Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal

The Montreal-based company founded by Ludmilla Chiriaeff in 1957. Despite her Russian origins, Chiriaeff strove to give the company a Canadian identity, using Canadian composers, encouraging Canadian choreographers, and drawing inspiration from French-Canadian folklore. The company has toured widely ever since visiting the US for the first time in 1959 and Europe in 1969. The repertoire mixes the 19th-century classics with landmark works from the 20th century, such as Nijinsky's L'Après-midi d'un faune and Kurt Jooss's The Green Table but it has also pursued a successful policy of showcasing contemporary choreographers. Paul Taylor, Mark Morris, James Kudelka, Édouard Lock, Nacho Duato, William Forsythe, and Jiří Kylián all have works in the repertory and one of the company's most popular works was Fernand Nault's 1970 staging of the rock opera Tommy. Directors succeeding Chiriaeff have included Nault (1965–74), Brian Macdonald (1974–7), Lawrence Rhodes (1989–99), and Gradimir Pankov, who was appointed in 1999. In recent years the company has been active in reviving the Diaghilev repertoire and continues to encourage new repertory, with commissioned works by Kim Brandstrup, Shen Wei, and Stijn Celis among others. The company has an associated school.

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