David Earle - Choreographer/Teacher
David Earle has created a large repertoire of passionate dance works for which he has been awarded the Order of Canada. His Sacra Conversazione to Mozart's Requiem has taken his name to every continent.
Mr. Earle began dance training at the age of five. He acted for eleven years with the Toronto Children's Players, directed by Dorothy Goulding. His modern dance training began with Yone Kvietys in Toronto and he spent two years on scholarship at the Martha Graham School in New York. He danced in New York with the Jose Limon Dance Company and assisted Robert Cohan with the newly-formed London Contemporary Dance Theatre. Returning to Toronto in 1968, Mr. Earle co-founded Toronto Dance Theatre with Patricia Beatty and Peter Randazzo. He was appointed sole Artistic Director in 1987, taking the company to its first two triumphant seasons in New York and tours in Europe and Asia.
In his 35 years as a choreographer, Mr. Earle has created over 100 works including Sacra Conversazione, Baroque Suite, Atlantis, Boat River Moon, Dreamsend and Court of Miracles, a full evening work created in collaboration with James Kudelka, with whom Mr. Earle also choreographed Dido and Aeneas for the Stratford Music Festival and Scheherazade for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. Court of Miracles had 10 Christmas Seasons in Toronto, touring Canada and the USA. In 2003 DtDE remounted Court of Miracles in Guelph to celebrate the 20th anniversary of it's creation.
His independent choreographic works include; Orpheus and Eurydice - directed by Bill Glassco for the Guelph Spring Festival, Realm - commissioned by Erik Bruhn for the National Ballet of Canada, Cape Eternity for the opening of the Toronto International Festival and Sacra Conversazione and Cloud Garden for the Banff Festival of the Arts. For Ballet British Columbia he created Architecture for the Poor, and for the Polish Dance Theatre, Angels and Victories, for the World Music Days Festival in Warsaw and the 1992 Edinburgh Festival.
Mr. Earle originated the School of Toronto Dance Theatre's Professional Training Program in 1979, and has taught at the University of Quebec in Montreal, L'Ecole Superieure de Danse du Quebec, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, the Banff School of the Arts, New York University, U.Q.A.M. and Danse Partout in Quebec City, and for six years has given summer workshops in Victoria, British Columbia.
Mr. Earle's work was presented on film and television in Moze Mossanen's Dance for Modern Times and The Dancemakers. For Rhombus Media, he choreographed La Valse for a film on the life of Maurice Ravel, and Romeos and Juliets, which received the Press Award from France's Grand Prix International de Video-Danse de Sete and also a Gemini award.
In 1987, he received both the Clifford E. Lee Award from the Banff Festival of the Arts and the Dora Mavor Moore Award for best new choreography for Sunrise. In 1988, along with Toronto Dance Theatre co-founders Peter Randazzo and Patricia Beatty, he received the Toronto Arts Award for Performing Arts. In May 1994, Mr. Earle received the Jean A. Chalmers Award for Distinction in Choreography.
Mr. Earle left the Toronto Dance Theatre in December 1996 to pursue an independent career. He launched Dancetheatre David Earle to support continuing creation, for the preservation of his repertoire, and to serve as a forum for younger artists whose concern is the expression of humanity in dance.
Dancetheatre David Earle gave its first performance in 1997, with the Penderecki String Quartet at the Elora Music Festival. Since that time, DtDE has presented 30 new works, including commissions from the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Tactus, NUMUS (Kitchener-Waterloo), Waterloo Dance Frontier and the Guelph Chamber Choir. Since moving to Guelph in 2001, DtDE has performed in a variety of local venues including the River Run Centre, Guelph Youth Music Centre, St. Jacobs Schoolhouse Theatre, and the University of Waterloo Humanities Theatre, in addition to locations in Toronto, Victoria, Vancouver, and open performances at Temple Studios in Guelph.