Choreographers

Stephanie Ballard

Stephanie Ballard is a critically acclaimed choreographer, personal coach and educator whose work has garnered the prestigious Clifford E. Lee Award and the Canada Council for the Arts Jacqueline Lemieux Prize. She has been affiliated with Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers for over 45 years. As Artistic Advisor, Company Manager and Choreographer for the Margie Gillis Dance Foundation she toured extensively in Asia, the US, Canada and Europe. 

She is Artist in Residence and Archivist for the School of Contemporary Dancers Professional Program and is Artistic Advisor for Peter Quanz and QDance. She is on Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s Programming Committee and is an active member of The Canadian Dance Alliance. As Director of the Winnipeg Dance Preservation Initiative she plays an active role in advocating for Dance in Manitoba and throughout Canada.

Rachel Browne

Rachel Browne (1934-2012) began her training in ballet and, on high school graduation, she moved to New York City. Later she accompanied Benjamin Harkarvy when he became artistic director of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Her choreography, Odetta’s Songs and Dances (1964), marked a transition from a classical aesthetic to an earthy, modern sensibility. In 1964 Browne started Contemporary Dancers, which, became an important commissioner of new Canadian choreographers.

Early in 1983 Rachel Browne resigned as artistic director of the Contemporary Dancers, although she retained her ties with the company acting as a fund-raiser, teacher and advisor. In the mid-1980s, Browne launched into a new phase of her career as a choreographer, performer and teacher. In 1995 Browne received the Jean A. Chalmers Award for Creativity in Dance and was awarded the Order of Canada in 1997. She was the recipient of the 2000 Canada Council Jacqueline Lemieux Prize.

David Earle

David Earle is one of Canada’s most gifted and prolific choreographers.

He began his modern dance training with Yone Kvietys in Toronto, and spent two years on scholarship at the Martha Graham School in New York. He danced in New York with the José Limón Dance Company and, in London, England, assisted Robert Cohan with the newly formed London Contemporary Dance Theatre.

Returning to Toronto, he co-founded Toronto Dance Theatre with Patricia Beatty and Peter Randazzo. Between 1968 and 1996, he performed, taught, served as artistic director and created over 150 works for the company. He founded Dancetheatre David Earle in 1997, and continues to create new work, as commissions for performance with choirs, orchestras and chamber ensembles.

Earle has received many honours and awards including the Toronto Arts Award, Jean A. Chalmers Award, the Canada Council’s Jacqueline Lemieux Prize, an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Queen’s University, the Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts, the Order of Canada, and most recently a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Award.

Nenagh Leigh

Nenagh Leigh co-founded Toronto Heritage Dance with Patricia Beatty in 2002.

An Australian-born Canadian, she initially trained for ballet, and created her first professional choreography before emigrating to Canada in 1970. Arriving in Fredericton she studied with June Vaughan, a dancer from the Erick Hawkins Dance Company. In 1973, she founded a contemporary dance group at the University of New Brunswick, which evolved into the Maritime Contemporary Dance Company, and created 22 works for this  company. She also created the choreography for the acclaimed 1977 TNB production of EQUUS.

Resident in Toronto since 1980, Nenagh studied with Toronto Dance Theatre founders Patricia Beatty, David Earle, Peter Randazzo and others. She founded and served for 12 years as Artistic Director/Producer for Spring Rites, an annual showcase for Toronto independent choreographers, creating 12 new works.

Her work has been shown in Canada, the USA and Australia. Her choreography exhibits a distinctive, highly personal and sculptural style. With Mary Jane Warner, she currently serves as Director of Toronto Heritage Dance.

Peter Randazzo

Peter Randazzo joined the Martha Graham Company in 1962 and originated several significant roles.

He toured America with José Limón and performed with Donald McKayle and Eleo Pomare as well as Aileen Passloff  at Judson Church. He also danced in The  King and I on Broadway.  In 1968 he left New York City to co-found Toronto Dance Theatre with Patricia Beatty and David Earle.

His choreographic style is distinctively sharp, angular and staccato, and is best seen in his dramatic earlier works. Later choreographies revealed a darkly comic side and relied more on pure movement.

Often inspired by the visual arts, he created L’assassin Menace based on the painting by Rene Magritte. Also inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper, he created a trilogy, Nighthawks, Enter the Dawn and Summer Evening. A Simple Melody, created in 1977, became the TDT touring closer and the company’s most popular work.