Artistic Director:

Courtnae Bowman

Courtnae grew up in Victoria B.C, moving on to receive her professional training at The Goh Ballet Academy, the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and Ballet B.C.

Influenced strongly by her diverse training Courtnae has had the pleasure of dancing for choreographers such as Kathleen Rea, Roger Sinha, Noemi Lafrance, David Earle, Sharon Moore, John Alleyene, Siona Jackson, Annie Wood, Tina and Estelle Nicoladis,Donald Sales, Emily Molonar and Coralee McClaren.

Courtnae has performed for the Dancers for Life AIDS benefit, Dance Ontario Weekend, The Bazaar, Dusk Dances, the Vancouver International Dance Festival, the Before During After Dance Festival of Duets, Nuit Blanche, and Vivid 2002, a REAson d’être/Chimera Project co-production. Courtnae’s more recent dance work includes music videos for international singer Feist's music videos, 1234 and My Moon, My Man and her Spring 2007 tour.

Courtnae is a guest teacher throughout Ontario and is currently on faculty at the National Ballet School and City Dance Corps.Directing the ballet program of a competitive dance school won her great acclaim for her choreographic abilities and inspiring approach to ballet. Her students have gone on to train at the National Ballet School, The Royal W innipeg Ballet School, The Goh Ballet Academy, Quinte Ballet School, and The George Brown Dance Program. Students have also pursued performing careers around the world.

Since founding Cadence in November of 2008, Courtnae has created seven pieces for the company. In June of 2009, she launched The Cadence Mentorship Program which gave six pre-professional dancers the opportunity to join the company during creation and training over the summer. In July 2009, she produced “Cadence City Connect: Vancouver”, the first of a series of collaborations with choreographers and dancers from cities both within Canada and abroad, with the vision of further developing the companies versatility. Dancers from Vancouver joined the company over the summer to collaborate with Vancouver based choreographer/dancer Donald Sales in the creation of two works for Cadence.

Courtnae looks forward to continuing on her mission to to develop, create and produce compelling contemporary dance works to be presented throughout Canada and abroad.

Dancers:

Shavar Blackwood

Shavar “Caution” Blackwood was born in Toronto, raised in Detroit, and is now bringing his dancing abilities home to Canada. He has had the opportunity to work with many outstanding choreographers and performers such as Hollywood, Tre Armstrong, Leon Blackwood, Shawn Byfield, Siona Jackson, Tina Nicolaidis and Blake Mcgrath.
Shavar’s outstanding achievements have landed him on the forefront of the stage performing in Toronto’s Choreographers Ball, Kumba Festival, Toronto Urban Music Festival, Talent Defined, FAME, Dance Ontario Weekend, and International Dance Day. Taking his skills on screen, he has also danced on set of the family channel show Naturally Sadie, choreographed for the Women’s Network's Stuck, danced for artist such as, Mcfly, George Nozuka, and recently filmed a commercial for So You Think You Can Dance Canada.


Shavar is a founding member of Cadence and has been featured as a principal dancer in After, Awakening, Decorus Chaos and Uprising.

Zhenya Cerneacov

Born in 1986, in Chisinau, Moldova, Zhenya grew up in a household of musicians and from an early age developed a great passion for the arts. After studying ballroom dance for eight years, he was invited to become a member of Moldova’s renowned Show Ballet Teodor where his versatility in a range of dance styles had a chance to shine. In 2005 the Zhenya arrived in Canada enlivening the dance scene. He has been featured in the works of a number of companies including; Bouchardanse, Tilt Sound+Motion, Corpus and The Danny Grossman Dance Company. For the past two years he has been a core member of the Dusk Dances touring company. A sought after teacher he enjoys working with young people through the arts.

A founding member of the company Zhenya has danced in Awakening, Ave Maria, Decorus Chaos, Uprising and co-choreographed After.

Patrizia Gianforcaro:

 Patrizia is a graduate of Ryerson's Bachelor of Fine Arts degree program where she majored in Dance. Some recent performance credits include, the Bell Celebrity Gala in Toronto, a European and American tour with Cirque Du Soleil’s Delirium show, choreographed by Mia Michaels, Jazz Cracker, choreographed by Roberto Campanella and a Brazil tour with the Newton Moreas Dance theatre. Her film credits include, “Take the Lead”  featuring Antonio Banderas, 2007 Bravo Fact Presents: “Baba” by ELD Films and Cirque's " Delirium" show  Live from the O2 in London England.

Patrizia is always keeping busy with multiple dance projects. Currently,  she is a co-founder and choreographer of Lady Luck Productions (www.ladyluckproductions.ca) and is performing with two Toronto based companies, "Cadence Progressive Contemporary Ballet" and "The Dance Migration."
Ms. Gianforcaro has seven years of teaching and choreography experience with students of all ages in hip hop, jazz and contemporary dance. She has choreographed works for St. Elizabeth High School, Unionville High School, Ryerson's choreographic workshop and Induo Danceworks.

This is Patrizia's second season with Cadence. As a founding member she has been featured as a principal dancer in After, Awakening, Uprising, Throw It On the Fire and Smelling the Color 9.

Alison Metham

Alison Metham began her dance training at the Theresa Randal School of Dance at the age of 8 studying ballet, tap and Jazz. At the age of ten Alison attended the Sun Dance Summer Intensive Program in
Toronto. Alison continued her dance training at the Quinte Ballet School Summer Intensive where she was accepted into their professional program. She attended the Quinte Ballet School Professional Program for four years and after graduating from high school went on to continue her dance education at George Brown College. For the past year Alison has been training with Ballet Mistress Mercedes Bernardez. This past summer Alison traveled to British Columbia where she attended the Okanagan Summer Dance Intensive Professional Division. She has dance in The Nutcracker with the Xing Ballet Theatre and performed in the Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival. Alison has danced roles in Barrocoo, Raymonda, Giselle, Swan Lake and Les Sophied, as well as works by choreographers and teachers at QBS and OSDI.

Alison is very excited to be using her classical training in a very different way
by exploring the more contemporary side of ballet. She has been featured in the company works: Awakening, Ave Maria, Opium Dreams, Throw it On The Fire and Decorus Chaos.

Sarah Williamson

Sarah has recently completed a bachelor of performing arts at Ryerson University. There she was chosen to perform choreography for some of the industries most respected choreographers such as Robert Glumbek, Patricia Beatty and Holly Small. Sarah was also able to perform in her own self-choreographed solo works. Under the direction of Nadia Potts she continued her training in ballet, modern and jazz. Prior to her University training she received professional training from The National Ballet School as well as the Quinte Ballet School. Sarah has performed in several venues in the city of Toronto ranging from contemporary/modern styles to upbeat performances. Her versatility also extends to her love for acting. Just recently, Sarah was a featured dancer for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (Majesty of the Seas). She is also a passionate teacher and dance educator in the city.

This is Sarah's second season with Cadence. Since dancing with the company she has been featured as a principal dancer in Awakening, Ave Maria, Decorus Chaos,Throw it On The Fire and Uprising.

Tyler Webb

Tyler has graduated with a B.A. Honours in Theatre at York University in the Devised Performance stream.  He is a multi-diversified performer dedicated to the arts.  Tyler studied dance intensively for fifteen years, and has taught at national dance conventions and performed at venues such as Premiere Dance Theatre, Sony Centre, The Mod Club and Elgin Theatre.  He is currently a fifth year member with the J Force, a promotional team for Toronto Blue Jays’ live entertainment.  Tyler’s recent film work includes Feist’s 1234 music video, an ItalPasta commercial for national T.V and an international commercial for Nokia.  He is currently producing, directing and acting in the short film 202.

Since joining the company in 2009, Tyler has danced in Awakening, Ave Maria, Decorus Choas, Smelling The Color 9, and Uprising.

New Company Members

(photos and bios coming soon)

Paul Charbonneau

Kimberly Chin

Katherine Clarke

Allison Gibbons

Erin Poole