Best Dance Company: Alberta Ballet Company
Captured by Neil Zeller
The Alberta Ballet Company has been instrumental to Calgary’s professional dance scene over the years, winning this award yet again. Founded in the late 1950s, it helped shape the Canadian dance landscape into what it is today. Since the 1990s, the Alberta Ballet Company has been based in the Nat Christie Centre in Calgary, with the group also performing their entire season in their twin home city, Edmonton. Under the guidance of Finnish ballet dancer Mikki Nissinen and perhaps reaching the height of the company’s international fame, he introduced Balanchine works into the Alberta Ballet Company’s catalogue as well as commissioned works from choreographers all over the world and toured the company through China, Finland and Egypt.
Today, the Alberta Ballet Company features dancers from all over the world under the artistic guidance of Jean Grand-Maitre. Throughout the past decade, the Alberta Ballet Company continued to build its reputation through the Joni Mitchell collaboration Fiddle and the Drum, the Elton John collaboration Elton: Love Lies Bleeding and pieces from acclaimed choreographers, such as the UK’s Christopher Wheeldon, Finland’s Jorma Elo and Canada’s own Sabrina Matthews.
The 2018/2019 season will end in May with Joni Mitchell’s The Fiddle and the Drum, and subscribers are already securing their seats for 2019/2020. The line up ahead will feature a terrifying portrayal of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a sublime re-staging of the masterpiece Swan Lake, and the legendary family fairy tales (Peter Pan! And of course, the grand tradition, The Nutcracker).
FIRST RUNNER UP: DECIDEDLY JAZZ DANCEWORKS
SECOND RUNNER UP: BURLESQUE BURN