4 minute read
Supporting Dance Creation in B.C.
Belle Spirale Dance Projects in UNIVERSUS
Friday, January 16 • 7:30 pm
McPherson Playhouse
Dance Victoria has earned a reputation for bringing the World’s Best Dance to the Royal Theatre. At the same time, we are committed to supporting our local and Canadian dance milieux by investing in new creations for the national stage — and beyond! — through the annual Chrystal Dance Prize (CDP), co-commissioning projects, and Dance Victoria’s longstanding Artist Residency program.
As a few recent examples: This January, many of you experienced our sold-out performance of Dancers of Damelahamid’s Raven Mother, co-commissioned by Dance Victoria as part of the national CanDance Network and in partnership with Danse Danse (Montreal), the National Arts Centre (Ottawa) and DanceWorks (Toronto). In March, we partnered with Impulse Theatre to co-present the premiere of local artist Amber Downie-Back’s Chrystal Dance Prize-winning project on the nature of… at DV Studios. Throughout the season, another incredible creation has been brewing behind the scenes: UNIVERSUS by the Vancouver-based Belle Spirale Dance Projects.
Belle Spirale is led by co-Artistic Directors Alexis Fletcher and Sylvain Senez. These names may be familiar, as Fletcher danced as a principal artist with audience favourite Ballet BC for 14 years, subsequently becoming a guest artist, rehearsal assistant, and artist in residence before pursuing her independent career in 2020. Senez was a principal artist and rehearsal director at Ballet BC for 30 years, and also danced as a soloist with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Judith Marcuse Dance Projects, and Coleman-Melieux.
In 2023/24, Belle Spirale was awarded $15,000 through the Chrystal Dance Prize – Projects to initiate the creation of the company’s new double-bill, UNIVERSUS, choreographed by Fletcher and Fernando Hernando Magadan, another long-time Ballet BC collaborator of international acclaim.
For us, Dance Victoria has always been a place where our creativity and artistic practice are nurtured. Whether we have been performing here with Ballet BC or creating our own projects via the Artist Residency program, Dance Victoria has helped our artistic practice to flourish.
— Alexis Fletcher, Belle Spirale co-Artistic Director
In UNIVERSUS, the artists reach for questions of cosmic significance: Is connection to Earth achievable on a chaotically changing planet? Will human resilience be enough for our uncertain future? Brought to life by a virtuosic 8-dancer ensemble, the work delves into interconnectivity, cross-cultural exchange, and our collective future.
In the summer of 2024, Dance Victoria welcomed Belle Spirale to our Quadra Village studios through the Artist Residency program. Later in the season, we featured a Rough Cut excerpt of UNIVERSUS at DV Studios as part of our annual Dance Days festival. It did not take long for the performance to reach audience capacity — and the response from our community was overwhelming.
Grounded in the stunning spoken-word poetry of Belle Spirale dancer and multidisciplinary artist Marisa Gold, this early iteration of UNIVERSUS showcased a bold fusion of dance and storytelling.
UNIVERSUS premiered at the Vancouver Playhouse on March 21, 2025. Reviewer Shakeela Begum wrote:
The standing ovation was more than deserved, it was a collective exhale. A thank-you from every soul in the room. UNIVERSUS is not just a dance production; it is a somatic journey into the depths of the human spirit, urging us to embrace our inner truths and find beauty in the impermanence of it all. I left profoundly moved, reminded that we are all orbiting the same mystery, and sometimes, if we’re lucky, we get to feel it move.
Dance Victoria is delighted to have the opportunity to share UNIVERSUS with our audiences next season. Don’t miss this one-night-only performance! Subscribers can purchase discounted tickets and access priority seating before single tickets go on sale on September 2. FN
About the Chrystal Dance Prize (CDP)
The Chrystal Dance Prize (CDP) champions dance creation on the West Coast, thanks to Dr. Betty “Chrystal” Kleiman, who left a bequest to Dance Victoria, held at the Victoria Foundation, in 2009. The Chrystal Dance Fund is valued at more than $1.6 million, with interest supporting two annual Chrystal Dance Prizes. The CDP – Projects supports exceptional dance research and/or creation between a Western Canadian dance artist, artists, collectives or companies and an international dance artist or artists (interpreter or choreographer). The CDP –Training is awarded annually and supports emerging Western Canadian dance artists continuing full-time training at recognized international institutions outside of Canada. Since 2010, Dance Victoria has awarded more than $600,000 through the CDP, including $66,500 in 2024/25 alone to support dance creation and training. No other award of this size, investing in the development and international exposure of Western Canadian artists at both early and mid-career stages, exists.
