MORE LIKE SUMMER CAMP
Ballet dancers flock to Toronto to vie for medals in the prestigious Genée competition, but they’ll also win friends Dance coach Hilary Clark speaks with some of the dancers.
Budding ballerinas from around the world are in Toronto for the prestigious, and friendly, Genée competition,
Arecord-sized contingent of aspiring ballerinas from across Canada will descend on Toronto this week.
They’re hoping to take home medals and money at the prestigious Genée International Ballet Competition, and follow in the footsteps of such past Canadian Genée medallists as former National Ballet of Canada star Chan Hon Goh and Céline Gittens, a principal dancer with Britain’s Birmingham Royal Ballet and, to date, the only Canadian to win gold.
The competition has been convened with almost annual regularity since1931by the London-based Royal Academy of Dance, an organization dedicated to dance education through teacher training and exams for ballet students from recreational through vocational levels.
Until 2001, the competition was held solely in Britain but, in recognition of the academy’s global footprint, has since moved to such cities as Sydney, Hong Kong, Athens and Cape Town. It first came to Toronto in 2008 when, among 53 entrants, there were eight Canadians, two of them medal winners.
This year there are 19 Canadians, seven from the GTA, in a field of 62 that includes competitors from a dozen countries as far away as New Zealand, Japan and South Africa. And it’s not simply about winning medals.
“We’re happy to be known as the ‘friendly competition,’ ” explains Dame Darcey Bussell, the former British superstar ballerina turned TV celebrity who became Royal Academy of Dance president in 2012.
“I think that’s a real testament to the fact that the Genée is more than just a competition — the emphasis is on the personal growth and development of each individual dancer.”
Genée participants must be between 15 and 19 and have achieved advanced standing in the academy’s top tier exams.
“To qualify is a feat in itself,” says Goh, who since 2010 has been director of the 40-yearold Goh Ballet Academy, founded by her immigrant parents in Vancouver and will soon open a Toronto branch in Bayview Village. Five of six Canadian Genée medallists are Goh Academy alumni, including Gittens.
“The atmosphere at the Genée is always welcoming and inviting,” Gittens says. “For me, it almost didn’t feel like a competition. It opened me to an international dance world. It’s a very enriching experience.”
All participants will perform in the two days of semifinals, judged by a panel that includes Dame Monica Mason, former director of Britain’s Royal Ballet; former Alberta Ballet — now Boston Ballet — artistic director Mikko Nissinen; and Magdalena Popa, principal artistic coach of the National Ballet of Canada. Popa’s boss, Karen Kain, will join the judging panel for the final round.
Kain will also receive the academy’s highest accolade, the coveted Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award, in recognition of her 50-year career with the National Ballet.
Before anyone is judged, they spend five days taking classes together and receiving one-onone coaching. Each young dancer — the majority female — will prepare a short classical solo from the 19th and 20th-century repertoire. In addition, they will all be part of a creative process with Canadian choreographer Gioconda Barbuto that will result in original male and female solos.
“The choreography is not preset,” Barbuto says. “We’ll be working collaboratively, building this together because everyone has something to offer. It’s a fantastic feeling when you share.”
The emphasis on personal artistic development makes the Genée more akin to a compressed ballet intensive than a traditional competition and this is a large part of its appeal.
“It almost has a summer camp feel,” says Alex Wong, another Goh alumnus who won a bronze and the Audience Choice Award in 2003.
Wong says he still keeps in touch with some of the friends he made during the competition.
“The medals are a token,” Wong says. “What I took away was the rapport I had with the other dancers. I hadn’t expected that. It was very special for me.”
“I have friends who’ve been to the Genée before,” says 17-year old Margot Lorette, a 2019 competitor from Garibaldi Highlands, B.C. “There’s nothing quite like it, which is a huge reason I wanted to do it. I’ll be learning from so many different people and I know it will help me grow as a dancer.”
The Royal Academy of Dance has long been an international organization, but it began modestly in 1920 when a group of dance luminaries in London formulated a plan to improve standards of ballet instruction and dancing in Britain.
The celebrated Danish-born ballerina Adeline Genée was part of that group and became the fledgling organization’s first president. She oversaw the1935 grant of a royal charter and, by the time she passed the presidency to legendary British ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn in 1954, Genée had seen the academy grow to become a global phenomenon.
A Canadian office was opened in 1956. Today, about 15,000 Canadians, taught by registered academy teachers, take academy exams each year. Across 84 countries, that figure approaches a quarter of a million students.
The Genée competition has always been an evolving event and Gerard Charles, the academy’s artistic director, wants it to remain so. Born and trained in England, Charles spent 40 years in North America as a dancer, teacher and director. For four seasons in the1990s, he was ballet master of Montreal’s Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. He returned to his homeland to join the academy a year ago.
“The most important thing about the Genée is that it is a learning experience. It’s much more than showing up and doing your tricks. Ballet is an art form and I want to accentuate that aspect,” he says.
What qualifies as artistry is ultimately a subjective assessment. Winning medals — or not winning them — has little bearing on whether a dancer will progress to a successful career. Even so, the Genée competition maintains high standards. The coveted gold medal is sometimes withheld if the judges decide no one has achieved the required level.
“The fact that we have Genée medallists performing in almost every major dance company across the globe is a testament to the success of the competition,” Bussell says.
“Ballet is one of the hardest things, but is so rewarding,” Lorette says. “My favourite thing is performing, so I’m going to go out there and give it everything I have.”
“The atmosphere at the Genée is always welcoming and inviting. For me, it almost didn’t feel like a competition. It opened me to an international dance world.” CÉLINE GITTENS ONLY CANADIAN TO EVER WIN GOLD IN THE COMPETITION
Public tickets are available for the semifinals, Monday and Tuesday at the Betty Oliphant Theatre, 404 Jarvis St., and the Thursday finals at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen St. W. Go to royalacademyofdance.org/ genee2019 for more information.