≈ 1 hour 6 minutes · No intermission
Artists
Celia Franca founded The National Ballet of Canada in 1951 with the goal of presenting the best of classical and contemporary ballet. Today the company is among the world’s finest, with 70 dancers, an in-house orchestra and a permanent home at The Walter Carsen Centre in Toronto. The National Ballet has a history of pre-eminent Artistic Directors and, starting January 2022, welcomed new leader 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 choreographers. The company’s repertoire includes works by Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, Aszure Barton, Marie Chouinard, John Cranko, William Forsythe, James Kudelka, Wayne McGregor, Kenneth McMillan, John Neumeier, Rudolf Nureyev, Crystal Pite, Alexei Ratmansky, Christopher Wheeldon and the company’s Choreographic Associates Robert Binet and Guillaume Côté, among other creators.
In recent years, the National Ballet has become a top destination for creative partnerships and the building and staging of new work. Since 2011, the company’s highly skilled production team has worked from a state-of-the-art facility, The Gretchen Ross Production Centre, to build and store its glorious sets and costumes.
The National Ballet performs three extended engagements at Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts each year, augmented by national and international tours. The company has performed in Canada, the USA, the UK, Germany, The Netherlands, Israel, China, Japan, Italy and Mexico, with recent appearances in London, Los Angeles, Paris, Hamburg, Moscow, St. Petersburg, New York City and Washington, D.C.
Reaching audiences beyond the traditional theatre setting is one of the National Ballet’s highest priorities, particularly for children, youth and families. The company has a wide range of age-appropriate community engagement initiatives designed to share the joy and power of dance with young people in schools, hospitals, community settings and homes in ways that are meaningful and rewarding for them. YOU dance is the largest of these programmes and offers FREE workshops and performances to students in grades four through six.
The National Ballet upholds the principles of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in all aspects of its work and is taking important steps to better reflect Canada’s cultural diversity throughout the organization, its partners and audiences.
Hope Muir is an acclaimed dancer, teacher and director whose 33-year career spans two continents and a range of classical and contemporary styles. Born in Toronto, she is one of the first graduates of Peter Schaufuss’ London Festival Ballet School and a former dancer at the English National Ballet, Rambert Dance Company and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. In 2009, Hope assisted Crystal Pite with the creation of Emergence for The National Ballet of Canada and has since helped to stage the work internationally. She has assisted numerous choreographers in this capacity, staging work by Christopher Bruce, Javier De Frutos and Helen Pickett, among others. Hope is the former Assistant Artistic Director of the Scottish Ballet and in 2017, she was appointed Artistic Director of Charlotte Ballet in North Carolina, where she expanded the repertoire and established the highly successful Choreographic Lab. She assumed the role of Joan and Jerry Lozinski Artistic Director of The National Ballet of Canada on January 1, 2022.
Barry Hughson joined The National Ballet of Canada as Executive Director in 2014. Since that time, the company has accelerated its trajectory of artistic growth, fiscal responsibility, community engagement and international acclaim. In 1988, Barry began his professional career as a dancer with The Washington Ballet, performing at the Kennedy Center and internationally. As an arts executive, he has led a variety of arts institutions in the US, including The Warner Theatre, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, American Repertory Ballet, Atlanta Ballet and Boston Ballet. For nine years, he served on the board of Dance/USA, North America's largest service organization for professional dance. In partnership with Dance/USA and The Royal Ballet, Barry spearheaded the first meeting of international executive dance leadership in 2015. In Canada, Barry was a member of the Coordinating Committee for Respectful Workplaces in the Arts, where he chaired the working group responsible for the development of a nationwide Code of Conduct for the Live Performing Arts. He currently serves as a member of the Steering Committee for the Canadian Acts Coalition and as a member of the Advancement Committee for the International Society of Performing Arts.
Music Director and Principal Conductor of The National Ballet of Canada since 2006, David Briskin is widely recognized as one of contemporary ballet’s most accomplished conductors.
Prior to moving to Canada, David lived and worked for 23 years as a conductor in New York City, working in opera, ballet and in concert. He conducted for seven years with American Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City Center and in major opera houses throughout the world and was a seasonal conductor for New York City Ballet. In addition, he has conducted for nearly all the major North American ballet companies.
Highly in demand internationally as a guest conductor, David has appeared with The Royal Ballet, Covent Garden, The Royal Swedish Ballet, The Royal Danish Ballet and Hamburg Ballet. He has collaborated and conducted many important world premieres including Alexei Ratmansky’s Romeo and Juliet, Christopher Wheeldon and Joby Talbot’s The Winter’s Tale and Wayne McGregor and Max Richter’s MADDADDAM. He has worked closely with composers Missy Mazzoli and Lera Auerbach and has served as Music Director for the Nureyev Legend and Legacy Gala at Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London, which is available on Marquee TV. Last season, he conducted the highly acclaimed concert production of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music at Koerner Hall.
David has appeared with orchestras and opera companies throughout Europe, Asia and North America including the Pittsburgh, Detroit, Baltimore, Cincinnati Pops, Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Windsor and Shanghai Symphony Orchestras, as well as Calgary Opera, Manitoba Opera, Opera Carolina, Lake George Opera and Sarasota Opera, among others.
Over the years David has been extremely active in arts education. In 2008, he was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Music where he taught conducting and served as Director of Orchestral Activities and Conductor of the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra until 2015. He was Conductor for the Juilliard School’s Dance Division for 13 years and has mentored several young and emerging conductors.
David has served on juries for the Ontario Arts Council, the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto and Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Foundation. He has been a strong advocate for musical life in Toronto speaking publicly on behalf of the National Ballet, Luminato Festival and the University of Toronto, among others.
Christopher Wheeldon trained at The Royal Ballet School and joined The Royal Ballet in 1991. In 1993, he joined New York City Ballet (NYCB) and was promoted to Soloist in 1998. He was named NYCB’s first Resident Choreographer in July 2001. Since then, Mr. Wheeldon has created and staged productions for the world’s major ballet companies.
Mr. Wheeldon is Artistic Associate of The Royal Ballet where he has created many works including Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter’s Tale, both of which were co-productions with The National Ballet of Canada. He has also choreographed for the Metropolitan Opera, created ballet sequences for the feature film Center Stage (2000) and Sweet Smell of Success on Broadway (2002), created a special excerpt for the Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics and was the Artistic Director for Les Arts Decoratif’s Fashion Forward exhibit in Paris (2016).
In 2014, Mr. Wheeldon directed and choreographed the musical version of An American in Paris, which had productions in Paris, on Broadway and in London. For this production, Mr. Wheeldon received a Tony Award for Best Choreography and an Outer Critics Award for Best Choreography and Direction. His many other awards include the Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center, American Choreography Award, Dance Magazine Award, multiple London Critics’ Circle Awards, Leonard Massine Prize, Prix Benois de la Danse and an Olivier Award. In 2016, Mr. Wheeldon was named an Order of the British Empire (OBE) and was made an Honorary Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Holly Hynes has designed over 200 ballets in her long career as a costume designer. In North America, her theatrical designs have been seen on Broadway as well as in works for such major ballet companies as American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, New York City Ballet, Houston Ballet, The Jaffrey Ballet, Suzanne Farrell Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Alberta Ballet, Richmond Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal, Boston Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Boris Eifmann Company and Miami City Ballet.
Abroad, her designs have been acclaimed at such companies as Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Teatro alla Scala, The Kirov Ballet, The Royal Danish Ballet, The National Ballet of Bulgaria, The Stanislasky Music Theatre in Moscow, The Norske Ballet, The Australian Ballet and Bolshoi Ballet. In 2007, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as a designer on the revival of the opera La Gioconda.
In addition to her design work, Ms. Hynes serves as a consultant with authority to teach costume reproductions of various established designs within The Jerome Robbins Foundation and Rights Trust, George Balanchine Trust and for Peter Martins, serving many companies internationally. For 21 years she was Director of Costumes for New York City Ballet. Her previous designs for The National Ballet of Canada include George Balanchine's Don Quixote, Jorma Elo's Pur ti Miro and the revival of Christopher Wheeldon's Polyphonia.
Mark Stanley, Resident Lighting Designer for New York City Ballet, has designed over 200 premieres for the company's repertoire including Paul McCartney's Ocean's Kingdom. He has worked with choreographers around the world including Peter Martins, Susan Stroman, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, Justin Peck, William Forsythe, Kevin O'Day and Susan Marshall.
His designs are in the repertoire of nearly every major ballet company in North America and Europe, including The Royal Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Danish Ballet, Het Nationale Ballet, The Bolshoi Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Teatro alla Scala, Mariinsky Ballet, Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, Boston Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Pilobolus Dance Theatre, Alvin Ailey Dance Theater and The Jaffrey Ballet.
Mr. Stanley previously served as Resident Designer for New York City Opera. His theatre work includes the Kennedy Center, Long Wharf Theatre, Goodspeed Opera House, Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, Paper Mill Playhouse, Maurice Sendak's In the Night Kitchen and off-Broadway. His designs for George Balanchine's The Nutcracker and other works have been seen on Live from Lincoln Center and Great Performances.
Mr. Stanley heads the Master of Fine Art Design and Production Programs as well as the Lighting Design Program at Boston University and is on the Board of Directors of The Hemsley Lighting Programs.
Born in Toronto, Canada, Dora winner Jera Wolfe is a choreographer and performer of Métis heritage and is an Associate Artist with Red Sky Performance.
Mr. Wolfe’s captivating choreography has awarded him the 2019 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Original Choreography for Trace. He has demonstrated an impressive repertoire of works presented by Canadian Stage, Fall For Dance North, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Festival des arts de Saint-Sauveur, Danse Danse, and Jacob's Pillow. Some of his recent works include Bare choreographed on Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet, FLOW by Red Sky Performance, Arise for Canada's National Ballet School, and Begin Again for Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers.
Most recently Jera presented an evening of works titled Reverie at Festival des arts de Saint-Sauveur.
Aside from choreography, he performs primarily for Red Sky Performance and has also performed with many other companies including Peggy Baker Dance Projects.
Max Richter stands as one of the most prodigious figures on the contemporary music scene, with ground-breaking work as a composer, pianist, producer, and collaborator. From synthesizers and computers to a full symphony orchestra, Richter’s innovative work encompasses solo albums, ballets, concert hall performances, film and television series, video art installations and theatre works. He is Classically trained, studying at Edinburgh University, the Royal Academy of Music, London, and completing his studies with composer Luciano Berio in Florence,
Memoryhouse, Richter’s 2002 debut, has been described by The Independent and Pitchfork Magazine as a “landmark”, while his 2004 album The Blue Notebooks was chosen by The Guardian as one of the best Classical works of the century. SLEEP, his eight-and-a-half-hour concert work, has been broadcast and performed worldwide, including at the Sydney Opera House, Berlin’s Kraftwerk, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Philharmonie de Paris, and at the Barbican, London. In 2012 Richter “Recomposed” the infamous Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, winning him the prestigious ECHO Classic Award, and an established place in the classical charts.
In recent years Richter’s music has become a mainstay for many of the world’s leading ballet companies, including The Mariinski Ballet, La Scala Milan, The Joffrey Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Paris Opera Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Semper Oper, and NDT, while his collaborations with Wayne McGregor for The Royal Ballet have been widely acclaimed.
Richter has written prolifically for film and television, with recent projects including Hostiles, Black Mirror, Taboo – which gained him an Emmy nomination, HBO series The Leftovers and My Brilliant Friend and, most recently, White Boy Rick, Mary Queen of Scots and the sci-fi drama Ad Astra starring Brad Pitt. His music is also featured in Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir, and in the Oscar-winning Arrival by Denis Villeneuve.
Richter’s most recent commissions are from the city of Bonn to mark the Beethoven 250th year anniversary, and a further collaboration between Richter, Margaret Atwood and Wayne McGregor, based on Atwood’s Maddaddam trilogy of novels. His latest recorded project, VOICES, will be released in 2020.
Toronto native Jeff Logue studied theatre production at York University. In 2009, Mr. Logue joined The National Ballet of Canada as Lighting Coordinator. Before joining the company, Mr. Logue worked at the Shaw Festival for over 14 seasons including six productions as Lighting Designer and more than 30 productions as Associate Lighting Designer. In addition, he worked on I, Claudia, for which he was nominated for both Dora and Betty Mitchell Awards, the Eastern Canadian tour of Pelagie and most recently The Drowsy Chaperone at Sudbury Theatre Centre. Mr. Logue was the Associate Lighting Designer for Urinetown (Canadian Stage) and Assistant Lighting Designer for The Producers (Mirvish Productions). Mr. Logue has worked at most of Canada's larger regional theatres.
In a choreographic career spanning three decades, Crystal Pite has created more than 50 works for dance companies in Canada and around the world. She is the founding artistic director of the Vancouver-based company Kidd Pivot, world-renowned for radical hybrids of dance and theatre that are assembled with a keen sense of wit and invention. Crystal is known for works that courageously address such challenging and complex themes as trauma, addiction, conflict, consciousness, and mortality; her bold and original vision has earned her international acclaim and inspired an entire generation of dance artists.
Crystal Pite was born in Terrace, BC, and grew up in Victoria. She began her dance career as a company member of Ballet British Columbia (Ballet BC), then William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt. She made her choreographic debut in 1990 at Ballet BC, and since then has created works for such prominent companies as The Royal Ballet, The Paris Opera Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater, Cullberg Ballet, Ballett Frankfurt, The National Ballet of Canada, Ballets Jazz Montréal (resident choreographer 2001–04), and Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. She has also collaborated with Electric Company Theatre and Robert Lepage, and is currently Associate Choreographer of Nederlands Dans Theater, Associate Dance Artist of Canada’s National Arts Centre, and Associate Artist of Sadler’s Wells in London.
In 2002, she formed Kidd Pivot, a company that strives to distill and translate universal questions into artworks that connect us to deep and essential parts of humanity.
“Running through all of my work is the question of what moves us,” she says. Kidd Pivot tours internationally with critically acclaimed works such as Betroffenheit and Revisor (both co-created with playwright Jonathon Young), The Tempest Replica, Dark Matters, Lost Action and The You Show. In 2008, Crystal Pite participated in the inaugural GGPAA Mentorship Program as the protégée of 2004 GGPAA laureate Veronica Tennant, former principal dancer of the National Ballet of Canada.
Crystal Pite is a Member of the Order of Canada. Her other awards and honours include the Benois de la Danse, Canada Council Jacqueline Lemieux Prize, Grand Prix de la danse de Montréal, two UK Critics’ Circle Dance Awards, four Laurence Olivier Awards, and an honorary doctorate from Simon Fraser University.
Owen Belton lives in Vancouver, Canada and graduated from Simon Fraser University with a degree in Fine and Performing Arts (concentration Music). He has been composing for dance for the last 25 years as well as creating sound design and music for live theatre for the past 15 years. Owen has created pieces for The Paris Opera, Ballet Nuremberg, Electric Company Theatre, The Arts Club, as well as Nederlands Dans Theatre and Kidd Pivot.
Named an "American Choral Master" by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2005, Morten Lauridsen received the 2007 National Medal of Arts in a White House ceremony "for his composition of radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power, and spiritual depth that have thrilled audiences worldwide." He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the USC Thornton School of Music where he chaired the department of composition and founded the Advanced Studies Program in Film Scoring. He was Composer-in-Residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 1995 to 2001.
His compositions, including eight vocal cycles, arts songs, instrumental works and a series of sacred motets are performed regularly throughout the world and have been recorded on over 200 CDs, several of which have received Grammy nominations. The award-winning documentary, Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen, was released in 2012 and in 2016 Mr. Lauridsen received The ASCAP Foundation Life in Music Award at Lincoln Center. He currently lives in the San Juan Islands of Washington State.
As a scenic designer Jay Gower Taylor has collaborated with Crystal Pite since 2008, creating onstage environments for works such as Figures in Extinction [1.0], The Statement, Parade, Plot Point, Frontier, Solo Echo, In the Event and Partita for 8 Dancers, for Nederlands Dans Theater 1; Emergence and Angels’ Atlas (a co-production with Zurich Ballet) for the National Ballet of Canada; Polaris for Sadler’s Wells; The Seasons’ Canon and Body and Soul for The Paris Opera Ballet; and Flight Pattern / Light of Passage for The Royal Ballet. For Pite’s own company, Kidd Pivot, he designed Dark Matters, The Tempest Replica, Betroffenheit, and most recently, Revisor.
Tom Visser has been working since 2004 as a lighting designer in productions by Johan Inger, Crystal Pite, Stijn Celis, Medhi Walerski, Peeping Tom and Alexander Ekman. His lighting designs have been seen in Nederlands Dans Theater, Royal Opera House, Sydney Dance Company and Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, among others. In addition to his work for the stage, Tom has created art installations and projects with interactive media.
Nancy Bryant works widely as a designer in dance, theatre, opera and film. Her home is on the west coast of Canada in Vancouver. Previous collaborations with Pite include Body and Soul and The Seasons’ Canon (Paris Opera), Flight Pattern (Royal Ballet), Figures in Extinction, Partita, Parade and Plot Point (Netherlands Dance Theater), Revisor, The Tempest Replica (Kidd Pivot) and Betroffenheit (Kidd Pivot/Electric Co.), Angels’ Atlas (National Ballet of Canada / Zurich Opera House), and most recently, Light of Passage (Royal Ballet / Norwegian National Ballet). Bryant’s work has brought her together with various teams of fellow designers, directors, writers and choreographers to theatres and production workshops across Canada, the USA, the UK and to Europe. Her approach to costume design has been influenced by her visual arts background and many years of exceptional collaborations with some of Canada’s most innovative and groundbreaking theatre artists.
Spencer Dickhaus is a freelance dancer, teacher and creator. Most recently Mr. Dickhaus danced with Hofesh Shechter Company on their tour of Grand Finale. Later this year, he will continue to set work by Crystal Pite at Zurich Opera Ballet. As a teacher he has worked with Nederlands Dans Theater, Nuova Officina della Danza (Torino) and Princess Grace Academy (Monaco). For seven seasons (2012 - 2019), he was a member of Nederlands Dans Theater where he had the privilege of working with internationally recognized choreographers including Crystal Pite, Hofesh Shechter, Jiří Kylián, Alexander Ekman, Franck Chartier et Gabriela Carrizo, Sharon Eyal, Gai Behar, Johan Inger, Paul Lightfoot and Sol Leon. He graduated with a BFA from The Juilliard School in 2012, after completing the LINES Ballet Training Program in San Francisco. Mr. Dickhaus currently lives in The Hague, Netherlands.
Jeff Morris joined The National Ballet of Canada in 1995. Born in Toronto, he studied technical theatre production and administration at Ryerson's Theatre School. From 1990 to 1995, he was Production Stage manager for Toronto Dance Theatre, including the company's debuts in Berlin, Warsaw, Tokyo and at the Joyce Theater. He was Production Stage manager for Dancers For Life (1991-1997), Stage Manager for Théatre Passe-Muraille (Never Swim Alone) and for the Fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists.
Since joining the National Ballet, he has stage-managed a wide range of the company's unique classical and contemporary repertoire, including the world premieres of James Kudelka's The Four Seasons, Cinderella and An Italian Straw Hat, Crystal Pite's Emergence and Angels's Atlas, Guillaume Côté's Le Petit Prince and Frame by Frame (with Robert Lepage). Company premieres include John Neumeier's The Seagull, A Streetcar Named Desire, Nijinsky and Anna Karenina, and Christopher Wheeldon's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter's Tale.
He is an adjunct faculty member at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and Festival Co-Director for dance:made in Canada/fait au Canada.
Liliane Stilwell joined The National Ballet of Canada in 2015 and has stage managed The Merry Widow, Onegin, Giselle, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and Pinocchio. Previously she served as stage manager for the Canadian Opera Company for 22 years. Highlights include Don Quixote, Barber of Seville, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Cenerentola, Otello, Marriage of Figaro, Götterdämmerung (complete Ring Cycle) Macbeth, La Bohème, Eugene Onegin and Madame Butterfly and was part of the team that took Oedipus Rex to the Edinburgh International Festival. She was production stage manager for Grease and stage manager for Robin Hood and Cinderella at the Elgin Theatre, Dirty Dancing at the Royal Alexandra Theatre and Hairspray at the Princess of Wales Theatre. Other credits include Tom Jones, Speed-The-Plow, Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Big River, Carousel, Me and My Girl and Roar of the Greasepaint - Smell of the Crowd. Ms. Stilwell has stage managed several industrial shows in Canada and the US.