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Harbourfront Residency
In August 2021, The National Ballet of Canada gave four outdoor performances to a socially distanced audience during Sharing the Stage, a residency at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre featuring the world premiere of Crepuscular by Vanesa G. R. Montoya, works-in-process from guest companies and an outdoor studio with open rehearsals, free dance classes and discussions.
Thank you to our guest companies Esie Mensah Creations, Human Body Expression, Little Pear Garden Dance Company and Lua Shayenne Dance Company for their inspired participation in this event.
“Sharing the Stage gave us an opportunity to reconnect with each other, our dance colleagues, curious passersby and invested audiences. On a practical level, this residency allowed Lua Shayenne Dance Company to achieve some of its strategic goals of increasing local presentations that are accessible to multiple audiences to increase our visibility and engage new audiences.”
– Lua Shayenne, Artistic Director, Lua Shayenne Dance Company
“We made a commitment as an organization at the beginning of the pandemic that when we were able to return to the stage, we would support Toronto’s dance community in doing the same. For our four guest companies and many other artists involved, this was their first time creating and dancing in-person and connecting with the public in 16 months. To see artists in a state of exploration and for audiences to have the opportunity to move through that journey with them was a powerful point of reconnection.”
– Robert Binet, Curator and Producer, CreativAction and Special Initiatives
Sharing the Stage is an initiative of Staging Change which is generously funded by the Metcalf Foundation. Lead philanthropic support for Crepuscular is provided by The Producers' Circle. Apollo is a gift from The Volunteer Committee, The National Ballet of Canada. Brendan Saye is sponsored through Dancers First by Robin Vaile Robinson.
