Contemporary School of Dance

Do you love to perform? Try out for one of our performing companies!

Contemporary School of Dance has three children's performing companies: DanceWorks, a contemporary dance company for students age 8-18, Contemporary Dance Theatre, a contemporary dance company for senior level students, and CSD Ballet Co., a ballet company for senior ballet students within the school. Participation in our dance companies helps to develop a sense of creative confidence, genuine performance, and a commanding stage presence in each dancer.

Students interested in joining should have a strong commitment to the group and demonstrate a real passion for performing dance. We will be offering several different dance projects for our company throughout the year. A rehearsal and performance schedule, as well as a company fee, will be set for each project that we offer during the year. Students 8-18 years of age are invited to audition for these varying projects as they arise. Dancers are welcome to participate in every project or may choose the projects that work best with their schedules throughout the year.

Rehearsals

Rehearsals will be set for projects as they arise.

Fees

Dance Company fees are separate from class tuition.

Fees will be set per project as they arise throughout the year.

Our dancers have had many exciting opportunities to work with professional artists, including members of the Danny Grossman Company. It was an honour and a privilege for our students to be able to learn Grossman's, "Lead Belly" choreography and perform it along side Danny Grossman Company dancers. Students involved in our dance companies have worked with the following professional dance artists: Michelle DeBrouwer, D.A. Hoskins, Gabby Kamino, Sylvanus Klotz, Michael Moore, Malgorzata Nowacka (The Chimera Project), Meredith Thompson (Danny Grossman Dance Company), Heather Roy-Kleihauer, and other CSD faculty members. By working with guest artists, the students receive a greater understanding of professional dance artists, the choreographic process and the value of learning, preserving and performing choreography.

The works created for CSD's dance companies are performed at non-competitive venues, and have included the Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, Kinetic Cohesion, Sur La Pointe ballet festival (non-competitive stream), the Muskoka Ballet Gala (an event that raises funds for dance scholarships for students in northern Ontario), For the Cause (a CSD student run performance raising funds for local charities), ChildCAN (a performance raising funds for children with cancer), Royal Medieval Faire, Halloween Fest, Choreographer's Collective (a former K-W dance collective), Womyn's Fest, Sounds of Summer Music Festival, Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario, local nursing homes, and many others! An exciting project in 2009 was held at the Waterloo Children's Museum, where DanceWorks performed "Dance Factory", a kaleidoscope of dances with inspiration drawn from the Waterloo Children's Museum and the Andy Warhol Factory exhibition at the Waterloo Children's Museum.

Did you know that our dance companies contribute to our local community? For many years, the dancers put on a fundraising performance, For the Cause, at the Registry Theatre in Kitchener. Each year, they chose a different cause within our community to support. In May 2007, they raised $800.00 for Big Brothers Big Sister of Kitchener-Waterloo and Area Inc. In 2005, they raised $1100.00 for KidsAbility Foundation and in 2006, they raised $1000.00 for R.O.O.F. (Reaching Our Outdoor Friends - a united way agency) through their For the Cause performances. Way to go dancers!