Courtnae Bowman is founding Artistic Director of Cadence Ballet and it’s three companies, co-founder of The School of Cadence Ballet and International Ballet Judge for competitions across the globe. Bowman has been awarded “Outstanding Teacher” by Youth American Grand Prix and “Best Teacher” by the World Ballet Art Grand Prix Finals.

Courtnae Bowman began her teaching at the exceptionally young age of 13 after completion of the required Royal Academy of Dancing Examinations. She began coaching students shortly there after who immediately began to be accepted to international ballet schools across Canada. She pursued professional training at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, Ballet B.C and Ballet Jorgen/George Brown College-Dance Performance Studies, which she graduated from with honours and on the Deans List.  She has had the pleasure of working with choreographers and teachers such as Arnold Sphor-former artistic director of Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Crystal Pite-world renowned choreographer and founding artistic director of Kid Pivott, David Earle- founding artistic director Toronto Dance Theatre, Annette Av Paul-founding artistic director of Ballet B.C and Allen and Karen Kaeja- founding artistic directors of Kaeja d’Dance among others.  

In addition to attending three post secondary programs in classical ballet, contemporary ballet and modern dance, Bowman has attended numerous workshops and intensives to further educate herself in the art, namely Professional Development workshops at Canada’s National Ballet School, Pilates for Dance with Dianne Miller-who brought Pilates to Canada and the Bolshoi Ballet Academy Teacher’s Training Certification.

At the Bolshoi Ballet Academy Teacher’s Training Courtnae was honoured to be under the guidance of Vera Kulikova who has been teaching at the Moscow State Academy of Choreography (also known as Bolshoi Ballet Academy) since 1980 and who is currently head of the it’s Department of Classical Dance. Bowman has been certified to teach the Bolshoi’s Methods of Classical Dance which is based on the Vaganova Method. The Vaganova method is based in anatomy and co-ordination with a base of all movement originating at the Core. This method has produced great dancers such as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Natalia Makarova and Svetlana Zahkarova.

In her 20+ years of teaching experience previous to founding the school, Courtnae was the head of the head of the ballet program a numerous schools as well as on faculty for Canada’s National Ballet School. 

Courtnae’s students have been accepted, often on scholarship, to numerous international schools, which include as Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet Academy, Moscow, American Ballet Theatre, School of American Ballet, and Canada's National Ballet School.

Bowman’s students and have received top awards, scholarships and invitations to represent Canada at the finals at competitions across the globe such as the Youth American Grand Prix, American Dance Competition, WBAC Grand Prix, American Dance Awards, SCD International Ballet Competition, Dance Canada and the Canadian National Dance Championships.

Former students of Courtnae are currently found performing in various companies in New York City, Germany, Paris, Toronto, Montreal, Utah and Vancouver. Courtnae looks forward to further the development of dance artists who continually push the boundaries of what is possible.