, this project has been gradually growing and evolving, with more and more senior members, including people from Venezuela and other Spanish nationalities.

The requirements to join the Club are the following:

Being a Senior person
Any Citizenship (Speak Spanish)

The Venezuelan Culture Days "VCD"

The Venezuelan Canadian Association of Calgary, in partnership with Cantares Venezuelan Cultural Foundation, has hosted, since 2013, the Venezuelan Culture Days (VCD). The event consists of letting know the Calgarian Community the Venezuelan culture’s multiple expressions through folklore, dance, music, film, theater, food, and craft.

The VCD consists of four sub-events which are described below:

Gala Concert: A musician group always performs it from Venezuela to delight the attendees with a magnificent repertoire of Venezuelan music, excellent artists, and excellent quality of interpretation. The idea is to achieve this Gala Concert with artists that are not only recognized in Venezuela but also internationally recognized or have obtained awarded such as American Music Awards, Grammy Awards, or the Billboard Music Award. The intention is that the attendees learn about the typical Venezuelan folklore, the different instruments required to create Venezuelan music and learn about the various melodies that characterize Venezuelan Folklore.

Movie Night: Over the last two decades, the Venezuelan film industry has been experiencing an awakening, and today the popularity of the country’s striking feature films continues to rise. The movies filmed in Venezuela are characterized for representing its history, the spectacular tourism places that describe Venezuela and Latino America, the culturally rich, and Venezuela’s actual situation.

The films played in the Venezuelan Culture Days are characterized for the exposition of the Venezuelan history, the tourism places and the rich cultural heritage at the heart of Latin America, and the social divisions and regional issues that continue to reign supreme in modern Venezuela.

Spanish Theater:

Historically, the theater has been recognized as an educational medium because theater has been used to educate, inform, inspire, and entertain. During the Venezuelan Culture Days event, the themes performed on stage aim to show, inform, and educate attendees about a specific topic from Venezuela or Latin America. Local artists perform this event to promote and show different topics of Spanish diversity and the Latin American culture with the highest excellence performances in producing theater.

Taste of Venezuela:

Food and Cultural Fair: a tour around Venezuela through its flavors, crafts, music, and folklore dance to showcase the vibrant culture of Venezuela. In this festival of flavors, all the family will have a unique opportunity to learn by tasting the typical Venezuelan food and watching the high-quality performances of the different musician groups invited to entertain the community.

Venezuelan artists are always present to exhibit their fabulous high-quality arts & crafts.

Picnic con Los Panas

Every year the VCAC organizes the PICNIC Con Los Panas Event to let the community know how to enjoy a day at Venezuelan Style.

What does “PANA” mean? “PANA” is a Venezuelan word that means friend, buddy, pal. So, we hope to see the Calgarian Community at our “PICNIC WITH FRIENDS.”

This event is a free family event where the community is invited to enjoy a day loaded with different activities. This event offers a variety of Venezuelan foods that are not easily found in Calgary: Arepas, Cachapas, Tequenos, Pasteles de Tres Leches, Bienmesabe, Quesillos and natural juices such as Papelon Con Limon, Pasion Fruits, and Chicha.

As entertainment, the VCAC organizes 7 hours of live music on the stage where the artists provide free high-quality performances of the Venezuelan Typical Music and dance. The entertainment includes:

1. Joropo Music with an Assembly Group of five musicians. The joropo, also called música llanera (Spanish for “music of the Llanos“), is a musical style resembling the fandango and an accompanying dance. The musical instruments required are the Harp, the Cuatro, Drums, and the Maracas. It has been performed by Alma Llanera and De Este a Oeste Group, and these two groups are characterized for their high-quality performances

Thirteen musicians assembled the Gaitas Group. This group called Stampeda Gaitera performs the typical Gaita Zuliana, a Venezuelan folk music style (and dance) from Maracaibo, Zulia State. The instruments used in Gaitas concert include El Cuatro, La Charrasca, El Furro and La Tambora.

Song themes range from romantic to political. In Venezuela, The Gaitas are typical all year in Zulia State, but it is prevalent in all Venezuela during Christmas Time.

The other two groups are performing in this event are “Mango Sound” and “Aguaquina,” which sings the other typical music in Venezuela like Merengues and Salsa.
High-quality folklore dances are performed as part of the entertainment by the Venezuelan Dance Group: “Pasos de Venezuela” and “Dynamic Latin Soul.”
Additionally, two other Cultural Groups are always invited to complement the entertainment.

This event is an opportunity for the VCAC to continue funding our Educational and Humanitarian programs. Also, people are encouraged to bring any donation to the Food Bank.