Canada's top five ballet companies are collaborating on a new summer training program for young dancers at the Banff Centre in Alberta.

Dancers from the National Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Alberta Ballet and Ballet British Columbia will be selected for a program to begin in 2008.

Dancers Phillip Payne, Natalia Fiorioni and Brett Taylor, left to right, in Butterfly Affect, choreographed by Joe Laughlin, at the Banff Centre for the Arts in 2007. A new training program is to begin this summer.Dancers Phillip Payne, Natalia Fiorioni and Brett Taylor, left to right, in Butterfly Affect, choreographed by Joe Laughlin, at the Banff Centre for the Arts in 2007. A new training program is to begin this summer.
(Don Lee/Banff Centre)

The program will put dancers from different companies together to expose them to "a wide range of styles and approaches," according to Sarah Iley, vice-president of programming for the Banff Centre.

"It will also give these talented young dancers a tremendous opportunity to
collaborate on the development and performance of a new piece," she said.

At the end of the five-week program, the dancers will perform a new choreographic work as part of the annual Banff summer Arts Festival.

Lindsay Fischer, head of the National Ballet of Canada's apprenticeship program and a former principal dancer with the Het Nationale Ballet in the Netherlands and the New York City Ballet, has been hired as program director.

Faculty and repertoire for the 2008 season will be announced soon, the Banff Centre said in a news release.

The dancers will be working with the winner of the Clifford E. Lee Award in Choreography, which provides an opportunity for a Canadian choreographer to premiere a new dance piece and work with a dance company at the Banff Centre.

The new program has been created with the support and collaboration of the artistic directors of Canada's top five ballet programs:

  • Gradimir Pankov at Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal.
  • Karen Kain at the National Ballet of Canada.
  • Andre Lewis of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.
  • Jean Grand-Maître at Alberta Ballet.
  • John Alleyne of Ballet British Columbia.

The Banff Centre has had a dance program since 1947 and Banff alumni dance in every company in Canada.