Soft Currents
Soft Currents is inspired by murmurations: vast flocks of starlings that fold, twist, and reconfigure in the sky through constant, responsive listening. This phenomenon—movement arising from shared attention and collective responsibility—forms a core value of Action at a Distance and grounds this tour-ready work.
Soft Currents is a task-based choreographic composition with original sound, shaped through a highly structured, co-authored score for a large group of dance artists. The score invites performers to attend to internal sensation—weight, breath, timing, and spatial awareness—while remaining porous to the presence of others and the surrounding environment. Text embedded within the score directs attention toward proprioception and sensory awareness, asking performers to locate a shared sense of time through the body rather than through external cues.
Working with headphones, each dance artist listens to a text composed by Goodman in collaboration with the group—heard only by the performers—which guides moment-to-moment choices, impulses, and shifts in attention. From the audience’s perspective, the work unfolds as a series of spontaneous eruptions and emergent compositions, moving between moments of collective unison and individual articulation. The choreography is generated in real time, producing a palpable sense of anticipation as the group continually recalibrates.
Soft Currents employs slow touring as both a creative and ethical framework. Rather than operating through transactional or extractive touring models, the work is developed in close collaboration with local artists and partner organizations in each location, allowing time and resources to circulate within the community. This approach prioritizes sustainability, shared authorship, and care, supporting local capacity while enabling the work to be shaped by the specific bodies, spaces, and conditions of each place. Each iteration is completed over approximately seven days and may be presented in a traditional theatre setting or adapted for site-specific contexts, indoors or outdoors, allowing the choreography to respond somatically to place.
Action at a Distance’s Soft Currents has been presented by The Scotiabank Dance Centre on International Dance Day (April 29, 2024); Dance in Vancouver (November 22, 2024); the Vancouver Art Gallery (June 8, 2025); Contemporary Calgary in collaboration with Fluid Festival and Ballet Edmonton (October 6, 2025); and the Moose Jaw Art Gallery with New Horizons Dance. Upcoming performances include the Art Gallery of Alberta in March 2026, presented in collaboration with Ballet Edmonton.
SOFT CURRENTS EDITION
Conceived and Directed by: Vanessa Goodman/Action at a Distance
Co-authored with local performing artists
Original sound by: Brady Marks
Voice work by: Natalia Martineau
Lighting design by: James Proudfoot, Jack Chipman, Vanessa Goodman
Audio Design by: Jack Chipman
Technical Director: Jack Chipman
Artistic Producer: Hilary Maxwell
Created with generous support from The British Columbia Arts Council, The Dance Centre, Metro Vancouver's Regional Cultural Project Grants and BC Gaming.
Soft Currents at International Dance Day 2024
Soft Currents Dance in Vancouver 2025
