Known for wearing multiple hats, ALVIN COLLANTES has been active member of the Toronto Dance Community for over six years as a performer, educator, photographer, choreographer and event producer. 

His fascination with dance started by stumbling upon a recreational ballet class during his undergraduate career at Western University. While obtaining his BA in Finance & Administration, he simultaneously attended The School of Toronto Dance Theatre's Professional Training Program under the artistic direction of Patricia Fraser. In this time, he has worked with Darryl Tracy, Julia Sasso and Sharon Moore. In part of his training, his journey achieving Top 40 of CTV's "So You Think You Can Dance Canada" on Season 3 & 4 provided opportunities to work with Toronto choreographers including Hayley Paone, Scott Fordham, Colleen Snell, Jasmyn Fyffe to name a few. In 2016, His improvisation video "My Love for Techno" was recently featured in Sia's media page to promote her newest single "Move Your Body."

Alvin has been a collaborator for a few Toronto dance companies including Frog In Hand, Hit & Run Productions, TOES for dance. As a solo artist, he has been a guest performer for International Dance Day, Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, Toronto's Original Choreographer's Ball and Scotiabank's Nuit Blanche Festival.

In 2013, Alvin founded "Short Dances", a monthly presentation of solo works geared towards local emerging and professional artists in Toronto. He has also hosted his own workshops and events such as The Workshop Room, "Dance Discussion"with Maddy Wright and "Night Swim" with Mary-Dora Bloch Hansen. He also hosts a series of classes bringing Gaga/People & Gaga/Dancers to the Toronto audience. 

As a photographer, he has been fortunate to have photographed over 150 dancers, choreographers and companies in Toronto and all over the world to develop promotional materials. The highlights of his career include photographing Batsheva Dance Company and The Youth Ensemble (TLV), Maslool Professional Dance Training (TLV), Hasadna Dance Workshop (TLV), Sidra Bell Dance New York (NY), Bridge To Artists (TO), Transcendance Project (TO), and Toes for Dance (TO). His recent work "Evelyn Hart Photo Essay" was featured in The Dance Current's October 2016 issue. 

Alvin has been a guest teacher in the past five years teaching contemporary dance and improvisation to thousands of students in over 50+ dance studios across Canada. He currently works with youth dancers setting solo choreographic works using improvisation to further cultivate their contemporary dance vocabulary. Alvin is a recipient of Ontario Arts Council's Skills & Careers Development Grant for Artists of Colour and Canada Council for the Arts Travel Grant to support his studies in Gaga: Ohad Naharin's Movement Language in Tel Aviv, Israel.