Deborah Lundmark, Co-Founder, Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer, has created more than 40 works for her company. These range from performance collaborations with the Danny Grossman Dance Company, Dancemakers and Toronto Dance Theatre to live co-presentations with blues artists Thompson Egbo-Egbo, Carlos del Junco and Jerome Godboo. From her Street Songs (1980) to the darkening green (2021), 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, Roberto Campanella and Jera Wolfe and, from abroad, Colin Connor, Sidra Bell, Kevin Wynn, Roderick George, Jennifer Archibald and Alexander Whitley. Her company 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 leading companies including the Limón Dance Company, Mark Morris Dance Group, Doug Varone and Dancers, Gallim Dance, Company Wayne McGregor and Skånes Dansteater, among many others. Most recently her film, the darkening green, has won numerous international awards including the Cannes World Film Festival’s Best Dance Film and Best Original Song, composed and performed by Greg Harrison and Frances Miller.

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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 formal training and performing career with Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre from ages 10-17. She holds a BFA from the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase, having graduated summa cum laude with the President’s Award for Achievement. Natasha is an active performer with Toronto dance companies Rock Bottom Movement and Côté Danse, and has also worked with The Dietrich Group, Roderick George, BoucharDanse, Fujiwara Dance Inventions, Benjamin Landsberg, Ryan Lee / The Platform, Hit & Run Dance Productions, Gadfly, Little Pear Garden, Kevin Wynn, and Conny Janssen Danst, among others. She is a Dora Award-winning performer with Rock Bottom for its acclaimed 2019 production of hollow mountain.

Natasha is currently a Guest Artistic Associate of CCDT, after serving as the company’s Associate Artistic Director from 2019-2021 and Rehearsal Director from 2012-2021. She has been the Rehearsal Director for Human Body Expression since 2015, in addition to assisting the creative processes of many independent artists for the past decade. A member of Healthy Dancer Canada, Natasha is a certified instructor of The Extension Method™ as well as a sought-after dance educator specializing in Limón-based modern technique and C-I Training™ (certified and mentored by Donna Krasnow).

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@npdubz

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Photo by Drew Berry

Jennifer Archibald is the founder and Artistic Director of the Arch Dance Company and Program Director of ArchCore40 Dance Intensives. She was appointed as the first female Resident Choreographer in Cincinnati Ballet’s 40-year history. Archibald has choreographed for Atlanta Ballet, Ailey II, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Kansas City Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Grand Rapids Ballet, Ballet West, Sacramento Ballet, Nashville Ballet and Pittsburgh Ballet, and worked commercially for Tommy Hilfiger, NIKE, and MAC Cosmetics, as well as chart-listed artists. As a director she premiered WeAIghT, a film featuring current Ailey Company member James Gilmer that was selected for Best Choreography and Best Male Lead for Mountain View Film Festival. WeAIghT was an official selection for Lincoln Center’s 50th annual Dance on Camera Festival, San Francisco Film Festival and the Light Moves Festival in Ireland. She was awarded a Choreographic Fellowship for Ailey’s New Directions Choreography Lab and is a Joffrey Ballet Choreographic Winnings recipient. She was also the 2018-19 recipient of the CUNY Dance Initiative Residency. Archibald is currently an Acting Lecturer at the Yale School of Drama and was appointed as Guest Faculty Lecturer to develop the Hip Hop dance curriculum at Columbia/Barnard College. She is also a guest artist at several universities including Fordham/Ailey, Stanford University, Purchase College, Princeton, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of South Florida, Goucher College, Columbia College Chicago, Miami New World School of the Arts, South Carolina's Governor's School of the Arts, Ailey Fordham, Boston Conservatory, and Point Park.

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LATTICE is Jennifer's third work for CCDT, following BYTIYE (2019) and SEEDS.whisper (2017).

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@jarchdance

Roderick George, born in Houston, Texas, studied dance at Ben Stevenson’s Houston Ballet Academy. He continued to develop his skill by exploring other techniques at The Alvin Ailey School, Miami City Ballet, LINES Professional Program and the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, TX. Before starting his professional career, Roderick was a bronze winner of the Youth American Grand Prix in New York City in 2005 and was elected as a Presidential Scholar under the YoungArts Foundation in 2003, where he performed for the US President. Roderick joined Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet in 2005. He decided to move abroad to work with Basel Ballet/Theater Basel in 2007 and later to guest with the GöteborgsOperans Danskompani. Roderick then joined The Forsythe Company in Frankfurt, Germany, where he learnt and shared his greatest moments with William Forsythe and the artists of TFC. His career has embraced the collaborations of his work and other great choreographers such as Peeping Tom, Jorma Elo, Jerome Bel, Jacopo Godani, Johan Inger, Jiří Kylián, Sharon Eyal, Ohad Naharin, Benoit Swan Pouffer, Richard Wherlock, Tino Sehgal and many others.

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In addition to choreographing RESET for CCDT in 2018, Roderick also staged an adaptation of his 2013 work Evil Twin for the Company's 40th Anniversary production of Gravity's Edge, a virtual evening of dances on film, in the summer of 2021.

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@roderickrgeorge

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Photo by Jubal Battisti

Charlotte Boye-Christensen trained as a dancer and as a choreographer in Copenhagen, London and in New York City. As a choreographer she has created numerous works over the years on companies and Institutions such as Danish Dance Theatre, Milwaukee Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, Ballet West, Ballet de Camaguey in Cuba, Nashville Ballet II,  London Contemporary Dance School, Tisch School of the Arts in NYC, The European Dance Development Center in the Netherlands, the National School for Contemporary Dance in Denmark, the Royal Danish Ballet School in Denmark, at the Bauhaus in Germany, at the Alliance Francaise in Singapore, The Museum of Photography in Tokyo, the Universities of Princeton,  Rutgers, Richmond, TCU, California (Long Beach) and more. She was the Artistic Director and resident choreographer for Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company in Salt Lake City for eleven years creating 22 works on the company. In 2013, she stepped away from that position to form her own company: NOW-ID. NOW-ID is an interdisciplinary site-specific arts organization that has so far created 16 site-specific productions, symposiums, workshops and toured nationally and internationally to critical acclaim. From 2017-2021 Charlotte additionally took on the position as Associate Director of the School of Theatre and Dance at Texas Tech University. During her time there she created a new interdisciplinary BFA degree in Dance for the University. She is the recipient of several grants and awards over the years amongst others: a Fulbright Scholarship and a Choo San Goh Award for choreographic excellence.

@nowidworks

Colin Connor has had work invited by such festivals as the Momment’Homme Festival in Montreal, The Holland Festival, and the Festival Internacional de Danza Contemporanea in Mexico. He was the winner of both Sarasota Ballet’s International Choreography Competition and Charleston Ballet Theatre’s Fountainhead Choreography Competition. Major collaborations include: Solea and the Winds, a radical Contemporary / Flamenco evening which toured to critical acclaim for three years across Europe and Secondhand Sofa with bluegrass band The Biscuit Boys for the Piccolo Spoleto Festival. He has choreographed for Atlanta Ballet, Finland’s Damaru Dance Company, Hartford Ballet, Dayton Ballet, Ballet Pacifica, the Island Moving Company, The Juilliard School, Rotterdamse Dansacademie and the ABT Studio Company among many others. Mr. Connor has been an educator at many of the world’s foremost dance centers and was Artistic Director of the American legacy Limón Dance Company for four years. ARENA was originally developed collaboratively with dancers at CCDT and California Institute of the Arts in 2009. Since then, CCDT has performed it in Glasgow, Scotland, and the production by California State University, Fullerton was chosen for the Gala Performance of the American College Dance Association. The independent film version of ARENA, with director Natalie Metzger, won the award for best music video at the Silent River Film Festival.

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ARENA is the first of five works Colin has created for CCDT, followed by Against the Dark (2010) Breath of Rivers (2012), August (2013), and The Weather in the Room (2015). A sixth work, Colin's 1992 duet, Two Guys, saw its CCDT premiere in 2015.

Lotic, known as J’Kerian Morgan, has been fortifying her forceful sound and dominating the Berlin electronic music scene for over a decade. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Lotic played alto saxophone in her high school marching band and in competitions with the University Interscholastic League before an education at the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied film and electronic music and hosted DJ sets for the college radio station. 

In 2011, shortly before relocating to Germany, she released her debut EP ‘More Than Friends’, on Ben Aqua’s dance music label #FEELINGS. Following her move to Berlin in 2012, she released a series of well-received mixtapes, including ‘Fallout’ (2013), ‘Damsel in Distress’ (2014), ‘Agitations’ (2015) and ‘Heterocetera’ (2015). She co-founded the Janus Collective with fellow American expatriate promoters and producers, creating a monthly party that began in Berlin-Kreuzberg’s Chesters and quickly ascended to hosting Janus rosters at Berghain. Lotic's capricious DJ sets and sonic offerings attracted avant-garde singer, songwriter, and DJ, Björk, leading to collaborations on remixes and live concert performances.

Lotic (meaning “to inhabit rapidly moving water”) made her debut as a singer and songwriter in 2018 with the album ‘Power’, which was praised for its polished production style in the tradition of her past releases and rejuvenated by her narrative and reflections on race, sexuality, and gender. She has collaborated on live music and dance performances with choreographer Roderick George/kNoname Artist on Fleshless Beast, as well as Las Casas Invisibles with the KDV Dance Ensemble.

Much like feminine rulers memorialized in history, Lotic‘s sound is the symbiosis of force and softness; the beat behind the drill of a parade honouring a strong and unpredictable Queen imprinting her mark into the ground to the beat of her own drum.

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@lotic

The career of American composer Robert Moran has been broadly eclectic, ranging from the most extreme avant-garde experiments to more conventional forms like opera, ballet, choral, and orchestral music. Stylistically his work has likewise spanned a wide spectrum, incorporating serialism, conceptual pieces, minimalism, neo-Romanticism, and post-Modernism. He came to public attention in the late 1960s and early 1970s for three sound-texture pieces that were intended to include the entire population of the cities of San Francisco (39 Minutes for 39 Autos, 1969), Bethlehem, PA (Hallelujah, 1971) and Graz, Austria (Pachelbel Promenade, 1975).  Some of his works composed for dance, or which were later picked up by choreographers, include The Waltz Project (1976-1977), Three Dances (1983-1986), Open Veins (1986), Requiem: Chant du Cygne (1989), 32 Cryptograms for Derek Jarman (1994), Rocky Road to Kansas (2002), Alice (2011), and CCDT’s August (2013) also choreographed by Colin Connor.

Hailing from Toronto, Canada, Thompson Egbo-Egbo is a pianist with a gift for memorable but harmonically complex compositions that have at their core a deep, abiding groove. With three studio albums out (Short Stories, A New Standard, The Offering) he is set to release another 2 later this year.

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Thompson has previously collaborated with CCDT in 2013 and 2014, performing live with his trio in Entre-temps, choreographed by Deborah Lundmark.

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@egbomusic

Krista Dowson learned to sew at her parents’ dining room table during her 14-year tenure as a ballerina with the National Ballet of Canada. From the stage to behind the scenes, this self-taught costumier enjoys making spandex look beautiful and the challenge of turning 2-dimensional designs into 3-dimensional apparel. Dowson has had the privilege of designing and building costumes for ProArteDanza, the National Ballet of Canada, the Hillside Beach Club in Turkey, Casa Loma’s Legends of Horror, CCDT, and Hit & Run Dance Productions in addition to a number of independent artists locally and internationally.

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@shop_flockofflamingos

Angel Wong trained at the Australian Ballet School beginning her career as a ballerina, performing with the Hong Kong Ballet, English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Ballet Jӧrgen Canada, ProArteDanza, and Opera Atelier. She studied at OCAD University and earned a Bachelor of Design. She’s worked intensely within the Toronto dance community with choreographers such as Robert Stephen, Jacob Niedzwiecki, and Gadfly. She has created costumes for Hit & Run Dance Productions and the National Ballet of Canada’s Tutu Project.

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@angel.wong.ballet

Arun has worked extensively in the performing arts. He trained at York University earning a Specialized Honours B.F.A.  Dance collaborators have included Robert Desrosiers, Peter Chin, Danny Grossman, COBA, Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, Tiger Princess Dance Projects, The National Ballet School & ProArteDanza.  He has been the resident designer for Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre since 2002.  Theatre credits include The Stratford Festival, Factory Theatre, The Canadian Stage Co., The Globe Theatre, The World Stage Theatre Festival, fu-GEN, Cahoots Theatre Projects, k’Now Theatre & Buddies In Bad Times Theatre.  His career has garnered him 8 Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations for Outstanding Lighting Design in both the theatre and dance categories. Currently, he is designing projects for Musical Stage Company, Soulpepper Theatre, Pleaides Theatre and The Art of Time Ensemble.  Arun has had the privilege of teaching lighting design at York University, Ryerson University, the University of Waterloo and mentorship at The National Theatre School.  Productions have taken him to Ukraine, Malaysia, Singapore, India, China and across North America.

Noah Feaver is a Dora Award nominated lighting designer. He works frequently in Dance and Opera and has designed for companies such as: Edmonton Opera, Toronto Dance Theatre, Tapestry Opera, Human Body Expression, Holla Jazz, Citadel + Compagnie, Zata Omm, The Royal Conservatory of Music, Against the Grain Theatre, and Rock Bottom Movement. Noah holds a BFA from Toronto Metropolitan University’s (formally Ryerson University's) Performance Production program and spent two summers as a lighting design practicum at The Banff Centre. Noah is a member of the Associated Designers of Canada.

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www.noahfeaver.com

Selected stage management credits include The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Canadian Tour of Thank You For Being a Friend (Joseph Patrick Presents); Beauty and the Beast, Little Shop of Horror, Wizard of Oz, West Side Story, Junie B Jones, Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, Anne of Green Gables, Legally Blonde, Mary Poppins, Seussical, Spamalot, RENT, and The Rocky Horror Show (Lower Ossington Theatre). 

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Assistant Stage Manager: Toronto Dance Theatre (2014/2015 Season). Apprentice stage management credits include: Evita, The Lion in Winter (Grand Theatre) #UncleJohn, Messiah (Against the Grain Theatre), Forgiveness: A Theatrical Poem (Modern Times Stage Company), Dance Masters (The Banff Centre).

Independent Dance Artist Ryan Lee graduated from Ryerson University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. He has been fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Emily Molnar, Guillaume Côté, Kevin O’Day, Stephen Pier, D.A. Hoskins, Darryl Tracy, Sharon B. Moore, Julia Sasso and Menaka Thakkar. Ryan has worked for such companies as Human Body Expression, ProArteDanza, Toronto Dance Theatre, Kaeja d’Dance, Anandam Dancetheatre, inDANCE, Larchaud Dance Project, Transcendance, The Chimera Project and TOES for Dance. Ryan has toured internationally and has been nominated for Dora Mavor Moore awards for outstanding ensemble performance – 2011 for …In between… by Roberto Campanella and Robert Glumbek, and 2018 for Chasing the Path by Hanna Kiel.

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Ryan has been commissioned to make works by ProArteDanza, Anandam DanceTheatre, ACE DanceTheatre, The Emerging Artist Intensive, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, Ryerson University, George Brown College, Centennial College, Dance Ontario, Etobicoke School for the Arts and The School of Toronto Dance Theatre. In 2019 Ryan co-founded The Platform, a Toronto-based collective focused on artistic creation and collaboration.

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@theplatformto

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Photo by Drew Berry

Sasha Ludavicius is a professional contemporary dance artist in Toronto. During her adolescence, she discovered her passion for classical ballet and contemporary dance by studying internationally. She was the recipient of ProArteDanza’s Summer Intensive Program (SIP) Apprenticeship Award in 2015, and has been a company member since then. In 2016, she graduated from The School of Toronto Dance Theatre. Ludavicius was selected to be a part of the 2017/18 RBC Emerging Artists Project with Peggy Baker Dance Projects. In furthering her education as an artist, she became a freelance contemporary dance teacher, personal fitness trainer as well as a certified yoga instructor. Since 2018, she has been the training coordinator along with being the rehearsal director for ProArteDanza’s SIP. This is Ludavicius’s first season working with the CCDT Company and she is thrilled to be rehearsal directing Charlotte Boye-Christensen’s commission, Reap the Wind.

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Photo by Josh Harmer

Sierra Kellman trained and performed with Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre for two years dancing the works of numerous renowned choreographers on stages across Ontario. She is a recent graduate of the Performance Dance program at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson) and has danced in Tkaronto and the surrounding areas for many years. Through her studies, she has had the opportunity to be a part of many performances and dance films including Passage of Time choreographed by Angela Blumberg (2022), DinoLand choreographed by Alyssa Martin (2021), Together Again choreographed by Natasha Powell (Fall for Dance North 2021) and A Gathering choreographed by Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber (Fall for Dance North 2020). Sierra has taken part in dance festivals in Tkaronto including New Blue Dance Festival and Flux Dance Festival. She blends all of her performance, teaching and artistic experiences curating ideas and creating choreography that she hopes to conceptualize as an emerging artist. At the core of Sierra’s artistic practice, she believes it is important to express personal experiences and emotions as a way of showcasing individual identity through contemporary movement.

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@sierra_kellman

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Photo by Aidan Tooth