SOFT ANIMALS
Developed in collaboration with the performing artists: Yuha Tomita, Bryn Bridgen, Mia Pelayo, Nancy Junjiaqi Li, Shana 愛 Wolfe and Madeleine Cruz
Costume Design: Robyn Clarke
Mask Design: Jym Davis
Lighting Design: Jack Chipman
Sound Design: Brandon Lee Alley
Videography: Dan Loan
Special thanks to Alexis Fletcher, Nasiv Kaur Sall and Lisa Cooke Ravensbergen for their invaluable contributions.
Soft Animals is an abstract dance-theatre work tracing a group of women who have lost their connection to the past. As they move through fracture and vulnerability, they search for ways to listen, remember who they are, and begin again. The work invites audiences into a living landscape shaped by grief and reclamation.
Synopsis
Originally conceived during a research residency at Banff Centre for the Arts in December 2024, Soft Animals has undergone many phases of growth over the past few years. In June 2026, we premiered a 30 minute version of the work as part of the Dancing on the Edge Festival in Vancouver B.C. With much excitement and encouragement from audiences and critics alike, we look forward to continue researching and developing this work alongside our incredible collaborators.
“Dance//Novella’s ambitious, six-dancer Soft Animals showed choreographers (and Ballet BC alumni) Brandon Lee Alley and Racheal Prince’s strengths in conjuring fully realized theatrical worlds, complete with atmospheric lighting, evocative soundscapes, and striking imagery. There was a haunting, abstract, elusive quality to Soft Animals.”
IN THE NEWS
“Accolades should go to the emerging talents—Bryn Bridgen, Madeleine Cruz, Mia Pelayo, Nancy Junjiaqi Li, Shana 愛 Wolfe, and Yuha Tomita—who interpreted Alley and Prince’s choreography, which moved fluidly between a powerful, animal physicality and tender fragility.”
Photography by David Cooper