Vanessa Goodman

Tuning is a duet commissioned by Alexis Fletcher created and directed by Vanessa Goodman, featuring collaborating dance artists Alexis Fletcher and Ryan Jackson. This work focuses on how we tune to one another in relationships. In Tuning, the performers create a live sonic and physical atmosphere using their voices to amplify the conversations of the body. Looking at intimacy between two people, this work explores the body through a sensory, sonic and physical connection. We invite the audience into a sensitive atmospheric environment where trust and care are built between the performers. Wallpaper embraces one side of the stage, creating a deconstructed domicile representing the ever-shifting states of comfort and safety within relationships. This work aims to show love in its many forms.

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Created and Directed by: Vanessa Goodman
Made in Collaboration with artists: Alexis Fletcher, Ted Littlemore and Ryan Jacson

Action at a Distance Dance Society is a contemporary dance company located on ancestral and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, including the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō, səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. The Company is directed by choreographer Vanessa Goodman, a woman and mother who shares her experiences through physical, visual and sonic practices. Focusing on creating experiential generative systems to build immersive environments. The Company's work is driven by questions surrounding intimacy through performance-based practices. Since Goodman became Artistic Director in 2015, the Company's work has been presented locally, nationally and internationally in Canada, The USA, Europe, the UK and South America.

The Company is inspired by artistic collaboration across multiple disciplines, with a mission to create environments and facilitate engrossing experiences for those who engage with the work. An inclusive dialogue is fostered with the community as part of each project through open studio showings, workshops, and discussions surrounding the work. Performance is made possible by those who witness it, and the Company views the audience as the final collaborator in each project.

Collaboration is a critical core value and creative tool. Incorporating an array of voices within each project illuminates different perspectives. The Company deeply values community and views dance as a way to build relationships and strengthen human connections. Action at a Distance strives to create welcoming, performative environments, inviting audiences and participants to have unique, nuanced experiences, whether responding purely to the aesthetics or parsing deeper underlying themes.

Vanessa Goodman has received several awards and honours, including The Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award (2013), The Yulanda M. Faris Scholarship (2017/18), The Chrystal Dance Prize (2019), The Schultz Endowment from Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (2019); and the "Space to Fail" program (2019/20) in New Zealand, Australia and Vancouver.

Action at a Distance's work has been presented in Vancouver by PuSH Performing Arts Festival, DanceHouse, SFU Woodwards, Music on Main, The Firehall Arts Centre, The Dance Centre, The Chutzpah! Festival and The Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. Presentations further afield include the Crimson Coast (Nanamio), Arts Spring (Salt Spring Island), The Living Things Festival (Kelowna), Fluid Festival (Calgary), The Brian Webb Dance Company (Edmonton), La Rotonde (Quebec City), The Mai (Montreal), CINARS official programming (Montreal), Kinetic Studio (Halifax), The Dance Made in Canada Festival (Toronto), On the Boards (Seattle), The Seattle Symphony, Risk/Reward Festival (Portland), Third Angle (Portland), Offset Dance Fest (Brooklyn), Estrogenius Festival (New York), Switch Lab (Bucharest), L1 Festival (Budapest), Estorgenuis (New York), BioFriction/ FACTT (Lisbon), Tanz Bremen (Germany), Tanzmesse (Germany), Spellbound Orbita (Italy), The National Centre of Dance (Bucharest), The Tranzit House (Cluj-Napoca), EDN Showcase (Timișoara European Capital of Culture in Romania), Vitlycke Centre for the Performing Arts (Sweden), Antistatic International Festival for Contemporary Dance and Performance (Bulgaria), The International Contemporary Dance Festival FIDCDMX (Mexico City) and The Bienal Internacional de Dança Do Ceará (Brazil).

The Company has been artist-in-residence at Cutivamos Cultura/BioFriction (Portugal), The Dance Centre, Dance Victoria, Harbourfront Centre, The Shadbolt Centre and The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, where Vanessa was also on faculty. Vanessa also presented work and was a facilitator for Trinity Laban's 2020 Co-Lab Project (London). Commissions include "Tuning" for Alexis Fletcher, "Edictum" for Juan Villegas, "Strike Tone" for Votive Dance, the plastic orchid factory (remix project with Ame Henderson) and works for professional training programs such as Springboard Dansé Montréal, Lamon Dance, Modus Operandi and The SFU rep class.

This past season's collaborations include works with artists Scott Morgan (Loscil), Caroline Shaw (USA), and Simona Deaconescu (Romania). Recent touring this past fall includes Mexico City, Sweden, Montreal and Quebec City. Upcoming touring includes "BLOT - Body Line of Thought," a collaboration with Simona Deaconescu at Tanzmesse NRW Mainstage Düsseldorf Germany and the following presenters with support from Perform Europe; Institution Students Cultural Centre in Novi Sad (SKCNS) Serbia, Museum of Contemporary Art North Macedonia, National Experimental Theatre "Black Box Hall" Albania, Hrvatski kulturni dom na Sušaku (HKD) Croatia, Španski Borci Main Hall Slovenia, Teatro Arena del Sole - Sala Salmon Bologna Italy, Architekturhaus Klagenfurt (or Burghof Klagenfurt) Austria, L1 Association Hungry, Stere Popescu Hall (CNDB) Romania. "Graveyards and Gardens," a collaboration with Caroline Shaw, will be presented by BC MOVEMENT ARTS in Port Alice, Sointula and Powell River in BC and in Boston, U.S.A., presented by Celebrities Series. "SOFT CURRENTS" was presented by Dance in Vancouver, through the Scotiabank Dance Centre in Vancouver, BC.

Vanessa Goodman acknowledges that she lives, works, and creates on the ancestral and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, including the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō, Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University and is the artistic director of Action at a Distance Dance Society. She is drawn to art that carries meaning beyond aesthetics, using choreography as a means to explore liminal expressions within the human condition. Her choreographic practice weaves together generative movement and sonic embodiment to create immersive performative environments. Through her work, she seeks to cultivate intimacy between the body and its surroundings, challenging conventional forms of performative hierarchy through collaborative approaches. She has received several awards and honours, including The Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award (2013), The Yulanda M. Faris Scholarship (2017/18), The Chrystal Dance Prize (2019 & 2024), the Schultz Endowment from the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (2019), and participation in the "Space to Fail" program (2019/20) through Hyde Productions (NZ), Critical Path (AU), and The Dance Centre (CA). Longstanding collaborations include "Graveyards and Gardens" with Caroline Shaw, "BLOT" with Simona Deaconsecu, and multiple works with Loscil (Scott Morgan), Brady Marks, and James Proudfoot. Her work has toured Canada, the United States, Europe, and South America.

www.actionatadistance.ca

Commissioning Company: Belle Spirale Dance Projects

Belle Spirale Dance Projects is an arts organization led by Artistic Directors Alexis Fletcher and Sylvain Senez. It is based in Vancouver, Canada, on the unceded Indigenous territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.

Belle Spirale is a platform for the work of many artists; through our collaborative processes we produce our own creations as well as commission original works by both emerging and established choreographers. Through our work we connect the skilled and passionate Vancouver independent dance community to the national and international independent communities. Belle Spirale aims to create a diverse repertoire of poetic, thoughtful, relevant and engaging contemporary dance works.

Our creations are presented on main stages throughout Vancouver as well as on tour. To date, we have created and produced 9 original works with a diverse group of collaborators and co-creators. We currently hold the position of Artists in Residence at Chutzpah! Festival and Dance Victoria, and our work has been generously supported by Ballet BC, Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, Presentation House Theatre, New Works, Vernon Performing Arts Centre, Vancouver Civic Theatres, Dancing on the Edge, Fluid Fest, Brian Webb Dance Company, Shadbolt Centre and Dance: Made in/fait au Canada among others.

We have also created The Dance Deck, a multi-disciplinary summer series which we dedicate solely to presenting the work of other artists. As hosts, we transform our backyard into a site-specific outdoor theatre in order to present high-calibre professional performances in a grassroots environment.

Sylvain is a 2024 DORA Award Nominee for Outstanding Achievement in Scenic Design.

Belle Spirale is honoured to be a 2023/24 season recipient of Dance Victoria’s Chrystal Dance Prize.

Lighting Designer: James Proudfoot

James Proudfoot is a lighting designer based in Vancouver, Canada. He is originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, where he received his initial theatre training. Self-taught in the realm of dance lighting, he has contributed designs to many artists and companies over the past 25 years. James is grateful to live and work on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəyə̓ ə̓ m (Musqueam),Sḵwxw̱ w̱ ú7mesh(Squamish)and Selí̓ í̓ lw̓ w̓ itulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Sound: Vanessa Goodman and the performing artists

Lyrics referenced in the work written by Ben E. King, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller Song by: James Blake

Performer: Alexis Fletcher 

A dance artist, creator, and producer, I have danced with Ballet BC for 14 years and subsequently have been a guest artist and Artist in Residence. Now independent, I hold the position of Artist in Residence at Vancouver’s Chutzpah! Festival and am a Creative Hub member at Presentation House Theatre. My creations have been supported by Dance Victoria, Ballet BC, Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, Presentation House Theatre, New Works, Vernon Performing Arts Centre, The Gordon Smith Foundation, Dancing on the Edge, InFrinGing Festival, and Shadbolt Centre. As a freelancer, I am currently dancing with Re:Naissance Opera, zoe | juniper, and Wen Wei Dance.

As a dance artist I am fascinated by how exploring the movement potential of the human body becomes a way of accessing the inner landscapes of our spirits and psyches, and this is the primary motivation behind my physical practice and choreographic interests. I believe that dance is a unique vehicle with which to share, research, and discuss our humanity. As a creator I am drawn to intimate, cross-disciplinary collaborations with like-minded creative spirits, and my works strive to create a powerful and tangible connection with my audience.

After graduating from Arts Umbrella’s Post-Secondary Dance Program and student company in 2005, I began my long and inspiring journey with Ballet BC under the Artistic Direction of John Alleyne. I continue to be deeply influenced by John’s artistic legacy.

After Emily Molnar took over directorship in 2009, I was privileged to be one of the core group of dancers who, with her, were part of building Ballet BC into its new direction, sharing our work on world stages including Sadler’s Wells, Jacob’s Pillow, Canada’s National Arts Centre, The Joyce Theatre in New York, BAM, Movimentos Festival, Teatre Grec, among others. In my time with the company, I had the opportunity to work with distinguished choreographers and designers, and to be a contributing artist on numerous creative collaborations. I worked closely with Crystal Pite, Emily Molnar, Johan Inger, Stijn Celis, Jacopo Godani, Medhi Walerski, Fernando Hernando Magadan, Serge Bennathan, Gioconda Barbuto, John Alleyne, Cayetano Soto, and Jorma Elo, among others. I have also been honoured to interpret existing works by leading voices such as Martha Graham, Twyla Tharp, William Forsythe, Sharon Eyal, and Ohan Naharin.

As an independent artist I have worked collaboratively with creators such as Vanessa Goodman, Sidra Bell, Dario Dinuzzi, James Gnam, Simone Orlando, Rob Kitsos and Wen Wei Wang.

Performer: Ryan Jackson

Ryan Jackson is an emerging artist based on unceded, ancestral, and occupied xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ lands. The primary modalities they explore in their practice are dance, theatre, and song/sound – interested in the possibilities of blurring and converging forms.

Ryan finds joy in exploring the many characters and selves that pop up when dancing, and is excited about movement as an embodied vessel for worldmaking; where our bodies – being and being part of many ecosystems – contain complex worlds of interconnected mechanics, capable of composing and decomposing stories through movement.

They have had the pleasure of performing works by Yin Yue, Zahra Shahab, Rob Kitsos, Vanessa Goodman, Action at a Distance, Brandon Alley, Niuboi, Spenser Theberge, Nicolas Ventura, and b solomon, among others. His work has been presented in Edmonton, Vancouver, and Oxford (UK), at Nextfest, What Lab, Boombox, and DANSOX. He is currently training at Modus Operandi Contemporary Dance Program.