DREDA BLOW is a dance-theatre artist, choreographer, and arts educator from Toronto, Canada. She trained at Canada’s National Ballet School and the Royal Conservatory in Den Haag, Netherlands before starting her professional dancing career with Het Nationale Ballett in Amsterdam. Dreda found her ‘home’ at Northern Ballet in Leeds, UK where she danced from 2007-2018. Her leading roles, to name a few, include Daisy in The Great Gatsby, Cathy in Wuthering Heights, Mina in Dracula, Beatrice in Ondine, Ophelia in Hamlet (all choreographed by David Nixon), as well as Jane in Cathy Marston’s Jane Eyre, Julia in Jonathan Watkins’ 1984, and Juliette in Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Romeo and Juliette.
Since returning to Canada, Dreda has continued to create and perform pieces of original dance/theatre, in collaboration with actors, puppeteers and musicians. She founded Showmakers, a theatre school which has grown to accommodate over 160 students. In 2019, Dreda joined Kenneth Tindall as choreographic assistant for his creation of Polarity at Cape Town City Ballet.
Dreda was ‘Bellino’ in Kenneth Tindall’s creation cast for Casanova in 2017. This was certainly a career highlight for her, and she is delighted to have the opportunity to share this wonderful show with the dancers in Riga.