Natasja Macdonald

Natasja Macdonald (she/her) is a versatile dancer, emerging choreographer, and multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto, Canada. She has a strong foundation of professional dance training in styles including contemporary, ballet, street styles/hip-hop, (Cuban) modern, vernacular jazz, West African, pointe, and musical theatre. In the last couple of years, Natasja has worked with choreographers Guillaume Côté, Roberto Campanella, Robert Glumbek, Alysa Pires, and Hanna Kiel in their new live performance works.

Natasja graduated with Honours from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson) with a BFA in Performance Dance. At TMU, she studied under the direction of Tanya Evidente, Louis Laberge-Côté, and Vicki St. Denys, and learned from Arsenio Andrade, Joanne Baker, Robert Glumbek, Kate Hilliard, Rosemary James, Allen Kaeja, Bonnie Kim, Ryan Lee, Miha Matevzic, Lua Shayenne, Anisa Tejpar and Raoul Wilke. She has practiced acting with Marianne McIsaac (TMU), Steven McCarthy and Joanne Boreham (Armstrong Acting Studios), as well as vocal training with Paul Moody (TMU) and private vocal lessons at Capstone Music. Natasja is a two-time scholarship winner and the 2023 Apprentice contract recipient of the ProArteDanza contemporary-ballet Summer Intensive Program. Her street styles training developed immensely under the guidance of Leah Totten over five years spent with Boss Dance Company. Boss is now The MOVMNT Collective; where Natasja is currently partaking in a 6-month choreographic mentorship program.

Natasja’s on-camera experience includes dancing in Disney’s SPIN and Hallmark’s A Nutcracker Christmas. She has enjoyed working on concept films and dance media, including Escapists by Kaitlyn Seibold, J Lo Halftime (Dance Video), and music videos for Mini Pop Kids. As an emerging choreographer, Natasja was selected to showcase her work, honey, in Fall For Dance North’s Inflorescence, which took place at Toronto’s Union Station. Her latest work, the futurists, premiered at The Citadel in April, exploring contemporary fusion movement, art history, and existentialist themes.

Natasja enjoys art and illustration and spent her high school years completing a Specialist High Skills Major in Visual Art. While she loves her work as a performer, drawing and painting will always be an excellent source of inspiration to Natasja and an essential part of her creative practice. She also spent three summers working full-time at a sailing camp and gained lots of experience in leadership roles, on and off the water, in high-intensity environments. She hopes to take this leadership experience into future endeavours, including District 6 Movement Labs, a dance collective founded alongside Gisele Ardosa and Olivia Okonkwo. D6ML is a capsule for their collaborative choreographic and creative works that also strives to offer valuable and accessible services to emerging artists in the Toronto dance community.