Artistic Director | Deborah Lundmark

Deborah Lundmark has created more than 40 works for her company. These include collaborations with the Danny Grossman Dance Company, the Toronto Children's Chorus and Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra and blues artists Thompson Egbo-Egbo and Jerome Godboo. From her Street Songs (1980) to Dancing Day (1989), Precipice (2010) and Alien Grace (2018), Ms. Lundmark has impressed audiences and critics alike with the power, precision and artistry of her unique company. She has commissioned over one hundred works from a who’s who of Canadian choreographers including David Earle, Carol Anderson, Tedd Robinson, Santee Smith and Ofilio Sinbadinho and from abroad, Colin Connor, Sidra Bell, Kevin Wynn (USA) and Alexander Whitley (UK). Her company has won Toronto Arts Foundation’s prestigious Arts for Youth Award and has been critically acclaimed as "a national treasure" numbered "among the ranks of Toronto’s top dance companies" by The Globe and Mail. Her dancers have gone on to perform with many of the world’s leading companies including the José Limón Dance Company whose recent 70th anniversary CCDT helped to celebrate with performances of José Limón’s The Winged at New York City's Joyce Theater.

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Photo by Gary Ray Rush

Michael deConinck Smith has directed the staging of over three hundred CCDT productions including five appearances at the Canada Dance Festival. In 1988 he conceived and produced CCDT’s acclaimed collaboration with the Toronto Boys Choir and the Hanson Singers, the original WINTERSONG – dances for a sacred season, now a three-decade-old tradition. In 1990, Michael led CCDT’s first international tour to the People’s Republic of China, and the following year the premiere of SONGS of INNOCENCE and of EXPERIENCE, featuring commissions by ten leading choreographers, realized one of his long-cherished dreams. From 1997 to 2000 he planned CCDT’s extensive tours of Northern Ontario, and in 2002 led the company’s return to Southeast Asia with performances in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru, Malaysia. In 1994, Michael oversaw the purchase and renovation of CCDT’s 509 DANCE studios, now an intergenerational crossroads for Canadian dance. For fifteen years Michael has led his company’s Ontario Community Residencies Program introducing more than 300,000 young people to contemporary dance in theatres throughout Ontario. Most recently, he produced CCDT’s Scotland tour to the Commonwealth Youth Dance Festival followed by the company’s inaugural appearances at the storied Joyce Theater in New York City as part of the José Limón Dance Company’s International Dance Festival in celebration of their 70th Anniversary.

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Photo by Gary Ray Rush

Natasha Poon Woo began her training and performance career with Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre from 2000-2007. She went on to study at the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase College, where she had the opportunity to perform the works of esteemed choreographers Pam Tanowitz, Twyla Tharp, and Doug Varone, before graduating summa cum laude with a BFA and the President’s Award for Achievement. Natasha has performed with companies and artists in Canada and abroad including Conny Janssen Danst, the Kevin Wynn Collection, Rock Bottom Movement, The Dietrich Group, Roderick George, Benjamin Landsberg, Ryan Lee / The Platform, Gadfly, Little Pear Garden Dance Company, and Hit & Run Dance Productions. She is a Dora Award-winning performer with Rock Bottom for its acclaimed 2019 production, hollow mountain.

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Natasha is an experienced dance educator, specializing in Limón-based Modern and C-I Training™ (mentored and certified by Donna Krasnow). She is a founding member of The Garage collective, Rehearsal Director for Human Body Expression, an Extension Method™ instructor, and a regular guest teacher and rehearsal director for dance artists and organizations throughout the GTA. 

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Photo by Drew Berry

Drew Berry is a Toronto-based multidisciplinary performance artist and teacher. Her mediums include dance, theatre, photography, videography, and classical piano. In 2016, Drew joined Rock Bottom Movement, whose recent production hollow mountain was awarded two Dora Mavor Moore awards. Other collaborators include: Jaberi Dance Theatre, Portal Dance, Emma Kerson, Nico Al Ajillio, Irma Villafuerte, Kate Hilliard, Opera 5, Alias Dance Project, Nostos Collective, and Kaeja d’Dance. Drew is the resident photographer/videographer with Kaeja d'Dance and has done freelance photo/video work with Fall For Dance North, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, X University, Kaya Usher, REAson d’Etre Danse, Alias Dance Project, ACE Dance Theatre, and Human Body Expression, to name a few. Drew was an artist in residence for the 2020/21 season at Guelph Dance where she created a short film, Portraiture, which premiered at the 2021 Guelph Dance Festival, with screenings at Hillside Homeside and dance: made in canada this summer. Drew is on faculty at Centennial College teaching Ballet and Choreography and is working for Quinte Ballet School of Canada as their Social Media Manager. A graduate from Quinte Ballet School of Canada’s post-graduate program, Drew holds her BFA (Honours) from the Performance Dance program at X University.

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Photo by Elizabeth Gagnon

Krista is a dancer/performer/comedian/choreographer hybrid. She holds a BFA in Dance from X University. Krista has performed with Rock Bottom Movement, Alias Dance Project, Nostos Collectives, The Garage, Frog In Hand, and Kylie Thompson Dance. Her work has appeared in X University’s Choreographic Works and New Voices Festival, Dance Matters, and The Garage Studio Showing, Kaeja d’Dance’s Wind Down Dance, and with Nostos. Krista has become increasingly interested in creating dance on film and will have a film featured in both dance: made in/fait au canada’s film festival and the FORM Festival in September 2021. Krista uses comedy as a driving force in her work and creates from shared human experiences to illustrate and exaggerate the strangeness of life.

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Photo by Kendra Epik

Paul-John Elisha is a Ryerson graduate and RED Academy certified digital marketer. He joined Citadel + Compagnie in 2019 as a digital specialist and has since become the marketing manager. He has a background in website development, digital strategy, and media management. Over the past year, he has expanded his expertise to consulting and producing livestreams for CCDT, Dancemakers, TO Love-In, and other non-profit organizations. 

Gioconda Barbuto is an internationally esteemed Canadian dancer and choreographer. As a long-time member of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and Nederlands Dans Theater III, Gioconda was quickly recognized as a versatile and magnetic artist, gracing the works of many leading choreographers. Her synergy in studio with Jiří Kylián in particular led to two celebrated dance films, Birth Day and Car Men. In 1996, she was nominated for The Kennedy Center Fellowship and received The Banff Centre’s Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award. She has unflaggingly pursued her choreographic calling, creating detailed, dynamic friezes of full-bodied gesture, marked by her innate musicality. Choreographing for many acclaimed dance companies, her oeuvre now counts over fifty works. In 2015 Gioconda was selected as the McKnight International Choreographer in Minnesota. She also obtained one of the choreographic positions for Oregon Ballet Theatre’s Choreography XX competition, creating BringingOutsideIn — named “best in premiere” in Dance Europe magazine. Gioconda also extends her methods for moulding space and energy through her Movement Workshops and is invited to teach worldwide.

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www.giocondabarbuto.com

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Photo by Michael Slobodian

Roderick George was born in Houston, Texas, and trained at the Houston Ballet Academy, Alvin Ailey School, Miami City Ballet, LINES Professional Program, the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and SUNY Purchase College. He has danced with companies such as NYC’s Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and Sidra Bell Dance NY, as well as Ballett Basel/Theater Basel (Switzerland), Goteborg Operan DansKompani (Sweden), and The Forsythe Company (Germany). He has performed the works of choreographers Marie Chouinard, William Forsythe, Sharon Eyal, Jiří Kylian, and Ohad Naharin, among many others.

As the Founder, Artistic Director, and Choreographer of kNonAme Artist, Roderick has presented his full-length work Fleshless Beast in Berlin and Montreal, with a 2020 film version shot and produced in NYC. His choreography has been presented by Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Ballett Basel, the Goteborg Operan DansKompani, Springboard Danse Montreal, and Youth American Grand Prix, in addition to commissions by companies and conservatories worldwide. Roderick is currently pursuing his Dance MFA at Hollins University.

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knonameartist.org

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Photo by Jubal Battisti

Sasha Ivanochko is a choreographer, pedagogue and arts worker with 30 years of international experience in the field of Contemporary dance. A School of Toronto Dance Theatre graduate, she earned her MFA Interdisciplinary Studies from Simon Fraser University. Her artistic research has been supported through two Chalmers Family Fellowships, the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate scholarship, and she received the 2020 John Hobday Award for arts management. She founded and toured her ad hoc company, Ivanochko in company for fifteen years, was the Artistic Director of Dancers’ Studio West from 2018-2021 and is the incoming Artistic Director of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre.

Dora winner Hanna Kiel is from Seoul, South Korea, and moved to Vancouver in 1996. She has presented her work at 12 Minutes Max, PlanB Singles and solos Festival, Dancing on the Edge Festival and Pulse at the Scotiabank Dance Centre in Vancouver. In 2007, she collaborated with Yoko Ono as a dancer and choreographer at the Centre A. Moving to Toronto in 2008, Hanna has continued choreographing for: Rosedale Heights School of the Arts, Conteur Dance Academy, George Brown Dance, Ryerson Dances, School of Toronto Dance Theatre, Kenny Pearl’s Emerging Artist Intensive, IGNITE, ProArteDanza, Ballet Jörgen, Alias Dance Project, The National Ballet of Canada, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, Toronto Dance Theatre and Decidedly Jazz Danceworks in Calgary. She was an E-choreographer in 2015 for Springboard Danse Montreal and one of the choreographers at Osez 2018 in Quebec City. Hanna is the Artistic Director of Human Body Expression, one of the founders of The Garage dance development and exchange collective group, and Resident Choreographer of Canada's Ballet Jörgen.

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hbedance.com

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Photo by Jake Ramos

Toronto-based percussionist and Dora-nominated composer Greg Harrison is emerging as one of Canada’s finest talents in contemporary music. His extensive resume spans artists and groups including Jeremy Dutcher, Cirque du Soleil, Video Games Live, R. Murray Schafer, and Fred Penner. Described as a “percussion & electronics wizard” (Bob Boilen - NPR Music), Harrison’s performative and compositional style merge his classical music background with his passion for electronic music. In recent years, Harrison's commissions have been coveted by Human Body Expression, ProArte Danza, Toronto Dance Theatre, Fifth Wind Quintet, CCDT, Dr. Morris Palter (University of Arizona), and Division 85 Films.

grej on Bandcamp

Frances Miller is a vocalist and songwriter living in Toronto with experience working in commercial projects, dance and independent film. Miller's band Mear is currently completing a visual album with support from The Canada Council for the Arts. Miller is also a PhD candidate at York University where her work focuses on interpersonal synchrony and entrainment in community music.

Instagram:

@franeats

@mearband

Krista, happily, is a ballet “lifer.” 

Her first formal ballet class was at the age of 6, and at the age of 12 she joined Canada’s National Ballet School. Upon graduation, in 2000, she entered the National Ballet of Canada under the Apprentice Program. With a bit of luck and a lot of hard work, she advanced to the Corps de Ballet two years later.

Krista retired from the National Ballet after a fulfilling 14-year career. She remains situated within the dance world, designing and building costumes and dance wear for dancers and companies, both nationally and internationally. She has had the pleasure of designing costumes for The National Ballet of Canada’s Being and Nothingness, and was delighted to design and build costumes for Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s Seven Deadly Sins, Casa Loma’s Legends of Horror, and Toronto Dance Theatre’s production of Alyssa Martin’s Bin Chicken, as well as multiple productions for ProArteDanza, Côté Danse, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, Ballet Kelowna and Hit & Run Dance Productions.

Making costumes and clothing help people share the stories that matter to them.