Our memorable tour to Vancouver’s unique Arts Umbrella one year ago is still bearing fruit. Four company members recently learned of their acceptance to that bar-setting dance training ground while a fifth is enjoying her first year there and two grads recently joining Ballets Jazz Montréal and Scapino Ballet. 

With that wildly successful precedent in helping connect CCDT dancers to their futures, this year we look east, way east, to one of Europe’s thriving dance scenes, centred in The Hague and in Rotterdam.

The Hague’s Nederlands Dans Theatre and its younger sibling, NDT2, enjoy superlatives where ever they perform, not to mention enjoying the leadership of Canadian, Emily Molnar. Like Arts Umbrella, NDT2 members are a little older than CCDT’s twelve dancers, making this an irresistible opportunity to glimpse behind the curtain of an artist development program of the highest order, to be seen in a workshop and to see NDT2 in performance. We already are fortunate to have a 2023 commission by NDT2 alum, Olivier Coeffard, in our repertoire and this visit may open the possibility of remounting a selection from the company’s impressive commissions.

Meanwhile, a group of eight soon-to-be CCDT alums have been accepted to a two-day audition at Rotterdam’s Codarts, in itself an accomplishment, given its world-wide reputation and where “everything is focused on developing [dancer’s] personal artistic identity to the greatest effect…no surprise to CCDT members.

Any support that you can offer to help launch these young artists on their promising next steps will be hugely appreciated.