Performer
November 2025
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Soft Currents was presented by Springboard Performance’s Fluid Fest 2025 as a collaboration between director Vanessa Goodman of Action at a Distance, the dancers of Ballet Edmonton, Tangaj Collective and local Calgary-based artists. It is an hour long site-specific work, wherein the dancers begin spread through the space and over time gather into a central location, bringing the audience with them. The work required a deep sense of connection to the space, to the co-performers, and a commitment to sensation guided by internal compression and architecture.
Soft Currents is inspired by murmurations, which are enormous groups of starlings that twist and swirl across the sky in shape-shifting clouds. This inspiring idea of collective responsibility and understanding of movement is an underlying value of everything Action at a Distance does.
Soft Currents is a task-based composition with original sound created to a highly structured co-authored score designed for a large group of dance artists. Ultimately about social responsibility, the movement score works with text surrounding sensory proprioception in the body and asks the performers to find a collective sense of time while reacting to their environment. Working with headphones, the dance artists respond to a text composed by Goodman and the group that only they can hear. The audience witnesses a work of spontaneous eruptions, compositions and delights, alternating between collective unison and individual focus. The result is highly collaborative and creates a sense of anticipation from moment to moment.
GALLERY
CREDITS AND SUPPORTERS
Concept and Directions — Vanessa Goodman/Action at a Distance
Co-authored with the Performing Artists — Simona Dabija, Maria-Luiza Dimulescu, Cindy Ansah, Mario Lemvar and Zaria Rajha, Reese Wilson, Deanna Witwer, Dancers of Ballet Edmonton: Gabrielle Barboux, Chloe Bennett, Nevan Boyden, Paula Cobo Botello, Fiona Dorr, Nolan Fahey, Michaella Ho, Devon McLean, Ben Waters, Julian Hunt
Original Sound — Brady Marks
Voice Work — Natalia Martineau
Lighting Design — James Proudfoot, Jack Chipman, Vanessa Goodman
Audio Design — Jack Chipman
Technical Director — Jack Chipman
Special Thanks
Created with generous support from The British Columbia Arts Council, The Dance Centre, Metro Vancouver's Regional Cultural Project Grants program, and BC Gaming
Presented by Springboard's Fluid Fest as part of Contemporary Calgary's Free First Thursdays programming.
Local artists were supported by Alberta Dance Alliance.