National Ballet of Canada stars join English National Ballet

Two of The National Ballet of Canada’s principal dancers are leaving the company to pursue their dream of performing in England.

Bridgett Zehr and Zdenek Konvalina, who danced the leads in last year’s Swan Lake, are joining London’s English National Ballet as principal dancers. The couple will finish this season with the Canadian company’s production of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland which opens June 4. (Zehr, 26, plays the mother and The Queen of Hearts and Konvalina, 32, will appear as Jack and The Knave of Hearts.) Next season, they will return as guest artists, appearing with the remaining eight principals and the corps in various productions.

“The National Ballet has greatly benefited from having these beautiful dancers performing with us for the last five years. Bridgett and Zdenek are extraordinary artists and I fully support them in this wonderful opportunity to perform in London, which I know has long been their dream,” Karen Kain, artistic director, said in a written release.

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano’) about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia’ column for Dancing Times magazine.