Love. Sorcery.
TRIUMPH.

ARTISTIC LEADERSHIP

THE 2021/22 SEASON FEATURES CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTORS JEAN GRAND-MAÎTRE AND CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON AS THE COMPANY PREPARES TO CHANGE ARTISTIC LEADERSHIP.

SWAN LAKE ARTISTIC

Co-Artistic Director Christopher Anderson will begin his tenure as Alberta Ballet’s Artistic Director in July 2022.         

Before joining Alberta Ballet in 2015, Anderson enjoyed a 16-year career in professional dance. A graduate of Purchase College’s SUNY Conservatory of Dance, he launched his career at Boston Ballet, and two years later was invited to join Salt Lake City’s Ballet West. During his career, he danced leading roles both nationally and internationally and further had several roles created for him by some of today’s most exciting choreographers.  

In 2015, Alberta Ballet offered Anderson a contract as Ballet Master. Anderson was motivated to accept, given the strong talent he saw in the company’s dancers. He retired from professional dance and joined Alberta Ballet’s leadership team. At the end of his first season, he took on an expanded role of Associate Artistic Director. 

Seeing that the company had a strong foundation of contemporary and theatrical works in its repertoire, Anderson chose to set classics for his first full-length works for Alberta Ballet. He premiered Cinderella in 2017 and The Sleeping Beauty in 2018. In 2019, he also premiered a contemporary one-act Sixth Breath (2019).   

Presently, Anderson is setting Swan Lake for an Alberta Ballet premiere in October. The 2021-22 season will also revive his production of Cinderella.

Christiana is in her fifth season working as part of Alberta Ballet’s artistic team. Previous to her position as Rehearsal Director at Alberta Ballet, she was a Principal dancer with Ballet West for 16 years. While dancing with Ballet West, Bennett was given the opportunity to dance throughout the United States, Europe and Asia where she was met with international acclaim. Some of her favourite ballets to perform were Swan Lake, Balanchine’s Diamonds and Serenade, Ben Stevenson’s Cinderella, Nicolo Fonte’s Bolero, Jiri Kylian’s Sinfonietta, William Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated and Aszure Barton’s Happy Little Things.  Christiana also had many roles created for her by choreographers such as Matthew Neenan, Nicolo Fonte, Helen Pickett, Val Caniparoli, Christopher Anderson, Garrett Smith and Charlotte Boye-Christensen. 

As a native of Massachusetts, most of her training was along the Eastern seaboard at prestigious schools. However, she attributes her career to the training received at Pacific Northwest Ballet School under the tutelage of Francis Russell. 

Originally from Sherbrooke, QB, Nathalie grew up in Montreal and graduated from L’Ecole Supérieure De Danse Du Québec. In her career as a dancer, she had the opportunity to perform with both Les Grands Ballets Canadiens as a supplementary artist, and as a dancer/singer in leading roles with Phantom of the Opera. She has also worked at The Fitness Table studio as a postural Rehabilitation Instructor, as a private Yoga teacher, a Mindfulness Facilitator instructor, and as a Ballet teacher at both the Wright Studio and Alberta Ballet School in Calgary. Nathalie has also earned certifications and training in an extensive variety of fitness, dance, and wellness areas including her Postural Rehabilitation Certification, Certification in Yoga for both adults and children, Mindfulness Facilitator Certification, and she is also a Cecchetti Licentiate.

Peter Farmer (1941–2017) was a leading figure in British theatre design. His many designs for The Royal Ballet included Giselle (1971), Winter Dreams (1991) and The Sleeping Beauty (1973). Farmer designed for most of the major ballet companies in the world, including the Royal Ballet, London Festival Ballet, London Contemporary Dance Theatre and the Dutch National Ballet, among others. Born in Luton, England, Farmer designed for theatre and ballet from the 1960s including designs for The Sleeping Beauty (Munich Opera House), The Three Musketeers (Australian Ballet), Swan Lake (Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Hong Kong Ballet), and Cinderella for the Cincinnati Ballet. His work is well known around the world, having designed for more than 20 different Ballet and theatre companies over his career. Farmer’s most recent work is on display for the English National Ballet at Royal Albert Hall, London in which Farmer created a brand new Nutcracker in 2011. Farmer had collaborated on numerous occasions with Robert Cohan and Robert North for London Contemporary Dance Theatre. Some of their work includes Cohan’s Stages, No-Man’s Land and Metamorphoses and Crescendo. His work alongside North include Meeting and Parting, David and Goliath and Troy Game.Farmer was a painter and designer, with a keen understanding of how to balance grand stage designs for the entire audience. Farmer created intimate scenes and costumes for the leads which allowed dancers great freedom of movement, and elegantly showed off the choreography.

Renée has designed lighting for productions across Canada, the US, and internationally. Recently, she designed the lighting for the production of The Fantasticks at Stages Repertory Theater in Houston that opened their new theater space. Also in Houston, she was lighting designer for the HGO world premiere of Prince of Players which was remounted at Florentine Opera. In NYC, Renée designed the Broadway lab of Beetlejuice and was Associate Lighting Designer for Farinelli and the King at the Belasco Theatre. 

In Canada, Renée has designed at theatres across the country including The Grand Theatre, Globe Theatre, Watermark Theatre, Charlottetown Festival, Stratford Festival, and Canadian Opera Company. 

She was an Associate for various US and Canadian national tours including Rent, Cats, and a production of Swing! that toured to Japan. 

Other: She was awarded the 2014 Houston Press Theatre Award for Best Lighting Design for The Whipping Man, directed by Seth Gordon. Renée has a BFA and MFA from York University and is a member of Associated Designers of Canada/IATSE ADC659. Her website is: reneebrode.com 

Jarrod Fries is a lighting designer from Orlando, FL. Currently residing in Oklahoma City, Jarrod graduated in 2021 from the University of Oklahoma with a BFA in Theatre Design. While at OU, Jarrod enjoyed designing shows of all genres, most notably the lighting design for The Pearl Fishers, The Wolves, a plethora of original and remounted dance productions, as well as the sound design for A Christmas Carol, Blood Wedding, and original production of The Girl Who Cried Throgmonster at Texas Shakespeare Festival.

Tchaikovsky was a leading Russian composer of the late 19th century whose works are notable for their melodic inspiration and their orchestration. He is regarded as the master composer for classical ballet, as demonstrated by his scores for Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and The Sleeping Beauty. Among the most subjective of composers, Tchaikovsky is inseparable from his music. His work is a manifestation, sometimes charming, often showy, of repressed feelings that became more and more despairing in his later years and were most fully expressed in his Sixth Symphony. Though his later work rejected conscious Russian nationalism, its underlying sentiment and character are as distinctively Russian as that of the Russian nationalist composers.

YEE-HANG YAM Stage Manager

BETTY HUSHLAK Stage Manager

ANDREA GINTER Alberta Ballet Lead Physiotherapist - Momentum Health

Racing driver Leh Keen has accelerated the Porsche Taycan Turbo S to 165.1 km/h inside an exhibition hall in New Orleans, Louisiana. In doing so, he set the world record for the fastest speed driven by a vehicle in an enclosed building. The Porsche Taycan Turbo S is one of the fastest accelerating vehicles in the world and can launch from 0 to  100 km/h in under 2.8 seconds.

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The Porsche Taycan is capable of fast charging from 5-80% in as few as 22.5 minutes charging at speeds of up to 270 kw/h (kilowatt hours) under ideal conditions.

 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

2021/22 GOVERNMENT FUNDERS AND COMMUNITY PARTNERS