Dance in Quebec includes dances that are specific to the province of Quebec, Canada, it comprises traditional group, couple, and solo dance as well as contemporary jazz, ballet, and modern dance. There are a number of dance companies and dance schools. Quebec's most renowned organizations are Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal as well as the contemporary dance crew La La La Human Steps, directed by the choreographer Édouard Lock and his emblematic dancer Louise Lecavalier.
Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal (GBCM) is a ballet company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A creative and repertory company, it performs works that reflect the diverse trends of contemporary ballet.
Veronica Tennant, is a Canadian producer, director, and filmmaker and a former principal dancer of the National Ballet of Canada. She was born in London, England and moved to Canada with her parents and sister in 1955. Dancing from the age of four, by the age of 18, she became the youngest person ever to enter the National Ballet of Canada.
Ludmilla Chiriaeff was a Russian-Canadian ballet dancer, choreographer, teacher, and company director.
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.
Tamara Rojo CBE is a Spanish ballet dancer. She was the English National Ballet's artistic director and a lead principal dancer with the company between 2012 and 2022. She was previously a principal dancer with The Royal Ballet. She became the artistic director of San Francisco Ballet in late 2022.
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.
The École supérieure de ballet de Montréal (ESBQ) is a professional dance training school in Montreal, Quebec, Canada which is part of the Maison de la danse Ludmilla Chiriaeff, a building that it has owned since 1982 and which is also home to the dance company Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal.
Fernand Nault, OC, CQ was a Canadian dancer and choreographer.
Élisabeth Platel is a French prima ballerina.
Nicolas Le Riche is a French ballet dancer, choreographer and ballet director.
José Navas is a contemporary choreographer and dancer born in Venezuela in 1965, and based in Montreal, Quebec.
Kader Belarbi is a French ballet dancer, choreographer and director. He spent his whole career in the Paris National Opera Ballet, between 1980 and 2008, and belongs to the company’s “Nureyev generation”, having been made an étoile (principal) by Rudolf Nureyev in 1989.
Iro Tembeck (1946–2004) was a Canadian dancer, choreographer, and dance historian. After emigrating to Montreal in 1967, she taught at the academy of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, and danced with Le Groupe Nouvelle Aire in the early 1970s. She founded Axis Danse with Christina Coleman in 1977, and in 1980, Tembeck became a professor in the Dance Department at Université du Québec à Montréal, where she also co-founded the choreographic research group Artscene. Tembeck signed over 40 choreographic works, which were produced with Le Groupe Nouvelle Aire, Axis Danse, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, and Les Ballets Eddy Toussaint.
Wilfride Piollet was a French ballerina and choreographer. She was born in Saint-Rambert-d'Albon. Her philosophy of dance and her research led to the publication of several books. Piollet joined the Paris Opera Ballet company in 1960. She gained the rank "coryphée" in 1963, "sujet" in 1964, soloist in 1966, and was promoted to principal dancer (étoile) in 1969. In 1973, Nouvelle lune c-à-d was created for her retirement of the Paris Opera. Invited as a guest by Rudolf Nureyev, she danced at the Paris Opera until 1990, the year when Jean Guizerix left. At the Paris Opera and worldwide, she performed the classical, neo-classical and contemporary repertory, and from the 1980s, the Baroque and Renaissance ones. She ended her dance career in 2003 with a piece on Isadora Duncan's dances studied with Madeleine Lytton, and performed with Jean Guizerix.
Vincent de Paul Warren, was a Canadian dancer, teacher, dance historian and lecturer. After a distinguished career as a ballet dancer and teacher, he became widely known and respected as a historian and archivist. He is celebrated as a leading figure in the dance world of Canada.
Eva von Gencsy was a dancer, choreographer and teacher. After immigrating to Canada from Europe she performed with prominent Canadian dance companies Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. After discovering jazz dance she founded a new style of dance called ballet-jazz. She created Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal in 1972 and became their first artistic director. After leaving the company she continued to teach and showcase her new style of dance across Canada and around the world. She died in Montreal of complications due to cardiac arrest.
Jeanne Renaud was a Canadian dancer, choreographer, and artistic director, considered to be one of the founders of modern dance in Quebec. Born in Montreal, Renaud studied music at the École de musique Vincent-d'Indy. She trained in classical ballet with Elizabeth Leese and in modern dance with Gérald Crevier in Montreal. She went on to study with Merce Cunningham, Hanya Holm and Mary Anthony in New York City. In 1948, she gave a recital with Françoise Sullivan in Montreal. She taught dance in Paris from 1949 to 1954. In 1952, she joined with Les Automatistes who had left Quebec for Paris to present a performance at the American Club there. From 1959 to 1965, she was associated with Françoise Riopelle at the École de Danse Moderne de Montréal as dancer, teacher and choreographer. In 1966, she founded Le Groupe de la Place Royale, the first official modern dance company in Quebec, with Peter Boneham; she was dancer, choreographer, artistic director and administrator for Le Groupe until 1972.
Annette av Paul is a Swedish-Canadian ballet dancer who had a 30-year dance career performing, teaching, and directing companies across Canada. Av Paul was born in Rönninge, Sweden, about 30 kilometres outside Stockholm on February 11, 1944. Her mother was a dance and piano teacher and her father an artist and writer. She studied at the Royal Swedish Ballet School and in 1962, at the age of 17, was apprenticed to the company, becoming principal dancer in 1966.
Linda Rabin is a Canadian dancer, choreographer and educator. The daughter of Max Rabin, a clothing salesman, and Mina Rosen, a Polish immigrant, she was born in Montreal. Rabin studied modern dance with José Limón, with Anna Sokolow, at the Juilliard School where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts and at the Martha Graham School. She also studied Asian dance forms and Asian dance theatre in Japan, Bali, India and Nepal. She has studied Body/Mind Centering, Alexander Technique, shiatsu, Pilates and ideokinesis.
