Seven months ago, I had the craziest day. In less than 24 hours, I had my final performance of the 2008/09 season, I got a surprise promotion to Second Soloist and I had an email waiting in my inbox informing me that I had received my first official commission as a choreographer. The next day, I went on layoff for seven weeks. Crazy 24 hours!

Well, seven months later, my choreographic commission has run its full course. I applied for this award a couple months before those legendary 24 hours but really, it all started back in January 2009 when I performed in a work by up-and-coming Toronto-based Choreographer Pamela Rasbach titled inCORPORATION. Her work had been commissioned by a not-for-profit organization called Dance Ontario, which, through a program called Creative Partnerships, is able to commission two brand new works every year. These pieces are then performed at Dance Ontario’s annual DanceWeekend, a three-day festival that showcases a large assortment of local dance artists. After having a fantastic experience performing at the event in Pamela’s piece last year (Ms. Rasbach is now the Artistic Director of her own company, Typecast Dance Company), I decided that this year, I would apply for the Creative Partnerships Commission myself!

I have been experimenting with choreography since I was a student at Canada’s National Ballet School. More recently, my choreography has become a much more serious interest. I have made several pieces over the past few years and these have been shown at the National Ballet’s Choreographic Lab and in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre’s free concert series. You can imagine my excitement at having been now chosen to create a new piece – with a budget – and a real stage!

I wanted to make the most of this opportunity, so I assembled a great team to help me with the project. My cast was made up of National Ballet dancers Klara Houdet, Jenna Savella, Aarik Wells, Christopher Stalzer and James Leja and Ballet Jörgen Canada dancer Cristina Tucciarone. Multi-talented National Ballet dancer Krista Dowson made the costumes, former National Ballet dancer Jacob Niedzwiecki and his colleague Ryan Fontaine made the poster and dancer/artist Angel Wong (formerly of Ballet Jörgen Canada) designed the sets. (This is the beauty of having talented friends.)

My piece was called In the Cantina and made use of an electronic score and various production elements to evoke the atmosphere of a Depression-era watering-hole… with a contemporary edge. It wasn’t easy to put all of the elements together while continuing to work full-time at the company but my whole team truly rose to the occasion and we all worked multiple weekends and evenings to make sure the piece was ready in time.

All in all, I was very happy with the end result. Special thanks to Rosslyn Jacob Edwards, Executive Director of Dance Ontario, and Janelle Rainville, Stage Manager of DanceWeekend, for all of their amazing work. To find out more about Dance Ontario, visit http://www.danceontario.ca/

Robert Stephen is sponsored through Dancers First by Mr. Thor Eaton & The Honourable Nicole Eaton, Senator.

[Photos by Karen Roberts. Top: Jenna Savella with Cristina Tucciarone, James Leja and Christopher Stalzer. Centre: Klara Houdet and Christopher Stalzer. Above: Cristina Tucciarone, James Leja and Jenna Savella]

On Saturday, January 16 at 5:27 am, Second Soloist Alejandra Perez Gomez and her husband Theo Edmands welcomed their new son Julian Alberto Edmands into the world.

Julian was born at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. The family is now at home, enjoying their first week together. Alejandra says, “Words can’t describe how much joy this little person has brought into our lives - we can’t wait for him to meet everyone!”

Christmas Eve was full of extra magic this year for Principal Dancer Greta Hodgkinson and First Soloist Etienne Lavigne who welcomed their son, Maxime Ashod Lavigne, into the world at 4:41 pm on December 24, 2009.

Maxime is the first child for the couple who were married in July 2008. The family is now at home and all are healthy and happy. Ms. Hodgkinson is expected to return to the stage in the Summer Season for performances of Onegin.

Second Soloist Alejandra Perez-Gomez and her husband Theo Edmands are also expecting their first child, due later this month.

[Photos: Top and centre, Greta Hodgkinson, Etienne Lavigne and Maxime Ashod Lavigne. Photos courtesty of Etienne Lavigne. Above, Alejandra Perez-Gomez. Photo by Sian Richards.]

Each year, one of the most fun aspects of my job as Publicity Coordinator for The National Ballet of Canada is inviting local celebrities and media to join the dancers onstage in The Nutcracker in the cameo role of the Cannon Dolls. Guests have included well-known figures from the sports world like Kurt Browning and Ron MacLean; reality TV stars like Zack Werner and Jake Gold and figures from the media world including Shinan Govani, Heather Hiscox and Susan Hay, who celebrated her 13th anniversary in The Nutcracker with us in December.

When reassuring some of our guests that there is nothing to worry about moments before they make their appearance with The National Ballet of Canada, I have gotten a few reactions that included “That’s easy for you to say! You’re not the one going onstage!” All of that changed on December 22 when Publicity Intern Emily Burke and I made our debuts in these coveted roles. My job with the National Ballet has led me to some fairly unusual places – rooftop photo shoots, public school gymnasiums, costume storage rooms and ballet studio rehearsals – but until now, never onstage during a performance.

The experience was quite unique for us as we had been watching the variations on the Cannon Doll roles all season. Knowing the dancers who we were sharing the stage with made all the difference – there were no nerves and everyone seemed to trust that we knew what we were doing. Rex Harrington led us through a one-minute micro version of the already brief pre-show rehearsal and we got into costume.

After putting on the clown-like costumes (which really do get you instantly into character), we met Corps de Ballet member Brendan Saye backstage, who seemed to enjoy the break from playing host for a night. The backstage area was a buzz of activity: stagehands took part in the snowball fight whenever a stray ball rolled offstage, a snow maiden carried her infant son to show him the enormous set pieces and tiny mice scurried about, preparing for their entrance.

Our time onstage came and went, and as most Cannon Dolls agree, it was over far too fast. Rex Harrington and Karen Kain made a guest appearance as Cannon Dolls in a 2008 performance during a snowstorm, so I suppose you could now say that I have shared a role with Karen Kain? Either way, being onstage for a National Ballet performance is a dream come true and I was thrilled to have had this experience.

See what others thought of their Cannon Doll experiences in their blogs, articles and Twitter posts:

Victoria Ahearn, Canadian Press Entertainment Reporter
Lisa Tant, Editor-in-Chief of Flare
Amy Verner, Globe and Mail Style Reporter
Maura Grierson, Virgin Radio Host

[Photos: Top, Brendan Saye, Wendy Liebner and Emily Burke in The Nutcracker. Photo by Bruce Zinger. Centre, Ron Maclean and Kurt Browning backstage. Photo by Catherine Chang. Above, Wendy Liebner and Emily Burke backstage. Photo by Lisa Robinson]