Portland’s Northwest Dance Project, one of the most widely praised contemporary dance companies on the American West Coast, has been called by the American press “one of the hottest dance troupes in the country” and they perform at ArtSpring on Monday, March 10.

The company was started and continues to be directed by Sarah Slipper. She was born and raised in Vancouver and received her dance training at Britain’s Royal Ballet School and at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. She made her professional debut with the Royal Winnipeg in 1980 and went on to dance principal roles in many classical and contemporary ballets.

After leaving the stage as a dancer, she studied theatre in Winnipeg and at Oxford and became first an independent choreographer, mainly in the US, and then founding Artistic Director of Northwest Dance Project. In the last two decades she has created over 40 works which have been performed across the world from the Bolshoi to the Washington Ballet, Alberta Ballet, Ballet Jorgen, and many other major companies.

Next Monday, ArtSpring welcomes Northwest Dance Project as its first ever international dance presentation.

“We’ve certainly come a long way,” says ArtSpring Artistic Director George Sipos, “since our first tentative experiments with presenting contemporary dance in 2007. We have built a strong audience which appreciates this interesting and innovative art form. Our first ever presentation of an important dance company from outside Canada is another milestone in our development as a major arts centre.”

The evening will include choreography by Sarah Slipper, by Vancouver’s Wen Wei Wang, and by several other European and American dance artists. ArtSpring is particularly pleased that new work by Wen Wei is included in the programme as he has become a favourite with Salt Spring audiences over the last several years with his full-length works ‘Unbound’ and ‘Cock Pit’.

Tickets for the 7:30 performance on March 10 are available from the ArtSpring Ticket Centre 537-2102 or online. Tickets cost $23 for adults or $5 for all youth. Gary Oaks Vineyards starts the evening off with a pre-concert wine tasting from 6:30.