Legend of the fall

Catastrophe leads to lifetime achievement for ballet veteran

TORONTO When a loose door handle sent then-ballet performer Mavis Staines toppling down a flight of stairs in an accident that would cut short her rising career, she thought her time in the spotlight was over.

Little did she know, that dream-crushing fall would launch her on a path toward becoming one of the country’s pre-eminent dance figures as the artistic director of Canada’s National Ballet School for the past three decades.

In a strange twist of fortune, Staines believes that ill-fated turn of the handle is at least in part to thank as she receives a $25,000 Governor General’s Performing Arts Award recognizing a lifetime of artistic achievement.

“Sometimes, what seems like the worst catastrophe in your life opens doors that wouldn’t open otherwise,” Staines said in an interview before this past week’s awards reveal.

“Had it not been for the accident, I would not be sitting where I am today after 30 years of realizing dreams that really matter to me.”

Staines may not be as big a name as some of her fellow 2019 laureates, such as political satirist Rick Mercer or actress Sandra Oh. But in cultural circles, her behindthe-scenes efforts to democratize dance for Canadians have elevated her to sage status at home and on the international stage.

Hailing from Quebec’s Eastern Townships, Staines graduated from Canada’s National Ballet School in 1972, where she danced as a first soloist before joining the Dutch National Ballet.

After her accident, Staines said she intended to attend university, but between her shattered wrist and the back-to-back deaths of her parents, she felt unmoored. Ballet had always provided a sense of stability, so she decided to return to her alma mater to enrol in the teacher training program.

Staines had found her calling: Even now, the 64-year-old still teaches dance two hours per day.

“It is the time in the studio with the students that I think is probably the most consistent and important daily lesson in my life,” said Staines.

“I attribute so much of what I learn and have been able to put into place to how the students inspire me.”

In her tenure as artistic director at Canada’s National Ballet School, Staines has implemented these lessons to empower professional and amateur dancers alike.

Staines shifted the school toward “student-centred” education, which aims to nurture not just dancers’ bodies, but their minds and wellness.

“I think when people are united through an impassioned sense of purpose, as people find their voice and work to build a community, it actually does bring out the best in each individual,” she said.

Also among the 2019 laureates are Montreal-born concert pianist Louise Bessette; Colm Feore, a veteran actor of Canadian screen and stage productions; Lorraine Pintal, artistic director and general manager of Montreal’s Theatre du Nouveau Monde; and former This Hour Has 22 Minutes comedian Mercer.

Killing Eve star Oh is receiving the National Arts Centre Award for extraordinary work by an artist in the past performance year.

Montreal arts patron E. Noël Spinelli is also being recognized with the Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism in the Performing Arts.

Two Indigenous filmmakers, Alanis Obomsawin of Abenaki Nation and Mi’kmaq Gop Bartibogue of eastern New Brunswick, have also been inducted into a mentorship program aimed at fostering mid-career artists.

This year’s honourees will be feted at two events in Ottawa, culminating in a gala at the National Arts Centre on April 27.