Belle Spirale Dance Projects announces 2025-26 season that reaches from Kelowna to Spain
Highlights include a new piece by Wen Wei Wang, a commission for Ballet BC Annex, and the return of The Dance Deck in summer 2026
Belle Spirale Dance Projects in STATERA by Fernando Hernando Magadan, part of the UNIVERSUS double bill. Photo by Michael Slobodian
BELLE SPIRALE DANCE PROJECTS has just unveiled its third season of offerings, which will take the nonprofit society around B.C. and beyond.
The company is currently in Terrassa, Spain, where co-artistic directors Alexis Fletcher and Sylvain Senez are in residence at LaFact Cultural until September 5 with renowned American choreographer Kevin O’Day and Catalan dancer Alba Nadal. They’ll be creating a new piece called Trobar, with preview performances for European audiences. Trobar will debut in Vancouver in a future season.
After their residency wraps up, Fletcher and Senez will head straight to Ballet Kelowna, where they’ll choreograph a brand-new work for 11 dancers that explores the complexities of time, with an original score by Ben Waters. It’ll have its world premiere at the Kelowna Community Theatre on November 7 and 8 as part of a program called Countermove.
Upon returning from Kelowna, Belle Spirale will create another new commission, this time for Ballet BC Annex (a project that provides career experience for pre-professional dancers in collaboration with Arts Umbrella Dance Company and Modus Operandi). Belle Spirale artists Sophia Makarenko and Nathan Coburn will provide choreographic assistance.
(From left) Trobar collaborators Alexis Fletcher, Sylvain Senez, Kevin O’Day, and Alba Nadal. Photo by Jon McRae
UNIVERSUS—a double bill revolving around resilience that premiered here in March as part of the Vancouver International Dance Festival, in partnership with New Works and the Chutzpah! Festival—will tour to Vancouver Island in the new year. Dance Victoria is presenting the piece at the McPherson Playhouse on January 16, 2026.
Celebrated Chinese-Canadian artist Wen Wei Wang will be choreographing a new piece for Belle Spirale in spring 2026, featuring dancers Fletcher and Justin Rapaport alongside mezzo-soprano Emma Parkinson. Performance dates will be announced later for the work, copresented by Wen Wei Dance with support from Vancouver Civic Theatres.
Another world premiere planned for spring 2026 is an intimate new solo for Ariana Barr, cocreated with Fletcher. Expressed through a distinctly female lens, the work addresses intuition and social conditioning through the moment of decision-making that occurs between stimulus and response. As part of New Works’ Residency Reflections series, a free work-in-progress showing of the solo will take place at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre on November 21, followed by a discussion about the artistic process.
Summer 2026 offerings with dates to be announced include KIN, an exploration of belonging and lineage created for Lazaro Silva and Juan Duarte that debuted as a work-in-progress at the 2023 STAND Festival; and a new creation by Ballet BC dancer Sidney Chuckas, who has previously performed at The Dance Deck.
Belle Spirale wrapped up its 10th anniversary of The Dance Deck last month. You can expect the East Van backyard showcase to return again in July 2026. 
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