Toronto-based dance artist MICHAEL TRENT was appointed Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer of Dancemakers and the Centre for Creation in August 2006. Trent has garnered national recognition as a choreographer, dancer and teacher in a career spanning over twenty years. He is the co-recipient of the 2004 K.M. Hunter Award in dance, presented to Ontario-based artists who are making an impact in their field. Trent was nominated for a 2006 Dora Award for best performance in Louise Bédard’s Ce qu’il en reste.

ARTISTIC DIRECTORSHIP
In 2000, Trent founded the empty collective, a crucible for the creation and presentation of collaborative projects that involve two or more media. The collective’s 2001 inaugural project, The Memory Show, brought together works by Trent, Sarah Chase and Laurence Lemieux. It subsequently toured to the National Arts Centre (Ottawa) and Dancing on the Edge Festival (Vancouver) with a repeat Toronto performance at Spring Rites. The collective’s second project, invisible borders, premiered at the Harbourfront Centre Theatre, Toronto, in November 2004 with work by Trent and guest artists Louise Bédard and Doug Varone. invisible borders was co-presented by DanceWorks and co-produced by the Dancemakers Centre for Creation in association with Le Groupe Dance Lab.

CHOREOGRAPHY        “Trent’s movement is bold and strong” ~The Globe and Mail
Outside the collective, Trent has created over 30 works. His choreographic explorations began with a commission from the Judith Marcuse Dance Company in 1988. His repertoire ranges from solos to large group works and has been created in a wide range of contexts: companies and independent artists, senior dance students from most of Canada’s professional training institutions and one for a group of hearing impaired youth on behalf of the National Ballet of Canada’s Dance in the Schools project. His solo Acts of Light  received the Paula Citron Award for best new work at fFIDA 1997. For the 2004-2005 season, he was the Artist-in-residence at Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre. On three occasions, Trent’s work has been supported and guided through the brilliant eye of monitor Peter Boneham, Artistic Director of Ottawa’s Le Groupe Dance Lab. In September 2006, he premiered a new full-length work, Mappa Mundi, on emerging Halifax dance company Mocean. Trent's repertoire for Dancemakers to date includes  remounts of Random Access (2001) and Acts of Light ( 1997), and  new works Dark, Quiet & Cool (2006) and Constructing Doubt ( 2007). New York choreographer Doug Varone's  The Thing of the World ( 2004), originally created for Varone and Trent, was added to the season's program.

PERFORMANCE        “A dancer of mercurial like speed and elegance” ~The New York Times
A highly sought-after performer in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, Trent has worked with some of Canada’s most respected creators, including Louise Bédard, Sarah Chase, Sylvain Émard, Christopher House, Sasha Ivanochko, Laurence Lemieux, Jean- Pierre Perreault, Dominique Porte and Julia Sasso. He was a member of The Toronto Dance Theatre from 1990 to 1998, the Judith Marcuse Dance Company from 1987 to 1990 and ConfiDanse from 1985 to 1987.

TEACHING
Trent has been a senior faculty member at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre for over ten years. Highly respected for his dynamic and challenging classes, he has been a guest teacher for, among others, the Rotterdamse Dansacademie, la Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault, the National Ballet School, Le Regroupement Québécois de la danse, Circuit-est, Le Groupe Dance Lab, Simon Fraser University, Arts Umbrella, Main Dance and the Teachers’ Collective in both Toronto and Vancouver.

REHEARSAL DIRECTING AND MONITORING
Committed to engaging in dialogue with other creators, Trent had acted as rehearsal director for Peter Chin, Risa Steinberg and Coleman/Lemieux. On behalf of Toronto’s Series 8:08, he has monitored Toronto emerging choreographers Val Calam and Tanya Crowder. For the School of Toronto Dance Theatre, he acted as outside eye for Alison Peacock’s 2004 Canada Dance Festival Commission.

COMMUNITY WORK
From  2001 to 2006, Trent was a National Representative for the Dancer Transition Resource Centre, working within the dance community across Canada on issues related to transition. For the past five years, he has been an instrumental player in the envisioning and delivery of On the Move, a career conference for emerging dance artists. He was a chair, co-chair and producer of Dancers for Life for five years, a much-heralded dance event that raised funds for the AIDS Committee of Toronto. Trent has contributed to the milieu on numerous occasions as consultant and juror for the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council and the Governor General’s and K.M. Hunter Awards.

AWARDS
2006       Nomination, Dora Award for Best Performance in Louise Bédard’s Ce qu’il en reste
2004       K.M. Hunter Artists Award in Dance (co-recipient with Kate Alton)
1997       Paula Citron fFIDA Award for Best New Choreography: Acts of Light