Overview
The National Ballet School provides a full-time program which combines classical ballet training with academic education from Grades 6 through 12 at its boarding school. The School offers intensive specialized dance training after Grade 12 and a full-time teacher-training program.
The National Ballet School plays a significant role in revitalizing a neglected part of the city. Its stunning architectural form and its seamless ease with neighbouring heritage buildings help bring a sense of elegance to its site. Located on 400 Jarvis street, the building faces onto the busy street with tall glass structures, creating connections with the exterior and the interior. Composed of 4 main building masses, the NBS scheme is admired for its seamless wholeness. Several architects have played a significant role in building and expanding the NBS. Project Grand Jete, which is the expansion plan for the Celia Franca Centre was planned and executed by Kuwabara Payne Mckenna Blumberg Architects. In collaboration the Goldsmith Borgal & Company, executed the restoration and redesign of the heritage buildings. These separate buildings play and interact with one another to achieve a harmonious unity. In architectural aspect and in cultural aspect this building captures the beauty of the history of its site and successfully reform it to achieve a grander and more modern presence within the city.
The School was founded in 1959 by two Englishwomen, Celia Franca and Betty Oliphant, on the model set forth by England's Royal Ballet and its associated Royal Ballet School. It was directed for many years by co-founder Betty Oliphant (also British) to train dancers primarily for the National Ballet of Canada, but also for companies across Canada and around the world. Alumni of the school include Martine van Hamel, Frank Augustyn, Neve Campbell, Rex Harrington, Karen Kain (current Artistic Director of the Company), James Kudelka (former Artistic Director of the Company), Veronica Tennant, Martine Lamy, John Alleyne, and Mavis Staines. Miss Staines is the current Artistic Director of The National Ballet School.
Since 1959, the School has trained hundreds of professional dance teachers – teachers who in turn have inspired and guided tens of thousands of young dancers in every part of Canada and on all five continents. It is one of the preeminent training facilities in the world for both dancers and teachers, setting crucially extraordinary standards for ballet internationally.
Each year, The School conducts outreach tours in twenty or more cities across Canada. Students have come to The National from every province in Canada – and from many other countries including the United States, Japan, Korea, and Sweden.
Admission to The National Ballet School is highly competitive. Students are accepted after an audition on the basis of merit alone, with financial assistance available depending on family means. Over fifty percent of NBS families receive some sort of financial aid. Students who make it through the initial auditions must pass an intensive summer at The School continuing to audition, and some are then accepted and asked to train at The School in the fall. At the end of each academic year, students are evaluated and asked back to continue training the following year if they have shown progress and promise.
The School's mission has expanded to from just training their students to dance with The National Ballet of Canada to also preparing them to dance with other major ballet companies in Canada and throughout the world . Alumni of The School can be seen dancing at many prestigious companies world-wide, including The Royal Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater, (the former) Frankfurt Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, The Royal Danish Ballet, The Royal Swedish Ballet, The San Francisco Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet, and many others.
In addition to the core Professional Ballet/Academic Program, the School offers a post-secondary advanced dance training program (IDP: Intensive Dance Program, often affiliated with the apprenticeship program with the Company, now known as the PSP, or Post Secondary Program), a Teacher Training Program (TTP), summer school, student and adult recreational classes throughout the year, teachers’ seminars, and teacher and pianist workshops as part of its annual national recruitment tour. Over 700 students and their families access The School’s programs each week with an additional 150 auditionees joining the student body for the annual summer school.
The School originally trained most of its students in the British version of the Cecchetti method (Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing -- ISTD, which differs sharply from the less-developed version taught by the Cecchetti Council of America. While Cecchetti has been the root of The National's training, most of the year was not developed to preparing for syllabus exams. Instead, The National developed its own system of training and used the ISTD Cecchetti exams at the end of the year to gage and assess its own students by inviting external ISTD examiners from England to examine its students. In the Upper School at The National, students were exposed to the Vaganova method by Russian and other Soviet teachers. Classical Spanish dance (namely Flamenco), Character Dance, and Modern Dance were included into the system of training to make well-rounded and versatile dancers. Students no longer prepare for the ISTD Cecchetti Exams, however those enrolled in the Teacher Training Program may do so, or elect to study Royal Academy of Dance or RAD syllabus, or the Vaganova method.
The National Ballet School also has an Associates Program for training of other students which is not affiliated with its academic boarding school. They teach Hip Hop, Jazz, and ballet. The current head of the Associates Program is Laurel Toto, a graduate of the Teacher Training Program.
The School also has a strong international reputation. Mavis Staines, the School’s Artistic Director, served for many years as Artistic President of the Prix de Lausanne, the most prestigious international competition for emerging young dancers held yearly in Lausanne, Switzerland.
In 2007, a major extension to The National Ballet School was completed and composed of three main structures, the Celia Franca Centre, which contains a curtain wall with the opening scene of the Nutcracker engraved into the glass panels, a “Bar” building, and a six storey “North Tower” building, which consist of three large studio spaces, each stacked on top of the other. The whole composition of the site weaves together beautifully since the school’s structure is able to incorporate the heritage buildings that surround it on Jarvis Street. The combination of these Victorian buildings with the contemporary architecture of the ballet school creates an interesting composition. The entire structure is composed of glass panels put together to create floor to ceiling windows, allowing the passers-by on Jarvis Street to get a glimpse of the art of ballet, and bringing the beauty of dance to the street.
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