Vanessa Goodman

Choreographer Performance Research Project 2026

photo by Ben Didier

Vanessa Goodman acknowledges that she lives, works, and creates on the stolen, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, including the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō, Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University and is the Artistic Director of Action at a Distance Dance Society. Goodman’s early training includes studies with Laurie Raymond, Gabby Kamino, and CCDT. As a performer, she has collaborated with a wide range of contemporary artists and companies, including Judith Garay, Evann Siebens, Justine A. Chambers, Julia Sasso, plastic orchid factory, and Mascall Dance, among others. Her choreographic practice is drawn to work that carries resonance beyond the aesthetic, using choreography as a site for investigating liminal states within the human condition. She weaves generative movement, sonic embodiment, and spatial sensitivity to create immersive performative environments that foreground intimacy, perception, and presence. Goodman’s work has toured extensively throughout Canada, the United States, Europe, and South America, and has been recognized with numerous awards and honours, including The Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award (2013), The Yulanda M. Faris Scholarship (2017/18), The Chrystal Dance Prize (2019 & 2024), the Schultz Endowment from the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (2019), and the Isadora Award (2025). She was also a participant in the international Space to Fail program (2019/20). Her practice is sustained through long-term artistic collaborations, including Graveyards and Gardens with Caroline Shaw, BLOT with Simona Deaconescu, and multiple works with Loscil (Scott Morgan), Brady Marks, and James Proudfoot.