Le Ballet national du Canada

Hope Muir Announces 2024/25 Season

Principal Dancer Guillaume Côté Bids Adieu 
Four World Premieres, Two North American Premieres, Two Canadian Premieres 

21 février, 2024… Hope Muir, Joan and Jerry Lozinski Artistic Director of The National Ballet of Canada, today unveiled the 2024/25 season. Principal Dancer and Choreographic Associate Guillaume Côté will retire after 26 years with the National Ballet and his brilliant career and exceptional artistry will be celebrated.  

“Our 2024/25 season demonstrates the artistry and ambition of The National Ballet of Canada today, as we balance our classical legacy with heightened innovation and involvement with the international dance community. I have sought richness and complexity across movement and music, introduced important choreographic voices and new collaborations that extend our creative lineage and, above all, to bring a sense of freshness, familiarity and meaning to our stage. This season will mark the farewell of an outstanding artist in Principal Dancer Guillaume Côté. His brilliant international career encompasses multiple areas of the art form, reflecting his unique talent as a performer, choreographer, director, composer and musician. Guillaume retires from the National Ballet this season with an unforgettable legacy and equally bright future,” said Muir.  

“Although my career with The National Ballet of Canada is ending, I carry with me the most beautiful memories of people, places and moments that have shaped who I am and will stay with me forever. For my final performance, I wanted to work with a very close collaborator, film director Ben Shirinian. Ben and I have worked on many films together including Lost in Motion and Lulu and I thought it would be very special to ask Ben to create a film element as I say farewell,” said Côté.  

In November, the Fall Season opens with a mixed programme featuring the Canadian premiere of Silent Screen by choreographic duo Sol León and Paul Lightfoot, a profound theatrical experience set to the music of Philip Glass. Celebrated throughout Europe, León and Lightfoot are the architects of a highly respected body of work rarely experienced in North America and Silent Screen marks the first creative partnership between the National Ballet and the famed duo. The programme also features the Canadian premiere Sir Fredrick Ashton’s Rhapsody as part of Ashton Worldwide, an international festival celebrating Ashton on the 120th anniversary of his birth, plus a special solo performance by Guillaume Côté, Body of Work, onstage 9 au 16 novembre 2024. 

The Fall Season continues with the Romantic classic Giselle, onstage 20 au 24 novembre 2024. Giselle has captivated audiences with its haunting story of love and forgiveness since the Paris premiere in 1841. The National Ballet of Canada has a particularly long legacy with Giselle, having performed Sir Peter Wright’s celebrated staging since 1970, set to the music of Adolphe Adam. 

The National Ballet’s holiday favourite, The Nutcracker by James Kudelka, returns 6 au 31 décembre 2024, with brilliant dancing and magnificent sets and costumes from Santo Loquasto and lighting by Jennifer Tipton. 

The Winter Season begins with a mixed programme featuring the North American premiere of David Dawson’s The Four Seasons. A zeitgeist contemporary ballet set to Max Richter’s extraordinary re-composition of Antonio Vivaldi’s music, The Four Seasons builds on the success of his Anima Animus, offering the choreographer a larger platform for his brilliant contemporary voice. The programme continues with the world premiere of Morpheus’ Dream by German choreographer Marco Goecke with a soundscape by pianist Keith Jarrett and distinctive vocals of Lady Gaga and Antony Tudor’s The Leaves Are Fading in honour of its 50th anniversary and the company’s first staging since 1995. The programme will be onstage 26 février – 2 mars, 2025. 

The National Ballet is thrilled to return to Karen Kain’s Swan Lake 8 au 22 mars 2025 from a renewed position of strength and stability, diving back inside the creative journey featured in the 2023 documentary, Swan Song. Kain’s reimagination honours Erik Bruhn’s version and holds closely to the 1895 revival by Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.  

In the Summer Season, Principal Dancer Guillaume Côté will bid “adieu” to the National Ballet which he has called home for the past 26 years with a programme devoted to Canadian talent, onstage 30 mai – 5 juin, 2025. Côté creates and performs a multidisciplinary solo, Into the fade, with long-time collaborator filmmaker Ben Shirinian. In addition to his 2012 work Bolero, Côté shares this programme with the company’s newest Choreographic Associate, Ethan Colangelo and Toronto-born Jennifer Archibald who will both be creating new works.  

The 2024/25 season will conclude with the North American premiere of Christian Spuck’s alluring Anna Karenina, marking the first creative partnership with one of Europe’s foremost choreographers. Spuck distills Leo Tolstoy’s richly themed novel about morality, social reform, family and passion into profound choreography, with a curated score featuring music by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Witold Lutoslawski, onstage 13 au 21 juin 2025. 

The National Ballet continues to tour internationally, returning to perform in London in octobre 2024. The company will tour to Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London 2 au 6 octobre for the first time in 11 years with a mixed programme of all-Canadian choreographers: Crystal Pite’s Angels’ Atlas, Emma Portner’s islands and Passion by James Kudelka. The company will make its annual tour to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa 30 janvier – 1 février, 2025 with Giselle. 

The National Ballet of Canada’s 2024/25 Season

Touring

Angels’ Atlas 
& islands
& Passion
2 au 6 octobre 2024, Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London 
 

Giselle 
30 janvier – 1 février, 2025, National Arts Centre, Ottawa 


 

Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts 

Silent Screen
& Body of Work  
& Rhapsody
9 au 16 novembre 2024 

Giselle
20 au 24 novembre 2024 

 

Casse-noisette
6 au 31 décembre 2024 

 

Les Quatre saisons
& Morpheus’ Dream  
& The Leaves Are Fading  
26 février – 2 mars 2025 

Le Lac des cygnes  
8 au 22 mars 2025 




 

Adieu: A Celebration of Guillaume Côté
Bolero
& Into the fade 
& New Work by Ethan Colangelo
& New Work by Jennifer Archibald 
30 mai – 5 juin 2025 

Anna Karenina 
13 au 21 juin 2025 
 

Watch Hope Muir Announce the 2024/25 Season >
2024/25 Season Brochure > 
Dancer Roster >   
Hope Muir Biography > 
Barry Hughson Biography >
David Briskin Biography >  
Guillaume Côté Biography >  

Venue: Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen Street West, Toronto 

– 30 – 

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iA Financial presents The Nutcracker.  

Lead philanthropic support for islands is provided by The Catherine & Maxwell Meighen Foundation. 

Passion is generously supported by The Gail Hutchison Fund.  

Philanthropic support for Angels’ Atlas is generously provided by An Anonymous Donor, Rosamond Ivey, Ira Gluskin & Maxine Granovsky Gluskin, The Producers’ Circle, The Volunteer Committee of The National Ballet of Canada and The Gail Hutchison Fund.    

Lead philanthropic support for Rhapsody is provided by the Isobel Allen New Creations Fund. 

Silent Screen is generously supported by The Producers’ Circle. 

Giselle was produced as a memorial to the late William P. Walker and was made possible through the courtesy of many generous friends of the National Ballet.  

The Nutcracker is made possible by generous financial support from production underwriters Sandra Pitblado, C.M. & Jim Pitblado, C.M., Lawrence and Ann Heisey and an anonymous friend of the National Ballet. 

The National Ballet of Canada gratefully acknowledges its collaboration with Canada's National Ballet School in the production of The Nutcracker. 

Lead philanthropic support for Morpheus’ Dream is provided by The Gail Hutchison Fund. 

The Leaves Are Fading is a gift from The Volunteer Committee, The National Ballet of Canada.   

Lead philanthropic support for The Four Seasons is provided by The Anna McCowan-Johnson New Creations Fund and The Penelope Reed Doob Fund for New Creations.   

Lead philanthropic support for Swan Lake is provided by The Walter Carsen New Creations Fund, with generous underwriting from Richard M. Ivey, C.C., an anonymous friend of the National Ballet, Susan Scace & Arthur Scace, C.M., K.C., The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen Foundation, Gail Drummond & Bob Dorrance, Nancy Pencer, Sandra Pitblado, C.M. & Jim Pitblado, C.M., Gretchen Ross & Donald Ross, O.C., Anne-Marie Canning, Anna McCowan-Johnson & Donald K. Johnson, O.C., Tim & Frances Price, The Volunteer Committee of The National Ballet of Canada, Kevin Garland & Roger Garland, C.M. and Aaron & Heather Regent. Appui supplémentaire fourni par The Producers’ Circle.   

The National Ballet also acknowledges support for Swan Lake provided by Sylvie Allard & Brian O’Keefe, Judi Conacher, Sherry & Edward Drew, The H. John McDonald Foundation and Julie Medland. 

Lead philanthropic support for Anna Karenina is provided by the Walter Carsen New Creations Fund with additional support provided by The Producers’ Circle. 

The Producers’ Circle (2025): Gail & Mark Appel, John & Claudine Bailey, Laura Dinner & Richard Rooney, Gail Drummond & Bob Dorrance, Sandra Faire & Ivan Fecan, Kevin Garland & Roger Garland, C.M., Ira Gluskin & Maxine Granovsky Gluskin, The William & Nona Heaslip Foundation, Anna McCowan-Johnson & Donald K. Johnson, O.C., Judy Korthals & Peter Irwin, Mona & Harvey Levenstein, Jerry & Joan Lozinski, The Honourable Margaret Norrie McCain, C.C., Julie Medland, Sandra Pitblado & Jim Pitblado, C.M., Gerald Sheff & Shanitha Kachan and The Jack Weinbaum Family Foundation.  

The company’s Canadian tours are made possible with the generous support of The John and Margaret Bahen Fund of The National Ballet of Canada, Endowment Foundation. 

Guillaume Côté. Photo par Matt Barnes.
Siphesihle November and Hannah Galway in Angels' Atlas. Photo par Karolina Kuras.
Heather Ogden in Giselle. Photo de Michael Slobodian.
Séverine Ferrolier and Vladislav Kozlov of Bayerisches Staatsballett in Silent Screen. Photo by Nicholas MacKay.
Artists of the Ballet in Giselle. Photo par Daniel Neuhaus.
Tirion Law and Siphesihle November in The Nutcracker. Photo par Karolina Kuras.
Artists of Het Nationale Ballet in The Four Seasons. Photo by Michael Schnater.
Harrison James and Jurgita Dronina with Artists of the Ballet in Swan Lake. Photo par Karolina Kuras.
Guillaume Côté. Photo par Matt Barnes.
Katja Wünsche and William Moore of Ballett Zürich in Anna Karenina. Photo by Gregory Batardon.

The National Ballet of Canada gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support of the Canada Council for the Arts; the Ontario Arts Council; the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council; the Government of Canada – Department of Canadian Heritage with the Honourable Pablo Rodriguez, Minister of Canadian Heritage; and the Government of Ontario with the Honourable Neil Lumsden, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport. 

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