Ballet Help Desk sat down with Vanessa Léonard, Director of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's Anna McCowan-Johnson Aspirant Program. She covered not only how the program is structured, but how dancers work with the main company, where dancers get jobs and also how students can audition to join the program. Ms. Léonard also covers the unique challenges that dancers face when trying to dance in a country that isn't their own, especially when it comes to visa issues. Tune in to hear more about this unique Canadian company!

Interested in auditioning for Royal Winnipeg Ballet School? Video auditions being accepted through June 1, 2024: https://www.rwb.org/school/professional-division/audition/video-auditions/

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Vanessa Léonard Bio

Originally from Edmonton, Alberta, Vanessa Léonard has been gracing the studios and stages of the Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet since 1994 as a student, principal dancer, and ballet master. In 2021, Ms. Léonard was honoured to be appointed as Director of the RWB's Anna McCowan-Johnson Aspirant Program. She received her early training from the Edmonton School of Ballet and the RWB School Professional Division before being hired into the RWB Company in 1997. During a fifteen-year career, Ms. Léonard portrayed the lead female role in many well-known works; the first of such roles was in David Nixon's Butterfly when Nixon picked her from the corps de ballet to perform the lead. In the 2001/02 season she worked with Sir Peter Wright to dance the dramatic and technical role of Giselle. Other roles that Ms. Léonard enjoyed dancing include Odette/Odile in Galina Yardonova's staging of Swan Lake, Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Lucy in Mark Godden's Dracula, Pamina in Mark Godden's The Magic Flute, the tender Cours D'Amour in Mauricio Wainrot's Carmina Burana and the lead role of Nancy in Val Caniparoli's A Cinderella Story. Ms. Léonard is known for roles that have been created on her including Tinker Bell in Jorden Morris' Peter Pan; Destiny in Mauricio Wainrot's Carmen, The Passion; March Hare in Shawn Hounsell's Wonderland; and Natalie in Jorden Morris's Moulin Rouge® – The Ballet. In 2009 Ms. Léonard danced the role of Juliet in Rudi van Dantzig's Romeo & Juliet for which she was called "simply stunning" by the Winnipeg Free Press. Ms. Léonard has appeared as a guest artist internationally, performing in galas with the Compania Nacional de Danza in Mexico City, the Benios De La Danse in Moscow, the 10th and 13th International Ballet Festivals of Miami, and the Encore International Dance Festival in Quebec. She has also been invited to dance with various companies and schools in full-length productions of Nutcracker, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty in Canada, the USA and Spain. In 2009, Peter Quanz selected Ms. Léonard to perform a new piece called In Tandem at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City and at the 2010 Canada Dance Festival in Ottawa. As part of the Cultural Olympiad for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games she performed the lead in Iztik Galili's Hikarizatto.

Since retiring from dance in 2013, Ms. Léonard has staged and coached many ballets for the RWB Company, Professional Division and Aspirant program. She has also staged full length ballets for Orlando Ballet, Louisville Ballet and the National Ballet of Cuba and has enjoyed guest teaching for schools and companies around the world.