Tita Evidente has been playing for dancers for more than 30 years, since arriving in Canada from her native Philippines. She first started as an accompanist at Pavlychenko Studios and York University, the National Ballet of Canada with Eric Bruhn as new artistic director, and The Toronto Dance Theatre with founding directors Patricia Beatty, David Earle, and Peter Randazzo. She has spent 27 years at the celebrated Banff Festival of the Arts in the Canadian Rockies in their Summer Dance program, and is playfully called, in Banff parlance, a ‘lifer’.
Evidente has played and taught music to dancers for major festivals and companies around the world, including the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Internationale Tanzwochen Wien (Vienna), The Royal Danish Ballet, and Skolen for Modern Dans (Denmark), among others. She has worked with numerous choreographers and teachers including Laura Alonso, Loipa Araujo, and Lazaro Carreno in Cuba, Sorella Englund in Denmark, Jean-Yves Ginoux in Paris, Susanne Linke in Germany, and Violette Verdy in New York. As well as The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, Evidente also plays for the Toronto District School Board Performing Arts High Schools, Canada’s National Ballet School, and the National Ballet of Canada.
Evidente was invited last April by Madame Ramona de Saa, Director of the Escuela de Ballet Nacional de Cuba, to play in Havana for “Encuentro”, a festival of dancers from all over the world, learning the Cuban methodology. She is scheduled to teach dance pianists in Cuba next year in a course called Dance Accompaniment through Improvisation. She has participated in the Luminato Festivals playing for the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Nederlands Dans Theater. She has also composed music for film and choreography. She will continue to work with dancers; she thinks she has the best job in the world.