Jurgita Dronina Says Farewell to The National Ballet of Canada
After ten seasons with The National Ballet of Canada, Principal Dancer Jurgita Dronina will say farewell at the end of the 2024/25 season. She will be returning to Europe for international career opportunities.
She told Gramilano:
“As I celebrate my 10th season with the National Ballet of Canada, I will also be saying farewell to the company during this season. The final performance date will be announced later in the season, inviting the Toronto audience to celebrate this milestone with me, while expressing my immense gratitude to both: the company and the audience.”
Before joining The National Ballet of Canada as Principal Dancer in 2015, Dronina was Principal Dancer with The Royal Swedish Ballet and Het Nationale Ballet and Lead Principal Dancer with The English National Ballet (2017 – 2020) while remaining a full-time member with the National Ballet. Dronina has also been a Resident Guest Artist with The Hong Kong Ballet, Teatro dell’ Opera di Roma, Teatro di San Carlo and guest Principal Dancer with many companies worldwide.
Dronina added:
“Reflecting on my years with NBOC, I would like to first and foremost express my heartfelt gratitude to Karen Kain, who welcomed me to the company and my family to Toronto, back in 2015. I was drawn to working for the visionary leader that Karen Kain was. Karen has become a mentor who understood my indomitable human spirit and burning passion for this art form and allowed me to experience the peak of my career to the heights I only dreamed of.
“Meanwhile, it is with great excitement I am looking forward to returning to Europe, where I grew up, studied and shaped my career – now with this added experience from my life at NBOC, I will be happy to share my further plans and ambitions with the audiences soon.”
Dronina’s repertoire with the several companies she has performed with includes every leading role in the entire classical repertoire – Nykia, Aurora, Juliet, Giselle, Odette/Odile, Kitri, Medora, Sylvia (John Neumeier), Cinderella (Christopher Wheeldon) – and has created roles in contemporary work by choreographers such as Alexei Ratmansky, David Dawson, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Jorma Elo, Hans Van Manen, Christian Spuck, Benjamin Millepied as well as dancing in works by John Neumeier, William Forsythe, Jerome Robbins and many others.
Her repertoire with the National Ballet includes principal roles in The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Giselle, The Winter’s Tale, Cinderella, Don Quixote, Onegin, La Sylphide, A Streetcar Named Desire, Le Petit Prince, Pinocchio, Serenade, Symphony in C, Elite Syncopations, Genus, The Collective Agreement and Tarantella.
Hope Muir, Artistic Director of The National Ballet of Canada, said:
“Jurgita is a celebrated artist with exceptional talent and has contributed so much to the National Ballet in her time with the company. I applaud her on her deep commitment to this art form and for the many wonderful performances she has shared with our audiences over the past ten years. We all wish Jurgita much happiness in this next chapter.”
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
