CreativAction To Support Canadian Choreographers And Dance Community

Karen Kain, Artistic Director of The National Ballet of Canada, and Barry Hughson, Executive Director, today announced that through CreativAction, the company will share resources to develop Canadian choreographic talent and support the dance community in Toronto. Curated by Creative Producer of CreativAction and Choreographic Associate Robert Binet, CreativAction has three core activities: Choreographic Workshop, Open Space and Micro-Commissions.

Choreographic Workshop is a platform that provides National Ballet dancers and independent choreographers the opportunity to create works in collaboration with the company's artists, music and production staff, within the National Ballet's facilities. Participating in the 2019/20 season workshop are Principal Dancer Elena Lobsanova, Second Soloists Joe Chapman and Kota Sato, Corps de Ballet member Nicholas Rose and RBC Apprentice Thomas Leprohon along with independent choreographers Lucy Rupert and Kalaisan Kalaichelvan. Each choreographer will create a solo piece inspired by Giselle or Etudes; all of the new creations will be performed at The Walter Carsen Centre for The National Ballet of Canada on November 19, 2019.

Open Space provides approximately 1,200 hours of free studio space each season at The Walter Carsen Centre to dance artists in Toronto through an open application process. The programme shares the company's studios with the local dance community for one to two-week periods, supporting a wide variety of dance genres and disciplines. Successful candidates are selected by an advisory committee made up of National Ballet Choreographic Associates Mr. Binet and Alysa Pires, Choreographer and Co-Artistic Director of Hit and Run Dance Productions Inc. Anisa Tejpar and Choreographer Rodney Diverlus. Open Space aims to dedicate one-third of the time to projects focused on movement research, one-third to artists who have an upcoming performance and need to get the work stage-ready and one-third to artists who are revising or re-staging existing works.

The National Ballet will aim to commission three choreographers to explore ideas with our dancers each season. The programme will develop small-scale, flexible and innovative dance works that can be presented in a wide variety of contexts. During the soft launch of this programme last season, choreographers Meryem Aloui and Kunal Ranchod were each engaged to create a micro-commission. Ms. Aloui's new piece was performed by Principal Dancer Sonia Rodriguez at Union Station's West Wing in April 2019 in partnership with Fall For Dance North. The next micro-commissions will take place in 2020. More details to be announced.

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