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From Pirouettes to Floor-flips, Dance Education Helps Aspiring Young Dancers Perfect their...
August 24, 2020With the help of your generous donations, young dancers had incredible and diverse learning opportunities through NAC Dance Education & Outreach during the first months of 2020. When Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s (RWB) Wizard of OZ was in town, 17 intermediate and advanced dancers from…
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Celebrating International Dance Day
April 29, 2018In late April, the Thorsteinson Glass Staircase transformed into an impromptu stage to the delight of the people gathered there for lunch. The beautiful wooden staircase provided excellent sound for Canadian tap virtuoso Danny Nielsen’s snazzy white tap shoes while contemporary dancer Shay…
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15 X AT NIGHT: Dance in the urban landscape
July 10, 2017Choreographer Paul-André Fortier discusses why he created a dance performance for the outdoors. "Dancing outdoors is a completely different experience from performing on stage." explains Fortier. "On stage, you’re somewhat removed. You try to conceal the effort involved. But in this…
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Panel Discussion on Creation and Collaboration through ENCOUNT3RS
May 5, 2017In this bilingual panel discussion on Creation and Collaboration that preceded the world premiere of ENCOUNT3RS (April 20-22, 2017), animator Catherine Clark speaks with the six Canadian artists involved in this historic NAC dance-music commission celebrating Canada 150. Following a…
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Interview with choreographer Bill Coleman
April 6, 2017“When Accidents Happen, You’re Very Attentive” – Bill Coleman navigates through difficulty in Dollhouse, a dance production presented at the NAC’s Canada Scene Festival in partnership with the Canada Dance Festival on July 15. The NAC’s Canada Scene has a specific focus on contemporary…
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ENCOUNT3RS: a collaborative project with choreographer Emily Molnar
August 9, 2016Choreographer Emily Molnar's relationship with the National Arts Centre began when she first danced on stage with the National Ballet of Canada. She was seventeen years old. Now Artistic Director of Ballet BC, Molnar is one of three Canadian choreographers who have been commissioned by…
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Frédérick Gravel explains why ‘Usually Beauty Fails’
May 19, 2016Frédérick Gravel is a philosopher searching for beauty using the language of dance. "My idea of beauty is constructed by the era, the society, the media." It is an ideal that Gravel finds himself constantly evaluating and re-imagining in his acclaimed work Usually Beauty Fails. Gravel…
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Choreographer Mélanie Demers provides 3 words that describe her work
May 5, 2016Choreographer Mélanie Demers provides the viewer with three words to describe her work: combat, débat and ébat (combat, debate and romp or lovemaking). "They have a lot of meaning for me, they’re a kind of summary of the way I interact with the world." Demers’ studies in literature, dance…
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FACETS: A creative collaboration
April 28, 2015The restless, inquiring mind of award-winning performer-creator Tedd Robinson—Artistic Director of 10 Gates Dancing, an NAC Associate Dance Artist, choreographer, educator and Ottawa favourite — has resulted in a catalogue of innovative work blazing with witty originality and extraordinary…
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Face to face with new dance
January 28, 2015Cathy Levy, the National Arts Centre’s Executive Producer of Dance, has brought some of the world’s very best dance artists to Canada, such as Germany’s Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch who recently performed two sold-out shows in the NAC’s Southam Hall. As she travels the globe looking…
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Crystal Pite and the world stage
December 15, 2014In a NAC Dance Podcast interview with Cathy Levy in 2009 at the time of her show Dark Matters, the acclaimed Vancouver dancer-choreographer Crystal Pite spoke about her first time coming to the NAC. It was 25 years ago, and she was then a dancer with Ballet British Columbia. “All I…
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Under Pressure: Louise Lecavalier on her first self-choreographed work
September 18, 2014I don’t have to worry about words. I have to act, dance, create movement. — Louise Lecavalier Canada dance icon Louise Lecavalier talks about her first self-choreographed work, So Blue, and making the transition from dancer to choreographer. Louise Lecavalier is an NAC Associate Dance…
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“Gigs don’t get more prestigious” – Joel Plaskett on performing with the...
April 8, 2014Sun goes down upon the bay Looking for somewhere to play I came here to bring the noise To the island girls and the harbour boys – Joel Plaskett, Harbour Boys Joel Plaskett is a clear-voiced singer-songwriter whose music pulses with tight rhythm and guitar. His songs are alternately…
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Small islands, big questions: Birds With Skymirrors May 24-25
May 15, 2013Lemi Ponifasio’s Birds With Skymirrors is a multi-layered, multi-media production, a series of highly stylized, sometimes hauntingly beautiful, images that create a mystical world onstage. Birds With Skymirrors is a radical composition in dance, ceremony, poetry, and chant that is also a…
