After a very busy yet incredibly rewarding year of YOU dance shows and company performances as an Apprentice with The National Ballet of Canada, I am so grateful to be joining as a member of the Corps de Ballet for the 2010/11 season. I am particularly excited for the wide range of repertoire planned for this season and can’t wait to start rehearsals in August for Wayne McGregor’s Chroma, which I will be understudying. I’m also looking forward to start working with the new Apprentices on a Hip Hop piece I choreographed for YOU dance.

Ever since I was little, I remember hearing people talk, always quite favorably, of the National Ballet. So when I came here last August, I had built up this image of the company as an ideal place to be, solely in terms of my dance career. What I did not know then, was how close everyone in the company is with one another. They are truly like a huge family. The relationships that everyone has developed offstage are not only visible onstage but they make the dancing so much more meaningful for both the audience and the dancers. For me, what makes the National Ballet’s performances unique is that they are not focused on what the dancers can do but rather who they are. I am looking forward to becoming a part of this family next year and I can’t wait to start the new season!

Additional dancers who will be joining the company as members of the Corps de Ballet are: Adji Cissoko, Allynne Noelle, Joseph Steinauer, Ji Min Hong, Jaclyn Oakley and Giorgio Galli.

[Photo by: Sian Richards.]