Side Steps

Newcomer

Ethan Colangelo

Snowboarding, says Canadian choreographer Ethan Colangelo, is a major inspiration. For its use of momentum and gravity, and also the risk-taking: “What’s interesting to me about physicality is being at the precipice, at the cusp of an idea, and being quite extreme in how much you push inside that.”

Colangelo did some “quite crazy” jumps and flips as a former competitive freestyle snowboarder, with sport and dance vying for first place in his early life. There was a bit of street dance, but mostly, from age 11, he threw himself into ballet and contemporary. “I’ve never been scared of trying,” he says, eager to make the best of every opportunity. At Juilliard, Colangelo became “obsessed” with choreographing for student workshops, and began sending his work to festivals and competitions. After graduating, he danced briefly with BODYTRAFFIC in Los Angeles, until COVID shutdowns. He kept busy choreographing on himself and friends.

These days, he still snowboards, flying west to the mountains of British Columbia every year from his home in Toronto. But dance is the clear winner in the 27-year-old’s life. Colangelo’s first professional commission, Stadium, came from Ballet BC in 2021; two years later, he was appointed Choreographic Associate at the National Ballet of Canada. His 2025 work for the elite National Ballet, Reverence, has a refreshingly down-to-earth aesthetic. Balletic finesse is never overplayed: Colangelo seems to know exactly when a foot should be pointed and when it should be relaxed, with exciting shifts in line, energy and rhythm happening in the blink of an eye.

Colangelo is already developing a European presence. His premiere for Nederlands Dans Theater 2’s The Edge of Things program tours the Netherlands from 25 September to 8. November.

Kaija Pepper

Background photo: Tene Ward, Noah Parets and Keaton Leier in Reverence by Ethan Colangelo; photo: Karolina Kuras, Courtesy of The National Ballet of Canada