MICHELLE SILAGY,
Young Dancers' Program Director
Michelle Silagy is a graduate of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre’s Professional Training Program and has been active in Toronto as an independent choreographer, dancer, and teacher since then. She began teaching in the School’s Young Dancers’ Program in 1989 and is currently its Program Director. Over the past 16 years, she has received many awards through the Ontario Arts Council’s Artists in Education program to bring dance to schools throughout the province. As well, she has taught dance to youth at the Canadian Opera Company, Harbord Collegiate, the Institute of Child Study, Toronto French School, Unionville High School, and through the Creating Dances in the Schools program at Canada’s National Ballet School. As a mentor artist with The Royal Conservatory of Music’s Learning Through the Arts program, Silagy works across Canada and abroad as a creative movement specialist, including incentives in London, England, the Bloorview Macmillan Centre in Toronto, and Winnipeg’s Inner-city School Projects.
Silagy’s extensive work with youth sustains her desire to create with artists of all disciplines through collaboration in dance. Her choreography, made in the company of Toronto’s independent community, has been referred to as “exquisite…filled with beautiful images that speak of rest, tranquility and hope” (Globe and Mail). It has been presented at the Art Gallery of Ontario, du Maurier Theatre Centre [now Enwave Theatre], Dusk Dances, fFIDA, festivals throughout the country, and at Series 8:08, which she co-founded. She is the inaugural recipient of the Toronto Dance Artist Award (for choreography) from the Toronto Community Foundation. Last May, Silagy created The Snow Queen which premiered at The Carlu as part of The National Shaw Rocket Project for Youth. Her most recent full-length work, Necessary Velocity, premiered at The Winchester Street Theatre in June 2007 with the valued support of the Canada Council, the Toronto Arts Council, and the Ontario Arts Council. She is traveling to The International Plain Language Conference in Amsterdam in Fall 2007 to present a new solo dance commissioned and performed by Jody Bruner of Bruner Business Communications Inc.
NADIA WRIGHT
Nadia Wright graduated from Cawthra Park Secondary School for the Performing Arts with a double major in dance and drama. While at Cawthra, she received several awards for dramatic roles. She attended The School of Toronto Dance Theatre’s Professional Training Program, and danced in works made especially for the School by leading Canadian choreographers, most notably Conrad Alexandrowicz.
Wright’s commitment to working with children in art-related settings has resulted in a wide range of experiences. Some of her projects include working one-on-one with disabled children at Community Living, with children at Credit Valley Hospital, and with children of young mothers through special programs in her community. Wright is interested in continuing studies in arts and education, primarily through an approach that uses multi-media to enhance creative expression.
In 2005 Wright graduated from the one year Pre-Interpreter Program at George Brown College and is now in her third year of a four-year collaborative program in Early Childhood Education offered jointly by Ryerson University and George Brown College. She has recently completed her fourth field placement in Jamaica as part of that program. Wright is also currently teaching eight and nine year olds in an after school program at the Runnymede Adventure Club.
SUSAN KENDAL
Susan Kendal is a Toronto-based independent dance artist. She is involved in a number of aspects of the art form, from choreography, teaching, and performing, to costuming, writing, and administering. Kendal is particularly interested in and devoted to the creation of integrated word and movement projects through her company Pocket Alchemy. Her teaching work includes facilitating word and movement integration workshops for public school students and dance professionals in the Toronto area, and teaching creative movement for The School of Toronto Dance Theatre’s Young Dancers’ Program. She is also a regular guest teacher and choreographer for the Edmonton School of Ballet and the Edmonton Contemporary Dancers.
Kendal will be presenting her choreography on a shared program with dance artist Lucy Rupert as part of the 2007/08 DanceWorks CoWorks Season in Toronto. She designs and sews costumes for dance and is a member of the one-of-a-kind clothing and textile collective, Puddles in my Pocket. Kendal is involved in dance writing and press as office manager, news editor, and staff writer for The Dance Current magazine.
Born and raised in Edmonton, Kendal studied with the Alberta Children’s Creative Dance Theatre and the Edmonton School of Ballet. She is a graduate of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre’s Professional Training Program where she was honoured to perform the solo work of Peggy Baker and Julia Sasso.