Paul Daigle has a first-hand understanding of the intricacies of designing for dance. A graduate of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, Daigle went on to perform for two seasons with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet before leaving in 1988 to pursue a career in design.
Daigle has established a very creative and productive relationship with choreographer Mark Godden. Together they have collaborated on a variety of creations for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, including sets and costumes for Sequoia, Godden’s 1989 Clifford E. Lee Choreographic Award winning ballet, Godden’s two award-winning pas de deux, Myth and La Princesse et le Soldat, as well as Forms of Distinction, Rapsodie espagnole, and seven one-act Godden ballets: Symphony No. 1, Angels in the Architecture, Dame aux Fruits, La Folía, A Darkness Between Us, Shepherd’s Wake and Miroirs.
During the 1997–1998 RWB season, he redesigned the sets for Antony Tudor’s The Leaves Are Fading and the costumes for Paquita. He also collaborated with Mark Godden on two new works, The Rite of Spring and Anywhere But London.
During the 1998–1999 season, Daigle designed the scenery and costumes for Mark Godden’s first full-length ballet, Dracula. In 2003, he went on to win the Manitoba Motion Picture Industry Association Blizzard Award for best costume design for Guy Maddin’s film adaptation of Godden’s Dracula.
Daigle designed the costumes for the RWB’s Nutcracker, which premiered at Ottawa’s NAC on December 2, 1999. In 2003, he was reunited with Mark Godden to create the scenery and costume design for Godden’s full-length creation The Magic Flute, which premiered in Winnipeg.
Daigle has created set and costume designs for numerous ballet and theatre companies including Ballet British Columbia, Ballet Jörgen, Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada, Alberta Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Kiev Ballet, Compañía Nacional de Danza (Mexico City), Theatre New Brunswick (Fredericton), Neptune Theatre (Halifax) and Theatre Aquarius (Hamilton). Daigle has had the honour to design new creations for world renowned choreographers Mark Morris, Kevin O’Day and Alexei Ratmansky.
Paul Daigle’s most recent work includes costume designs for Mark Godden’s Svengalli and costume designs for Michael Pink’s critically acclaimed full-length production of La Boheme for Milwaukee Ballet which premiered in October 2012.
