Born in Portimão, Portugal, Roger Van der Poel received his dance training at the Dance School of the National Conservatory of Lisbon. A promising young dancer, he joined the Ballet Gulbenkian in 2003 under the direction of Paulo Ribeiro, before being invited to join the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève the following year by the late Artistic Director Philippe Cohen.
In 2006, Roger joined Nederlands Dans Theater 2 and, started dancing 3 years later for NDT 1, where he performed works by 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…
In the summer of 2020, the dancer decided to take his artistic independence back and set up on a freelance basis.
He performed at the “Gala for Ukraine” in Copenhagen in 2022 alongside the renowned ballerina, Olga Smirnova, and was guested on tour by the Belgian company Peeping Tom “Triptych” as lead performer reprising the role he originally created at NDT. Since 2023, he has become a collaborating artist of the American project-based dance company Chuthis, after being a guest faculty of their educational programs and assisting the company’s artistic director and choreographer, Peter Chu. He also performed in two world premiere duets by Peter Chu, “Conscious Shift” and “Take-off”, dancing with the choreographer himself.
Since 2013, Roger has been travelling the world to bring Sol León and Paul Lightfoot’s choreographies to the most prestigious dance houses. The same goes for Crystal Pite’s “Statement”.
Alongside his roles as dancer and stagger, Roger is passionate about teaching. He has taught the NDT repertoire at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and, since 2011, has been a regular faculty at the NDT Summer Intensive and NDT Open Studio. He has also made guest appearances as a teacher in dance studios and schools in Europe, Asia, Central and North America.
