​"...a very thoughtful and sustained balance between the intellectual and the choreographic material..."- El Pais
"...strange, haunting and thought-provoking." -Georgia Straight

BEGUILE

Les Grands Ballets Canadiens

How do we influence and react to those around us? What role do we play? A piece questioning the individual as a separate entity.
".,.Lesley Telford's choreography, Beguile, hits the mark. We enjoyed seeing Maude Sabourin embody this character of a powerful woman, with straining muscles, weighed down with the heaviness of real work, who refuses to enter the mold and the imposed dress. Feminist criticism is refreshing here."
​     -Le Devoir

LEAN-TO

Ballet BC

A lush nuanced journey exploring the  interdependencies of family constellations and how they transform over time
"We see support but also claustrophobia. This double bind is demonstrated through choreography that is heart-wrenchingly emotional. Lean-To is a beautiful multimedia meditation on the power and limitations of family structures."
​     -Vancouver Arts Review

IF I WERE 2

Ballet BC

A collaboration with writer Barbara Adler about the Narcissus myth, exploring the subjective nature of our perception of others
"The nature of “the way you look” was eloquently presented in the interactions of these two bodies moving beneath a shiny reflective surface: looking into mirrors, mirroring each other, moving one another, almost as inanimate objects. The last line summed it up perfectly for me “as your breath lays where it halts at my surface”.
​    - Plank Magazine

BRITTLE FAILURE

Inverso Productions &
​Korzo  Productions

Full length work in collaboration with Yoko Seyama about the fragility of "home"
"The festival Madrid en Danza closed last Sunday with what was undoubtedly its best creative work in dance: Brittle Failure"  
​     -Roger Salas/ El Pais

AN INSTANT

Ballet BC

An investigation of physical risk, set to the score of Weather by Michael Gordon and text by Szymborska. How do we feel when close to the edge of a precipice and we ask the question: ​what if?
“The magic that Telford achieves with her 11 dancers is something akin to suspended time, like we enter “an instant”, then rewind, then freeze, then enter it again from a different perspective." Janet Smith/ Georgia Straight

SPOOKY ACTION

Inverso Productions

A full length work weaving together dance, poetic storytelling and original composition to extend theories from quantum physics to human connections 

ONLY WHO IS LEFT

ProArte Danza

"War does not determine who is right, only who is left"
​-Bertrand Russell

CHORUS

Arts Umbrella Dance Company

Inspired by the role of a Greek chorus, strength in numbers and solidarity.

AUS DEN FUGEN

Ballet Vorpommern

A study of the musical form of the fugue and how our memories and stories are interwoven in our lives in fugue-like patterns and repeated cycles.

ALL WORKS
Catching Air  (2023) Royal Winnipeg Ballet Aspirants
Beguile (2022) Les Grands Ballets Canadiens
Gem-like (2022) Inverso Productions
One2One (2021) Inverso Productions
Spooky Action (2019) Inverso Production
Unison (2019) Inverso Productions. Vancouver International Dance Festival.
Anecdote/ Bad Day at Mount Vesuvius (2019) Inverso Productions. EDAM Choreographic Series.
Everything Might Topple (2018) Arts Umbrella Dance Company and Nederlands Dans Theater Summer Intensive
If I Were 2 (2017) Ballet BC
Chorus (2017) Arts Umbrella Dance Company
Only who is left (2016) Arts Umbrella Dance Company
Long Division (2016) Pi Theatre (Choreography for Theatre Production)
Nostos (2015) Simon Fraser University
Anamnesis (2015) Butler Ballet
One 29 (2015) Utah University
If -film (2015)
Multiples of “I” (2015) Arts Umbrella Dance Company
Senza Sosta (2015) DAF Arts Faculty, Italy
An Instant (2014/2012) Ballet BC / AUDC
Aus den Fugen (2014) Ballet Vorpommern, Germany 
Again and Again (2014) Arts Umbrella Dance Company
Brittle Failure (2012) Inverso Productions
Delayed Arrival (2012) NDT Summer Intensive
Everything Might Spill (2011) Compañia Nacional de Danza 2
Migrating City (2011) Schmiede Festival (Installation)
My tongue, your ear (2010) Korzo Theatre
Page One (2008) Hubbard Street Dance Company 2
The Other Voice (2007) Banff Festival of the Arts
Here but Gone (2006) Netherlands Dans Theater 1
Intersection (2008) NDT Workshop
If (2007) NDT Workshop
Exit Wound (2006) NDT Workshop
​Hypothetically (2005) NDT Workshop
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