MAINSTAGE 2026-27
Quantum Conversation II Traces - The Other Within
Rooted in Butoh’s image-work, somatic dance and poetic movements, Quantum Conversation || Traces – The Other Within investigates the body as a site of transformation and embodied knowledge, where movement emerges from personal, collective, and environmental memory. The production is a highly adaptable dance duet which scalability and site-responsive nature make it suited for touring across a range of indoor and outdoor contexts.
The core presentation is a 25-minute live performance that can unfold in situ, on an outdoor stage, as a gallery-style performance-installation, or within a traditional theatre setting. The work may also be presented preceded by a 15-minute dance film that gives form to the memories and unconscious experiences echoing within the live duet. The film expands and deepens the work's themes without replicating the stage piece, enriching the audience's reading of the performance.
The film requires only a flat surface to be projected on with basic projector, while the live work can also be presented independently, allowing flexibility in programming and duration. Designed to tour with only two performers, the production uses minimal technical requirements, enabling quick setup and strike, as well as responsiveness to diverse venues and resources.
The work foregrounds vulnerability, slowness, and multiple states of being as a mean to open a space for connection and healing. Through word-images, sensory experience, and internal states, it becomes a poem-in-motion that resists fixed forms and linear narratives, challenging normative representations of the body shaped by expectations of virtuosity, and idealized form.
The duet unfolds as an evolving landscape of traces, inviting audiences into a contemplative encounter with the other within.
Geneviève Johnson
photo Alun Macalunlty
TRAILER
ARTIST BIO
Geneviève Johnson is a dance artist, choreographer, filmmaker, visual artist, somatic movement researcher, and mentor whose interdisciplinary practice spans three decades. Since 1995, she has created and performed in more than 50 productions, developing a body of work that bridges live performance, screendance, installation, and site-responsive creation.
Her movement practice is deeply rooted in Butoh. After training in Canada with Jocelyne Montpetit, Yumiko Yoshioka, Natsu Nakajima, and Sandra Moreau, she traveled to Japan (1999) to study with Min Tanaka, Kazuo & Yoshito Ohno, and Dairakudakan. She holds a PhD from Université du Québec à Montréal (2008), where her research investigated poetic, transformative, and connective states of the moving body in performance.
Johnson has collaborated extensively with choreographer Holly Bright since 2006, notably on A Song of Years and The Sun and the Moon, and with artist Samantha Letourneau since 2020. Their recent works include the durational film & dance performance-installations Quantum Conversation I Embodied Threads and Quantum Conversation II Traces – The Other Within, premiered at the InFrinGinG Dance Festival, 2024 and 2025.
Through her long-standing practice, Johnson developed Landscape Under Skin Training (LUST), an accessible somatic movement approach that cultivates authentic relationships between body, environment, and community, embracing difference, fragility, and imperfection as generative forces in creating poems-in-motion. Since 2018, she has expanded her practice into dance-film and performance-installation through studies in digital media and visual arts, mentorship with filmmaker Evann Siebens, and international screendance training with Katrina McPherson in Scotland.
Performance History & Upcoming Performances
Quantum Conversation II Traces – The Other Within & Digital Dance Walk (2025) & Quantum Conversation I Embodied Threads (2024) – Co- created with Samantha Letourneau; durational dance-film installation exploring conversations between the human body and the universe; site- responsive performance, film, and audience-led interactions presented in Bowen Park, Chapel Street Hall, and Triple Moon Mercantile, Nanaimo.
Project Created by: Geneviève Johnson and Samantha Letourneau
Key Artistic Collaborators:
Performers: Genevieve Johnson and Samantha Letourneau
Music: Bran Mackie and Samantha Letourneau
Soundscape and Film Edit: Geneviève Johnson
Cinematographer: Helen Langerud
Performance type: THIS WORK IS ADAPTABLE TO THEATRE OR OUTDOORS
How do you define this work: Butoh-inspired poetry-in-motion performances using blackout poetry, visual imagery, and somatic practice to create poetic, transformative movement experiences.
Length of performance: 40 min
Audience type:
Number of Performers on tour (including choreographer): 2
Number of Support Staff on Tour: 0
Availabilities: 2027/2028 season, 2028/2029 season
Project Details
Community Engagement
General Technical Requirements:
These tech riders serve as a flexible reference and will be adapted collaboratively with presenting venues and each indoor and outdoor site.
INDOOR
Stage Requirements (flexible)
• Dancing space: 20’ wide x 16’ deep (adaptable to smaller spaces)
• Floor: Marley preferred; clean, smooth stage floor acceptable
• Backdrop: black or neutral
• Wing space: minimal (performers enter from audience or side and stay on stage for the whole presentation)
Projection (optional)
The work can be presented with or without projection, depending on presenter’s programming need.
• 1 video projector (HDMI input)
• Projection surface:
o Rear or front projection screen or
o Clean upstage wall/cyclo
• Projection position: Centered, upstage
• Image size: Approx. 12–16’ wide (scalable)
Video playback:
• Laptop provided by artists
• HDMI cable provided by venue (or adaptable)
Sound
• Stereo sound system suitable for small to mid-size venue
• 2 speakers (L/R) placed downstage left and right or house system
• Audio playback: From artists’ laptop or venue’s (same device as video)
Lighting
Base look:
• Warm or neutral wash covering full stage Suggested cues:
1. Opening / Film: Soft, even wash (50–60%)
2. Dance-focused sections: Slightly sculpted wash with gentle side light
3. Ending: Fade to low or blackout
No specials required. Artists are adaptable to available inventory.
Setup & Timing
• Load-in: 30 minutes
• Tech check: 30–45 minutes (1-1.5 hours if with projection)
• Strike: Immediate
Additional Notes
• Work is designed to function in theatre, studio, gallery, or black box settings
• Lighting and spacing are intentionally minimal and adaptable
• Artists are experienced in performing in unusual spaces and can self-manage video and audio playback
Site Requirements (flexible)
• Dancing space: 20’ wide x 16’ deep (adaptable to smaller spaces – plaza, courtyard, park, beach...)
• Surface: flat as possible (concrete, wood deck, stage platform, clean natural surface: grass, ground, rock)
• Audience configuration: standing or seated; frontal or semi-frontal
Projection (optional)
The work can be presented with or without projection, depending on site conditions, light & programming need.
With Projection (dusk / night / low-light conditions)
• 1 outdoor-rated or high-lumen projector (HDMI input)
• Projection surface: wall, waterfall, natural rock surface, temporary screen, or portable structure
• Projection position: Centered, upstage or integrated into architecture
• Image size: Approx. 12–20’ wide (scalable to site)
Video playback:
• Laptop provided by artists or presenter
• HDMI cable and power access provided by presenter
Without Projection (daylight option or need for shorter presentation)
• Performance focuses on live duet
Sound
• Portable amplified sound system suitable for outdoor use
• 1-2 powered speakers placed downstage centre or left and right or integrated into site
• Audio playback: from artists’ laptop
Work may also be adapted for quieter sites with reduced amplification.
Lighting (if available)
Lighting is optional and dependent on site.
• Natural light: Fully workable (ideal for daytime or golden hour)
• Supplemental lighting (optional):
o 2–4 LED fixtures for dusk/night presentation
o Simple area wash only; no specials required
Power Requirements
• 2–3 standard power outlets (laptop, speakers, projector)
• Extension cords / power bars as required for site
Setup & Timing
• Site visit / orientation: Recommended
• Load-in: 30 minutes
• Tech check: 30–45 minutes (1-1.5 hours if with projection)
• Strike: Immediate
Weather & Environmental Considerations
• Suitable for dry weather conditions
• Presenter to provide contingency plan for rain (covered area or reschedule)
• Artists adaptable to ambient sound, pedestrian flow, and site- specific conditions
Additional Notes
• Work is designed for public spaces, festivals, natural outdoor settings, and site-responsive contexts
• Technical needs are intentionally minimal and scalable
• Artists are experienced in outdoor presentation and can self-manage audio and video playback
Required amount of time for tech set up: Load-in: 30 minutes, Tech check: 30–45 minutes (1-1.5 hours if with projection), Strike: Immediate
Alternative Venues: The performance is designed as a flexible, site-responsive production
suitable for theatres, galleries, unconventional venues, and outdoor public
spaces.
The live performance requires an average playing area of 16' x 16' with an indoor clean, level, smooth surface (Marley preferred by not required for indoor presentations). Outdoor presentations are done on flat, stable surfaces protected/cleaned from excessive debris.
Audience seating may be traditional, cabaret, promenade, or informal.
The performance also adapts well to audiences surrounding the playing space, creating an intimate and immersive experience.
Access to a dressing room, washroom, and a warm-up area would be appreciated The work contains slow, contemplative movement and extended moments of stillness, making it most effective in environments where audiences can engage without significant interruption or ambient noise. Its adaptable format allows presenters to tailor the presentation to diverse communities, venues, and programming contexts.
Creative Response Residency for Visual Artists
As an additional community engagement opportunity, we invite local visual artists to participate in a creative response residency. We have previously facilitated this interdisciplinary exchange with drawing and painting artists and found it to be a powerful way of building dialogue between movement and visual art practices.
Visual artists are invited to witness LUST workshops, rehearsals, and/or live performances of Quantum Conversation II, creating drawings, paintings, or mixed-media works in direct response to the movement unfolding before them. Rather than documenting the dance, artists are encouraged to enter in conversation with it, responding to themes of memory, traces, embodiment, and transformation.
The resulting artworks may be informally shared during the project, exhibited at a later date, or integrated into a public showing. During presentations and performances, an optional live-streaming camera positioned above the artists' hands can project their mark-making process in real time, allowing audiences to witness the parallel emergence of visual and choreographic responses.
Participating artists receive an online provocation package containing images, texts, and reflective prompts inspired by the themes and creative methodologies of Quantum Conversation II, offering a point of entry into the project before gathering in person.
This engagement activity is highly adaptable and can range from a single witnessing session to a multi-day interdisciplinary residency culminating in an exhibition and/or live projection component. Fees are scalable and depend on the duration of the residency, the number of participating artists, exhibition requirements, and technical needs.
Outreach Activities
As a outreach opportunity, we offer Landscape Under Skin Theatre
(LUST) workshops in both English and French. Developed by Geneviève Johnson through her doctoral research and informed by her Butoh training in Japan, LUST is an accessible movement practice that explores the body as porous and responsive to memory, environment, and human connection.
No previous dance experience is required – only curiosity and a love of moving. Through words, blackout poetry, sensory experiences, found objects, and creative prompts, participants translate embodied memories and encounters with place into expressive movement, creating what we call poems in motion. By engaging directly with natural or built environments, participants develop a visceral understanding of dance and deepen their relationship to community and place. The workshops often shift perceptions of what dance can be and how movement can foster care, connection, and belonging.
Workshops can take place indoors, outdoors, or as a combination of both, echoing the themes of traces, memory, and transformation explored in Quantum Conversation II. Sessions may focus solely on live movement exploration or include lens-based creations, where participants learn to move for and with the camera as a dance partner. A group dance-film is then edited by Johnson as a trace of participants' creative journeys. This digital poem-in-motion can be shared informally with community members or presented online.
Formats are flexible and can be tailored to presenter needs, ranging from a single three-hour session to an intensive weekend format of 8-10 hours.
Workshop fees are scalable and can be discussed in collaboration with presenters. For longer intensive, we send a provocation package online to prepare participants.
Contact information