Action at a Distance has a mandate to:

• Create innovative, meaningful and personal art that connects to communities.

• Stimulate dialogue and awareness locally and abroad through its workshops and performances.

• Create opportunities for diverse and unique voices from different disciplines and backgrounds.

The company is inspired by artistic collaboration across multiple disciplines, with a mission to create immersive environments and facilitate engrossing experiences for those who engage with the work. An inclusive dialogue is fostered with the community as part of each project through open studio showings, workshops, and discussions surrounding the work. Performance is made possible by those who witness it, and the company views the audience as the final collaborator in each project. Collaboration is a critical core value and creative tool. Incorporating an array of voices within each project illuminates different perspectives and develops new ways for contributors to grow within practice. The company deeply values community and views dance as a way to build relationships and strengthen human connections. Action at a Distance strives to create welcoming, performative environments, inviting audiences and participants to have unique, nuanced experiences, whether responding purely to the aesthetics or parsing deeper underlying themes.

Board and Governance:

Action at a Distance is working with a BRAVE (Bold, Respectful, Accountable, Vulnerable, and Empathetic) space policy with its Board of Directors, the artists, contractors and the community it engages.

History:

Action at a Distance Dance Society is a contemporary dance company located 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. The Society was originally incorporated in 1998 by James Smith as Astrid Dance Society. The company produced work by Cornelius Fisher and Sara Chase until 2015 when the Astrid board elected a new slate, and Vanessa Goodman became the Artistic Director of the company. At this time the society chose to change the name of the society to Action at a Distance Dance Society. The 2015-17 seasons were incredibly productive for the society. The company produced works at Dance in Vancouver and The Shadbolt Centre for the Arts taught community workshops in both Burnaby and Halifax and did a creative residency in Halifax and New Brunswick, where they showed new works. The 2017-18 season marked a very prestigious presentation opportunity with "Wells Hill" premiering at SFUW with co-presenters with DanceHouse. In the Fall of 2018, the company premiered a new full-length group work, "Never Still", as part of the Firehall Season in Vancouver. In early 2019, "In Fiction" premiered in New York at OffFest and The Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in Burnaby, B.C. In 2020, the company shared work in London at Trinty Laban and took part in "Space to Fail" in New Zealand and Vancouver. We also created and produced "Solvent" a dance on-screen work that premiered at The Dancing on the Edge Festival and subsequently was presented in festivals in Hungry and New York. The company also co-produced and presented "BLOT" online as a stage work and as an installation in Bucharest and Vancouver. In early 2021, the company produced and premiered "Graveyards and Gardens" in collaboration with Caroline Shaw, presented by Music on Main. The 2021/22/23 seasons were filled with national and international touring of "Graveyards and Gardens", "BLOT", "Tuning", and the premiere of "Core/Us" and "Echo Chamber". In 2024, the company began work on two new group pieces, "Soft Currents" and "Interior/Landscape". It created a site-specific work called "Between the Landings" that premiered simultaneously in Vancouver at The Scotiabank Dance Centre and in New York City at La Mama. This season, the company will continue to tour "Graveyards and Gardens" and "BLOT". "BLOT" has been selected to be a part of the main stage this season at Tanzmesse and Perform Europe with a 10-country tour. "Soft Currents" was presented at Dance in Vancouver during the fall of 2024. The company has toured nationally to Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, Salt Spring, Nanaimo, Kelowna, Calgary, Edmonton and Halifax and internationally to New York, Sweden, Mexico City, Hungry, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Romania, London, Seattle, Portland, Germany and Brazil. The company has been an artist in residence at Cutivamos Cultura/BioFriction (Portugal), EMPAC (Troy, New York), The Dance Centre, Dance Victoria, Harbourfront Centre, The Shadbolt Centre and The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Goodman 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 partnership with three organizations based out of New Zealand, Australia and Vancouver.