Conservatory Choreographic Collective

The Conservatory Choreographic Collective offers dancers ages 13+ the opportunity to develop their skills as emergent dance artists and choreographers in a mentored workshop setting. This class is offered free of charge to any registered Conservatory student in good standing in Level IV classes and above, as an opportunity to foster and expand their technical skills and artistic voices without the burden of a financial barrier to training. Students in the Collective collaborate to create and perform original works for public performance, such as The Juvenis Festival, Culture Days, etc., and have the opportunity to work with professional dance mentors, including works from legendary contemporary dancer Peggy Baker's Choreographic Trust.

The Conservatory Choreographic Collective reflects our commitment to sponsoring the excellence, enrichment and engagement of our community's next generation of dance artists and creators; we are proud to be the first to offer this type of program in our region.

In 2019, the Conservatory Choreographic Collective was chosen by the Juvenis Youth Arts Festival to create and present Transmogrification, an original, multi-disciplinary hour-length work of dance, poetry, music, visual art and videography that they independently conceived, curated, directed and presented in a 5-performance run at the Box Theatre. Transmogrification told the transformative stories of its teenage cast over the course of a year. In creating the work, the Collective aimed to create an outlet for artists marginalized by youth, as they provided participants complete artistic control over how their stories were shared. The creation of Transmogrification involved the work over 60 Kingston youth dance, visual art, literary, musical and spoken word artists.

During the 2020-21 season the members of the Choreographic Collective actively demonstrated how the beauty of the arts lies in the strength of humanity to persist, adapt, bear witness and share even in the most challenging of times. In the midst of a pandemic and mandated quarantine, Collective dancers workshopped with one another and mentor Courteny Green to create, In This Shirt. This moving, inspirational piece evolved out of improvisation, and is a testament to collaboration, resiliency and the endurance of dance. Enjoy the Collective's performance of In this Shirt in the video below, as part of our filmed 2021 gala performance Ad Astra.

For our 2021-22 gala, In Harmony, the Choreographic Collective made a triumphant return to live performance with The Angel of Small Death, a vibrant and powerful work of strength, sass, verve and triumph seen in these photos.