Rising Star from Canada, Danielle Lee-Hogervorst, Taking on America
PR.com)-- A new star is born; Danielle Lee-Hogervorst, born and raised in Canada and from British Columbia has her sights on the biggest new show to come out of America. Danielle has been a world class dancer since she was a kid and also a singer and actress. She is now in intensive training to become the lead in the first ever musical to open in a stadium, Undead Valley.
Danielle has trained in the performing arts since she was five year old, including competitive dance, violin, musical theatre, and voice. Over her adolescent years, she won a multitude of awards, including Regional Outstanding Dancer 5x with New York City Dance Alliance and placing for high score in her age division for both musical theatre and dance in Canadian competitions. Danielle was invited to travel and perform in Zurich with Yarilo Music Festival and a few years later, performed for Nicole Beutler Collection at the top theatre in Amsterdam: International Theatre Amsterdam and Frascati. Danielle received prestigious dance and embodiment training from both Marymount Manhattan College in NYC, as well as Arts Umbrella Graduate Program, where she worked closely with top dance & theatre choreographers and visionaries like Crystal Pite, Ishan Rustem, Emily Molnar, Rafael Sady, and Aszure Barton. She attended Springboard danse, a prestigious and very selective summer program for professional dancers ready to get hired. She was invited and flown back to Montreal later the summer that she attended and made it to the final three of the Compaigne Marie Chouinard audition (3 were flown out for 2 spots). She also performed in RUBBERBANDance Group, a globally known company and training method based in Montreal with Vanessa Goodman, a rising Canadian choreographer. When the pandemic forced her to discontinue her dance endeavours for a while, she was guided to a powerful healing technology called Kundalini Yoga. She became a respected and sought after teacher both in person and virtually, with her students primarily in the performing arts world tuning in from around the globe (Germany, France, Portugal, NYC, Miami, LA, Vancouver, Montreal) to receive her teachings. She then went on to intensively and personally mentor clients who desired to elevate their relationship with themselves and create more impact in the world. These clients have gone on to make profound art after being in deep depression, have toured on cruise ships as a part of the dance and theatre crew, and performed with global pop stars like Yandel. Now, she is weaving her worlds of performing arts, healing, mentorship and mind-body-spirit work to really support performing artists with burning desires to create major ripples and impact through the world step into their confidence, voice, unique expression and power.
So how did she land this huge part in the United States?
She came to Orange County, California to learn from her ongoing friend who she met in college, Jordan Lang. She was curious how he directs, guides, prompts, mentors and teaches his students at Westside Dance Project. A major part of what Danielle envisions for the world is supporting budding artists moving from 'impeccably technical dancers' into 'impactful, deep artists.' Danielle Lee-Hogervorst has said, 'I desire to support incoming talent and help them prepare for being onstage with energetic cross-training (including belief-work, nervous system strengthening, smoothing out insecurities, visualizations, etc.) and in-studio prompts and direction to also help them touch their audiences in deeper and lasting ways.' The setup at Westside Dance Project, with Jordan Land as a sought-after dancer and director, as well as the extremely high caliber of training of the students, would give her an insight and understanding of what these 'young talents' need in order to make this leap into more conscious artistry, and how she could support others like them in the future. It was meant to be a few week trip, but then she met Justin Nicola at one of her landlords' sound healing sessions. Justin Nicola is the writer and creator of the new musical Undead Valley, the musical that will soon have the largest sitting orchestra ever assembled. Justin Nicola had auditioned nearly 5,000 girls for the leading role and could not find the girl born to play the part. Danielle's landlord, Steve Velez, who also happens to be one of the music contractors and the cellist for Undead Valley told told Justin she was a violinist, and from there Justin and Danielle hit it off and started a conversation about Danielle's history as a dancer, singer, performing artist and her deep spiritual journey. Nicola was super impressed with her metaphysical path as he claimed Undead Valley was the musical of the Age of Aquarius. Danielle and Justin spoke the same language, bringing art to the world, not for just entertainment but for healing and creating a better planet for the future. That was the beginning, but after Nicola saw her sing and dance, as Nicola says, 'The search was finally over.' Justin immediately started training her to audition for the lead role in his musical, and the training has led to working with one of the top vocal coaches in the country Ric Poulin. Danielle is visiting Boston for the first time on February 28 to work intensively with Poulin for four to six hours per day in preparation for singing on the Undead Valley cast album, slated for an Apple Music release on June 1, which also happens to be by coincidence, Danielle's birthday.
Danielle will be playing the lead role in Undead Valley, Sgt. Alicia Winters. Undead Valley is a love story between a soldier and an infected military nurse during the zombie apocalypse. The epic show has spared no expense making a cast album more expensive than any cast recording in history for a musical, already over two million dollars. For the record Nicola hired the best musician in the world or one of top two or three on every instrument and features huge stars such as 2025 Grammy nominee Aaron Lazar and lead singer of the famous 90s rock band Mike & the Mechanics, Tim Howar. Norm Lewis, famous for the 25th Anniversary of Les Miserables as Inspector Javert, is also singing on the Undead Valley record. Nicola has players from John Williams' Boston Pops, the Canadian Brass and more of the best orchestras in the world. Nicola says he is beyond excited to have discovered the 'greatest talent' he has ever witnessed be a part of his show. According to Justin, now that he's found her, the show can begin.
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