Praising Kain
NATIONAL BALLET OF CANADA artistic director Karen Kain, 68, laughed when I asked her in 2015 if she longed to dust off her ballet shoes for one more performance. “My spirit still dances, but the rest of me – no.” Instead, in her 50th year with the NBC, Canada’s most celebrated ballerina – who performed alongside legendary dancer Rudolf Nureyev (including in London for audiences that included royalty like Princess Margaret), won an award for her dance pairing with Frank Augustyn at Moscow’s International Ballet Festival and was captured in a colour screenprint by Andy Warhol – is finding new ways to break new ground. In August, when Britain’s Royal Academy of Dance brings the prestigious Genée International Ballet Competition to Toronto, the company will bestow upon Kain its highest honour, the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award, for her NBC tenure and her “incredible contribution” to the artform, “both as a renowned dancer and one of the most distinguished leaders in dance today.” Kain, who also once performed with the London Festival Ballet (now the English National Ballet), will become the first Canadian and the first person outside of the United Kingdom to receive the award. —