ABOUT

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 of 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 the late 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 & Paul Lightfoot, Crystal Pite, William Forsythe, Hans van Manen, Mats Ek, Marco Goecke, Gabriela Carrizo, Franck Chartier, Johan Inger, Stijn Celis, Lukáš Timulak, Medhi Walerski and Alexander Ekman among many others. Roger has been to more than 40 countries around the world on tour and performed on several of the most prestigious international stages.

Roger restaged Sol León & Paul Lightfoot’s Sleight of Hand, Silent Screen, Schmetterling, Stop-Motion and Postscript in several renowned dance companies such as Zurich Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, Bayerisches Staatsballett, Nuremberg Staatsballett; Crystal Pite’s The Statement in Ballet British Columbia and The Royal Ballet; and León & Lightfoot, Marco Goecke and Crystal Pite’s Kunstkamer on The Australian Ballet.
He has also taught NDT repertoire at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and, since 2011, became regular faculty ata 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.

Roger is a guest faculty member at the Orsolina28 Summer Intensive since 2022; performed at the “Gala for Ukraine” in Copenhagen with renowned ballerina Olga Smirnova and; last but not least, guested as lead performer in Triptych: The missing door, The lost room and The hidden floor with the Belgian company Peeping Tom, reprising the role he originally created at NDT.

In 2023, Van der Poel assisted Sol León on her latest creation at Staatsballett Berlin, Stars Like Moths.

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 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.
He performed in two world premiere duets by Peter Chu, dancing with the choreographer himself. These two new works, Conscious Shift and take-off, premiered at 92ndt Street Y, NYC, and were later performed at The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Perry-Mansfield, Almaty Theater, Munttheater, Pfalzbau Ludwigshafen and Orsolina28’s Open Air Stage..

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, educator and stager.

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.