Celia Franca
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Celia Franca CC (born June 25, 1921) is the founder of The National Ballet of Canada (1951) and was its artistic director for 24 years.
Born in London, England, in 1921 she began to study dance at the age of 4 and was a scholarship student at the Guildhall School of Music and the Royal Academy of Dance. In 1941, she was recognized as one of the finest dramatic ballerinas in the Sadler's Wells. In 1947 she joined the Metropolitan Ballet as a soloist and ballet mistress. It was there that she began choreographing for television, creating the first two ballets - Eve of St. Agnes and Dance of Salomé - ever commissioned by the BBC.
In 1950, a group of Toronto balletomanes asked Franca to start a Canadian classical company. A determined woman who thrived on challenges, she did the impossible in only 10 months - while supporting herself as a file clerk at Eaton's department store, she recruited and trained dancers, staged some Promenade Concerts, organized a summer school, gathered a talented artistic staff and whipped her uneven but enthusiastic new company into shape for its opening on November 12, 1951.
She and Betty Oliphant founded The National Ballet School of Canada in 1959 to provide exceptional dancers for the Company. During her years with the National Ballet and since her retirement, Celia has been recognized at home and abroad.
In 1978 Celia Franca, Merrilee Hodgins and Joyce Shietze opened The School of Dance in Ottawa as a nationally registered, educational, charitable, non-profit organization designed to provide professional training for dance.
Celia now lives in Ottawa and, among many commitments, is a Co-Artistic Director of The School of Dance, a member of the board of governors of York University and the board of directors of the Canada Council and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Canada Dance Festival Society.
Celia continues her association with The National Ballet of Canada, revising works for the Company such as Offenbach in the Underworld (1983) and staging The Nutcracker. Celia returned to the Company to produce a 35th Anniversary Gala Performance at Toronto's O'Keefe Centre.
In 1967, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and was promoted to Companion in 1985.
