Sabrina Matthews - Biography

Biography

Sabrina Matthews is a Toronto native and a graduate of the National Ballet School of Canada, attending from 1987-1995. From 1995-2005, she was a leading soloist and aspiring choreographer with Alberta Ballet under artistic directors Mikko Nissinen and Jean Grand-Maitre. Sabrina Matthews danced on four different continents, including several tours all throughout China. Her choreography and dance films have been recognized with several national and international awards, including: the 2008 PACE Award from the Government of Canada (Alberta) as an Outstanding Alumnus of the Banff Centre; a 2006 Ballet VIP Honorable Mention from Pointe Magazine; the 1995 Peter Dwyer award for excellence in dance; the 2005 Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award from the Banff Centre; and a nomination for a 2003 dance film award from the Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association for “Dance to This” 2002, a Bravo!FACT Film.

After creating five pieces for Alberta Ballet and a piece for The New York Choreographic Institute on the School of American Ballet Artistic Director Reid Anderson invited Sabrina Matthews to attend the Noverre Society in 2006 at Stuttgart Ballet. While there, she created soles, which earned rave reviews among the German critics. It was included as part of Stuttgart Ballet’s repertoire and was reprised during Stuttgart’s December Gala. Her “triumph in Europe” led to commissions from some of the world's most pre-eminent ballet companies. Shortly thereafter, she ended her dance career early and pursued choreography full-time.

Since that time, she has created three pieces for the National Ballet of Canada and a second piece for Stuttgart Ballet, all of which have been reprised. In 2008, Sabrina Matthews created a piece for England's Royal Academy of Dance's 2008 Genee International Ballet Competition. She also created a new piece, quondam in 2008 for the Royal Swedish Ballet, which has since been reprised in 2009 and 2010. Sabrina Matthews made her U.S. debut in March 2008 with ein von viel at Boston Ballet to high critical praise. To date, ein von viel has been performed by three different companies for a total of eight reprisals in four different countries and eleven different cities.

In addition to working with major international ballet companies, Sabrina Matthews continues to work closely with her alma mater, Canada's National Ballet School, has choreographed a figure skating solo for four-time world figure-skating champion Kurt Browning, and works for television in North America and Europe, including choreography for the television dance competition So You Think You Can Dance Canada.