Dance//Novella has been selected as the 2027 recipient of MPMG’s HYPE Marketing Assistance Grant

MPMG will be supporting the world premiere of So to Speak, June 18 and 19, 2027, at the Annex: a first full-length solo choreographed and performed by Dance//Novella Co-Artistic Director Brandon Lee Alley.

Now in its seventh season, Dance//Novella is a Vancouver dance-theatre company creating new work and championing emerging artists. Founded in 2020 as a vehicle for its directors’ own artistic practice, the company is led by Co-Artistic Directors Racheal Prince and Brandon Lee Alley. Racheal danced for 12 seasons with Ballet BC and is a respected teacher and mentor, as well as Managing Director of C-Space (Progress Lab 1422), an East Vancouver arts hub.

So to Speak marks an ambitious new chapter for Brandon, one of Vancouver’s most compelling contemporary dance artists. A current artist with Kidd Pivot and a former Ballet BC company member, he has built a reputation for extraordinary physicality, theatricality, humour, and unmistakable stage presence. After years in ensemble and featured roles, he now stands alone at the centre of the stage.

Virtuosity beside failure. Heartbreak alongside play. At the heart of the work is a universal question: how do we continue living when someone we love is suddenly gone? Emerging in part from the unexpected death of Brandon’s mother, So to Speak blends contemporary dance, theatre, original text, clowning, and juggling to resist grief as solemn or linear. It asks whether joy can coexist with loss, and how we stay connected to life while carrying someone who is no longer here.

The work has been years in the making. It began through Ballet BC’s Take Form program and has moved through several phases of independent research, a two-week residency at Dance Victoria, and a 30-minute rough-cut sharing for invited dance and theatre artists, with dramaturge Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg guiding its expansion into a full-length premiere.

At a moment when loss, uncertainty, and disconnection feel increasingly present, So to Speak invites audiences to encounter mortality through movement, imagination, and an unwavering appetite for life.

Save the Date: Tickets on sale February 23, 2027.

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HYPE is MPMG’s annual grant program to help support emerging Canadian artists, across all performing artistic disciplines, in the presentation of a new work.

HYPE is part of MPMG’s ongoing efforts to support, train, and mentor the next generation of performing artists through the donation of marketing services. HYPE provides Media Relations, Digital Marketing, and Consulting support to raise the profile and awareness of the recipient’s new work, while simultaneously helping prepare them for ongoing success by providing training, mentorship, and marketing resources in preparation for future presentations.

2028 Application Dates + Details will be announced in June 2027.

For further information, please contact: hype@mpmgarts.com