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Heidi Strauss
On a visit to Montreal in 1950, Celia Franca was in the audience for the third Canadian Ballet Festival. On the basis of what she saw, the 29-year-old Londoner accepted an invitation to conduct an eight-month feasibility study on the development of a Canadian National Ballet. Her recommendation, that a national company could flourish if training standards improved was not however happily received by certain Canadian dance teachers, among them Winnipeg Ballet's Gweneth Lloyd, Toronto's Boris Volkoff, or at first, Betty Oliphant.
Also from London, Oliphant participated in the founding of the Canadian Dance Teacher's Association (CDTA), and taught Cecchetti syllabus in her Sherbourne Street studio. When Franca began offering classes of her own, Oliphant approached her on behalf of the CDTA, expressing concern that dancers should be drawn from a national pool. The CDTA co-sponsored a cross-country audition tour, and in 1951 the Canadian National Ballet was formed*. Oliphant became the company's Ballet Mistress in 1952, and seven years later Franca, whose artistic vision equalled her astute business sense, founded the National Ballet School (NBS). There, Oliphant's influence both as a principal and a teacher became critical to a new generation of dancers; among the early students were Robert Desrosiers, Karen Kain, James Kudelka and Veronica Tennant. Soon recognized internationally for the calibre of its training, the NBS became an example for other schools; in 1978 Oliphant was invited to reorganize the Royal Swedish and Royal Danish Ballet Schools.
Franca's focus, meanwhile, was on developing the company and its repertoire. She put her experience with Sadler's Wells and Ballet Rambert to use, mounting classics from memory. She invited guest choreographers from abroad whose work was performed alongside original Canadian choreographies by Grant Strate, Elizabeth Leese, Brian MacDonald, David Adams, Kay Armstrong, Ray Moller, Don Gillies, and later 'renegades' Ann Ditchburn and Timothy Spain. In this way, the Ballet encouraged Canadian dance talent as well as creative development in many other disciplines through collaborations with composers, set designers, costume designers, and other artists.
Though Oliphant retired from the NBS at the age of 71, and Franca can still be found in the studios of Ottawa's School of Dance, it was their work between 1951 and 1989, their tireless initiative, uncompromising natures and strong traditionalist leanings that set new standards for Canadian ballet.
* The company's name was later changed to the National Ballet of Canada; it was felt the Canadian National Ballet sounded too much like the Canadian National Railway.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bowring, Amy. "Canadian Dance Festivals, 1948-1978," International Dictionary of Modern Dance, edited by Taryn Benbow-Pfalzgraf. St. James Press: Illinois, 1998.
Bell, Ken and Franca, Celia. The National Ballet of Canada: A Celebration. University of Toronto Press: Toronto, 1978.
Crabb, Michael. "Celia Franca," 101 from the Encyclopedia of Theatre Dance in Canada, edited by Susan Macpherson. Dance Collection Danse Press/es: Toronto, 1997.
Neufeld, James. The Power to Rise. University of Toronto Press: Toronto, 1996.
Oliphant, Betty. Miss O: My Life in Dance. Turnstone Press: Toronto, 1996.
Bowring, Amy. "Setting the Stage for Professionalization: The Canadian Ballet Festivals (1948-1954)," Éstivale 2000 Conference Proceedings. Université du Québec à Montréal, Dance Collection Danse Press/es: Toronto, 2000.
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Photo: Celia Franca
Photo: Betty Oliphant
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