Meet the Artists

Rachel Helten | Artistic Director / Choreographer / Dancer

Rachel Helten is an interdisciplinary artist, dancer, choreographer, and educator whose practice weaves movement, writing, music and storytelling. Based on the unceded ancestral territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Peoples, her work explores deep listening, collaboration, and embodied vulnerability as pathways toward personal and collective liberation. With a BFA in Dance from SFU, she has presented work locally and internationally and worked with a diverse community of heart-led artists, including Chaos Emblematic, Okams Racer, Voirelia, Dezza Dance, KOFI, Tara Cheyenne Performance, and The Plastic Orchid Factory, among others.
In 2024, Rachel became Artistic Director of soma anima arts, evolving from Kinesis Dance somatheatro, founded in 1986 by Paraskevas Terezakis. The organization creates immersive interdisciplinary productions and community engagement programs that explore art’s potential to deepen connection, foster community wellbeing and invite healing. Guided by inclusivity, equity, and care, its work delves into themes of renewal, connection to the earth, and unseen worlds. It seeks to inspire radical empathy, challenge colonial conditioning, open space for alternative ways of knowing and being, and nurture a more just, loving, and interconnected world.

Photo credit: Em Welz

Allison Lang | Dance Artist

Allison Lang is a dance artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia, on the unceded traditional territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations. In recent years, she has worked with artists and companies including Action at a Distance (Vanessa Goodman), Ballet Edmonton (Wen Wei Wang), Ballet Vancouver (Joshua Beamish), and Kokoro Dance (Jay Hirabayashi, Barbara Bourget).
As a choreographer, Allison is led by experiences of devotion and dissonance, embracing a practice which calls on absurdity, beauty, and truth. Her work engages an ongoing inquiry into how we might unweave and destabilize while building towards new modes of perception and relation.

Photo credit: Brian Lang

Ben Helten | Musician / Composer

Ben Helten is a musician and multi-instrumentalist who, from a young age, has been drawn to the connection between nature and sound. They love weaving stories through sonic waves and find inspiration in the music Mother Nature makes. They may be found singing with the seals and humming with the trees. Growing up in a musical family that nurtured their creative spirit has helped Ben find meaning in lived experiences and channel them through instrumentation. They carry the memory of their mom through story and song, honouring the irreplaceable and beautiful soul she is. Ben thanks you for being here and sends lots of love.
Selected credits: Ben has performed at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival with Latin rock group Mezcla and collaborated with folk group Faded Oak and Latin fusion band Spanglish. They have also provided musical accompaniment for dancers and multidisciplinary artists throughout the Lower Mainland, contributing to productions including The Clarity of All That Is (2019), Our Veins Like Her Branches (2020), Masters of Reality with Chaos Emblematic (2023), Bright Shadow with soma anima arts (2024, 2026), and Gentle Glory (2025).

Photo Credit: Rachel Helten

2024-2025
Vancouver, BC

In April 2024, Kinesis Dance’s founder Paras Terezakis introduced Vancouver choreographer and dancer Rachel Helten as his successor and the new Artistic Director of the company.

Born from Paras & Rachel’s desire to embody this transition of artistic leadership for our organization, Bright Shadow’s first inspiration was to merge iconic excerpts from Paras’ extensive works with Rachel’s multidisciplinary research on Utopia and Dystopia, to create a new work centered around the question “what world are we hoping to build together?”

The sneak peak into the research performed on April 4th featured dynamic movement, live music, and digital projections. 

As the world is experiencing chaos, a climate crisis, and continued social injustice, we believe more than ever, it is vital to continue conversations, expand in our consciousness, imagination, nervous systems, and hearts, with what a peaceful and utopic world might look like for us. “Bright Shadow” seeks to spark dialogue, inspire creativity, and offer a beacon of hope amidst uncertainty.

Dance in Vancouver
November 2024

Bright Shadow is a multidisciplinary performance that navigates the interplay between utopia and dystopia through dance, music, spoken word, and immersive digital projections. At its heart lies the question, “What world do we want to build together?” This dynamic work invites audiences to engage actively, integrating interactive technologies to shape the performance in real time. Through vivid storytelling and evocative artistry, Bright Shadow fosters reflection on collective dreams and fears, offering a transformative space to imagine and co-create a more connected and hopeful future.

In November, Rachel expanded the work with dancers Allison Lang, Ileanna Sophia Cheladyn and Ana Sosa, alongside musician and poet Kofi Obiri Yeboah and composer Ben Helten, integrating interactive technology and projections designed by programmer and digital artist Ezequiel Peralta. The work-in-progress was publicly presented during the Dance In Vancouver biennale hosted by The Dance Centre. After the show, audience members expressed how moved they were by the work, fueling our desire to expand our research. This process also revealed the need for more time, energy, and resources to further develop the concept.

This work is initially rooted in Rachel’s personal journey through trauma, loss, and mental illness. Her experiences with Complex PTSD (CPTSD), have profoundly shaped her understanding of the necessity to orient toward peaceful realities and potentials. This journey has deepened her awareness of how crucial compassion, connection, and hope are—not only in our personal lives but also for the collective consciousness we share. As the project has evolved, it now embraces and honours the voices of our collaborators and future audiences. Together, we explore the transformative power of art and connection as tools for personal and collective healing. In doing so, we expand our perspectives, envisioning a world in harmony with ourselves, each other, and the earth.

We envision an extended interactive multidisciplinary work that incorporates contemporary dance, original music, sound clips, and digital projections. This immersive experience will foster dialogue about utopian ideals amidst the current chaos and injustice we face. Our objectives include facilitating group discussions and creative explorations among collaborators to provoke thought and inspire creativity while amplifying individual voices within our project. Through this, we seek to honour diverse perspectives.