Meet Vanessa

PRODUCER // WRITER // DIRECTOR // CHOREOGRAPHER // COACH & MENTOR

Vanessa Lalonde (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist, producer, writer, director, choreographer, coach and mentor based in Victoria, BC. For more than 20 years, her work has lived at the intersection of creative expression, embodied practice, storytelling and community leadership, driven by a belief that the arts can help people feel more alive, connected and powerful in their own lives.

As an artist, Vanessa has built a career across live performance, dance, film, television and music. She has worked internationally as a performer, choreographer and movement director, with professional credits spanning major television productions, world tours, music videos and live performance. Her collaborators and professional credits include Legion for FX Networks, Xavier Rudd, Sarah Slean, Havana Brown, Bif Naked and many others.

But the heart of Vanessa's artistic practice is creating worlds for the stage.

For more than a decade, she has written, produced and directed original theatrical dance productions that combine movement, music, character, narrative and multimedia. She founded The Lovers Cabaret and Luminesque Dance, and since 2021 has served as Artistic Director of Glow Studios Inc., where she continues to write, produce and direct large-scale ensemble works while collaborating with dancers and choreographers from a wide range of artistic backgrounds thru. Across her career, Vanessa has contributed to the creation and production of more than 70 live shows, from intimate independent work to large-scale theatrical dance productions.

Her artistic practice is deeply connected to her work as a coach, educator and community leader.

Vanessa's approach draws from extensive study in creativity coaching, embodiment, breathwork, somatic practice, performing arts, leadership and equitable community building. She holds a Dance Diploma from Grant MacEwan University and a Certificate in Performing Arts from the Canadian College of Performing Arts, and has completed a 400-hour Temple Body Arts embodiment training alongside continued professional development in dance, coaching, breathwork, leadership, trauma-informed practice, decolonization, inclusion and equity.

In 2024, Vanessa co-founded Glow Giver Academy, where she is a co-owner and course author. Through the Academy, she helped develop a virtual Heels Dance Teacher Training that moves beyond choreography and technique to explore facilitation, embodied teaching and the responsibility that comes with leading creative communities.

Whether she is directing a cast, developing a new stage work, mentoring an artist, facilitating breathwork or supporting someone through a creative transition, Vanessa's work returns to the same essential question:

How do we create spaces where people feel safe enough to take risks, powerful enough to use their voice, and supported enough to become more fully themselves?

Her current artistic work continues this exploration through theatrical dance, storytelling and collaborative creation, while her coaching and mentorship practice supports artists, leaders and creative people in building lives and practices that feel more embodied, sustainable and alive.