The National Ballet of Canada is a Canadian ballet company that was founded in 1951 in Toronto, Ontario, with Celia Franca, the first artistic director. A company of 70 dancers with its own orchestra, the National Ballet has been led since 2022 by artistic director Hope Muir. Renowned for its diverse repertoire, the company performs traditional full-length classics, embraces contemporary work and encourages the creation of new ballets, as well as the development of Canadian dancers and choreographers.
John Cyril Cranko was a South African ballet dancer and choreographer with the Royal Ballet and the Stuttgart Ballet.
Vladimir Malakhov is a Ukrainian ballet dancer who was the artistic director of the Staatsballett Berlin from its founding in 2004 until 2014. He is a former principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre and Vienna State Opera Ballet.
Stuttgart Ballet is a leading German ballet company. Dating back to 1609, then the court ballet of the dukes of Württemberg, the modern company was founded by John Cranko and is known for full-length narrative ballets. The company received the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance in 1981.
Diana Viktorovna Vishneva is a Russian ballet dancer who performs as a principal dancer with the Mariinsky Ballet.
Greta Hodgkinson O.Ont is an American-Canadian ballet dancer. She was a Principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada until she stepped down in 2020. She continues to perform freelance and is Artist-in-Residence of the National Ballet.
Zachary Catazaro is an American ballet dancer and former principal dancer of the New York City Ballet and Bayerisches Staatsballett.
Maria Eichwald is a Kazakhstani ballet dancer who has settled in Germany.
Kang Sue-jin is a South Korean ballerina. She is a principal dancer at Stuttgart Ballet.
Mathieu Ganio is a French danseur étoile of the Paris Opera Ballet.
Svetlana Aleksandrovna Lunkina is a Russian-Canadian ballerina who is a principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada.
Richard Cragun was an American ballet dancer, teacher and ballet director who performed with the Stuttgart Ballet in Germany from 1965 to 1996.
Marcia Haydée Salaverry Pereira da Silva is a Brazilian ballet dancer, choreographer and ballet director. She was prima ballerina of the Stuttgart Ballet under John Cranko and succeeded him as the company's director, serving from 1976 to 1995. She has been director of the Santiago Ballet since 1992.
Vladislav Lantratov is a Russian principal dancer in the Bolshoi Ballet.
Egon Madsen is a Danish ballet dancer, teacher, ballet master and company director. In 1961, he joined the Stuttgart Ballet, where John Cranko had become the director. Madsen was hired as a soloist but was soon promoted to principal dancer, and created numerous roles for Cranko. He retired from Stuttgart in 1981.
Onegin is a ballet created by John Cranko for the Stuttgart Ballet, premiered on 13 April 1965 at Staatstheater Stuttgart. The ballet was based on Alexander Pushkin's 1825-1832 novel Eugene Onegin, to music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and arrangements by Kurt-Heinz Stolze. The ballet had since been in the repertoires of The Australian Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, American Ballet Theatre and The Royal Ballet.
Friedemann Vogel is a German ballet dancer who performs with the Stuttgart Ballet as a Principal dancer and as a frequent guest artist at major ballet companies around the world including La Scala Theatre Ballet in Milan and the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow. He has been awarded several prestigious dance prizes including the Prix de Lausanne (1997), Prix de Luxembourg (1997), Eurocity Competition in Italy, USA International Ballet Competition (1998) and Erik Bruhn Prize (2002). In September 2015, he was awarded the national title Kammertänzer - the highest honor in Germany that can be bestowed on a dancer. In the following year, 2016, he was awarded the "Prix Maya" for "Outstanding Dancer" alongside Aurélie Dupont and Diana Vishneva. In 2019, he was elected "Dancer of the Year" by the prestigious trade journal TANZ, making him the only male dancer worldwide ever to receive this distinction more than once. In 2020, he is honoured with the "Outstanding Performer" Award by the prestigious German Dance Prize for his longstanding and illustrious international career, and as a unique dance interpreter, with his combination of intense emotional portrayals and excellent technique. In 2021, he was selected to give the official International Dance Day message by the International Theatre Institute - the world's largest performing arts organisation, under the patronage of UNESCO. In 2022, Friedemann was appointed jury member of the prestigious Prix de Lausanne, 25 years after he was a prize winner himself.
Alicia Amatriain is a Spanish ballet dancer. She was a principal dancer at the Stuttgart Ballet.
Horst Koegler was a German dance critic, journalist and writer. He was the editor and author of books on the ballet scene in Germany, as well as the author of essays in journals and introductions to illustrated books. As a reviewer of German and English-language books, he formed a bridge between American and German dance research.
Hugo Marchand is a French ballet dancer. He joined the Paris Opera Ballet in 2011 and was named étoile in 2017, at age 23.
