Karen Cain

Karen Alexandria Kain (born March 28, 1951 in Hamilton / Ontario ) is a Canadian ballet dancer .

Life

Cain had ballet lessons from the age of six. She attended the National Ballet School in Toronto from 1962 to 1968 , where Betty Oliphant was her teacher. In 1969 she became a member of the National Ballet of Canada , to which she was a solo dancer from 1970 until the end of her career in 1997. 1971 began her successful collaboration with Frank Augustyn , with whom she appeared in classics such as Coppélia , Le Corsaire , Romeo and Juliet , The Nutcracker and Swan Lake and won first prize for the best pas de deux at the 1973 Moscow International Ballet Competition . Between 1973 and 1984 she performed internationally with Rudolf Nureyev .

With the National Ballet she has appeared in productions such as Ann Ditchburn's Mad Shadows , Constantin Patsala's Rite of Spring , Sinfonia and Oiseaux exotiques , Glen Tetley's Alice , La Ronde and Tagore , John Alleynes Time Out with Lola , Christopher Houses Café Dances , John Neumeiers Now and Then and Dominique Dumais ' Tides of Mind . She had a close artistic partnership with James Kudelka .

From 1972 to 1982 Kain was a guest dancer at the Ballet National de Marseille , from 1984 she was a guest at the Eliot Feld Ballet Company . In 1981 she toured China with Augustyn as a dancer and teacher. Pat Ferns produced three documentaries about her (1979, 1989 and 1994), and she was portrayed by Andy Warhol in 1980.

In 1997, after 26 years, Kain embarked on her farewell tour as an active dancer with the National Ballet of Canada under the direction of the impresario Garth Drabinsky . She remained with the National Ballet as artist in residence and from 2000 as artistic associate and after Kudelka's resignation in 2005 she became artistic director of the ballet. From 2004 to 2008 she was a board member of the Canada Council for the Arts . She was honored as an officer and as a Companion des Order of Canada in 1996, was the first Canadian to receive the Cartier Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996 , was honored by the French government as an Officier des Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2000 , and received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award in 2002 and in 2011 the Distinguished Artist Award of the International Society for the Performing Arts . Cain is married to actor Ross Petty .

Web links

• The Canadian Encyclopedia - Karen Kain
• film reference - Karen Kain Biography
• Library and Archives Canada - Karen Kain