BALLET BC: ANNEX
NOVEMBER 13, 2025
2025-2026 VARIETY SERIES
BALLET BC: ANNEX
NOVEMBER 13, 2025
EVERGREEN CULTURAL CENTRE - STUDIO THEATRE
ABOUT THE SHOW
Ballet BC Annex is a project led by Canada’s leading contemporary dance company, Ballet BC. Based in Vancouver, the program offers an invaluable opportunity for schools and communities across BC to engage in world-class dance and educational programming.
Each season, a junior company of Annex dancers training with Modus Operandi and Arts Umbrella Dance tour throughout the Lower Mainland and across BC, bringing contemporary dance repertoire and professional performances to audiences of all ages. In the 2025/26 season, Ballet BC Annex will share two new dance creations by acclaimed Vancouver-based choreographers Alexis Fletcher and Vanessa Goodman.
In schools, insightful workshops and Q&A sessions led by dancers and Ballet BC’s Education and Engagement team will accompany each performance, offering a closer look into the choreographic process and the career path of a dancer. Students learn excerpts from the performance and engage in creative dialogue.
VANESSA GOODMAN | CHOREOGRAPHER
Vanessa Goodman (she/her) respectfully acknowledges that she lives, works and creates on the ancestral and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, including the Sḵwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō, Səlílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy əm (Musqueam) Nations. She holds a BFA from Simon Fraser University and is the artistic director of Action at a Distance Dance Society. She 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) and a number of others.
Vanessa’s work has been presented in Vancouver by a number of renowned arts organisations and further afield by the likes of Crimson Coast (Nanaimo), Arts Spring (Salt Spring Island) and The Living Things Festival (Kelowna) among many others. Vanessa has been artist-in-residence at Cultivamos Cultura/BioFriction (Portugal), The Dance Centre, Dance Victoria, Harbourfront Centre, The Shadbolt Centre and The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, where she was also on faculty. Recently, Vanessa presented work and was a facilitator for Trinity Laban’s 2020 Co-Lab Project (London). Other commissions include Springboard Dansé Montréal, the plastic orchid factory (with Ame Henderson), Votive Dance, Lamon Dance, Modus Operandi and The SFU rep class.
ALEXIS FLETCHER | CHOREOGRAPHER
A dance artist, creator, and producer, Alexis danced with Ballet BC for 14 years and was subsequently a guest artist and Artist in Residence. Alexis took on the role of Ballet BC Rehearsal Director in April 2025 and she now holds the position of Artist in Residence at Vancouver’s Chutzpah! Festival and is a Creative Hub member at Presentation House Theatre. Her creations have been supported by Dance Victoria, Ballet BC, Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, Presentation House Theatre, New Works, Vernon Performing Arts Centre, The Gordon Smith Foundation, Dancing on the Edge, InFrinGing Festival, and Shadbolt Centre. As a freelancer, I am currently dancing with Re:Naissance Opera, zoe | juniper, and Wen Wei Dance.
As a dance artist Alexis is fascinated by how exploring the movement potential of the human body becomes a way of accessing the inner landscapes of our spirits and psyches, and this is the primary motivation behind her physical practice and choreographic interests.
She believes that dance is a unique vehicle with which to share, research, and discuss our humanity. As a creator Alexis is drawn to intimate, cross-disciplinary collaborations with like-minded creative spirits, and my works strive to create a powerful and tangible connection with my audience. After graduating from Arts Umbrella’s Post-Secondary Dance Program and student company in 2005, Alexis began her long and inspiring journey with Ballet BC under the Artistic Direction of John Alleyn.
After Emily Molnar took over directorship in 2009, Alexis was privileged to be one of the core group of dancers who, with her, were part of building Ballet BC into its new direction, sharing their work on world stages including Sadler’s Wells, Jacob’s Pillow, Canada’s National Arts Centre, The Joyce Theatre in New York, BAM, Movimentos Festival, Teatre Grec, among others. In her time with the company, I had the opportunity to work with distinguished choreographers and designers, and to be a contributing artist on numerous creative collaborations. She worked closely with Crystal Pite, Emily Molnar, Johan Inger, Stijn Celis, Jacopo Godani, Medhi Walerski, Fernando Hernando Magadan, Serge Bennathan, Gioconda Barbuto, John Alleyne, Cayetano Soto, and Jorma Elo, among others.
As an independent artist Alexis has worked collaboratively with creators such as Vanessa Goodman, Sidra Bell, Dario Dinuzzi, James Gnam, Simone Orlando, Rob Kitsos and Wen Wei Wang.
