Vanessa Thiessen (choreographer and co-director) is a choreographer, artistic collaborator and educator. Resident Choreographer for Post:ballet from 2017-2021, her works include La Folia, Hades and Persephone, and Junction, as well as co-choreographed works with Robin Dekkers including Lavender Country (nominated for Best Dance Performance 2019 by SF Classical Voice), Incandescent Body, From Now On (Dance Theater of San Francisco), and Dear Light Along the Path to Nothingness (Grand Rapids Ballet).
From 2013-2015, Thiessen worked alongside ODC/Dance Co-Director KT Nelson, generating choreography for Sacramento Ballet, Owen/Cox Dance, RAWdance, and for Chris Mason Johnson’s dance film From The Beginning. In 2018, she created From the Well of Echoes for Berkeley Ballet Theater in collaboration with the Berkeley Symphony, and in 2019, she created Left for BodyVox JAG in collaboration with the Portland Youth Symphony.
Thiessen teaches at Oregon Ballet Theater, Reed College, BodyVox, Open Space, and Berkeley Ballet Theater. She danced professionally with Post:ballet, Skinner/Kirk, Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, Project B., ODC/Dance (where she was nominated for an Isadora Duncan award for her performance in They’ve Lost Their Footing), Smuin Ballet, and Oregon Ballet Theater.