In Fiction by David Cooper
Cover photo: David Cooper
Class Description:
Exploring what is real and imagined, my class plays with the possibility of the body's capacity. Working with generative systems, we will work through anatomical organisation and curiosity of state. This class begins with guided self-TLC to ground us before moving into folding, softening, sliding bones, expanding and compressing. Using scale and architecture to explore inner and outer landscapes, we will move through concave and convex systems to uncover different layers of ease and effort.
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 sonic systems 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.
Vanessa'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).
Vanessa 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 she was also on faculty. Recently, Vanessa presented work and was a facilitator for Trinity Laban's 2020 Co-Lab Project (London). Commissions include Springboard Dansé Montréal, the plastic orchid factory (with Ame Henderson), Votive Dance, Lamon Dance, Modus Operandi and The SFU rep class.
This 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.