2023/24 Artist in Residence
Angela Mousseau (she/her) is a Victoria based queer contemporary dance artist and teacher, living and working on the unceded territory of the Lekwungen speaking Peoples. Choreographing and teaching for over 20 years, Angela has worked with dance artists and students from across Canada and around the world. Currently, she is on faculty at: Westcoast Academy of Performing Arts (En Avant Program), the Victoria Academy of Ballet (Bridge Program and Professional Training Program), and The Landing Dance in Vancouver. She is also a guest teacher/choreographer with the Nanaimo Contemporary Ballet, Ballet Victoria, and more. She is resident choreographer for Convergence Contemporary Ballet.
Dance Victoria has facilitated Angela in choreographic residencies where she created the pieces “Persistent Thought” (2018) and “Clown for Hire” (2020) for Rough Cuts at The Metro Studio Theatre. As a choreographer and through Dance Victoria, Angela has worked with Wen Wei Wang, Justine Chambers and Susan Elliott.
As resident choreographer of Convergence Contemporary Ballet, an innovative dance company based in Victoria, BC, Angela has presented new works; “For now I am winter “ (2015), “Mirror” (2016), “Petricor” (2017).
Angela’s work is based off of an inquisitive and curious look at the world. She gravitates towards patterns found in everyday life and tries to enhance or bring light to moments that are part of our everyday routine. She values the creative collaboration between artists and is excited to collaborate with Elya Grant and Nyah Wong Penner in her upcoming residency at Dance Victoria. Ambiguous Images (working title) will be a multi-phase project in collaboration with interdisciplinary artists to explore the idea of multistable perception.
Angela is a graduate of the University of the Arts (Modern Dance 2001).
Collaborators
Born and raised in Parksville BC, Elya Grant is a graduate of the contemporary dance program Modus Operandi. She received further formative training with Rubberbandance Group Domaine
Forget, Ecole de Danse Contemporaine de Montréal and the Eastman/Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s Intensive in Antwerp. Elya has had the pleasure to interpret and collaborate works by Amber Funk
Barton, Heather Laura Gray, Ralph Escamillan, Kinesis Dance, Karissa Barry and Company 605.
Her choreographic work ranges from stage to film and events. She has been a company member of Out Innerspace Dance Theatre since 2015 creating and touring nationally and internationally, most recently touring in the latest work “Bygones”. Her enthusiasm and engagement towards impacting young dancers naturally led her to teaching at various studios and institutions throughout BC. Elya is currently based in Victoria residing on the unceded traditional territory of the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples, known as Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations.
Nyah Xiyan Wong Penner is a Chinese-Canadian dance artist currently based in Vancouver, Canada. Nyah was born and raised in Vancouver and trained in classical ballet from age three to 18 years at Goh Ballet Academy under the direction of Chan Hon Goh. While at Goh, Nyah danced in original works by Maina Gielgud, Kirsten Wicklund, Monica Proenca, and Anna-Marie Holmes. In February of 2022, Nyah traveled to Berlin, Germany and fell in love with improvisation and movement research. Upon graduating highschool, Nyah spent the summer exploring contemporary dance by participating in the Joshua Beamish/MOVETHECOMPANY summer intensive and the Inverso summer intensive with Lesley Telford. In the 2022-23 season, Nyah trained at Victoria Academy of Ballet in the Post-Secondary Bridge Program under the direction of Bleiddyn Del Villar Bellis. In this program Nyah was able to work on a deepening of improvisational practice while developing contemporary, modern, and ballet technique. In May 2023, Nyah was contracted to dance in the corps in Joshua Beamish’s New York City premier of his original contemporary-ballet work, “@giselle.” Now training at Modus Operandi in Vancouver, Nyah is invested in a developing relationship to the form through exploring improvisational and choreographed contemporary movement. As a hobby, Nyah writes, draws and sketches with pens, pencils, and crayola crayons, and creates improvisational piano music.