National Ballet of Canada

Last updated
National Ballet of Canada
General information
NameNational Ballet of Canada
Year founded1951
First artistic director Celia Franca
Principal venue Four Seasons Centre
Toronto, Ontario
Website national.ballet.ca
Senior staff
Executive DirectorBarry Hughson
Artistic staff
Artistic Director Hope Muir
Music DirectorDavid Briskin
Other
Associated schools The National Ballet School of Canada
Formation
  • Principal Dancer
  • Principal Character Artist (1985–2023)
  • First Soloist
  • Second Soloist
  • Corps de Ballet
  • Apprentice

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.

Contents

The company's repertoire includes works by Sir Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, John Cranko, Rudolf Nureyev, John Neumeier, William Forsythe, James Kudelka, Wayne McGregor, Alexei Ratmansky, Crystal Pite, Christopher Wheeldon, Aszure Barton, Guillaume Côté and Robert Binet. The National Ballet tours in Canada and internationally, with appearances in London, Paris, Hamburg, Moscow, St. Petersburg, New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

Creation of the National Ballet of Canada

In 1951, the two major ballet companies in Canada were the Royal Winnipeg Ballet headed by Gweneth Lloyd, and the Volkoff Canadian Ballet founded by Boris Volkoff, which was based in Toronto. With the aim of creating a more widely based Canadian ballet troupe, following the example set by the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet, a group of Canadian ballet enthusiasts set out to create the National Ballet of Canada. [1]

English ballet enthusiasts Sheila Bloom, Rosemary Winckley and Patricia Barnes (née Winckley), who were living in Toronto at the time, were responsible for the initial fundraising, which enabled the company to attract its first dancers, choreographers and artistic director. Both Lloyd and Volkoff were interested in being the first artistic director of the company, but the organizers agreed that the only way to ensure an unbiased selection of dancers for the new ballet company was to hire an outsider. They chose British dancer and choreographer Celia Franca, who had many connections within the dance community and had been to Canada only twice at that point, as artistic director. [2]

The National Ballet of Canada performing Coppelia in 1952. Coppelia act III National Ballet of Canada.jpg
The National Ballet of Canada performing Coppélia in 1952.

Franca at first showed little interest in heading this new company; she had refused similar invitations in Australia and South Africa and liked living in the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, when she came to Canada in 1951 to attend a festival, the founders again asked her to consider the position. [3] Franca accepted the job and became the first artistic director, while Volkoff was appointed as Resident Choreographer. [2] Conductor George Crum acted as Musical Director.

In August 1951, what was then The National Ballet Guild of Canada launched its first cross-country audition tour. [4] By the end of the month, the ballet had chosen 29 dancers for the troupe and was rehearsing for their first performance in the St. Lawrence Hall. [5]

For The National Ballet Guild of Canada's early performances, Franca chose classic ballets, as she believed this would allow the dancers to be properly judged by the international dance community. [1] The first performance was in the Eaton Auditorium on November 12, 1951. [4] The program included Les Sylphides and Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor .

Development

The company toured Canada extensively, with Franca, Lois Smith and David Adams as its stars. [6] In 1964, the National Ballet adopted the 3200-seat O'Keefe Centre (now known as Meridian Hall) in Toronto as its home venue. The company moved in 2006 to new facilities at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, which was purpose-built for ballet and opera, and is shared with the Canadian Opera Company.

In 1976, Alexander Grant, former Principal Dancer with London's Royal Ballet and Artistic Director of Ballet for All, became the Artistic Director of the National Ballet. Under his leadership, the company added a number of works by Frederick Ashton to its repertoire. The National Ballet of Canada became the first Canadian company to perform at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London in 1979.

In 1981 the company participated alongside Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, le Groupe de la Place Royale, the Danny Grossman Dance Company, the Toronto Dance Theatre, Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers and the Anna Wyman Dance Theatre in the Canadian Dance Spectacular, [7] a dance show at Ottawa's National Arts Centre which was filmed by the National Film Board of Canada for the 1982 documentary film Gala . [8]

In 1989, Reid Anderson became the artistic director. He led the company through a difficult economic recession [1] by choreographing traditional ballet pieces while also commissioning Canadian and international choreographers to create contemporary pieces. [9] In 1995, he left the company citing a frustration of the continued funding cuts from the government, [1] [10] and the directorship was taken up in 1996 by choreographer James Kudelka. [3]

In 2005, Karen Kain, former Principal Dancer, became Artistic Director of the company. In 2009, Innovation debuted, a mixed programme featuring three world premieres by Canadian choreographers Crystal Pite, Sabrina Matthews and Peter Quanz. [6] In 2011, the company premiered a new version of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet by Alexei Ratmansky. The National Ballet of Canada remains Canada's largest and most influential dance company.

In June 2020, Kain stepped down from the company. The following month, it was announced that Hope Muir will succeed Kain, effective January 1, 2022. [11]

Canada's National Ballet School

The Canada's National Ballet School was founded in 1959 by Celia Franca and Julia Bondy and was directed for many years by co-founder Betty Oliphant. [12] The primary goal of the school is to train dancers for the National Ballet of Canada and also for companies across Canada and around the world. Graduates of the School include Frank Augustyn, Neve Campbell, Anne Ditchburn, Rex Harrington, Karen Kain (former Artistic Director of the Company), [13] James Kudelka (former Artistic Director of the Company), Veronica Tennant, Martine Lamy, John Alleyne, Emmanuel Sandhu, and Mavis Staines (Artistic Director and Co-CEO of the School).

International recognition

Rudolf Nureyev danced with the company in 1965 and returned in 1972 to stage his version of The Sleeping Beauty . His work is credited to raising the standards of the company. [1] He was responsible for bringing the Company to Lincoln Center's Metropolitan Opera House in New York City where he showcased the company. The Ballet met with rave reviews and this was a pivotal point in receiving recognition internationally. [14] Karen Kain and Frank Augustyn, two members of NBC, received the prize for best pas de deux at the International Ballet Competition in Moscow in 1973. [15] The following year, in 1974, while on a tour in Canada, Mikhail Baryshnikov defected and requested political asylum in Toronto and joined the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. [16] His first televised performance after coming out of temporary seclusion in Canada was with the National Ballet of Canada in a version of La Sylphide . [17] More recently the company co-produced Christopher Wheeldon’s The Winter’s Tale with The Royal Ballet in London. The New York TimesAlastair MaCauley declared that he admired it more in The National Ballet of Canada’s performance than when he "saw the ballet’s first performances in London, principally because of Evan McKie’s eloquent interpretation of Leontes." Macaulay also highly praised Francesco Gabriele Frola, Svetlana Lunkina & Jurgita Dronina; all four dancers being Kain recruits. A duet between Hermione (Dronina) and Leontes (McKie) was "a particular breakthrough for Mr. Wheeldon" as well. [18]

Dancers

Principal Dancers

Prominent National Ballet dancers

See also

Related Research Articles

Karen Alexandria Kain is a Canadian former ballet dancer and was the Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Canada from 2005 to 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Betty Oliphant</span> Canadian dance educator

Nancy Elizabeth Oliphant was a co-founder of the National Ballet School of Canada.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celia Franca</span>

Celia Franca was a co-founder of The National Ballet of Canada (1951) and its artistic director for 24 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Adams (dancer)</span> Canadian ballet dancer

David Adams, was a Canadian ballet dancer and a founding member of the National Ballet of Canada.

Kimberly Glasco is a Canadian ballerina. She danced with the National Ballet of Canada until she was dismissed by artistic director James Kudelka. She filed a wrongful dismissal suit against the company which was reportedly settled out of court for $1.6 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rex Harrington</span> Greek-Canadian ballet dancer

Rex Howard Harrington, is a Canadian ballet dancer. In 2000, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2005, he was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. In 2006, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by York University and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He is currently artist-in-residence at the National Ballet of Canada, and is a board member of the Dancer Transition Resource Centre.

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.

James Kudelka, OC, is a Canadian choreographer, dancer, and director. He was the artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada from 1996 to 2005, now serving as the National Ballet's artist in residence.

John Meehan is an Australian ballet director, choreographer, professor, and retired ballet dancer. He was educated at the Anglican Church Grammar School in Brisbane and studied at the Australian Ballet School. Meehan joined the Australian Ballet in 1970 and was promoted to principal dancer in 1974, creating roles in new works by Glen Tetley, John Butler, Garth Welch, Sir Robert Helpmann and Gillian Lynne as well as the role of Count Danilo in Ronald Hynd's The Merry Widow. In 1977 he performed as Guest Artist with American Ballet Theatre (ABT) joining the company as Principal Dancer in the fall of that year. He also danced as guest artist with The Boston Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada and the New York City Ballet.

Canada's National Ballet School, also commonly known as the National Ballet School of Canada, is a classical ballet school located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Along with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, it is a provider of professional ballet training in Canada. Mavis Staines has been the Artistic Director of the school since 1989.

The Canadian Ballet Festival was an annual event staged in Canada from 1948 to 1954 that brought together various Canadian dance companies to generate public interest in classical dance. Prior to the festivals, it was difficult for professional Canadian dancers to earn a living by practising their art in their own country. When the festivals ended in 1954 after six years, Canadian dancers were able to find paid work in Canadian television practising their art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Svetlana Lunkina</span> Russian ballerina (born 1979)

Svetlana Aleksandrovna Lunkina is a Russian-Canadian ballerina who is a principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada.

Anne Ditchburn is a Canadian ballet dancer, choreographer, and film actress headlining films like 1979's Slow Dancing in the Big City as a dancer with a crippling disease, a film directed by Rocky director John G. Avildsen and co-starring Paul Sorvino. She also played the doomed ballet dancer Laurian Summers in the 1983 cult horror film Curtains with John Vernon and Samantha Eggar. She danced in nearly all of her film credits, and earned a Golden Globe nomination for her work in Slow Dancing in the Big City. In her time with the National she choreographed some of its most distinguished pieces of the 1970s, including Mad Shadows and Kisses, while also heading side company Ballet Revue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jurgita Dronina</span> Russian-Lithuanian ballet dancer (born 1986)

Jurgita Dronina is a Russian-Lithuanian ballet dancer. She is a principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada, having previously danced with Royal Swedish Ballet, Dutch National Ballet and English National Ballet.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miriam Adams</span> Canadian dancer, choreographer and archivist

Miriam Elaine Adams is a dancer, choreographer, and dance archivist from Toronto. After performing with the National Ballet of Canada, she co-founded 15 Dance Laboratorium with her husband Lawrence Adams. It was the first theatre to present experimental dance in Toronto. In 1983, Miriam and Lawrence launched Encore! Encore! to document the works of six Canadian choreographers from the 1940s and 1950s, and in 1986 they launched a centre for archiving dance and publishing books called Arts Inter-Media Canada/Dance Collection Danse (DCD).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martine van Hamel</span> Dutch choreographer, teacher (born 1945)

Martine van Hamel is a Dutch choreographer, director, teacher, retired ballerina and former Principal dancer at the National Ballet of Canada and American Ballet Theatre (ABT). She was a gold medalist at the biennial Varna International Ballet Competition, the most prestigious ballet competition in the world, held in Varna, Bulgaria. She is also a recipient of the Prix de Varna, a recognition rarely awarded, for best artistic interpretation in all categories. She was one of the leading classical ballerinas in America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guillaume Côté</span> Canadian ballet dancer

Guillaume Côté is a Canadian ballet dancer, choreographer, composer and artistic director. He is a principal dancer and a Choreographic Associate at the National Ballet of Canada. In February 2024, he announced that the 2024/2025 season will be his last season before retirement. He has been the Artistic Director of the Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur since 2014 and is the Artistic Director of Côté Danse.

Elena Lobsanova is a Russian-Canadian ballet dancer. She joined the National Ballet of Canada in 2004 and was promoted to principal dancer in 2015. In 2020, she joined the Miami City Ballet.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Crabb, Michael; Cornell, Katherine (2015-03-04). "National Ballet of Canada". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Retrieved 2015-05-23.
  2. 1 2 James Neufeld (1996). Power to Rise: The Story of National Ballet of Canada . Toronto, Ontario, Canada: University of Toronto Press. ISBN   0-8020-4109-4.
  3. 1 2 "National Ballet founder dies at 85". Globe and Mail, Sandra Martin, February 19, 2007
  4. 1 2 Sandra Gwyn (1971). Women in the Arts in Canada. Information Canada. pp. 55–57.
  5. "Celia Franca". Telegraph. 2007-02-21. Retrieved 2007-07-20.[ dead link ]
  6. 1 2 "The National Ballet of Canada". national.ballet.ca. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  7. Stephen Godfrey, "Dance Spectacular is just that". The Globe and Mail , May 30, 1981.
  8. Stephen Godfrey, "Gala: a dance milestone makes a fascinating film". The Globe and Mail , May 1, 1982.
  9. Crabb, Michael; Cornell, Katherine (2015-03-04). "Reid Bryce Anderson". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Retrieved 2015-05-23.
  10. Citron, Paula (2013-10-10). "Keeping a legacy alive is a labour of love for Reid Anderson". The Globe and Mail. Philip Crawley. Retrieved 2015-05-20.
  11. Benchetrit, Jenna (July 7, 2021). "National Ballet of Canada names Toronto-born dancer Hope Muir as artistic director". CBC.
  12. Crabb, Michael. "The National Ballet School of Canada". Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  13. Doob, Penelope Reed; Crabb, Michael. "Kain, Karen" . Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  14. "National Ballet's 'Sleeping Beauty' to awaken in new home". CBC.ca. 2006-02-06. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  15. Doob, Penelope Reed; Bowring, Amy. "Augustyn, Frank" . Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  16. "Mikhail Baryshnikov archive". New York Public Library . Retrieved 2015-10-13.
  17. Natalia Makarova, A Dance Autobiography (Knopf 1979), p. 152.
  18. Macaulay, Alastair (2016-01-21). "Review: Dark Suspicions in Jumps and Gestures in 'The Winter's Tale'". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-02-21.