Dance on the Shore: Bridging Communities

Dance on the Shore is a collaborative research and performance project developed by Virginia Duivenvoorden, in partnership with The Dance Centre and Dance//Novella. The pilot project and performances expand professional dance activity on the North Shore. It celebrates dance, artistic exchange, and community connection for performing arts created by, for, and in conversation with North Shore communities.

Dance//Novella - Racheal & Brandon
 

Racheal Prince and Brandon Lee Alley are Vancouver-based choreographers and Co-Artistic Directors of Dance//Novella, a contemporary dance-theatre company they founded in 2019. Both former artists with Ballet BC, their work brings together movement, sound, design, and theatricality through a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach.

Their choreographic work has been developed and presented across Canada and internationally, with residencies and support from Ballet BC, Dance Victoria, The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, The Polygon Gallery, and The Dance Centre. Their work has been presented through the Vancouver International Dance Festival, Dancing on the Edge, Chutzpah! Festival, SOUND OFF, International Dance Day, and Men in Dance in Seattle.

Their body of work includes When the Walls Come Down, an ASL-integrated dance-theatre work created in collaboration with Deaf artists; STANCE and its reimagining, Soft Animals; Night is the Mother; and The Sound of Disappearing. Their work moves between abstraction and narrative, exploring memory, identity, connection, and the complexity of being human.

Prince and Alley have also created commissioned works for Alberta Ballet and SALT Contemporary Dance, extending their choreographic practice across contemporary dance and ballet-informed contexts.

DANCERS
 

Bryn Bridgen is a dance artist based in Vancouver, BC, and a company artist with Dance//Novella. Her work with the company has included the Banff Centre residency, film projects such as Afterimage, and processes and performances at The Polygon Gallery.  Bryn is also a graduate of the GibneyPRO Professional Certificate Program under direction of Alexandra Wells and Gilbert T. Small II. Here, she worked with Peter Chu, Laja Field, and Lea Ved. As a freelance artist, she has also performed with Ballet Vancouver and Action at a Distance. Bryn engages in interdisciplinary performance contexts that celebrate Indigenous culture, including performances at the JUNO Awards and Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week 2025.

Shana 愛 Wolfe is a Japanese-Canadian freelance dance artist based in Vancouver, on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She has collaborated with local companies including Company 605, OURO Collective, Dance//Novella and Inverso Productions, as well as independent artists such as Cindy Mochizuki, Lisa Mariko Gelley, Raven Grenier, Anya Saugstad and Shion Skye Carter. She’s had the privilege to perform at local festivals such as Dancing on the Edge, Vines Art Festival, Guelph Dance Festival, Dance Deck, Hold On Let Go, Dance In Vancouver, LIFT and Coastal Dance Festival. Internationally, she has performed at Sadler’s Wells (UK), the Autostadt Theatre in Wolfsburg, and the Tanzbiennale in Heidelberg (Germany). Shana is currently a teacher for Dancing with Parkinson’s Canada and Ballet BC’s MOVE programming. She has been a part of the What Lab team for 3 years as the Studio Operations Coordinator and is currently pursuing a degree in Kinesiology.
 

Nathan Bear (He/Him/His) grew up locally in Langley, BC and began to dance at the age of six. He trained at Tri-City Dance Centre before joining Arts Umbrella’s Graduate Program under the guidance of Artemis Gordon. During Nathan’s education he preformed works by Crystal Pite, Marco Goecke, Johan Inger, William Forsythe, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Ethan Colangelo, Fernando Hernando Magadan and Medhi Walerski. Nathan had the opportunity to expand his education and participate in company summer intensives such as Netherlands Dans Theatre (NDT) and Complexions Contemporary Ballet. He was the recipient of Ballet BC’s Dancers of Today scholarship which allowed him to continue his training and be a representative of his Indigenous culture. Nathan just concluded his second season as an Emerging Artist with Ballet BC and is very excited and grateful to be joining Ballet Vancouver for the 26/27 season.

Nevan Boyden (He/Him) was born in Vancouver, BC, where he trained in the Arts Umbrella Dance Program from the age of five. In 2021, Nevan was accepted into the Arts Umbrella Post Secondary Program, where he was invited to join the Ballet BC Annex program under the direction of Artemis Gordon and Medhi Walerski. Here, Nevan had the opportunity to perform works by choreographers such as Johan Inger, William Forsythe, Crystal Pite, Marco Goecke, Medhi Walerski, Dance Novella, and Rebecca Margolick among others. From 2024 - 2026, Nevan danced with Ballet Edmonton under the direction of Kirsten Wicklund. In October 2025, he was given the opportunity to create a new work, "Open Door Policy", with the mentorship of Fernando Magadan. Nevan is excited to be dancing back home in Vancouver for this season.