National Ballet of Canada
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The National Ballet of Canada is Canada's largest ballet troupe. It was founded by Celia Franca in 1951 and is based in Toronto, Ontario. Based upon the unity of Canadian dancers, it is regarded as one of the best ballet companies in Canada.
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[edit] Creation of the National Ballet
In the early 1950s, 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 and based in Toronto. Although both of these companies were well renowned, they were biased in their selection of dancers and often held auditions in their founding cities. With a desire to create an unbiased Canadian ballet troupe, and inspired by the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet, a group of ballet enthusiasts set out to create the National Ballet of Canada. [1] Both Lloyd and Volkoff were interested in being the first artistic director of the company, but organisers feared that these two people might ruin the company and its mandate. Instead, it was agreed by the organisers that the only way to create a truly unbiased ballet company was to hire an outsider named of Celia Franca as artistic director. [2]
Franca had been to Canada twice in her life, and would not have the same biases a Canadian would in selecting dancers for the company. Furthermore, she had many connections within the dance community and be able to expand the company’s influence on the international stage. However, she was not interested 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, she was begged by the founders to accept their invitation. Franca accepted the job and became the first artistic director, while Volkoff would be the Resident Choreographer and Lloyd would be the Artistic Consultant and Choreographer. [2]
In August 1951 the National Ballet of Canada launched its first cross-country audition tour. By the end of the month, the ballet troupe had chosen their dancers and were rehearsing for their first performance in the St. Lawrence Hall. It was during these rehearsals that major decisions for the future of the ballet company happened. For example, Franca chose to perform classic ballets, as she believed this would allow the dancers to be properly judged by the international dance community. [1]
The National Ballet of Canada's first performance was in the Eaton Auditorium on November 12, 1951. [3] The program included Les Sylphides and Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor. [3]
In 1964 the NBC adopted the 3200-seat O'Keefe Centre (now the Hummingbird Centre) in Toronto as its home venue. The company has recently moved again (2006) to new facilities, at the Four Seasons Centre.
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. Under his leadership, the National Ballet added many works by Frederick Ashton to its repertoire. The National has historically been viewed by many as very similar in training, technique, and style to The Royal Ballet.
Despite suffering under a history of government funding cuts and economic recessions, The National has garnered respect and admiration by commissioning many original works from prominent choreographers, mounting lavish productions of 20th-century and classical repertoire, and by successful international tours. Much of the success of the company is due to the excellent training that most of the Company's dancers received at The National Ballet School of Canada (founded in 1959 with Celia Franca and Betty Oliphant).
[edit] International Acclaim
Rudolf Nureyev danced with the company in 1965 and in 1972. He raised the troupe’s level of professionalism and staged a spectacular version of The Sleeping Beauty which gained the company international prestige. He was responsible for bringing the Company to Lincoln Center's Metropolitan Opera House in New York City where he showcased the well-trained company. The Ballet met with rave reviews and this was a pivotal point in their receiving international recognition as a world-class company. It was at this time that the careers of Karen Kain and Frank Augustyn took off. Kain and Augustyn received the prize for best pas de deux at the International Ballet Competition in Moscow in 1973. Both were students at the National Ballet School of Canada, which was founded in 1959 by Celia Franca to train dancers for the Company.
[edit] Trivia
- The National Ballet of Canada was the first Canadian company to perform at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London in 1979.
- When Mikhail Baryshnikov defected to the United States in 1974, one of the first companies that he danced with was the National Ballet of Canada.
- International premier danseur noble Erik Bruhn (originally from the Royal Danish Ballet), who had begun his long association with the National in 1965, served as artistic director of the Company from 1983 until his untimely death in 1986.
- On July 1, 2005, former principal dancer Karen Kain replaced James Kudelka as artistic director. Both are graduates of the School.
[edit] Prominent National Ballet dancers
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[edit] References
- ^ a b The Canadian Encyclopedia accessed 21 Mar 2007
- ^ a b James Neufeld (1996). Power to Rise: The Story of National Ballet of Canada.. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Canada. ISBN 0-80-204109-4.
- ^ a b The National Ballet of Canada Website accessed 22 Mar 2007
