The just-announced Dancing on the Edge festival opens and closes with a bang, with a top troupe from China launching the event, and a Montreal-created ode to Iggy Pop wrapping it up.

The fest runs July 6 to 15, featuring 25  choreographers and more than 80 dance artists at the Firehall Arts Centre and beyond.

Beijing Modern Dance Company, China's leading contemporary troupe, kicks things off on opening night with Oath-Midnight Rain, an exploration of  Buddhist Samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth, and the space between night and day,  black and white,  ending and beginning. It runs July 6 and 7 at the Firehall.

Montreal-based company Helen Simard will close the 29th annual fest with NO FUN, a rock-driven interdisciplinary dance piece based on the music and movement of punk icon Iggy Pop, July 14 at the Firehall.

Edge also brings back its popular mixed programs, offering up seven different rosters. Among those appearing are out-of-towners Toronto's Sara Porter, with her reflection on aging Sara does a Solo, Toronto's Yvonne Ng of tiger princess dance projects with two works; Alexandra Elliott Dance with choreography by the legendary Tedd Robinson.

Local names amid the programming include Serge Bennathan, Jennifer Mascall, Julianne Chapple, Daelik, Naomi Brand, and Deanna Peters. Two other big Vancouver names make long-awaited returns to the fest, as well: Cori Caulfield and Chick Snipper.

Site-specific works include a collaborative performance with Aeriosa Dance and Spakwus Slulem/Eagle Song, described as a "shared ceremony created by local artists with different cultural traditions journeys from the sandy shores of Stanley Park to the heights of its ancient forest". All Bodies Dance will present the new In Sights, an exploration of public spaces through the lens of difference and adaptability. Gail Lotenberg's LINK Dance Foundation performs the aptly titled Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? at three different intersections in Vancouver. And Mile Zero Dance and Gerry Morita present RV There Yet?, "a transient dance and music pop up that brings art to the unexpecting".

The off-site EDGE OFF program, meanwhile, features Co.ERASGA and the Thai khon masters the Pichet Klunchun Dance Company, and the Carnegie Dance Troupe with  Karen Jamieson Dance Metamorphose, presenting their three-year collaboration with members of the Downtown Eastside community. Kinesis Dance somatheatro will present the first part of its trilogy and newest creation ENTRAP as part of the same program.

The Edge will also present special events such as Best of Dances on Screen—a screening of selected international, Canadian and local films from the Festival of Recorded Movement and two Dance Dialogue Sessions: Traditional Dance Meets Contemporary Movement and What is Dance Dramaturgy?

Tickets and passes go on sale in June at firehallartscentre.ca or dancingontheedge.org.

Four-show passes are $85 and six-show passes are $120.

A full schedule is below:

Throughout the Festival: Site Specific Outdoor Work: RV There Yet?, Mile Zero Dance/Gerry Morita, various locations

July 6 at  8pm & July 7 at 9pm:  Full Length Work – Oath-Midnight Rain, Beijing Modern Dance Company, Firehall Arts Centre

July 7 & 8 at 12:15 & 1:15pm: Site Specific Outdoor Work: In Sights, All Bodies Dance Project/ Naomi Brand, Roundhouse – Turntable Plaza

July 7, 8, 14, 15 at 5 pm & July 8, 9, 15 at 12:30pm: Site Specific Outdoor Work: Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road, LINK Dance Foundation/Gail Lotenberg, Intersections (various)

July 7 at 7pm & July 8 at 9pm: EDGE 1 – Alexandra Elliott Dance, Choreography by Tedd Robinson/Yvonne Ng, tiger princess dance projects/Chick Snipper, Firehall Arts Centre

July 7 & 8 at 11pm: EDGE OFF 1 – ENTRAP, Kinesis Dance Somatheatro/Paras Terezakis, Brooks Corning (380 West 2^nd Ave, #200)

July 8 at 3pm: Dance Dialogue, Traditional Dance meets Contemporary Movement, Firehall Arts Centre

July 8 at 7pm & July 9 at 9pm: EDGE 2 – Monica Shah/Choreography by Natasha Bakht/Yvonne Ng, tiger princess dance projects/MascallDance, Firehall Arts Centre

July 9 at 4pm: EDGE OFF 2 – Metamorphose, Carnegie Dance Troupe & Karen Jamieson Dance, SFU Woodward’s, World Music Studio

July 9 at 7pm & July 11 at 9pm: EDGE 3 – Naomi Brand/It Burns Hot & Fast (Diego Romero & Ileanna Cheladyn), Firehall Arts Centre

July 10 at 7pm & July 12 at 9pm: EDGE 4 – Cori Caulfield/coriograph theatre/Olivia C. Davies/Ralph Escamillan, Firehall Arts Centre

July 10 at 9pm: EDGE Dance Films, Firehall Arts Centre

July 11 at 7pm & July 13 at 9pm: EDGE 5 – Julianne Chapple/Sara Porter, Firehall Arts Centre

July 12 at 7pm & July 14 at 7pm: EDGE 6 – Daelik/Deanna Peters Mutable Subject, Firehall Arts Centre

July 12, 13, 14 at 8:30pm: EDGE OFF 3 – Co.ERASGA & Pichet Klunchun Dance Company, KW Production Studio, Woodward’s Heritage Building

July 13 at 7pm & July 15 at 7pm: EDGE 7 – Emmalena Fredriksson & Arash Khakpour / Les Productions Figlio/Serge Bennathan, Firehall Arts Centre

July 14 at 9pm & July 15 at 9pm: Full Length Work: NO FUN, Helen Simard, Firehall Arts Centre

July 15 at 12:30pm to 5:30pm: Site Specific Outdoor Work – Thunderbird Sharing Ceremony, Aeriosa Dance Society/Spakwus Slulem, Stanley Park

July 15 at 3pm: Dance Dialogue: What is Dance Dramaturgy?, Firehall Arts Centre