Dancer-turned-director Veronica Tennant is also up for an award for the film under “Best Direction in a Performing Arts Program or Series.”

The Geminis celebrate excellence in Canadian English-language television.

The broadcast premiere of a pairing of SwanS took place March 3, 2005, on CBC Television’s Opening Night.

In the film Hart and Harrington danced mirror-image solos and were joined respectively by the renowned cellists Amanda Forsyth and Shauna Rolston, as well as celebrated harpist Judy Loman.

From Soweto, South Africa, Mantsoe carries the audience through a mystical journey in NDAA, as he literally transforms on stage, beginning this solo by building an internal rhythm that allows him to enter a trance-like state. In Motswa Hole, he explores how culture and traditions changes from one generation to the next.

The 2005-2006 season opened with David Bintley’s heartwarming Hobson’s Choice, along with three one-act ballets created by some of the founders of modern British ballet — Solitaire, Checkmate and Lady and the Fool.

The Seasons and Carmina burana come to the Hippodrome in February, followed by the classic The Sleeping Beauty.

In May, the company continues its celebration of the work of Igor Stravinsky with a mixed programme of Apollo, Pulcinella and The Firebird.

The season will end with family-favourite La Fille mal gardée.

In addition, Artistic Director Reid Anderson has compiled a programme reflecting the full range of works specifically created for the Stuttgart Ballet, from the early years under John Cranko to today’s generation of young choreographers.

Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew and Onegin are three legendary works to be featured this season. Then, John Neumeier’s classics The Lady of the Camelias, created for Márcia Haydée, and The Sleeping Beauty continue the season’s focus on narrative ballets.

From October 19 to 30, the company revisited the Dora Award-nominated Tziganes from 2004. The season also brings the cutting-edge Dancemakers Presents series, which features edgy new works by independent Canadian choreographers such as EDAM Dance’s Peter Bingham and Wen Wei Wang, who together bring a full-length duet called thirst, November 23-26.
As well, Susan Elliott from B.C.’s Anatomica and Dominique Porte from Montreal-based Système D bring works in January and March respectively.

While welcoming Body back, Artistic Director Karen Kain is wishing second soloist Jean-Sébastien Colau the best as he prepares to leave the National Ballet to become a member of the Leipzig Ballet in Germany in August. He was invited to Germany by Leipzig Ballet’s artistic director, Paul Chalmer, a former dancer with the National Ballet.

The institute was founded in spring 2000 by Irene Diamond and Peter Martins to promote the development of choreographers and dancers interested in choreography by providing opportunities to develop their talents.

The piece showcases a 30-minute contemporary work performed by three distinct generations of dancers performing the same choreography, one group after another, with each generation lending its own colour and identity to the same movements.

At age 70, Boneham remains Canada’s longest serving artistic director in contemporary dance.

His extensive career began in 1949 with the Mercury Ballet Co. in New York. He later worked with the William Dollar Concert Ballet, Metropolitan Opera Ballet and Baltimore Civic Ballet, in addition to performing musical comedies on Broadway.

Boneham moved to Canada in the 1960s to join Les Grands Ballet Canadiens and, in 1967, joined the modern dance company Le Groupe de le Place Royale as founding assistant director. He later became artistic director and choreographed a multitude of dance works such as What Happened?, The Collector of Cold Weather and Living Room.

He became a citizen of Canada in 1977 and relocated Le Group to Ottawa, where he later founded the Dance Lab, a groundbreaking centre that nurtures pure choreographic research to push the art form forward.

Ballet dancers Evelyn Hart, Martine Lamy, Christopher Body, Stephanie Hutchison joined contemporary dancers Johanna Bergfeldt and Danielle Denichaud in the programme.

That’s why he wants to develop his modern dance company into an institute for the promotion, licensing and teaching of his own choreography.

“I intend to secure a solid future for my choreography, to leave something behind that can inspire future generations,” he adds.

To celebrate, he will present a cavalcade of Grossman greats, entitled Greatest Hits, Volume 1, in Toronto, January 25-28, 2006. Some of the works will be National Spirit, La Valse and Passion Symphony.

The company will also host a two-day national conference, entitled Endangered Dance: A Dance Preservation Forum, January 19-20, to discuss dance heritage issues.

“Many of the issues currently facing ballet companies cannot be looked at in isolation and must be shared with the professional schools,” explains Scottish Ballet’s Artistic Director Ashley Page.

The focus of this retreat will be on nurturing talent in the 21st-century dancer, from encouraging individuality to avoiding infantalization during training and beyond.

“I am truly honoured and privileged,” says Farrell, whose ballet company, the Suzanne Farrell Ballet, in Washington, D.C., is supported by the Kennedy Center. “I loved dancing and how fortunate I am to have had a career I loved doing.”

Farrell, 60, began her dance career when she auditioned for George Balanchine on her 15th birthday and was selected for the School of American Ballet. A year later, she was promoted to the corps of the New York City Ballet. Balanchine went on to create ballets for Farrell, including Don Quixote and Meditation.

After she retired in 1989, she worked to preserve Balanchine’s legacy and pass it down to younger generations of dancers. In 1993, she began an association with the Kennedy Center, which lead to the creation of her full-fledged company.
The other four honourees joining Farrell are actor Robert Redford, singer Tina Turner, singer Tony Bennett and theatre legend Julie Harris.