Reid Anderson (dancer)

Last updated

Reid Bryce Anderson (born 1 April 1949) is a Canadian ballet dancer, ballet director and artistic director. He danced with the Stuttgart Ballet before returning as artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada in 1987. He returned to the Stuttgart Ballet as artistic director in 1996 and stepped down in 2018. [1]

Contents

Biography

Early life and training

Reid Anderson was born at New Westminster, British Columbia on 1 April 1949. [2] He received his dance training at Dolores Kirkwood Academy and transferred to the Banff Centre. [2] He then went to London in 1967 to study at the Royal Ballet School. [3]

Dance career

Anderson began his dance career at the Royal Opera Ballet but was unhappy as a performer. In 1969, Anderson joined the Stuttgart Ballet as they were preparing for a two-week performance schedule in New York. His first piece with the company was Onegin . [3] Shortly afterwards he became a principal dancer and was their ballet master from 1982 to 1986. [2]

Return to Canada

In 1987, Anderson became co-artistic director of Ballet British Columbia, and later became the sole director. He was known for introducing a contemporary image to the company and increasing its reputation across Canada. [2]

Anderson staged a remount of Onegin with the National Ballet of Canada. [4] He became the director, and eventually artistic director, of the National Ballet of Canada in 1989. Anderson sustained the company during a tough economic recession [5] by choreographing traditional ballet pieces and bringing Canadian and international choreographers to create new contemporary pieces. He occasionally danced in various character roles during these productions. [2]

In 1994, he proposed that the board of directors promote Chan-hon Goh as the company's first Chinese Canadian principal dancer. [4] He left the National Ballet of Canada in 1995, citing continued funding cuts from the government. [5] [3] Anderson had trained Eric Gauthier, who joined him as a member of his ensemble when he became Director of the Stuttgart Ballet. [6]

Return to Stuttgart

Anderson returned to Stuttgart Ballet in 1996 as artistic director. He organised the company's tour to New York in 1998. [2] After 22 Years, Reid Anderson Stepped Down from Stuttgart Ballet in 2018.

Awards

In 1995, the Stuttgart Ballet awarded Anderson the John Cranko Award. [7] He won the 2006 Deutscher Tanzpreis (German Dance Prize) in recognition of his work to improve dance in Germany, and in 2009 won the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg. [2]

Related Research Articles

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Winnipeg Ballet</span> Canadian ballet company

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is Canada's oldest ballet company and the longest continuously operating ballet company in North America.

Brian Ronald Macdonald was a Canadian dancer, choreographer and director of opera, theatre and musical theatre.

Glen Tetley was an American ballet and modern dancer as well as a choreographer who mixed ballet and modern dance to create a new way of looking at dance, and is best known for his piece Pierrot Lunaire.

Chan Hon Goh, C.M, is a Chinese ballerina based in Canada. Goh was most notably a principal dancer with The National Ballet of Canada before going on to become a published author, director, teacher, executive producer, and entrepreneur.

Louis Robitaille, is a Canadian ballet dancer and artistic director. He was discovered at a high school dance performance and received a scholarship to train at Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal. He danced with Anik Bissonnette in Eddy Toussaint's dance company, where they garnered acclaim. He also danced with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens as a principal dancer.

Goh Choo San was a Singaporean ballet dancer and choreographer whose decade-long association with The Washington Ballet brought that company international acclaim.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stuttgart Ballet</span> German ballet company

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.

Mauro Bigonzetti is an Italian ballet dancer and choreographer. He trained at the ballet school of Teatro dell'Opera di Roma and entered their company in 1979.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English National Ballet School</span> Independent further education school in London, England

English National Ballet School is a specialist classical ballet school based in London in the United Kingdom. The School was founded in 1988 by Peter Schaufuss as the official school of English National Ballet. The School's current artistic director is Viviana Durante.

The Singapore Ballet is Singapore's national dance company, founded in 1988 by Anthony Then and Goh Soo Khim. The Artistic Director of the company is Janek Schergen.

The Toronto Dance Theatre is a Canadian modern dance company based in Toronto, Ontario. Described by The Canadian Encyclopedia as "one of the foremost modern-dance companies in Canada", the company tours nationally and internationally and regularly performs at the Harbourfront Centre and Winchester Street Theatre in Toronto. The company currently consists of nine dancers and two dance interns in addition to other artistic staff. The ensemble has been led by Artistic Director Christopher House since 1994.

Goh Ballet Academy is a school of classical ballet in Vancouver, British Columbia, founded in 1978 by Chan-hon Goh and Lin Yee Goh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Egon Madsen</span> Danish ballet dancer, teacher, ballet master and company director

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.

<i>Onegin</i> (Cranko)

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.

David Earle is a Canadian choreographer, dancer and artistic director. In 1968 Earle was co-founder and co-artistic director of Toronto Dance Theatre alongside Patricia Beatty and Peter Randazzo, where Earle choreographed new modern dance pieces. In 1996 Earle started his own company called Dancetheatre David Earle where he continues to choreograph new works, to teach, and to create with the next generation of modern dancers. David Earle has received many accolades; a member of the Order of Canada, a recipient of the Jean A. Chalmers Award for Distinction in Choreography, also an honorary doctorate degree from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

Boris Vladimirovich Volkoff, was a Canadian-Russian ballet dancer, director, choreographer and ballet master. After studying dance in Warsaw and Moscow he defected from Russia and eventually settled in Toronto. He created the Boris Volkoff School of Dance which trained ballet dancers, and the Boris Volkoff Ballet Company which is arguably considered the first ballet company in Canada. He gave his dancers and studio to the National Ballet of Canada to raise the profile of Canadian ballet. He regretted this decision and attempted to revive his company which ended in failure. He was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada in 1973, one year before his death.

Geneviève Salbaing was a Canadian dancer, choreographer and director. She was born in Paris but moved to Casablanca shortly afterwards. She began taking classes at three years old and returned to Paris to continue her training. After dancing with the Washington Concert Ballet for three years, she moved to Montreal and danced for various choreographers. After getting injured she turned her attention to choreography and co-founded Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal. She became its artistic director and opened dance studios in various Canadian cities to train dancers in the ballet-jazz style. She retired as its artistic director in 1992. In 1987 Salbaing was appointed a member of the Order of Canada and in 2012 she became an officer of the National Order of Quebec.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Gauthier (dancer)</span>

Eric Gauthier (dancer) (born 1977 in Montréal/Canada) is a classic and contemporary dancer, choreographer and musician. After a soloist career at the Stuttgart Ballet he founded Gauthier Dance/ /Dance Company at the Theaterhaus Stuttgart in 2007. In 2011, he won the German Dance Prize Deutscher Tanzpreis.

References

  1. ↑ https://pointemagazine.com/its-a-dream-to-work-here-after-22-years-reid-anderson-steps-down-from-stuttgart-ballet/
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Crabb, Michael; Cornell, Katherine (4 March 2015). "Reid Bryce Anderson". The Canadian Encyclopedia . Historica Canada. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 Citron, Paula (10 October 2013). "Keeping a legacy alive is a labour of love for Reid Anderson". The Globe and Mail . Toronto . Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  4. 1 2 Hon Goh, Chan; Fagan, Cary (2009). Beyond the Dance: A Ballerina's Life. Tundra. p. 160. ISBN   978-1-77049-064-2.
  5. 1 2 Crabb, Michael; Cornell, Katherine (4 March 2015). "National Ballet of Canada". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
  6. ↑ "Gauthier Dance Biographies". Ecotopia Dance Productions. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  7. ↑ Hope, Thomas. "Performing Arts: Year In Review 1995". Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved 20 May 2015.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.