Nova Dance Collective (NDC) was formed in 2011 by Zorya Arrow, Rachelle Bourget, Alexandra Garrido, Janelle Hacault, Sarah Helmer, Alexandra Scarola and Kelsey Todd as third year students in the Senior Professional Program of the School of Contemporary Dancers (SCD.)
“Their debut presentation was FRESH, a self-produced show of original works, for the 2011 Winnipeg Fringe Festival. Encouraged by positive reviews and community feedback, the collective went on to perform in various productions including the FemFest Cabaret, Winnipeg Fringe Festival Mainstage, and with local band The Mariachi Ghost at the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s Nuit Blanche roof top celebration. Nova also offered a school outreach class and performance at Sister MacNamara School in Winnipeg’s inner city.
In June of 2012, all seven founding members of Nova graduated from SCD and participated in the school’s performances at the Canada Dance Festival in Ottawa, including the ensemble production of Jean-Pierre Perreault’s Joe et Rodolphe at the National Arts Centre. All members have gone on to work with various companies and independent choreographers in Winnipeg, nationally, and internationally.
Nova performed at the 2013 Winnipeg Jazz Festival in collaboration with The Mariachi Ghost before returning to the Winnipeg Fringe Festival for their second original production, And Other Stories.
And Other Stories represented Nova Dance Collective’s transformation from a group of ambitious students to a group of emerging professional artists with a distinct and powerful vision. The production marked a shift in Nova’s mandate, intention and mission. As another mixed repertory show comprised of seven short stand alone pieces, And Other Stories gave each individual member of Nova the chance to further explore her unique choreographic voice. This revealed that the next step for the collective would be to delve into a deeper exploration of the creative process with longer works and an ongoing season outside of the Fringe circuit.
In August 2014, the collective began to manifest this intention when they commissioned Toronto based choreographer Riley Sims (Social Growl Dance) to create an original half-length work on them, titled “Judy and the Reckless”. The collective was able to bring Sims to Winnipeg for three weeks of intense creation. and after his departure they facilitated rehearsals with Johanna Riley to continue to work on the piece and prepare for performance. They also spent last January in creation for Zorya Arrow’s piece “Not Potatoes” , which premiered in March alongside “Judy and the Reckless” at the Rachel Browne Theatre in Winnipeg .
The collective is currently in the process of planning their 2015/2016 season and are very excited to work with Winnipeg based choreographer Ming Hon on a new project she will be premiering in the winter of 2016.”
