News
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Company Profile
COLLABORATORS
OTHER
Malgorzata Nowacka
Award winning choreographer and dancer Malgorzata Nowacka is a professional dancer, educator and the founding Artistic Director of The Chimera Project and the "bad girl" (The Globe and Mail) of contemporary dance.
Uncompromising and unconventional, she is one of Canada's most exciting and original choreographers. Nowacka founded The Chimera Project in 1999 and the company burst onto the dance scene with hyper-physical creations. Searching for a kinetic language that conveys emotional intensity, Nowacka's movement creations are rooted in explorations of movement that draw on techniques of ballet, urban dance, contact improvisation and martial arts but most of all on exploration and improvisation.
In 2009 Mrs. Nowacka has been featured as one of 6 top Canadian contemporary choreographers in FASHION magazine. She has created over 15 critically acclaimed works, and her choreography has been acclaimed as one of Top 10 performances of the year in The Globe and Mail (2001, 2003, 2006, 2008), in NOW magazine (2006), Toronto Star (2008), and best of International Dance Festival (Toronto, 2005).
Mrs. Nowacka is the recipient of the Paula Citron fFIDA award, the Toronto Emerging Artist Award, the Most Fearless Change of Direction Award in the Globe and Mail 2008, and Chalmers Award from the Ontario Arts Council. Her work has been described as "most exciting" and "most original in Canada" (The Globe and Mail). Her work has been performed in some of Canada's most prestigeous contexts, including the Canada Dance Festival (Ottawa), DanceWorks Mainstage series (Toronto), Dance Victoria (Victoria), and Dancing on the Edge (Vancouver). Under her artistic direction, The Chimera Project continues to flourish as a major force on the Canadian dance scene. In 2009 Nowacka has created ICARUS for Ballet Jörgen Canada.
Born into a family of artists in Warsaw, Poland, Nowacka became Canadian at a young age. She studied visual arts with her parents, and is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design (Toronto), which informs the strong visual, almost cinematic, aspect of her creations. Her dance training includes The School of Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre (New York, NY) The School of Dance directed by Bengt Jörgen (Toronto), and with Elizabeth Langley (Montreal). As a dancer, Nowacka has been a featured dancer with The Chimera Project for the past 10 years and has also performed with many independent choreographers and companies including Motus O Dance Theatre, Kathleen Rea and Rebecca Todd.
Nowacka's work has been featured on film on in two Bravo!FACT films: I can almost directed by Gregory Nixon and You're It directed by James Cooper, both screened at festivals worldwide. Nowacka is a featured choreographer in Philip Szporer and Marlene Millar's Moments in Motion, a documentary highlighting the most promising dance artists in Canada.
As an artist in touch with the "disaffected youth zeitgeist" (The Globe and Mail) she is a sought-after educator who has taught and choreographed in high schools and universities including Ohio University, Ryerson University, McMaster University, and Earl Haig.
Other projects have included choreography for W.T.F commercial, The Northbound Leather Fashion Show, and creations for non-dancers that fuse contemporary dance with Hip-Hop.
