Margie Gillis OC CQ (born July 9, 1953) is a Canadian dancer and choreographer. Gillis has been creating original works of modern dance for over thirty-five years. Her repertoire includes more than one hundred pieces, which she performs as solos, duets, and group pieces. [1] [2]
Gillis was born on July 9, 1953, in Montreal, Quebec. [2] She is the daughter of two Canadian Olympic skiers: Gene Gillis and Rhona Wurtele. Her brother Jere Gillis played professional hockey. Her elder brother Christopher Gillis was a professional dancer and choreographer who danced with her since childhood and collaborated on numerous shows. Her Sister Nancy Andersen was a yoga teacher and personal trainer. Nancy is married to Henrik Andersen, her daughter is Kristina and grandson Henry. [3]
Showing a passion for dance early in life, she began ballet and gymnastic lessons at the age of three. In her youth, she trained and rehearsed on her own and later continued to learn in classes with teachers such as May O'Donnell, Linda Rabin, Lynda Raino and Allan Wayne. [4]
In 1981, Gillis founded her own company, the Margie Gillis Dance Foundation with the mission to support and present her artistic work. These works have toured to Asia, India, Europe, and the Middle East as well as across North and South America. [1] [5] She was the first performer to take Western modern dance to China in 1979. [6] During the summer months, Gillis teaches two one-week dance retreats at HollyHock, a centre on Cortes Island, British Columbia. [7]
Gillis is a socially committed artist. She has been spokesperson for a number of organizations dedicated to the fight against AIDS as well as for OXFAM and the Planned Parenthood Foundation. [8]
Gillis has received numerous awards and recognitions throughout her career. She is an Honorary Cultural Ambassador for both the Quebec (1986) and Canadian (1981) governments. In 1987, she was the first modern dance artist to be awarded the Order of Canada. [9] [10]
In 2001, she received a Career Grant from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec for her exceptional contribution to Quebec culture. [11]
In the fall of 2008, Gillis was chosen by the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City, New York, to receive its first MAD Spirit Award for her involvement in various social causes, and she was awarded the Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts by a jury of her peers at the Canada Council for the Arts.
In 2009, she was made a Knight of the National Order of Quebec. [12]
On March 3, 2011, Gillis was named a 2011 laureate of the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. [13]
In May 2011, she received the Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award from the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award.[ citation needed ]
In 2013, Gillis was promoted from her 1987 Order of Canada and appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada. This honour recognizes a lifetime of achievement and merit of a high degree, especially in service to Canada or to humanity at large. [14] [15] [16]
Karen Alexandria Kain is a Canadian former ballet dancer and was the Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Canada from 2005 to 2021.
Colm Joseph Feore is a Canadian actor. A 15-year veteran of the Stratford Festival, he is known for his Gemini-winning turn as Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in the CBC miniseries Trudeau (2002), his portrayal of Glenn Gould in Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993), and for playing Detective Martin Ward in Bon Cop, Bad Cop (2006) and its sequel Bon Cop, Bad Cop 2 (2017).
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.
Anik Bissonnette OC CQ is a Canadian ballet dancer. She started her professional ballet career with the Ballet de Montreal Eddy Toussaint in the 1980s. She was a principal dancer beginning in 1990 with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. Her father, Jean Bissonnette, was a famous television director with Télévision de Radio-Canada.
Ginette Reno is a Canadian author, composer, singer, and actress. She has received nominations for the Genie and Gemini Awards and is a multi-recipient of the Juno Award. She is a gold and platinum selling Canadian musician.
Louise Lecavalier OC is a Canadian dancer known as one of the icons of Canadian contemporary dance.
Oliver Theophilus Jones, is a Canadian jazz pianist, organist, composer and arranger.
Grant Strate, was a Canadian dancer, choreographer and academic.
Fernand Nault, OC, CQ was a Canadian dancer and choreographer.
Marie Chouinard OC is a Canadian dancer, choreographer, and dance company director.
Founded in 1985 by former ballerina Joysanne Sidimus, the Dancer Transition Resource Centre (DTRC) is a Canadian charity that provides counselling and retraining grants to dancers making career transitions. In 2006, Joysanne Sidimus was awarded the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, in part due to her work establishing the Dancer Transition Resource Centre.Karen Kain was the founding Board President of the Dancer Transition Resource Centre.
Anne Claire Poirier O.C. is a Canadian film producer, director and screenwriter.
Paul-André Fortier is a Canadian choreographer and dancer living in Montreal. He is a recipient of the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for lifetime achievement.
Louise Bessette, is a Canadian pianist. Born in Montreal, she trained at the Conservatoire de musique du Quebec a Montreal (CMQM).
Mavis Avril Staines is a Canadian ballet dancer and teacher. Staines grew up in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. In 1972, she graduated from Canada's National Ballet School. After becoming a first soloist with the National Ballet of Canada, Staines later joined The Dutch National Ballet where original work was created for her. After an injury cut her performance career short, she returned to Canada, enrolling in the National Ballet School's Teacher Training Program. She became a member of the Artistic Faculty in 1982. In 1989 she was appointed Artistic Director of the School. For the celebration of the School’s 50th anniversary in 2009, she helped gather 13 of NBS’s partner schools from around the world to present the Assemblée Internationale with a focus on collaboration; a second Assemblée Internationale was remounted in 2013, with a focus on introducing new technology. Staines leaves an incredible legacy at Canada’s National Ballet School as she retires from her role in June 2024.
Suzanne Lebeau is a Québécois actor and writer.
Lorraine Pintal OC, is a Canadian actor, director, producer and playwright.
Joysanne Sidimus is a Canadian ballet dancer and founder of the Dancer Transition Resource Centre and the Artists’ Health Centre of Toronto Western Hospital. She served as ballet mistress for the Ballet Repertory Company and Grands Ballets de Genève.
Peter Boneham is an American-born Canadian choreographer, dance educator and artistic director. To date, he has been the longest serving artistic director for a Canadian contemporary dance company.
Sculpting Memory is a 2015 Canadian short artistic video directed and written by Daniel Cockburn which profiles and celebrates the body of work of Canadian director Atom Egoyan commissioned for the occasion of the 2015 Canadian Governor General's Performing Arts Awards, where Egoyan was presented with a Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award.
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