Ballet BC is very pleased to announce that Medhi Walerski will become the Company’s new Artistic Director, effective July 2020. Walerski succeeds Emily Molnar, who will leave at the end of the current season to become the Artistic Director of Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT).
Walerski brings a broad international network and a reputation for artistic excellence. The Company’s Search Committee for the new Artistic Director has the utmost confidence in his ability to lead an artistic team and achieve a highly polished artistic product, for which Ballet BC has become known. In working closely with the Company over the past several years, Walerski has a deep knowledge of and respect for the vision that Molnar has maintained, and brings his own highly inspiring vision for the Company. His programming objectives for the Company are fresh, collaborative, and ambitious, and will continue to enhance the Company’s reputation as a national and international dance organization and ensure the continued path of immense growth.
Walerski launched his dance career at the Paris Opera Ballet, and eventually became a company member with NDT for more than a decade. He made his choreographic debut with NDT in 2008 and since then, Walerski has continued to create for NDT as well as other companies as an independent choreographer, including Ballet BC. He created the highly successful Petite Céremonie, a work that has toured across the globe and remained a highlight of Ballet BC’s repertoire. Walerski has since created a number of works for Ballet BC, including 2018’s Romeo + Juliet — his first full-length narrative work — which has become the company’s most successful production to date.
Said Medhi Walerski, “I am honored and thrilled to be joining Ballet BC as Artistic Director, and to work and collaborate with its incredible artists and team. Building on the Company’s legacy, and sharing the diverse and innovative creative vision of Ballet BC with audiences across Canada and the world is something that I look forward to with great anticipation.”
“Our Search Committee has selected an artist of the highest calibre to assume the artistic lead for the Company, and I am very confident that Medhi’s ambitious and contemporary vision will continue the legacy that Emily built as Artistic Director in her 11-year tenure with the Company,” said Linda Brown, President and Board Chair. “I look forward to working with Medhi in not only sustaining the Company’s status as a leader in the international dance community, but in expanding the Company’s connection to Vancouver, British Columbia, and Canada.”
Emily Molnar added “I am thrilled the Company will move into a new era with Medhi. An inspired emerging leader, Medhi’s accomplishments as an internationally renowned dancer, as well as his 8-year choreographic affiliation with the Company will surely bring Ballet BC forward with a fresh new vision.”
Ballet BC is thrilled about this next step in artistic leadership. Walerski’s first full season as Artistic Director in 2020/21 will coincide with the company’s 35th anniversary.
Photo by Rahi Rezvani.
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