IN DEVELOPMENT 

WAIL (2026)

Running time: 70 mins, no intermission

Performers on stage: 6 

Team on the road: 8

Venue: Blackbox / alternative spaces

Premiere: January 2026, partners The Dance Centre, Music on Main + PuSH International Arts Festival

“WAIL” shifts between communal experiences of joy and grief, balancing the delicate nature of shared experience and what it means to build intimacy with our surroundings. The work is filled with the complexity and devastation of what it takes to feel a communal sense of joy. Melding somatic content with a live sound score generated by six dance artists, physical and sonic compositions are woven together to create a performative environment. “WAIL” utilizes generative systems to compose the bodies and the performance space. The audience is seated on three sides of the stage; they will witness the performers' physical, emotional and sonic transformation throughout the work, making them an integral part.  “WAIL” is part two of a trilogy of three works titled "When We Sing Together." It will continue the evolving practice of mixing both sonic and physical layering to create a distinct performative world. 

INSTALLATIONS

landings for six

A new work for six artists meant to reflect on time and space. A fleeting moment between a transitional space meant to move bodies between the verticality of a structure. Drawing from physical and sonic memory and archive of "Between the Landings," a work created in 2024 with Justin Calvadores (BC) and Dorchel Haqq (NY). "Between the Landings" is a dialogue between two spaces and two artists a continent apart. "landings for six" asks its audience to linger in a space where they are usually meant to keep moving. It asks the audience to listen to the history of past performances while witnessing an ephemeral moment of now.

The work began by exploring the liminal space in transition— the moment between rise and fall, where descent extends beyond ascent. This work was performed simultaneously across the continent, aiming to deepen our understanding of the relationships between time, emotion, and transformation. It invited us to reflect on the narratives etched into the walls, stories documented in the materials designed to support structures. It embodies a practice focused on spaces that are fleeting in their nature.

BETWEEN THE LANDINGS

"Between the Landings" focuses on the thematics of how we land in different places, both physically and conceptually. It uses the liminal space of the stairs and how we transport ourselves from one place to another to expand our practice of disorienting perceptions. This work lingers in the haze between the past, present and future, examining and using sound to access memory as a reconstruction process embracing the various elaborations, distortions, and omissions.

OUTREACH + TEACHING

Vanessa loves to exchange with people through facilitating workshops and classes. She has taught professional, pre-professional and community classes locally, nationally and internationally. She has recently taught at Simon Fraser University, Modus Operandi, The Vancouver Training Society and Lamon Dance. She has also facilitated for the Roundhouse Community Dancers, Trinity Laban’s Co-Lab (UK) and been on faculty at The Banff Centre for the Arts (Alberta).

Workshop/class description:

Throwing Bones, Sheading Salt

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.