Led by artistic co-directors Lisa Mariko Gelley and Josh Martin, Company 605 (605) is an arts organization based in Vancouver, on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded Indigenous territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Producing various dance projects and performances through shared creative process, the artists place emphasis on rigorous choreographic propositions and movement exploration – juxtaposing raw with precision, and highlighting effort, risk and interconnection. 605 is an ongoing exchange between separate people, bodies and ideas, recognizing and celebrating the unique possibilities created in their attempt to co-exist. Each project explores new paths and creative methods, and is continually redefining togetherness, in order to pursue experimental practice and build powerful and engaging performances rooted in questioning. Valuing collaboration as a critical path for new directions in dance, Company 605 continues to transform and build on an ever-evolving aesthetic, with multiple choreographic voices in pursuit of a truly embodied art form derived from the human experience.

 

With an expanding repertoire of diverse works and interdisciplinary collaborations, the company has performed in over 35 cities across Canada, and toured in the US, Central America, Europe, Asia and Australia, presented at notable festivals and venues such as: PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, and The Cultch (Vancouver), Usine-C and L’Agora de la Danse (Montréal), La Rotonde (Québec City), DanceWorks (Toronto), National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Live Art Dance (Halifax), The Banff Centre (Banff), American Dance Festival, Bumbershoot Festival, On The Boards, RISK/REWARD Fest, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival (USA), Festival PRISMA (Panama), Festival Paréntesis (Costa Rica), Odoru Akita, SAIDance, and  Fukuoka Dance Festival (Japan), M1 Cont-act Festival (Singapore), Salihara Arts Centre (Indonesia), Kuandu International Arts Festival (Taiwan), MasDanza (Spain), Tempel Kulturzentrum, Regensburger TanzTage, Heidelberg TanzBiennale, and Tanzmesse (Germany) and the Sydney Festival.

 

605’s co-directors have also been invited to create several commissioned works for various arts organizations, including Vancouver’s acclaimed Ballet BC (Anthem, 2017 and After We Glow, 2021), and regularly create and teach within post-secondary dance education programs across Canada. The company’s award-winning dance films have been shown at over 60 dance-on-screen festivals around the world, and on streaming platforms like CBC Gem.

 

The organization is involved in curating and producing various events that support Vancouver’s dance community, including annual HOLD ON LET GO festival (formerly PushOFF), a platform to showcase new Canadian performance works, in partnership with Theatre Replacement since 2014. Company 605 was also the founding producer of the Festival of Recorded Movement (an annual international dance-on-screen festival developed with emerging artist/filmmaker Sophia Wolfe), piloting 2015-2019, and continues sponsorship support. Since 2022, 605 has been a collaborative sponsor and producing partner of Here For Now Collective and Boombox — a shipping container converted into an artist-led performance space.

 

History

Company 605 first emerged as a dance collective in 2006, working and training together out of a live/work studio (apartment #605) in East Vancouver. With core artists Lisa Mariko Gelley, Sasha Kozak, Shay Kuebler, Josh Martin, and Maiko Miyauchi, along with other guests, it was initially formed in pursuit of ongoing peer-to-peer professional development, learning and combining different dance practices, and bringing together individual perspectives, values and experiences to enter into new collaborative conversations around dancemaking. The group’s experimentation led to small local performances, residency opportunities, and eventually, the desire to attempt larger-scale collaborative works.

 

605 Collective Dance Society was incorporated as not-for-profit society in March 2009. Now structured and operating as a full-time producing company, 605 continues to grow from its early roots as a shared space, and carry these values and collective mentality into all artistic activity.

 

Early experimentation led to 605’s first full-length piece, ‘AUDIBLE’, premiering at Dancing On The Edge Festival and Canada Dance Festival in 2009, then touring nationally and internationally for five years, reaching over 60 performances. The various major ensemble works that followed, namely ‘Inheritor Album’ (2012), ‘Vital Few’ (2016), ‘Loop, Lull’ + ‘Looping’ (2019), and ‘lossy’ (2024), have expanded 605’s diverse repertoire, audience, and geographical reach. Company 605 was the recipient of the 2016 CanDance Creation Fund, and the company’s works have been supported by many various co-producing partners and presenting organizations. Along with their own creations, the collective has proud to commission established artists to work directly with the company (Dana Gingras, German Jauregui, Maiko Yamamoto), building strong partnerships to support the company’s expanding ambitions. 2025 marked the company’s first international co-production, co-creating a new full-length work, ‘Sloth Canon’ (2025) with Singaporean company The Human Expression / Anthea Seah.

 

In 2024, co-directors Lisa Mariko Gelley and Josh Martin were jointly named for the Lola McLaughlin Legacy Award, celebrating their shared achievement in dance, and contribution to the BC artistic community through Company 605’s work.