You could say the Vancouver International Dance Festival, which runs from Tuesday (March 4) to March 29 at the Roundhouse Community Centre and other stages around town, encompasses a wide range of styles. If the event has any linking theme, it’s how its artists transcend styles; they’re people who defy or twist or build upon genres. Jay Hirabayashi and Barbara Bourget, the Kokoro Dance founders and Vancouver dance-scene veterans who run the event, have said they hope simply to inspire others with their passion for dance. So here, then, are a few of the highlights from Vancouver and across the globe that might provide that spark. See a full schedule and descriptions at www.vidf.ca/.

Chiasmata (March 6 to 8 at the Roundhouse) Toronto Dance Theatre’s intensely talented Christopher House has developed a bold new movement style for his ensemble of 12 dancers. His unique kinetics, at turns convulsive and contorting, helped earn this show a 2007 Dora Mavor Moore Award nomination for outstanding new choreography.

Sarah Williams (March 7 and 8 at the Roundhouse) In one of the fest’s late-night shows (starting at 10 p.m. on weekends), this striking veteran of La La La Human Steps and Robert Lepage’s work has commissioned three hip choreographers. Each has created a solo for her around the word gender. Among the trio is Eddie Ladd, the Welsh dance artist who wowed crowds with the multimedia Scarface at 2007’s PuSh International Festival of the Performing Arts.

Pas Des Deux (March 13 to 15 at the Roundhouse) Provocative social commentary, comedy, and classic technique all combine in the contemporary work of Rita Cioffi’s Compagnie Aurélia. At the VIDF in 2006, the French artist made an impression with her Massacre du Printemps, where track pants mixed with tutus and TV images of shantytowns. This time, Cioffi dances a game of seduction and confrontation with Claude Bardouil. Cioffi shares a bill with countryman Fabrice Ramalingom, who works masks and DJ music into a piece called Comment se ment, “How we lie”.

TIMBER/Timbre (March 14 to 18 at the Scotiabank Dance Centre) Known for the cleverness and wit of his pieces, local choreographer Joe Laughlin is sure to offer up a few surprises when his company, Joe Ink, debuts a new work inspired by the baroque era’s obsession with beauty and invention. Elaborate costumes and art by Alice Mansell and a score by Persian-Canadian Amir Amiri should make TIMBER/Timbre a treat for eyes and ears.

PARADIS/Paradise (March 25 to 26 at the Roundhouse) Vancouver dancer-choreographer Alvin Erasga Tolentino, of Co. ERASGA, and mixed-media artist Donna Szoke combine forces with French composer-musician Emmanuel de St Aubin. Soloist Tolentino’s strange, dramatic imagery will make a vibrant match with the live music and video projections.

To-Morrow, & To-Morrow, & To-Morrow (March 27 to 29 at the Roundhouse) Last year, Kokoro Dance performed this suite of four pieces via video feed with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Now it presents the reworked, butoh-driven quartet set to recorded new-music compositions, including Joan Tower’s haunting 9/11-inspired rhythms. The show was honed last fall on a successful European tour.