National Ballet of Canada

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The National Ballet of Canada is Canada's largest ballet troupe, second in prominence only to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. It was founded by Celia Franca in 1951 and is based in Toronto, Ontario.

The NBC's first performance was in the Eaton Auditorium. 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.

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 responsibile for bringing the Company to Lincoln Center's Metropolitan Opera House in New York City where he showcased the well-trained company. The National Ballet of Canada was met with rave reviews and this was a pivotal point in receiving international recognition as a world-class company. It was also at this venture that the careers of Karen Kain and Frank Augustyn took off. Trained at the School together, Kain and Augustyn received the prize for best pas de deux at the International Ballet Competition in Moscow in 1973.

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.

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.

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).