surFace Dance was founded in 2012 by dancer-choreographer Jalianne Li. During her studies at Trinity Laban in London, Jalianne noticed how little interest contemporary dance gave to the exploration of the movements of the face compared to the rest of the body. This spurred her to research movement potential in the face, to see the face as composed of parts rather than a single means of expression, and how this facial movement can then affect the rest of body. The results of this pursuit have been a defining trait in her professional work ever since.
 
The first works of surFace Dance pursued a deepening of this research. Since then, the creations have extended to other fields of interest, such as wave field synthesis with the composer Tommaso Perego (Stranded), video-mapping with Collectif HAT (100x1x2) and costumes made from newspapers with visual artist Mathieu Francoeur (Newsbreaker), while incorporating this movement vocabulary into different aspects of the works.
 
In recent years, Jalianne has changed the name of the company to Danse surFace Dance, to better reflect the bilingual nature of the company. Danse surFace Dance is now based in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, and their works have been performed in the UK, the Netherlands, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, at dance events such as Resolution!, the Festival of New Dance, the Festival Cinédanse, the Atlantic Dance Festival danse atlantique, and the Saint John Contemporary Dance Festival, among others.

Danse surFace Dance also produces screendances, which have been presented at the Festival international du cinema francophone en Acadie, Bouge d’ici, Nextfest, IMPACTfest, and the Saint John Contemporary Dance Festival, among others.