Roger Van Der Poel
Roger Van Der Poel was born in Portimão, Portugal.
Portuguese/Dutch dancer, Roger received his dance training at the Dance School of the National Conservatory in Lisbon for two years. In 2003 he joined Ballet Gulbenkian where he performed works by Ohad Naharin, Marie Chouinard, Mauro Bigonzetti, Paulo Ribeiro and Juán Carlos Garcia.
In 2004 Roger was invited by Artistic Director Philippe Cohen to join Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève where he stayed for two seasons. In 2016 Roger joined Nederlands Dans Theater 2 (NDT 2) and started dancing for NDT 1 in August 2009. Since he joined the Dutch company in The Hague he performed works by many renowned choreographers, such as Jiří Kylián, Sol León and Paul Lightfoot, Crystal Pite, William Forsythe, Hans van Manen, Marco Goecke, Gabriela Carrizo, Franck Chartier, Johan Inger, Stijn Celis, Lukáš Timulak, and Alexander Ekman among many others.
Roger re-mounted Sol León & Paul Lightfoot’s Sleight of Hand on Ballet Zurich, Norwegian National Ballet and Paris Opera Ballet, Postcript on the dancers of Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet; Crystal Pite’s The Statement on Ballet British Columbia in Vancouver and; Kunstkamer on The Australian Ballet.
He has also taught NDT repertoire at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and, since 2011, he is a regular teacher for the NDT Summer Intensive and NDT Open Studio and has made guest appearances as a teacher in dance studios and dance schools in Europe, Asia, Central and North America.
After being part of its production team for four years, in 2013 Roger was the lead organizer of SWITCH (NDT dancers’ choreographic workshop).
Van Der Poel became a collaborating artist and President Board Member of the American project-based dance company chuthis. and, since 2014 has become guest faculty of their educational programs chuthis. Movement Intensive, chuthis. Moves, and chuthis. Perspectives. Occasionally, Roger also assists chuthis.’ Artistic Director and Choreographer Peter Chu.
Roger is the recipient of the ‘2007 Encouragement Award’ (by the Stichting Dansersfonds ’79) in Amsterdam, the award ‘Zwaan – Most Impressive Dance Performance 2008′ for his part in Hans van Manen’s Simple Things and was picked, by audience vote, as the favorite male dancer of the World Star Ballet Gala 2008 in Budapest.
In August 2020, Roger became a free-lance artist and educator.
Aside from his dancing and teaching careers, Roger has a passion for singing, acting, traveling, languages, food, musicals, cinema and spending time with friends and family.