Dance//Novella

A call they were not ready to hear lingers. She calls them back, and the force of that call begins to shape their return.Soft Animals is an abstract dance-theatre work tracing a group of women who have lost their connection to the past. Moving through states of fracture, tenderness, and resistance, they search for ways to listen, remember, and speak again. Physicality shifts from raw and instinctual to precise and composed, revealing a shared effort to rebuild identity and connection. Once hidden by necessity, their abilities begin to sharpen and return as they arrive in a shared space of reclamation. The work invites audiences into powerful landscapes shaped by vulnerability, resilience, and collective transformation.

Choreographer: Brandon Lee Alley & Racheal Prince in collaboration with the artists

Dance//Novella

Racheal Prince and Brandon Lee Alley are Vancouver-based choreographers and co-artistic directors of Dance//Novella. Both former artists with Ballet BC, their work brings together movement, sound, and theatrical form through a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach.Their choreographic work has been developed and presented through leading institutions across Canada and internationally. They have been artists-in-residence with Ballet BC, Dance Victoria, and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and have presented digital works through platforms including Ballet BC’s Take Form and Men In Dance (Seattle).In 2023, they created When the Walls Come Down, an ASL-integrated work developed in collaboration with Deaf artists and inspired by the life of Caroline Hébert. The work received critical recognition and performed at major festivals including the Vancouver International Dance Festival, SOUND OFF, International Dance Days, and the Chutzpah! Festival.As choreographers, they have created commissioned works for companies including Alberta Ballet and SALT Contemporary Dance (Salt Lake City), expanding their practice across both contemporary and ballet-informed contexts.

Performers

Bryn Bridgen is a dance artist based in Vancouver, BC, and a company artist with Dance//Novella. Her work with the company has included the Banff Centre residency, film projects such as Afterimage, and processes and performances at The Polygon Gallery. Bryn is also a graduate of the GibneyPRO Professional Certificate Program under direction of Alexandra Wells and Gilbert T. Small II. Here, she worked with Peter Chu, Laja Field, and Lea Ved. As a freelance artist, she has also performed with Ballet Vancouver and Action at a Distance. Bryn engages in interdisciplinary performance contexts that celebrate Indigenous culture, including performances at the JUNO Awards and Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week 2025.

Madeleine Cruz (she/they) is a dance artist based in so-called “Vancouver, BC”. She completed her formative training at Modus Operandi Contemporary Dance Program in 2023. Post graduation, she’s had the privilege of working with notable companies like Radical System Art, Out Innerspace, Dance//Novella, Compagnie Khor, and Soma Anima. She has a longstanding choreographic collaboration with colleague Mia Pelayo. Their works have been presented through Boombox, New Works Dance, Dance West Network, among others. In the fall of 2025, she furthered her dance studies through EDAM’s contact improvisation scholarship, training under the late Peter Bingham. She is excited by dance as a way to animate living spirit within the body, creating raw and unfiltered performance.

Mia Pelayo is a Filipina-Canadian dance artist who grew up on the unceded territories of the Tsawwassen, Musqueam, and Coast Salish Peoples (Delta, BC). A graduate from Modus Operandi, Mia has since had the joy of collaborating with companies such as Little Room Productions,The Biting School, Dance//Novella, MascallDance, and other beloved Vancouver dance artists. Alongside her collaborator Madeleine Cruz, the duo have premiered their work at Chalk it Up! (2024), Boombox by Here For Now (2025), and New Work’s Pop Up Dances Festival (2025).

Nancy Junjiaqi Li is a Vancouver-based dancer working across contemporary, ballet, and Chinese dance. She has collaborated extensively with Dance//Novella since 2022, contributing to multiple project-based works that explore identity, community, and social justice. Through these performances, she has developed a strong interest in using dance as a platform for storytelling and advocacy. Nancy has also performed with Lamondance, working with a range of choreographers across Canada. Her movement practice blends technical precision with expressive depth, informed by both Western and Chinese dance traditions. She is currently transitioning into freelance work, continuing to seek collaborative and interdisciplinary performance opportunities.

Shana 愛 Wolfe is a Japanese-Canadian freelance dance artist based in Vancouver, on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓ y̓ əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱ x̱ wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She has collaborated with local companies including Company 605, OURO Collective, Dance//Novella and Inverso Productions, as well as independent artists such as Cindy Mochizuki, Lisa Mariko Gelley, Raven Grenier, Anya Saugstad and Shion Skye Carter. She’s had the privilege to perform at local festivals such as Dancing on the Edge, Vines Art Festival, Guelph Dance Festival, Dance Deck, Hold On Let Go, Dance In Vancouver, LIFT and Coastal Dance Festival. Internationally, she has performed at Sadler’s Wells (UK), the Autostadt Theatre in Wolfsburg, and the Tanzbiennale in Heidelberg (Germany). Shana is currently a teacher for Dancing with Parkinson’s Canada and Ballet BC’s MOVE programming. She has been a part of the What Lab team for 3 years as the Studio Operations Coordinator and is currently pursuing a degree in Kinesiology.

Yuha Tomita was born in Kanazawa, in Japan and studied and danced in the United States from the age of 15. She came to Vancouver in 2018 to join the Arts Umbrella’s Post-secondary graduate program. After graduating she joined Lamondance Company located in North Vancouver for a year. In 2022, she decided to continue learning with Modus Operandi where she graduated in June, 2024. Yuha is currently a freelance artist in Vancouver, and has participated in projects with various artists such as Dance//Novella, Co. ERASGA, Cristina Bucci, Maiko Miyauchi, and Kaili Che and also recently she has being teaching in various communities in Vancouver.

Composer: Brandon Lee Alley

Born and raised in North Carolina, Brandon Lee Alley is a multi-hyphenate artist based on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish Peoples: Sḵwx̱ x̱ wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō, Səl̓l̓ ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓ y̓ əm (Musqueam) Nations. He works at the intersection of sound, movement, and technology, creating immersive sonic environments rooted in emotional storytelling.With a background in contemporary dance and audio engineering, his practice blends kinesthetic awareness with electronic music production to deepen the narrative, tone, and intensity of movement. He has composed original scores for Dance//Novella, Madison Ballet (Richard Walters), Belle Spirale Dance Projects, VOIRELIA, Cai Glover, Amy Gunter-Lolofie, and Ballet BC’s inaugural Take Form. His work focuses on crafting visceral relationships between sound and the moving body.

Lighting Designer: Jack Chipman

Jack is a Vancouver based projection designer and technologist. His work integrates physical elements into digital spaces through the use of cameras, digital props, and image filtering. He is excited by the merging of different mediums to create an immersive experience. Jack’s past credits include Soft Currents (Action at a Distance), Contra (Eric Cheung), Fire Never Dies (Electric Company Theatre), Rhino (Out Innerspace Dance Theatre), The Flying Dutchman (Vancouver Opera), The Door Project (plastic orchid factory), An Undeveloped Sound (Electric Company Theatre), Szepty/Whispers (Rumble Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Vancouver Symphony Orchestra) Jchipman.com