The Body in conversation with its environment

Generative Systems

Sonic and Physical Performance-Based Artworks

Action at a Distance Dance Society is a West Coast-based contemporary dance company creating on the stolen ancestral and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, including the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stóō, səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. Directed by choreographer Vanessa Goodman, the company is internationally recognized for creating immersive, research-driven performance works that investigate intimacy, perception, and the human condition through embodied and sensorial practices.

Since Goodman assumed artistic leadership in 2015, Action at a Distance has built a robust international touring history, with works presented by major festivals, producing organizations, and cultural institutions across Canada, the United States, Europe, and South America. The company has developed a distinct interdisciplinary approach that merges choreography, sound, architecture, and visual design through generative performance systems, creating immersive environments that prioritize sensorial engagement and relational encounter. Across all projects, performance is understood as a shared act in which audiences actively shape meaning through their presence and participation.

Presentations in Canada have included PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, DanceHouse, Simon Fraser University Woodward’s, Music on Main, The Firehall Arts Centre, The Dance Centre, Chutzpah! Festival, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, SummerWorks Performance Festival in Toronto, BC Movement Arts Society on North Vancouver Island, Crimson Coast Dance Festival in Nanaimo, ArtSpring on Salt Spring Island, Living Things Festival in Kelowna, Fluid Festival in Calgary, Brian Webb Dance Company in Edmonton, La Rotonde in Québec City, MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) in Montréal, CINARS Biennale official programming, Kinetic Studio in Halifax, and Dance Made in Canada Festival in Toronto.

Internationally, the company’s work has been presented by On the Boards and the Seattle Symphony in Seattle, Risk/Reward Festival and Third Angle in Portland, OFFSET Dance Festival in Brooklyn, EstroGenius Festival in New York, Celebrity Series of Boston, Switch Lab in Bucharest, L1danceFest in Budapest, Moving Balkans in Zagreb, Biofriction / FACTT in Lisbon, Fabrik Potsdam, Tanz Bremen and Internationale Tanzmesse NRW in Germany, Spellbound Contemporary Ballet in Italy, the National Center of Dance Bucharest and Stere Popescu Hall in Romania, Vitlycke Centre for Performing Arts in Sweden, Antistatic International Festival for Contemporary Dance and Performance in Bulgaria, Festival Internacional de Danza Contemporánea de la Ciudad de México in Mexico City, and the Bienal Internacional de Dança do Ceará in Brazil.

Action at a Distance is distinguished by long-term artistic collaborations with internationally renowned artists, including Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, lighting designer James Proudfoot, multidisciplinary artist Brady Marks, choreographer Simona Deaconescu, and composer and sound artist Scott Morgan / Loscil. These collaborations have become central to the company’s internationally recognized artistic language, which moves fluidly between dance, installation, sound art, and speculative performance practices.

The company has been artist-in-residence at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Cultivamos Cultura / BioFriction in Portugal, Harbourfront Centre, Dance Victoria, The Dance Centre, and Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. Under Goodman’s leadership, the company has received numerous honours and awards, including the Isadora Award, the Yulanda Faris Choreographers Program, the Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award, and multiple Chrystal Dance Prize distinctions.

Recent international touring for BLOT – Body Line of Thought includes a presentation at the Internationale Tanzmesse NRW Mainstage in Düsseldorf, followed by an extensive European tour with support from Perform Europe, featuring performances in Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Austria, Hungary, and Romania.

The company also presented its slow-touring work, SOFT CURRENTS, this season, commissioned by Fluid Festival and Ballet Edmonton with performances at Contemporary Calgary and The Alberta Art Gallery. Touring engagements for the upcoming season additionally include presentations with L'Agora de la danse in Montréal, ArtSpring on Salt Spring Island and La Rotonde in Québec City.

Today, Action at a Distance continues to cultivate a globally engaged contemporary performance practice rooted in experimentation, collaboration, and embodied encounter. Through local and international partnerships, the company remains committed to creating transformative artistic experiences that foster intimacy, critical inquiry, and collective imagination across cultural and geographic boundaries.

Action at a Distance Dance Society

Action at a Distance is a not-for-profit registered charity; all donations made are tax-deductible. 

DONATE & SPONSOR

If you are interested in supporting the company, please connect with us through our contact form to further discuss making a one-time, monthly or in-kind donation.

Registered charitable number: 872374897BC0001

FOR BOOKINGS:

Please contact Belsher Arts Management

FUNDERS AND PARTNERS

Action at a Distance gratefully acknowledges the support from the funders and organizations that help to make the company’s work possible. 

The Canada Council for the Arts, The British Columbia Arts Council, Metro Vancouver's Regional Cultural Project Grants, John Robinson, The Province of British Columbia, Gaming, The Scotiabank Dance Centre, The Chutzpah! Festival, The City of Vancouver, The Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, SFUW and plastic orchid factory/Left of Main.