Vanessa Goodman | Graveyards and Gardens (working title)
“Graveyards and Gardens” (working title) is a collaborative installation created and performed by composer Caroline Shaw and choreographer Vanessa Goodman. Produced by Action at a Distance, this new work examines memory as a process of reconstruction rather than an exact recall of fixed events, embracing the various elaborations, distortions, and omissions. The duet frames an immersive performative environment through focusing on the body as a chamber for both sound and movement. Created with the generous support of The Canada Council for the Arts, British Columbia Arts Council, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and CCOV.
Vanessa Goodman respectfully acknowledges that she lives and works on the ancestral and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations. She holds a BFA from Simon Fraser University and is the artistic director of Action at a Distance Dance Society. Vanessa is attracted to art that has a weight and meaning beyond the purely aesthetic and uses her choreography as an opportunity to explore the human condition. She received the 2013 Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award and the 2017 Yulanda M. Faris Program from the Scotiabank Dance Centre. Vanessa was one of the recipients of 2019 Chrystal Dance Prize from Dance Victoria. Her work has been presented locally by DanceHouse, SFUW, The Firehall Arts Centre, The Dance Centre, The Chutzpah! Festival and The Shadbolt Centre for the Arts; nationally by Fluid Festival (Calgary), Kinetic Studio (Halifax) and The Dance Made in/Fait au Canada Festival (Toronto); and internationally by On the Boards (Seattle), Risk/Reward Festival (Portland) and The Bienal Internacional de Dança Do Ceará (Brazil). Action at a Distance has been an artist in residence at EDAM, The Banff Centre and The Shadbolt Centre. Goodman has been commissioned by Springboard Danse Montréal, Lamon Dance, Warehaus Collective, Modus Operandi and The Simon Fraser University.
Caroline Shaw is a New York-based musician—vocalist, violinist, composer, and producer—who performs in solo and collaborative projects. She was the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013 for Partita for 8 Voices, written for the Grammy-winning Roomful of Teeth, of which she is a member. Recent commissions include new works for Renée Fleming with Inon Barnatan, Dawn Upshaw with Sō Percussion and Gil Kalish, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s with John Lithgow, the Dover Quartet, TENET, The Crossing, the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, the Calidore Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, the Baltimore Symphony, and Roomful of Teeth with A Far Cry. The 2018-19 season will see premieres by pianist Jonathan Biss with the Seattle Symphony, Anne Sofie von Otter with Philharmonia Baroque, the LA Philharmonic, and Juilliard 415. Caroline’s film scores include Erica Fae’s To Keep the Light and Josephine Decker’s Madeline’s Madeline as well as the upcoming short 8th Year of the Emergency by Maureen Towey. She has produced for Kanye West (The Life of Pablo; Ye) and Nas (NASIR), and has contributed to records by The National, and by Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry. Once she got to sing in three part harmony with Sara Bareilles and Ben Folds at the Kennedy Center, and that was pretty much the bees’ knees and elbows. Caroline has studied at Rice, Yale, and Princeton, currently teaches at NYU, and is a Creative Associate at the Juilliard School. She has held residencies at Dumbarton Oaks, the Banff Centre, Music on Main, and the Vail Dance Festival. Caroline loves the color yellow, otters, Beethoven opus 74, Mozart opera, Kinhaven, the smell of rosemary, and the sound of a janky mandolin.