Choreographer Biographies - 2008 Festival of New Dance!

Christopher House Artistic Director of Toronto Dance Theatre since 1994, Christopher House is one of Canada's leading choreographers. He has transformed TDT into a company known internationally for its fresh, intelligent and provocative dance. Born and raised in St. John's, Newfoundland, House has been Resident Choreographer of TDT since 1981 and has contributed over fifty works to the repertoire including Glass Houses, Four Towers, Early Departures, Vena Cava, Nest and Sly Verb. He has also created choreographies for Portugal's Ballet Gulbenkian, the National Ballet of Canada, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and Ballet British Columbia, and for soloists Peggy Baker, Patricia Fraser and Guillaume Côté. Recent works include Chiasmata and Timecode Break for TDT and In the Boneyard, his second collaboration with Joel Gibb and The Hidden Cameras. Timecode Break, a commission from the Canada Dance Festival and a co-production with the National Arts Centre and the Banff Centre for the Arts, went on to top four critics' Top Ten lists for 2006, including being named "Best Canadian work" by The Globe and Mail, and "Best new contemporary dance" by The Toronto Star. In June 2007, it won three Dora Mavor Moore Awards including Outstanding Choreography and Outstanding Production. Christopher House has been a performer for over thirty years, dancing in his own works and in those of Sarah Chase, Peter Chin, David Earle, James Kudelka, Mark Morris and Peter Randazzo, among others. As a guest with Les Grand Ballets, he performed the title role in Michel Fokine's Petrouchka. He premiered News by Deborah Hay in December 2006, and will perform the piece at the 2008 Canada Dance Festival in Ottawa. Christopher House is an Associate Dance Artist of The National Arts Centre. Photo credit: Justin Hall

PERFORMERS

Heather Berry (Dancer) trained in Alberta before attending The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, graduating in 2006. At the school, she had the privilege to work with choreographers Sasha Ivanochko, Julia Sasso, Michael Trent and Christopher House. Ms. Berry spent last season as a TD intern with the company and joined as a junior company member this season. She is also a member of Crazyfish Collective and a dancer with Forcier Stage Works. She has appeared in works by independent choreographers in TIDF, Series 8:08, In a White Room and The Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival.

A Sault Ste. Marie native, Valerie Calam (Dancer) studied dance with Sherry Walsh before moving to Toronto to train at The School of TDT. After graduating, she worked with the Danny Grossman Dance Company during their 98/99 season, and again in 2006. She joined TDT in 1999, and is currently in her ninth year with the company. She has worked independently with David Earle, DNA Theatre, Sharon Moore, Sasha Ivanochko, Michael Trent, CORPUS, Cathy Gordon, Julia Aplin and William Yong. She works as a choreographer and sound designer under the name VICE VERSA. Her most recent choreography, Parliament, was presented in December 2007 in Toronto.

Since graduating from The School of TDT in 2002, Alana Elmer (Dancer) has been busy dancing across Canada. Before joining TDT in Fall 2005, she appeared in the company's 2002-03 season as a guest artist, performing with them on their Eastern Canadian tour of Severe Clear. She then moved to Montréal and began a new work with Paul-André Fortier, called Risque. Risque toured for two years across Canada and Europe, and was filmed for a spot on Bravo! She is a founding member of Full Scale Revolution. After their debut performance in June 2007, she looks forward to their next production.

Born in Kircaldy, Scotland, Luke Garwood (Dancer) moved to Canada at the young age of six months. Mr. Garwood trained at l'École Superieure de Danse du Québèc in Montreal, The Hamburg Ballet School in Germany and The National Ballet School in Toronto, in both the full time ballet/academic program and the intensive dance program. He has worked with such choreographers as Brian McDonald, Roberto Campanella, James Kudelka, D.A. Hoskins, Christopher House, John Neumier and Jiri Kylian. He has performed with The National Ballet of Canada, The Hamburg Ballet, Banff Festival Ballet, ProArteDanza and Coleman Lemieux and Compagnie.

Yuichiro Inoue (Dancer) was born in Japan and received his training at Hatano Ballet School in Japan, and John Cranko Ballet School in Stuttgart, Germany. He spent five years performing with Staatstheater Braunschweig and an additional two with Badisches staatstheater Karlsruhe, before moving to Donlon Dance Company under director Marguerite Donlon, at Saarlaendisches Statts theatre in Saarbruecken. He is also an accomplished choreographer, having created works for the Hantano Ballet SchoolFestival as well as a solo on a member of the Sarasota Ballet Company of Florida. He has had the pleasure of working with Pierre Wyss & Antonio Gomes, Oskar Araiz, Tsutomu Ben Ida, Jean Renshaw, William Forsythe, Renato Zanella, Marco Santi & Hideo Fukagawa.

Brendan Jensen (Dancer) is a dancer, aspiring choreographer, teacher and sound editor/designer born in Calgary, Alberta. At age fourteen, he moved to Toronto to train at the National Ballet School. In 2000, he became a full company member of Toronto Dance Theatre where he has performed in many of Christopher House's full-length works.

Kristy Kennedy (Dancer) began dancing at the age of four in her hometown of Stouffville, Ontario. She trained with Michele Green before moving to Toronto in 1997 to study as a scholarship student at The School of TDT. She is now in her ninth season with TDT and has worked with a number of choreographers both with the company and independently including Dominique Dumais, Sharon Moore, Sasha Ivanochko, Matjash Mrozewski, Peter Chin, Robert Desrosiers, D.A. Hoskins, William Yong, Valerie Calam and Ginette Laurin. She has also appeared in four dance films. She debuted her first choreographic work, Home, as a part of Full Scale Revolution's hedabodywhodebody. She is currently studying photography at Ryerson.

Sean Ling (Dancer) started dancing at the age of 18 with the Edmonton School of Ballet and is a graduate of their professional program. He spent the two following years working as an independent artist and continuing his training. He joined Alberta Ballet in 1994, and danced with them for five years. In 1999, Sean moved to Toronto to join TDT. Independently, he has worked with choreographers across Canada, and has been a performer in dance films.

Born in Oakville, Kaitlin Standeven (Dancer) began dancing at the age of four. Since then she has approached dance by way of interdisciplinary training; studying ballet, modern, jazz and tap. After her family's move to Vancouver, she found new inspiration under the tutelage of Susie Green, performing with Visions Dance Company. She returned to Ontario to further and refine her craft at Ryerson University's Dance Program in 2004. This is her second season with Toronto Dance Theatre.

Created on Canada's west coast, Matthew Waldie (Dancer) trained at both Sinclair Academy of Performing Arts and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. He has performed works by Kate Alton, Nova Bhattacharya, D.A. Hoskins, Christopher House, Sasha Ivanochko, Brendan Jensen, Louis Laberge-Côté, Laurence Lemieux, Arabella Martin, Jorden Morris, Bruce Monk, Andrea Nann, Kathleen Rea, and Heather Schiller. He has performed in dance films created by Alana Elmer, ELD Films, Boundless Entertainment, and Discovery Dance.

Beginning his dance training in his hometown of Chang Chun, China, Kamen Wang (Dancer) took ballet and Chinese classical dance at the Dance School of Jilin College of Art. In 2004, he enrolled at The School of TDT, taking classes with D.A Hoskins, Patricia Miner, Peter Chin and Christopher House. He has also been studying traditional Indian dance under Hari Krishnan at InDANCE for two years. He is very pleased to be joining TDT as a junior company member.

Linnea Wong (Dancer) began dancing at an early age, taking jazz classes at Spotlight Dance Centre, in her hometown of Vancouver. Her interests changed to a more contemporary style of movement, and, in 2001, she was awarded the provincial title of Senior Modern Dance Champion at Performing Arts BC, receiving a scholarship to The School of TDT Summer Intensive. She had the opportunity to work with many notable teachers and choreographers including Christopher House, Sasha Ivanochko, Patricia Miner, Julia Sasso and Michael Trent. In 2002, she enrolled in their Professional Training Program. She has performed the works of renowned artists Peggy Baker, Marc Boivin, Peter Chin, Paul-André Fortier and Risa Steinberg. This is her second season with Toronto Dance Theatre.

PRODUCTION

Phil Strong (Music/Sound Design) has been involved with sound and music since childhood. In 1991 he was granted an audio residency at the Banff Centre of the Arts and during this two year period of development he worked with many innovative and celebrated artists, including John Oswald - later to become a mentor and collaborator. Phil moved to Toronto to work on sound and music commissions for film, dance, theatre, art installation and music albums. In 1999 Christopher House approached Phil about sound design for Nest, his first feature length choreography for TDT. The collaboration proved to be incredibly rewarding and successful. Since then Phil has created sound and music for seven major TDT dance productions.

Roelof Peter (Ron) Snippe (Lighting Design) began his professional lighting design career with Toronto Workshop Productions under the direction of George Luscombe. In 1973 he began a long working relationship with Toronto Dance Theatre creating designs for over one hundred and fifty works in the repertoire. Over his long, distinguished career as a lighting designer, stage manager and technical director, Mr. Snippe has worked with major dance, theatre and opera companies across Canada and abroad. They include the National Ballet of Canada, The Danny Grossman Dance Company, Dancemakers, and numerous other Canadian companies and independent artists, including Tedd Robinson, Denise Fujiwara and Claudia Moore.

Born and raised in Toronto, Cheryl Lalonde (Production/Stage Manager)
began her career in the arts with Act IV Theatre at Adelaide Court. Splitting her time between design and stage management has allowed her to collaborate with many companies, including Desrosiers Dance Theatre, The Danny Grossman Dance Company, CORPUS, Eclectic Theatre, The Alberta Ballet, Theatre Smith Gilmour, and Kaeja d'Dance. She has been nominated for four Dora Mavor Moore Awards for design and was honored in 1997 for her design of Eclectic Theatre's Chutzpah a-go-go. She has served on the faculty of Theatre Arts at The Banff Centre for the last two summers, and recently participated in a panel of Canadian Stage Managers to establish a DACUM occupational analysis for Stage Management.

Rosemary James (Rehearsal Director) was born in New York State and raised in Toronto. Following a successful career as a performer with TDT, she assumed the position of Rehearsal Director in 1992. She is a senior faculty member of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, and has also taught modern dance courses at York University. Ms. James has taught and choreographed extensively for community-based arts education programs. She was the movement teacher and choreographer for the musicals Spoke, This City of Angels, and Swimming for Shore. In addition to being a sought-after teacher, she holds a Bachelor and Master of Arts in dance from York University, and is currently the Choreography Consultant for the award-winning synchronized skating team Gold Ice.