Côté Danse (Toronto)

Côté Danse’s mission is to create and present original dance works and experiences in collaboration with various and diverse designers, artists, and partners with the goal of providing performance excellence.

We continue to offer accessible and scalable productions for a multitude of audiences and venues within Canada and abroad, fostering a new generation of dance and theatre goers.

Informed by his classical ballet vocabulary, Guillaume Côté’s choreography contours space with resonant geometries and fervent human connections. Contemporary lines and forms with a sleek edge and refined athleticism give his work a bracing quality.

Guillaume Côté

Guillaume Côté is a native of Lac-Saint-Jean, Québec. He studied at Canada’s National Ballet School and joined The National Ballet of Canada in 1999. He was promoted to Principal Dancer in 2004. Since then, Mr. Côté has danced most of the major classical roles with the National Ballet and has been the leading male figure of the company. Guillaume Côté was awarded the médaille de l’Assemblée Nationale du Québec in 2011, and named Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Québec in 2021.

In 2013 Mr. Côté assumed the role of Choreographic Associate with The National Ballet. In 2012, his work Enkeli won an Audience Choice Award for Best Choreography, and Fractals: a pattern of chaos was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Choreography. Among other creations, Mr. Côté choreographed his first full-length ballet Le Petit Prince in 2016, and his collaboration with renowned director Robert Lepage Frame by Frame in 2018.

In 2014, Mr. Côté was named the Artistic Director of the Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur, the largest summer dance festival in the country. In 2021, Guillaume Côté founded his own company, Côté Danse, focused on the multidisciplinary creation of innovative works with the mission of making dance seen and experienced differently.

Martha Hart

Martha Hart is a freelance dance artist, choreographer and educator based in Toronto. She is a graduate of Canada’s National Ballet School, as well as training at the Palucca Schule Dresden, L’ecole Superieure du Ballet de Quebec, and Arts Umbrella Dance in Vancouver. After an engagement with the Dresden Semperoper Ballet in Germany, she returned to Canada and has since worked with esteemed companies and artists such as Cote Danse (Guillaume Côté), iskwē, Nicole Von Arx, Human Body Expression (Hanna Kiel), TranscenDance Project (Julia Cratchley), Ace Dance Theatre, The Garage, Hit & Run Dance Productions, Mascall Dance, Broadbent Sisters, Project20 (Donald Sales) in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto. From 2015-2016 she toured Mexico, Spain and Italy as a member of the Metamorphosis Dance Collective directed by Iratxe Ansa and Igor Bacovich and has since organized and produced Metamorphosis Method Workshops in Toronto. In 2020, she founded the company hART dance to act as a collaborative umbrella for her choreographic endeavours. Her work has been featured at Stackt Market for Nuit Blanche, New Blue Dance Festival, in the short film Oasis (Canadian Film Centre) and most recently she choreographed a music video for Canadian singer Jessie Reyez. She continues to educate and coach dancers of all ages across the GTA and is passionate about sharing dance as a visceral experience to a wide variety of audiences.

Natasha Poon Woo

Natasha Poon Woo began training and performing with Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre (CCDT) in her hometown of Toronto. She then studied at the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase, performing the works of Pam Tanowitz, Twyla Tharp, and Doug Varone before graduating summa cum laude with a BFA and the President’s Award for Achievement. Natasha is a frequent performer with Rock Bottom Movement and Côté Danse, and has worked with Conny Janssen Danst, Kevin Wynn Collection, BoucharDanse, The Dietrich Group, Roderick George, Benjamin Landsberg, Ryan Lee, Gadfly, Little Pear Garden, and Hit & Run Dance Productions, among others. She is a Dora Award-winning performer with Rock Bottom for its acclaimed production, hollow mountain.

Natasha has been the Associate Artistic Director of CCDT since 2019 and the company’s Rehearsal Director since 2012. She has also directed rehearsals for artists including Hanna Kiel, Roderick George and Rodney Diverlus. Natasha is a passionate and sought-after dance educator specializing in Limón-based modern technique and is a certified instructor of C-I TrainingTM (conditioning-with-imagery), trained and mentored by Donna Krasnow.

Willem Sadler

Willem Sadler began his training as a streetstyles dancer based in Toronto, Ontario. His exuberant passion led him to begin his professional career at the young age of 11, joining and dancing for the Artists in Motion Dance Company. As a young dancer and performer his drive has always come from his love for movement and the art of dance. Following many years solely training in street styles, he expanded his variety of training in this artform, beginning to train in a multitude of styles including Ballet, Contemporary, Ballroom, Modern, Jazz, Afro, etc. Throughout his young career has performed for institutions and companies like the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Shoppers Drugmart, Roots Canada, Mirvish, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, Little Pear Garden, Hit & Run Dance Productions, Dusk Dances and Dance Collection Danse. Willem is grateful to have the opportunity to work with Côté Danse and hopes with every show he can bring joy and enlightenment into every viewer’s day.

Kelly Shaw

Kelly Shaw is a BFA honours graduate from Toronto Metropolitan University’s Performance Dance program, and recipient of the University’s 2018 Jack McAllister award. She is a Tkarón:to/Toronto-based free-lance Dance artist who currently collaborates and performs with Human Body Expression, Guillaume Côté (Côté Danse), Transcendance Project, ProArteDanza and Alysa Pires Dance Projects. She has previously performed with Citadel + Compagnie (Tori Mehaffey choreography), Echo Chamber Choir, for Dance Ontario Weekend, Toronto Fringe Festival, Hit and Run Dance Productions and was a 2010 and 2018 Dora Mavor Moore nominee.

Additionally Kelly has toured internationally to perform as a part of New Dance Festival in (Daejeon) Korea, ACE Dance Awards in New York City, as well as Festival International de DansEncore and Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur in Quebec. In fall 2022, she was rehearsal directing in Germany for Ballett Hagen and is a sought after dance educator and choreographer across North America. Kelly is also a Pilates and Barre instructor, and most recently certified as a holistic life coach, offering work in the realm of somatic healing and mindfulness.

Evan Webb

Evan Webb (they/them) hails from Calgary Alberta, and is currently based in Toronto Ontario. They attended Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson) in the Performance Dance program. At TMU Evan had the opportunity to work with William Yong, Anne Plamondon, Peggy Baker, Jera Wolfe, and Dylan Crossman in the repertoire of Merce Cunningham. Outside of academia, Evan has worked with Jera Wolfe, Louis Laberge Côté, Guillaume Côté, and Nicole Von Arx. Evan is well versed in various movement practice’s and visual art forms, lending to a desire to naturally perform authentically and idiosyncratically in all aspects of movement expression. With a love for anthropology and philosophy Evan holds fascination for the ways in which people interact with each other, often allowing experiences from their own life to inform their creative inspiration. Evan is a company member of ProArteDanza under the direction of Roberto Campanella, where they have worked with Naishi Wang, Leslie Telford, and Syreeta Hector. While holding focus on physical interpretation of dance art, Evan values a multidisciplinary approach to performing; they have assumed a lead role in an original play written by Sadie Epstein-Fine. Experiences of being othered as a gender non-conforming member of the LGBTQ+ community has given them a unique perspective, and influenced their artistic values. They continue to research gender, sexuality, and politics in their own Art practice. 

Anisa Tejpar

Anisa Tejpar, a Dora Mavor Moore Award-winning dancer from Toronto, is a graduate of Canada’s National Ballet School. She has performed and danced with renowned companies such as Toronto Dance Theatre, ProArteDanza, Human Body Expression, Against the Grain Theatre and Zata Omm. Tejpar is also the Co-Artistic Director of Hit & Run Dance Productions Inc., creating captivating works for brands like NIKE, PUMA, M.A.C Cosmetics, and The Rolling Stones. Tejpar teaches Consent + Boundaries for Dancers at Toronto Metropolitan University and is an Associate Producer, Creative Assistant and Rehearsal Director for Guillaume Côté and Côté Danse. Additionally, she is an Intimacy Coordinator and Director, collaborating with The National Ballet of Canada and Ballet BC, as well as various film and theatre projects. Tejpar serves on the Board of Directors for Canada’s National Ballet School, is one third of the contemporary dance collective The Platform and hosts Inside the Arts on Sauga 960 AM in Toronto.

Jean Orr

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Came to Canada as a child.

Took up ballet in Ottawa & became Canada’s first Giselle.

Joined the Royal Winnipeg Ballet as a Leading dancer (1951).

Moved to Vancouver & became Founding President of Ballet BC (1986).

Jean was awarded the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award (2001), Entertainment Pioneer of the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame (2006), and Dance Collection Danse Hall of Fame (2023).

Jean is currently on the Board of the Vancouver Ballet Society.