Dance Mania 07
Friday, March 30 to Sunday, April 1, 2007
Dance
Mania 07 Adjudicator:
Artistic Director
Saskatchewan Contemporary Ballet
Sarah
Nolan-Downs
 Now
residing in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Sarah was classically trained in
ballet having graduated from Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet
Professional Division with Distinction.
She went on to dance professionally with the
Royal Winnipeg Ballet for three years until an injury forced an
untimely career change. Sarah’s
performances include Giselle, The Nutcracker, Les Sylphides, Swan Lake,
Concerto Barrocco, Les Patineurs, Seventh Symphony, and Deuce Coupe. She was also cast as the
Lilac Fairy in Sleeping Beauty and performed a solo variation in the
ballet Paquita. In 1996, Sarah attended the Professional Ballet Program
at the Banff Festival of the Arts in Banff, Alberta.
In
September of 2004 Sarah successfully founded the Saskatchewan
Contemporary Ballet (SCB), the province’s only professional
ballet company. Sarah produced and directed several shows throughout
the past two years including the Sugar Plum Gala.
This unique holiday celebration features
dancers, singers, musicians, actors and writers who come together for
one special night to raise money for the Royal University Hospital
Foundation in Saskatoon. This year’s featured performance was
“Silent Night” performed by dancers with SCB, the
Amati Quartet, and Carrie Catherine, a local singer/ songwriter. In
2007 SCB will tour “Motion, Emotion” to schools
around the province in the Winter/Spring. This performance was created
based on stories written by grade six children in a Saskatoon school
and composed by a Toronto based musician.
Another
highlight of Sarah’s career includes being involved with
Dance Saskatchewan’s presentation of RBC Dominion Securities
‘Dare to Dance.” This show gives the blossoming
talent in the province of Saskatchewan an opportunity to share the
stage with professional working dancers that originated from this
province. For six weeks they work with an internationally renowned
director and choreographers to build a show that has included up to 300
people. This fantastic opportunity is unique to anything in the
Country, and is a great opportunity for dancers to have an experience
beyond the commercial dance studio. Acting as rehearsal mistress
consecutively for 5 years Sarah has also been a guest choreographer for
4 of those years.
Sarah’s
most recent endeavors include directing Celebrating Saskatchewan under
the Northern Lights, a performance that involved over 100 dancers in a
cultural celebration in LaRonge and working as the dance co-coordinator
for the Saskatchewan Centennial Gala, attended by the Queen and
televised Nationally by CBC. She was recently the lead choreographer on
Saskatoon’s Centennial Gala performance directed by Sean Hoy.
Sarah
is thrilled to be able to contribute to the dance scene in Saskatchewan
with the goal to inspire others to be passionate about dance as an art
form.
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