Caroline Richardson was born in Colorado, U.S.A. and trained at The School of American Ballet Juilliard, American Ballet Theater II and The National Ballet School. She is a former First Soloist with The National Ballet of Canada and danced with the company for 10 years from 1985 to 1995 beginning her professional career at 17.

With The National Ballet, she performed an extensive contemporary and classical repertoire internationally and worked with many of the world’s leading choreographers: Glen Tetley, William Forsythe, James Kudelka, John Neumeier, John Alleyne, Christopher House, David Parsons and Robert Desrosiers.

Coaches and teachers include: Eric Bruin, Magdalena Popa, Sergiu Stefanski, Joysanne Sidemus, Reid Anderson, Joanne Nisbet, Roslyn Anderson and Natalia Makarova among others. Aside Caroline also performed as a guest artist at the Hamburg Ballet 20th Anniversary Gala under John Neumeier and assisted William Forsythe in the setting of the second detail on Frankfurt Ballet.

As an independent dance artist, Caroline has collaborated and performed in many projects creating an impressive body of work. She has danced in: Dancing on the Edge Festival in Vancouver, Toronto’s Dancer’s for Life Benefit~National Commission and the Fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists. Caroline has also performed numerous pieces in the annual Well World Dance Benefit in Toronto including the solo InsideSand by Peter Chin, Owen Montegue’s Arenal and Salmo Del Viento, Michael Ondaantje’s The Nine Sentiments~choreographed by Roberto Campanella and Robert Glumbek as well as her first solo work Inda~Horse’s Never Lie with Karen Kain as mentor. She has worked in studio with Peggy Baker learning selected repertoire, participated in The National Ballet’s Choreographic Labs with dance artist Bill James and studied flamenco for 3 years with beloved teachers Susana and Antonio Robledo featured in the Oscar winning short film Flamenco At 5:15.

In her early film work, she began with director Jurgen Lutz’s A Moving Picture choreographed by Ann Ditchburn featuring Leonard Cohen and Elimination Dance with Michael Ondaatje and director Bruce MacDonald. Music videos include work with Jane Sibery, Blue Rodeo, Sarah McLachlan and Moby.

Short films have been made of her work in Arenal and Salmo Del Viento both directed by Rob Gray~this gave her “Honorary Mention” for her performance in Arenal by the jury of the Moving Pictures Festival of Dance on Film and Video in Toronto. Other films include: Bone~shot in Tunisia with director Gregory Nixon and Michael Ondaantje’s The Nine Sentiments ~part of a CBC film, Shadow Pleasures directed by Veronica Tennant. Her film Horses Never Lie won her an American Choreography Award for Outstanding Achievement in Short Film and was honored by juries from the Moving Pictures of Dance on Film and Video Festival Toronto, the Dance on Camera Festival at Lincoln Center New York and the Dance Camera West Film Festival at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Caroline also contributed to the film’s musical score on solo acoustic guitar alongside Greg Keelor of Blue Rodeo, cellist Anne Bourne of Loreena Mckennitt/Jane Sibery and composer Tom Third. Additional film screenings include: World Wide Short Film Festival Toronto, Ultima Oslo Norway, New Jersey State Film Festival at Cape May, Screendance Festival Pennsylvania, High Performance Rodeo Festival Calgary, Victoria International Film Festival, TTV Festival Bologna Italy, Napolidanza-II Choreographo Festival Italy, Festival Internacional de Video-danza de Buenos Aires Argentina, Edinburgh Film Festival and multiple screenings of Horses Never Lie ran at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver with containeR. She also danced in the film Sacred Earth/Living Temples which premiered at the Patagonia Wild and Scenic Film Festival and aired on PBS National U.S.A.

Since 2015, Caroline has participated in many study intensives on Archetypal and Cross Cultural Psychology with emphasis on modalities of Creativity with Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés: Certified Jungian Psychoanalyst/Doctorate, Ethno-clinical Psychology and Author and is now certified in Level 1 and 2 of Applied Polyvagal in Yoga Therapeutics with Dr. Arielle Schwatz and Dr. Stephen Porges.

In Colorado, she has worked extensively~teaching and choreographing for the Palm Arts Dance Program in Telluride and Weehawken Creative Arts in Ridgway.

Caroline continues to work independently in film and is currently studying with poet David Whyte~deepening her creative exploration into the alchemy of visual art with dance, film, music, writing and photography. She is a guest artist with schools and companies throughout the United States, Canada and Europe and mentors students privately~offering creative dance workshop exploration and original work.