Action at a Distance
SOFT CURRENTS
An International Dance Day presentation
April 29, 2024
Scotiabank Dance Centre
The Dance Centre acknowledges that it is located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. It is an honour and a privilege for us to be guests in their lands. We are grateful.
SOFT CURRENTS
Scored by: Vanessa Goodman
Co-authored by all of the performing artists: Alder Mauria Orest Graye, Alexis Fletcher, Brenna Metzmeier, danielle Mackenzie Long, Jamie Robinson, Janice Laurence, Juan Duarte, Justin Calvadores, Kate Franklin, Kevin Li, Lance Lim, Leelee Oluwatoyosi Eko Davis, Perelandra Waddle, Simran Sachar, Natalia Martineau.
Original sound by: Brady Marks
Lighting design by: James Proudfoot
Artistic Producer: Hilary Maxwell
Co-produced by Action at a Distance, The Dance Centre and New Works.
A huge thank you to the amazing artists who participated in the week-long creative process of crafting Soft Currents together. We are so grateful to each of you. Also, an enormous thank you to Raquel, Victoria and the whole team at The Dance Centre for your tremendous support in bringing this group and work to life to celebrate International Dance Day. Thank you to Belsher Arts Management, New Works and Hilary Maxwell for all their continued support. – Vanessa Goodman
BIOGRAPHIES
Vanessa Goodman respectfully 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 BFA from Simon Fraser University and is the artistic director of Action at a Distance Dance Society. Vanessa is attracted to art that has a weight and meaning beyond the purely aesthetic and uses her choreography as an opportunity to explore the human condition. Her choreographic practice is driven by weaving generative movement and audio into performative environments. Her work creates a sense of intimacy between our surroundings and the body. 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); 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. Her work has toured Canada, The United States, Europe and South America. Recent collaborations include Graveyards and Gardens with Caroline Shaw and BLOT with Simona Deaconsecu. Vanessa would like to dedicate this performance of Soft Currents to her Grandmother, Vivian, who introduced her to the art form of dance and who is turning 100 today. www.actionatadistance.ca
Brady Marks is a digital media artist working primarily in audiovisual practices, new media and kinetic art. She has collaborated with Geoffrey Farmer on seven works, including And Finally The Street Becomes The Main Character (Clock) (2005–2008), a sculptural installation with computer-generated sound presented and acquired by the Art Gallery of Ontario; and Let’s Make the Water Turn Black (2013–15), a 24-hour computer-generated installation composed of 50 light fixtures, 26 audio speakers and 18 synchronized, animatronic sculptures presented at REDCAT (Los Angeles), Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst (Zurich), Nottingham Contemporary (UK), Kunstverein (Hamburg), Pérez Art Museum (Miami) and the Vancouver Art Gallery.
BOOKS PUBLISHED WITH FIGURE 1: Wetland Project
Hilary Maxwell holds a BA and MFA in Dance from the University of Calgary. She is a Vancouver-based arts administrator and dancer with 20 years’ experience working in the dance milieu, and is passionate about supporting people and their creative ambitions. She was the Member Services Coordinator at The Dance Centre from 2011-2020, engaging dance professionals, students, and seniors through networking opportunities, outreach, and programming initiatives. Hilary represented The Dance Centre on international research projects and conferences, and acted as Presenter Liaison to over 60 international delegates for the organization’s biennial Dance In Vancouver. Prior to this, Hilary was the Artistic Associate at Dancers’ Studio West in Calgary for five seasons, where she collaborated with the Artistic Director on creative planning and programming of the presentation season, and coordinated all stakeholders involved in productions. As a dance artist, Hilary has worked with notable artists and companies such as Danse Carpe Diem / Emmanuel Jouthe, Les Productions Figlio, Company 605, W&M Physical Theatre, and German Jauregui. She was a board member of the Training Society of Vancouver for eight seasons and, currently, sits on the board of mixed-ability dance company All Bodies Dance Project.
James Proudfoot, Lighting Designer. From Edinburgh, Scotland, where he received his initial theatre training has been living in Vancouver since 1993. For 12 years he was Technical Director of the Firehall Arts Centre. He eventually lit shows for the Firehall Theatre Company and has been Lighting Director for the annual Dancing on the Edge Festival for more than 20 years. He was Resident Lighting Designer / Lighting Director for Ballet British Columbia under the Artistic Director Emily Molnar from 2014 to 2021 designing 20+ pieces and touring nationally and internationally with the company.
Specialising in the realm of dance lighting, James has contributed designs for dance works to many companies, including: NDT 2, Lola Dance, Company 605, Sarah Chase, Co. Erasga, Wen Wei Dance, Joe Ink, EDAM, The Contingency Plan, battery opera, Kinesis Dance, Ballet BC, Move The Company, Restless Productions, Jeanette Kotowich, Dance Novella, Holy Body Tattoo, Dumb Instrument, MACHiNE NOiSY, Anatomica, Ingrid Vallus, Tara Cheyenne Performance, Les Productions Figlio, Karen Jamieson, Trial & Eros, Rachel Meyer, Action at a Distance, Out Innerspace Dance, Helen Walkley
Alder Mauria Orest Graye
Alder Mauria Orest Graye (he/him) is a movement artist residing on the unceded lands of the xwməθkwəyə̓m, Sḵwxw̱ú7mesh, and Selí̓lw̓itulh Nations. Receiving his post-secondary training through Modus Operandi, he has had the privilege of working with and learning from fantastic artists and choreographers including Tiffany Tregarthen, David Raymond, Kate Franklin, Josh Martin, Lisa Gelley, Zahra Shahab, Francesca Frewer, Hayley Gawthrop, and many others.
As a trans person who is navigating the experience of physically shapeshifting while working in a medium that requires deep connection to the body, Alder’s practice is currently focused on his desires to playfully expand boundaries, tell effective stories, and approach the unfamiliar with tenderness.
Alexis Fletcher
I am a dance artist, creator and producer based in Vancouver, Canada. After dancing with Ballet BC for 14 years I then became a guest artist and Artist in Residence with the Company before moving fully into my independent career in 2020.
Myself and my husband, Sylvain Senez, are the founders and Artistic Directors of Belle Spirale Dance Projects. The Company is a 2023/24 recipient of The Chrystal Dance Prize and holds the position of Artist in Residence at Chutzpah! Festival. It has been generously 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, Shadbolt Centre and Dance: Made in/fait au Canada. As a freelancer, I have most recently performed with Re:Naissance Opera, zoe | juniper, and Wen Wei Dance.
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. We collaborate with exceptional dance artists and designers from the local, national and international independent community for all of these projects in order to continue building our diverse repertoire of poetic, relevant and engaging contemporary dance works. We believe in a hands-on and heart-centred approach to art making that supports the development of both our own creations as well as the work of other like-minded creative spirits. Belle Spirale is a 2023 recipient of the Chrystal Dance Prize from Dance Victoria. Belle Spirale also produces The Dance Deck, an outdoor, site-specific and multidisciplinary performance space and series at Sylvain’s and my home in East Vancouver. This platform is dedicated solely to the work of other artists in our community.
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, and a powerful and distinct tool for communication and connection. I acknowledge, with gratitude, my privilege to be working and creating on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish Peoples.
Brenna Metzmeier
Brenna Metzmeier is a 27 year old, neuro-divergent, and multidisciplinary artist living in Vancouver BC. She is originally from Terrace BC, but completed her formal training at the Victoria Academy of Ballet, receiving a diploma in 2016. She has had the opportunity to work with Ballet Etoile, Arts Umbrella’s Performance Research Project, Sawdust Collective, Pi Theatre, The Banff Dance Company, Inverso Productions, Vision Impure, Opera Box, State of Underdress, Little Chamber Music, Corporeal Imago and Wen Wei Dance. Brenna is also a founding member of CAMP which has been selected for multiple festivals including the Vancouver International Dance Festival and Dancing on the Edge, as well as smaller scale shows and a recent choreographic commission from Lamon Dance. She worked with the Edmonton Opera as a dancer and choreographic assistant for their re-imagination of Orphee+, and is in ongoing collaboration with Corporeal Imago and CAMP. Most recently she completed a three week residency at the Irish Aerial Creation Centre in Limerick, creating and performing a solo piece called I,I.
danielle Mackenzie Long
I use a lowercase “d” because I desire to navigate the world by easing into spaces. I go by my full name to acknowledge my maternal lineage.
danielle Mackenzie Long, a queer emerging interdisciplinary artist, resides on the stolen and unceded territory of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh, and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm nations. They seek to use new media/film to liberate gender non-conforming dance artists to create work that surpasses gendered bodies through various means of visual presentation and audience access. Currently their creative practice is being expanded through engagements with Vanessa Goodman, Festival of Recorded Movement, Co.ERASGA, and Lamont. Spaces they have been in recent residencies with include Toronto Dance Theatre (Tkaronto) and New Works. Occasionally danielle additionally studies Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia with the aspiration to infiltrate and challenge the academic world by navigating it with an emphasis on curiosity, refusal, and rest.
Jamie Robinson
Jamie Robinson is living on the unceded territories of the ʷməθkʷəy̓əm, sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and sel̓íl̓witulh Nations. She has studied at Modus Operandi Training Program and has worked as an associate artist to Company 605. She has interpreted and performed works for Company 605, Justine Chambers, and Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg. Her choreographic work has been supported by Toronto Dance Theatre, Adelheid’s re:research, Banff Centre for the Arts, The Dance Centre, and Dance Victoria. She was awarded The Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award in support of her most recent work, Paradise Replica.
Jamie’s interested in developing collaborative choreographic works embodying a dances ability to choreographic itself. Using generative movement tasks she hopes to challenge the traditional notion of the choreographer as the sole architect of movement. Striving to remove the hierarchical importance of the choreographer, inviting the dance itself to question the designated spaces in which it becomes seen as valuable.
About my current practice: In the past few years, a challenging injury disrupted my dance career, marking the first significant break in my training in over a decade. This pause gave space for introspection, prompting me to reconsider the guiding principles of my artistic path. Until that point, my practice seemed to unconsciously adhere to well-meaning expectations of what a dance artists moves like, acts like, and the career trajectory they follow.
Currently, my practice represents a deliberate effort to disentangle from these notions. I’m working to liberate myself from ideas that no longer align with my overarching aspiration: the pursuit of authentic sensorial experience shared with others and leveraged by my extensive history as a moving person. This exploration has encouraged me to pose questions about my own identity in relation to dance, dismantle the value system I possessed in relation to specific movement modalities, and pursue movement as a necessary and personal experience first and foremost. It is a departure form the path I was on, inviting a more genuine and meaningful connection with movement, self, and the collective exploration of experience through movement.
Janice Laurence
Janice Laurence, Disabled Dance Artist, Educator, & Movement Ambassador: Janice is a dual citizen of Canada and Aotearoa (New Zealand) and has also lived in Germany, Greenland, and Las Vegas, although most of her time has been spent on ancestral and unceded homelands of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓, Skwxwú7mesh, Səl̓ílwətaɬ, and xʷməθkwəy̓əm speaking people. (Burnaby and Vancouver, BC, Canada.)
She is a life long learner, educator, and world traveller. Her background includes a focus on professional and personal development along with leadership and change facilitation and research. She holds a BA (Psychology), a British Columbia Teacher’s Certificate, and a Master of Arts (Education) from Simon Fraser University.
Her unique dance practice includes the joyful exploration of using various mobility aids. Janice was born with the progressive neuromuscular disease Charcot Marie Tooth (CMT) and currently is an ambulatory wheelchair user. She enthusiastically believes that movement, community, connections, and diversity are our strengths.
Janice’s experience with disability art and justice has been strengthened by her work in the joint Arts Club Theatre Company/Realwheels Theatre production of Crip Cabaret: A Reclamation! (2023), All Bodies Dance performances Parts of Me (2020), R-EACH (2021) and Rate of Change and Kelly McInnes’s Late Stage Remedy project (2023), all presented during the Vines Art Festivals, Lumière YVR Festival (2022), as well as the solo ensemble short film Near/Far (2020). She has studied with All Bodies Dance Project, Naomi Brand, Carolina Bergonzoni, Harmanie Rose, Heather Myers, Andrea Cownden, Luciana Freire D’Anunciação, Ben Brown with MAMMS, danielle wensley, Rianne Švelnis, Heather Lamoureux, Rachel Helten, Marco Esccer, JaniPi Star, AXIS Dance Company, Dance for All Bodies, and many other dancers.
In 2020, she was featured in the AMI-tv wellness documentary series Mind Set Go (Anaïd Productions Inc, in partnership with the Canadian Paralympic Committee). In 2019 she appeared in Act Of Faith (Realwheels Theatre, BC), a role that inspired her to start dancing with a manual wheelchair. She has been interviewed on CBC and several podcasts as she moves forward in discovering what life as a disabled dance artist can be.
Juan Duarte
Juan Duarte is a Brazilian dancer who has had the opportunity to be involved with multiple outreach programs and fellowships. After graduating from Bolshoi Ballet School in 2015 they/he moved to Vancouver, Canada. During Juan’s first year in Vancouver, they/he got to work with Lamondance Company – a pre-professional program, where they/he performed for two seasons. Juan later joined Arts Umbrella Dance Company, where they/he had the opportunity to perform works by a variety of artists; such as Crystal Pite, Johan Inger, Wen Wei Wang, Mats Ek, Ihsan Rustem and others.
In 2019 Juan joined Ballet BC under the direction of Emily Molnar, where they/he got to experience and perform works by Medhi Walerski, Crystal Pite and Sharon Eyal. In 2020 Juan had the opportunity to work with Lesley Telford through the Performance Research Program in Vancouver.
After taking a brief absence from the stages, Juan joined Move The Company under the direction of Joshua Beamish where they/he had the chance to tour through Ontario, Quebec and Europe with the piece Saudade, as well as the chance to perform some of Beamish’s creations in their/his New York City debut in 2022, during that same year Juan toured with Traverse City Dance Project, under the direction of Jennifer Lott and Brent Whitney in the USA. Earlier in 2023 Juan had the opportunity to premiere Source Amnesia at the Vancouver Playhouse, Joshua Beamish’s newest work, since then Duarte has been working with Corporeal Imago, under the direction of Gabrielle Martin and Jeremiah Hughes, as well as Belle Spirale, under the direction of Alexis Fletcher and Sylvain Senez.
Juan continues to share their/his beauty and artistry with the world, and has been a powerful member in the queer scene in Vancouver. During the summer of 2023 they/he performed at the main stage of the Sziget Festival, in Budapest, the same stage as singers such as: Billie Eillish, Lorde, and others got to perform as well. As an ambitious and dedicated performer Juan is looking forward to what the future has to offer, and is very excited to continue to explore the meaning of diversity in the dance industry.
Justin Calvadores
Justin Calvadores (they/them) is a second generation Filipinx, queer freelance contemporary dance artist based in so called “Vancouver” BC, the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. They grew up on Treaty No. 1 territory, so called “Winnipeg”, MB. At the age of 16 they were introduced to dance through a Filipino led hip hop dance community. Justin completed two years of training with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and is a graduate of the Arts Umbrella contemporary dance program. Justin has danced with Ballet BC as an emerging artist under the direction of Emily Molnar and shortly after danced with Ballet Edmonton under the leadership of Karissa Berry and Wen Wei Wang.
As freelance performer Justin has worked and performed with companies and artists such as CoErasga, Daria Mikhaylyuk, Dumb Instrument Dance, Heather Myers, Isak Enquist, Jill Henis, Kelly McInnes, Mascall Dance, Mile Zero Dance, Nicole Von Arx, Normie Corp, Shana Wolfe, and Wen Wei Dance. This season, Justin is lucky to create and perform works with Action At A Distance, Alyssa Favero, FakeKnot, Inverso Productions, Kinesis Dance Somatheatro, and The Falling Company.
Justin’s artistry is distinctly described by their relationship to queerness and their passion in uncovering deep layers of human experience through vibrant forms of imagining and artistic practices.
Kate Franklin
Kate Franklin has been an independent contemporary dance artist for the past 20 years. She has spent this time training, performing, producing, administrating, educating and creating. She has performed in works by nearly 50 different choreographers/creators/directors over the course of her career so far. After graduating from Quinte Ballet School in 1999, Kate spent a season in the Mentor Program at Ballet BC and a season as an Intern Dancer at Toronto Dance Theatre.
She spent the next decade in Toronto/Tkaronto, collaborating and performing with numerous companies and choreographers, most notably ProArte Danza, Kaeja d’Dance, Yvonne Ng, Company Vice Versa (Valerie Calam), Zata Omm Dance Projects (William Yong), and Matjash Mrozewski, amongst others. She was a core member of Dusk Dances for several years. Her choreography was commissioned by training programs such as YMI Dancing, Quinte Ballet School and Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, companies such as JD Dance and platforms such as At the Wrecking Ball, and Porch View Dances.
Kate was a mobilising force in the Toronto contemporary dance community. She worked with Series 8:08 for many years, as the administrator of the Alternative Technique Class Program. She co-founded (with Tina Fushell) Ambitious Enterprises, a company that produced five At the Wrecking Ball programs of interdisciplinary dance over ten years (from 2002-2012). With Kate Holden, Franklin founded firstthingsfirst productions in 2005. Together, the Kates commissioned and performed an impressive number of original works from independent Canadian choreographers including Marc Bovin, Kate Alton, DA Hoskins and Emily Molnar, and produced three evening-length mixed programs between 2007 and 2013.
Kate is the recipient of the 2014 Dora Mavor Moore award for Outstanding Female Performance for the solo Gotta Go Church, choreographed by Valerie Calam.
Kate has taught contemporary dance all over Canada since 1997, in studios, public schools, pre-professional training programs, University dance programs, community dance groups, and to professionals at GMD (Toronto), the Training Society of Vancouver and company class for the dancers of Ballet BC.
Since 2012, Kate has lived in Vancouver on the unceded and traditional territories of the Coast Salish Peoples. She is in her eighth season as Associate Director of Modus Operandi, a post-secondary contemporary dance program, where she teaches and mentors a group of 25 exceptionally talented young dance artists. She works as a dancer with Company 605, Tara Cheyenne Performance and Justine A. Chambers, amongst others. She particularly enjoys dancing for choreographers and filmmakers who are her former and current students (Avery Smith, Jamie Robinson, Oksana Augustine and Satya Mari). Her own choreographic work has been shown most recently at the EDAM Choreographic Series and Dancing on the Edge.
Kate is now, as she was 20 years ago, a passionate, open-minded, optimistic and curious dance artist. She loves improvisation, collaboration, making dance education more joyful, and empowering the dance artists in her community, one interaction at a time. www.katefranklin.ca
Kevin Li
I am Kevin “Shazam” Li, a street/contemporary dance artist, choreographer, and teacher based in so-called Vancouver, on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and Səl̓ílwətaʔ Nations. My journey in dance began in 2009 after moving from Hong Kong to Vancouver, where I fell in love with street dance.
Starting with SOULdiers in 2010, the only Canadian company teaching authentic hip hop and street dance culture at the time, I trained in various styles, learning from local teachers as well as street dance originators from out of town. I was also performing and entering battles with my crews at the time, Free Agentz Krew and Technicru. After three years with SOULdiers, I focused on tutting, animation and flow arts, eventually becoming the only tutting teacher in Vancouver. This led to my role on the American fantasy TV series The Magicians, where I developed the spell casting choreography for five seasons.
In 2014, I joined Modus Operandi with no contemporary dance experience. Over the 4 years of professional development, I’ve collaborated with artists such as Shay Kuebler, 605 Collective, and Justine Chambers. Since graduating, I have worked as a movement coach/choreographer on Apple TV series SEE and theatre production Sparkle Bunny: The Last Raver Dancing. I have taught at studios, training programs, and institutions such as Harbour Dance Centre, Kill The Lights, Higher Ground, and Modus Operandi. I have also been doing work for the underserved communities through teaching for the New Works Share Dance Program and facilitating/interpreting for All Bodies Dance Project. I have also continued my passion for street dance and expanded my practice through various online training programs such as Soulbotics Mentorship Program, Funk in Focus, Reality Check, and DxP Jookin Tutorials.
As a dance artist, I explore new avenues, such as organizing an exhibition dance battle and researching the intersectionality of ballet and Memphis jookin. Selected as one of the first mentees for the New Works XR Pilot program, I delve into extended reality technology in dance. Last year, I performed as a living statue at the Edmonton Fringe Festival. I co created and performed work in progress The Lichenized Movement as a part of the Earthen Bodies collective. My interest lies in the intersection of different dance forms, styles, elements, and cultures, with a desire to bridge communities through exploration.
Lance Lim
Lance Lim is a disabled interdisciplinary artist living and working on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Lance is a local artist who grew up in the Strathcona district, and his original movement background came from studying martial arts and Wu shu. As a former Wu Shu athlete, he competed in North American tournaments until he suffered significant injuries.
This brought him to study dance at Simon Fraser University. He had several student pieces displayed at student shows. In 1998, he was involved with the Chinese Cultural Centre and worked with other artists on Self Not Whole, a showcase of Canadian Asian artists. He also has had his choreography displayed in Dancing on the Edge and, most recently, as part of the Heart of the City Festival. He is a teaching assistant and associate artist with All Bodies Dance Group.
Leelee Oluwatoyosi Eko Davis
Leelee Oluwatoyosi Eko Davis’ practice is rooted in the foundations of contemporary dance and intermedia creation methodologies. As a disabled, transgenderqueer artist of Nigerian/French/Algonquin descent, working in decolonial frameworks is central to their praxis. Being from Treaty 1 Territory, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Leelee has had the opportunity to train and work professionally across Turtle Island. Their artistic goals are to merge performance and life, stage and experience, building a bridge to revealing the human condition. They can most commonly be found, producing their own, however often collaborate across milieus. Leelee has had the profound pleasure of collaborating with artists and interpreting for choreographers such as Jolene Bailie, Dayna Danger, Raven Davis, Jesse Dell, Yannick Desranleau, Evalyn Parry, Vanessa Dunn, Audrey Dwyer, Reginald Edmund, Johnny Forever, Gambletron, Chloe Lum, Ryan MacNamara, Kate Nankervis, Alexandra Tigchelaar on works for theatre, film, and stage. Eko Davis also works as a program designer, facilitator, and consultant in the field of Social Innovation and Adaptive Change and is a Co-Artistic Director at the Toronto Dance Community Love-In.
Perelandra Waddle
I’m a recent graduate of SFU with a BFA in Dance now transitioning to full-time professional work as a performance artist and choreographer. I’m a member of the Louis Riel Métis dancers of the dance company V’ni Dansi, a Métis dance company based here on stolen Coast Salish territory. I self-identify as Queer and Indigenous and I’m currently trying to secure grant funding for a decolonial feminist adaptation of a sci-fi novel by C.S. Lewis. I’m really interested in interdisciplinary work and have a background in ballet, tap, contemporary, modern, hiphop, musical theatre, jigging, Shakespeare and clown.
Simran Sachar
Simran Sachar is an East Indian/Punjabi contemporary and street dance artist, choreographer, and actor based in so-called Vancouver. She ranges in Tap, Jazz, Modern, Contemporary, W*acking, House, and Hip-Hop. Her versatility allows her to train and perform all over the world with world class contemporary choreographers, and OG’s of various street dance styles. Her work upholds the value and distortion of memories, the effects of the people we experience, and our deepest desires shaping our own unique dance. Simran is a captivating anomaly in this industry.
Simran’s latest film with XR technology premieres in 2024. Her first XR film, BETA बेटा was presented at Luna Arts Festival 2021 in Revelstoke. She is currently in the process of developing BETA बेटा into a live solo. In 2020, her first film LUNACY was a part of the National Arts Centre time capsule and premiered at F.O.R.M Film Festival and won the Official Selection of the Audience Choice Award. Simran made her acting debut in 2023 as the lead and assistant choreographer in Alberta Theatre Projects showing of Bombay Black as Apsara. Most recently, Simran is the Winner of 2023’s Release Yourself Whacking Battle in Montreal at Artfulness Festival. Simran’s credits include Netflix, CW Riverdale, The Vancouver Opera, Dairy Canada, Fringe Manila, The Vancouver Art Gallery, Dancing On The Edge, OFF-Parcours Danse and more.
Natalia Martineau
Natalia Martineau (she/her) is a queer emerging dance artist of Filipino and Canadian descent based in Vancouver, on the unceded Coast Salish territories of the xwməθkwəy̓ əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She holds a BFA in Contemporary Dance (Hons) from Simon Fraser University. In the process of expanding the physical bounds of her dance practice, Natalia hopes to investigate how embodied sensations can reveal inarticulable truths about identity through movement. In her time at SFU, Natalia had the opportunity to choreograph and perform a number of works, as well as to perform in projects by Margarida Macieira, Shion Skye-Carter, Amber Barton, Henry Daniel, and Charlotte-Boye Christensen.
Natalia is currently devising an original interdisciplinary work with musical duo Sapphire Haze, and is grateful to have recently participated in EDAM’s Fall 2023 Training Scholarship Program.
THE DANCE CENTRE
Staff
Executive Director Mirna Zagar; Associate Programming Director Raquel Alvaro; Associate Producer Linda Blankstein; Membership Coordinator Kaia Shukin; Director of Marketing Heather Bray; Outreach Coordinator Yurie Kaneko; Digital Marketing Coordinator Lindsay Curtis; Development Manager Catherine Butler; Venue and Services Manager Crystal Lai; Technical Director Victoria Bell; Comptroller Elyn Dobbs; Dance Central Editor Shanny Rann
Board of Directors
Linda Gordon (Chair); Andrea Reid (Vice-Chair); Mark Weston (Treasurer); Tin Gamboa (Secretary); Yvonne Chartrand; Judith Garay; Arash Khakpour; Anndraya Luui, Jennifer Aoki.
The Dance Centre is grateful for the generous support of The Choreographer’s Circle, Anndraya Luui and the BC Arts Renaissance Fund.
The Corporate Leader’s Circle
Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP – Ingrid M. Tsui, Partner;
Davidson & Company – Erez Bahar;
Holiday Inn and Suites Vancouver Downtown – Angela van den Byllaardt, Sales Manager;
Jarislowsky, Fraser Limited – Beau Howes
The Choreographer’s Circle
Impresario: Charles and Eve Chang Foundation, Anndraya Luui
Choreographer: Anonymous, Anonymous, Beau Howes and Genieve Burley, Tony Giacinti (in memory of Lola MacLaughlin), Stephen Jarislowsky, Anne Hildebrandt
Artistic Director: Linda Blankstein, Marnie Carter, Moh Faris, David Matte, Jackson McKiee, Yosef Wosk OBC
Principal Dancer: David Cousins, James Felter, Mike and Kathy Gallagher, Ken Gracie and Philip Waddell, McGrane – Pearson Endowment Fund, Jean Orr, Patrick Shea, Don and Jane Shumka, Janet and Ron Stern
Dance Artist: Anonymous, Anonymous, Ken Alexander, Santa Aloi, Rosario Ancer, Mary and Herb Auerbach, Gary R. Bell, Andrew and Andrea Benzel, Noel Best and Barbara Shuman, Matthew Breech and Shino Watanabe, Richard Cavell and Peter Dickinson, Kirk Chantraine, Amanda Collinge, Norm and Dorothy Cross, Count and Countess Enrico and Aline Dobrzensky, Tom Donaldson, Jason Dubois and Clayton Baraniuk, Nicola Follows, Judith Garay, Peter Harmon, Linda Johnston, Emily Klukas, Gail Lotenberg, Peter Maloff, Amy Millar, Jean Millar, Andrea Reid, Kathy Scalzo, Kemo Schedlosky and Mark Gatha, Betty Scheltgen, Kaelin Sheaden, Ingrid Tsui and Matthew Heemskerk, Annelie and Dan Vistica, Denis Walz, Michael Welters, Jason Wrobleski, Max Wyman and Susan Mertens, Mirna Zagar
The Artist’s Circle
Linda Aristizabal, Brent Belsher, Denis Blais and Paras Terezakis, Val Brandt, Carol Carr, Deborah Dragon, Lorna Froidevaux, Lynn B. Johnston, Lorita Leung – The Lorita Leung Dance Association, Barry McKinnon, Dubravko Pajalic, Dr. Mary Robertson, Frank Salisbury, Selma Savage
The operations of The Dance Centre are supported by the Government of Canada, Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of British Columbia, the BC Arts Council, and the City of Vancouver.
Media sponsors: Stir, The Georgia Straight
The VDC Dance Centre Society is a registered charity no. BN 11925 8754 RR0001