Karen Alexandria Kain, CC (born March 28, 1951 in Hamilton, Ontario) is a retired Canadian ballet dancer.
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Early Training
Karen Kain's mother enrolled her daughter in ballet training because she believed it would improve her posture, poise, and discipline. Kain began training in 1962 at the age of eleven at the National Ballet School of Canada, where she trained for seven years until upon graduation in 1969, she was invited to join the National Ballet of Canada.[1].
Professional Dance Career
Kain became a principal dancer in 1971, dancing central roles in a wide array of ballets, eventually becoming a well-known dancer in Canada, with the help of legendary dancer Rudolf Nureyev. She worked as a guest artist with Roland Petit's Le Ballet National de Marseilles, the Bolshoi Ballet, the London Festival Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, the Hamburg Ballet, the Vienna State Opera Ballet, and the Eliot Feld Ballet.
In the late 1970s Kain stopped dancing, but resumed again in 1980 with the National Ballet of Canada, where she danced for a further 15 years. Kain retired as a professional dancer in 1997.
In 1996, Kain reunited with Frank Augustyn to appear in her husband Ross Petty's panto production of Robin Hood at Toronto's Elgin Theatre.
Awards
In 1973, she won silver in the women's competition and another silver for Best pas de Deux (with Frank Augustyn) at the second International Ballet Competition in Moscow.
In 1976, she became an Officer of the Order of Canada and was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1991. She holds honorary degrees from the University of Toronto, York University, McMaster University, Trent University, and the University of British Columbia. In May 1998, the French Government named her an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters. Among Kain's other honours are the Performing Arts Award (1992) and the National Arts Centre Award (1997). In 1996, she became the first Canadian to receive the Cartier Lifetime Achievement Award. The choreographer Marguerite Derricks cited Kain as one of her heroes.[2]
Administrative career
In 1998, Kain returned to the National Ballet of Canada as part of the senior management team, in the role of artistic associate. She supported artistic director James Kudelka against principal dancer Kimberley Glasco in a wrongful dismissal suit. In 2005, she succeeded Kudelka as artistic director[1].
Kain is the president of the Dancer Transition Resource Centre. In 2004 she was appointed chair of the Canada Council for the Arts, a post from which she resigned in early 2008 to concentrate on her role as artistic director of the National Ballet. In 2007 Karen Received the Barbara Hamilton Memorial Award from the City of Toronto.
Personal life
Kain has been married since 1983 to Ross Petty, a stage and film actor, and producer of theatrical pantomime productions in Canada for over 20 years.
Kain's brother, Kevin Kain, is a noted tropical medicine expert based in Toronto, Ontario; she has three younger siblings.
Other
Karen Kain was alluded to in the 2003 movie directed by Denys Arcand, "The Barbarian Invasions" when Rémy Girard reminisced about his past love affairs.
Her autobiography, Movement Never Lies, was published in 1996 by McClelland and Stewart. Karen Kain has also had an arts based school named after her (Karen Kain School of the Arts) in 2008.
References
- ^ http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/women/002026-603-e.html
- ^ Bob Thompson, "A woman on the Go Go: Catchy Gap ad, Austin Powers' moves make choreographer a hot commodity," Kingston Whig - Standard. Kingston, Ontario: July 5, 1999, pg. 27.
External links
- FOOTNOTES - Karen Kain
- Karen Kain: Canada's Prima Ballerina
- The Ballerina Gallery - Karen Kain
- le Gala des étoiles - Karen Kain
- The Canadian Encyclopedia - Kain, Karen featuring a clip of Karen's performance in the National Ballet of Canada's 1976 production of Giselle
- Canada's Walk of Fame: Karen Kain
- CBC Digital Archives: Karen Kain, Prima Ballerina
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