Ballet BC

Founded in 1986 by David Y.H. Lui, Jean Orr, and Sheila Begg, Ballet BC is Canada’s leading contemporary dance company. Based in Vancouver and led by Artistic Director Medhi Walerski, the company performs at venues throughout British Columbia and on the world’s best stages. Ballet BC dancers are a group of open-minded and curious artists, each unique for their exceptional artistry while sharing an intuitive passion for movement. Deeply committed to new creation in addition to presenting masterworks from today’s most sought-after voices in dance, Ballet BC’s diverse repertoire includes works by choreographers such as Crystal Pite, Johan Inger, Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar, Medhi Walerski, Out Innerspace, Imre and Marne van Opstal, Roy Assaf, and Micaela Taylor. The company offers a variety of professional development and educational opportunities in the community, aiming to bring the power of dance to the widest audience possible.

Medhi Walerski, Artistic Director of Ballet BC

Medhi Walerski became Artistic Director of Ballet BC in July 2020. Raised in France, he initially trained in Normandy with Laurie Bokobza and Christine Caroly before joining the Conservatoire Superieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. Walerski danced at the Paris Opera Ballet and the Ballet du Rhin before joining the Nederlands Dans Theater in 2001. For more than a decade he was an integral part of the company, contributing to the creative, innovative style that NDT is famed for. He was awarded the Dutch dance prize VSCD Zwaan in 2013.

Walerski has worked closely with many renowned choreographers, creating alongside and performing works by Jiří Kylián, William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin, George Balanchine, Rudolf Nureyev, Paul Lightfoot and Sol Leon, Crystal Pite, Johan Inger, and Wayne McGregor among others. Walerski’s choreographic debut was in 2008 for NDT 2. Since then, he has created numerous acclaimed works for NDT and Ballet BC including Petite Cérémonie (2011), Chamber (2012), GARDEN (2016) and Silent Tides (2021), as well as works for Bern Ballet, Goteborg Ballet, the Ballet State of Georgia, StaatBallet Hannover, Staattheater Wiesbaden and Charlotte Ballet. His newest creation, just BEFORE right AFTER, premiered in February 2022.

As an educator, he is regularly invited to lecture and give workshops at dance conservatories and festivals around the world.

Crystal Pite, Choreographer

In a choreographic career spanning three decades, Crystal Pite has created over 50 works for companies including The Royal Ballet, The Paris Opera Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater I, Cullberg Ballet, Ballett Frankfurt, The National Ballet of Canada, Ballets Jazz Montréal (resident choreographer 2001–04), and Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. Pite is a Member of the Order of Canada, and is the recipient of numerous awards including the Benois de la Danse, Canada Council Jacqueline Lemieux Prize, Grand Prix de la danse de Montréal, two UK Critics’ Circle Dance Awards, four Laurence Olivier Awards, and the 2022 Governor General’s Performing Arts Award. She began her dance career as a company member of Ballet British Columbia (Ballet BC), then William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt, and is currently Associate Choreographer of Nederlands Dans Theater I, Associate Dance Artist of Canada’s National Arts Centre, and Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells in London. She holds an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University and is a Member of the Order of Canada. In 2002, she formed Kidd Pivot in Vancouver.