Anik Bissonnette, who has enchanted Montreal audiences since 1990 as principal dancer for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal, is preparing to step down.

Principal dancer Anik Bisssonnette is leaving Les Grands Ballets Canadiens after 18 years.
(Martine Doucet/Les Grands Ballet)

Bissonnette, 45, plans her last appearance as principal dancer on June 6, with a performance of a solo created especially for her at a gala at Place des Arts in Montreal.

Choreographer José Navas has created a solo called Limpido Amor with music from Rachmaninov's Vespers to showcase Bissonnette's expressive dancing for the final time.

"Her dancing, bursting with richness and maturity, was my main source of inspiration. Also, her vocation as a dancer brought to mind two words: limpidity and love," Navas said of Bissonnette.

Also part of the show are the Polyphonia duet by Christopher Wheeldon and Noces by Stjin Celis, which will allow Bissonnette to share the stage with her dance family from Les Grands Ballets Canadiens.

Bissonnette, much admired for her musical sensitivity and her fluid movement, joined the Montreal classical dance company in 1989.

Bissonnette will dance a new solo, written for her by José Navas, at a gala on June 6.
(Carl Lessard/Les Grands Ballets)

As principal ballerina, she has worked with choreographer James Kudelka, who designed Désir, romance, plaisirs solitaires for her, and Montrealer Ginette Laurin, who saw her as a tightrope walker in Funambules.

She has also taken on many of the major roles of classical ballet in works such as The Nutcracker, Coppelia, La fille mal gardée, Giselle and Swan Lake.

She insists she is not retiring from dancing, but will continue as an independent dancer. She is also artistic director for Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur and has taken on a challenging public role as president of a Quebec dancers' organization.

"People ask if I'll stop dancing. I won't stop," she said in an interview with an Ottawa-based newspaper. "It's like a drug. I need it, physically and mentally."

Bissonnette plans to work with local choreographers such as Édouard Lock, and her partner, former Les Grands principal dancer Mario Radacovsky.

Singled out for her musical interpretation

A Montrealer, Bissonnette trained at l'École de danse Eddy Toussaint and spent five years with the Toussaint company before joining Les Grands Ballets.

She was immediately singled out because of her long limbs and flexibility, as well as her musical interpretation. She has spent the last 17 years as the ballet's principal dancer.

Bissonnette is a Quebec cultural icon, but also has an international following after touring and participating in dance galas around the world.

She has loaned her talents as a trainer to athletes such as diver Alexandre Despatie and figure skater Joannie Rochette.

In 1995, Bissonnette was named an officer of the Order of Canada and, in 1996, Chevalier de l'Ordre du Québec.