Royal Winnipeg Ballet

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is one of the world's premier dance companies. Based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, it is Canada's oldest ballet company and the longest continuously operating ballet company in North America.

It was founded in 1939 as the "Winnipeg Ballet Club" by Gweneth Lloyd and Betty Farrally. The name was changed to the "Winnipeg Ballet" in 1941 and the company began touring Canada in 1945. In 1948, with the initiative of the Winnipeg Ballet, the Canadian Ballet Festival was formed.

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet was granted its royal title in 1953, the first granted under the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. It completed its first American tour in 1954. In June that year the RWB's rented premises were devastated by fire; the company's entire stock of costumes, original music, choreographic scores and sets was destroyed. Conductor Eric Wild served as the company's music director from 1955 to 1962.

The company solidified its reputation under the artistic directorship of Saskatchewan-born Arnold Spohr from 1958 to 1988. Spohr, who first joined the company as a dancer in 1945, during his tenure maintained a strong focus on developing Canadian talent, and, at the same time, he developed the RWB as an international touring company, and actively engaged with choreographers and dancers from around the world to expand the ballet.

André Lewis is the current artistic director; he was appointed in 1996. Lewis' decades-long association with the RWB began in 1975 when he was accepted into the Professional Division at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. In 1979, he was asked to join the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Company and enjoyed an accomplished career as a dancer with the RWB until 1990. Lewis' signature roles include: Gunther in Nutcracker; Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet; and Jamie Paul in The Ecstasy of Rita Joe.

Company Music Director and Conductor is Tad Biernacki and Senior Ballet Master is Johnny W. Chang.

The dancer most associated with the RWB has been Evelyn Hart, but it also included many other notable dancers including Mikhail Baryshnikov. Born in Toronto, Ontario, in 1956, Hart made her professional debut with the RWB in 1976. In 1980, she was awarded the bronze medal at the World Ballet Concours in Japan, and the gold medal at the International Competition in Varna, Bulgaria, where she also received the Exceptional Artistic Achievement Award. She was awarded the Order of Canada in 1983. She left the RWB in 2005. David Peregrine, Hart's long-time partner, joined the Royal Winnipeg Ballet as a member of the corps in 1975 and became a soloist three years later and principal dancer in 1980 – the year he and Hart triumphed in Varna. Peregrine was made an officer of the Order of Canada in 1986.

In 1992, Gweneth Lloyd, co-founder of the company, became the first recipient of the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement.

Today, the company spends 20 or more weeks a year on the road, presenting more than 100 performances every year in centres large and small. The company also mounts four productions a year in Winnipeg's premier performing arts venue, the Centennial Concert Hall.