New Director – and Rebranding – for Préville’s Youth Dance Company
The Compagnie de danse contemporain du Québec (CDCQ), previously known as The Préville Youth Dance Company, welcomes former premiere dancer from Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and Master Teacher, Jeremy Raia, as its interim Artistic Director!
Jeremy brings not only an intimate understanding of production and performance, from his 20+ years as a professional dancer of classical and contemporary repertoire, but also his experience as a choreographer, coach and rehearsal director to the benefit of Préville’s nascent dance company.
Jeremy is no stranger to direction! From 2018 until 2020, Jeremy was the Ballet Master at Ballet Jazz Montreal and served as Interim Artistic Director for the 2020/21 season, successfully and creatively steering the company dancers through a tricky pandemic period.
Currently, Jeremy is on faculty at École Supérieure de Ballet du Québec, Les Studios Grands Ballets and Danse à la Carte and is Co-Director of Propulsion, Co-Founder/Director of Festival Charlevoix. Adding to this list, Jeremy now also teaches the CDCQ company ballet class on Monday nights!
On becoming the interim Artistic Director, Jeremy says,
I’m honored to join the CDCQ family and I can’t wait to witness what the dancers have been creating with choreographer Jera Wolfe. I want to discover who they are, push them technically, coach and develop them artistically. I hope the dancers are ready to work hard and discover what they have to offer themselves and others!
RÊVERIE – CDCQ World Premiere Performance, May 4th, 2024
Jeremy will be guiding the CDCQ through its first world premiere performance on May 4th, 2024, when the company will present RÊVERIE, a full-length work created for them by the sought-after Canadian choreographer and dancer, Jera Wolfe.
Jera has been working with the company since May 2023, visiting every few months for several intense days of creation and rehearsal between his other professional engagements. In January, the CDCQ held auditions and hired two local professional dancers to join the project, Leah Tremblay and Émile Vasconcelos-Taillefer!
RÊVERIE is a warm, Spring-like meditation on friendship, growth and promise. It highlights the dedicated work of young, aspiring dancers and unites them with their colleagues in the professional realm.
The premiere performance of RÊVERIE will be presented at Théâtre de la Providence, in Longueuil on May 4th at 7pm.
Tickets can be already be purchased here:
https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/ae6e3c68-39c6-4dcf-9f4f-489d21fd8710
New Website for the Youth Company
As part of the rebranding of the Préville Youth Dance company to the Compagnie de danse contemporain du Québec, a new dedicated website has been created: https://compagniedansequebec.org/
This new site offers information about upcoming performances and events, as well as background about the company, its philosophy and its unique approach to developing young dancers.
To learn more about the RÊVERIE project, or what it means to be a CDCQ dancer, be sure to visit the CDCQ site.
