About Ballet BC
Led by Artistic Director Medhi Walerski, Ballet BC is Canada’s preeminent contemporary dance company. Founded in 1986 by David Y. H. Lui, Jean Orr and Sheila Begg, with Annette av Paul as founding Artistic Director, Ballet BC has been at the forefront of the creation, production, and education of contemporary dance in Canada and around the world for almost 40 years.
Ballet BC aims to create dance at its most essential: visceral, thought-provoking, and transformative. Attracting top international talent, its twenty dancers are a group of open-minded and curious artists, each unique for their dynamic movement while sharing an intuitive passion for their art form.
The company is deeply committed to creation and collaboration and presents a diverse repertoire that seeks to push the art form forward. Choreographers include William Forsythe, Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar, Medhi Walerski, Crystal Pite, Johan Inger, Imre and Marne van Opstal, Adi Salant, Jiří Kylian, Micaela Taylor, Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber, and Out Innerspace.
Through its bold and distinctive style and approach, Ballet BC has made a unique contribution to the awareness and development of dance in Canada and around the world. Beyond its performances, the company is a leader and resource in the community through a wide range of education and professional development initiatives, which aim to share the power of dance with the widest audience possible.
Performing at Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre and touring nationally and internationally.
Ballet BC performs throughout the year at Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre (QET), as well as on tour provincially, nationally and internationally on some of the world’s most renowned stages.
Through our performances, regional and national tours, community and audience engagement activities and programming for children and youth, more than 50,000 people experience the work of Ballet BC each season.
Ballet BC artists Sarah Pippin and Rae Srivastava in Silent Tides by Medhi Walerski. Image by Michael Slobodian.
Our Home on Granville Island
Ballet BC’s studios and administrative offices are located on Granville Island, Vancouver’s premier arts and culture community.
A substantial rebuild and greening of an existing building, the 18,000 sq ft facility at 1286 Cartwright St features four spacious light-filled studios, a studio viewing gallery, a green room and event space, a health and wellness room, and increased office space for administrative and artistic staff.
Ballet BC artists Kiana Jung and Benjamin Peralta. Photo by Andi McLeish.
Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging
In line with the company’s vision and strategic plan, Ballet BC is deeply committed to combating the systemic racism that exists within our society, and to being an organization that welcomes, amplifies, and celebrates the voices of all ethnicities and cultural identities.
Our company is dedicated to ensuring vital conversations surrounding equity and representation are actively occurring and that Ballet BC continues to pursue, embrace, and enact change within our company, industry, and society as a whole.
Through our Dancers of Today Scholarship program, our Choreographic Lab and Artists in Residence initiatives in partnership with Indigenous choreographers, movement workshops with at-risk youth and alternative schools, and Arts for All and Community Comp ticket programs, the company is continuing to develop meaningful ways to foster an inclusive community around its work, and provide access to arts experiences and education.
Ballet BC artist Sidney Chuckas. Photo by Andi McLeish.
“Ballet BC continues to innovate while combining an awareness of current social injustices and realities.”
– LA Dance Chronicle
