Evan McKie

Evan McKie
Born April 7, 1983
Toronto, Canada
Occupation Ballet Dancer, Writer, Photographer, Artist

Evan McKie (born April 7, 1983) is a Canadian ballet dancer, writer, choreographer and visual artist. He is a Principal Dancer with the National Ballet of Canada and an international guest dancer with companies including the Paris Opera Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet and Tokyo Ballet. In a statement to the The Toronto Star Newspaper, The National Ballet of Canada's Artistic Director, Karen Kain, noted that McKie is "one of the finest dancers of this generation." McKie continues to have very close ties with the prestigious Stuttgart Ballet, where he trained and rose through the company's ranks. He is also a contributor and Advisory Board member for American Dance Magazine and a freelance contributor for Canada's National newspaper, The Globe and Mail.

McKie studied at Canada's National Ballet School, The Kirov Academy of Ballet and Germany's John Cranko School, where he was given his first professional job as a dancer by the Stuttgart Ballet's Artistic Director, Reid Anderson. Just before becoming professional however, McKie suffered a severe ligament-injury and was told by doctors that he may never be able to be a ballet dancer. After an intense period of rehabilitation and training with the late ballet legend Pyotr Pestov, McKie attempted to start performing and eventually took a place at the Stuttgart Ballet. Promotions to Soloist and Principal Dancer followed and in 2011, McKie was invited to be a guest dancer at the Paris Opera Ballet. The Financial Times called the performance (of John Cranko's Onegin) “the sensation of the season”. McKie received further critical acclaim when he was invited to be a guest at the Bolshoi Ballet in 2013 which led to further guest-engagements at the Paris Opera Ballet in both January and July 2014. In Stuttgart, under the direction and mentorship of fellow Canadian Reid Anderson, McKie has danced the major roles in Classical Ballet as well as being a part of numerous contemporary collaborations. He has been nominated as dancer of the year by dance magazines in Tokyo, London, Paris, Berlin and New York for dance works ranging from "classical" to "dramatic narrative" to "contemporary". Danse Magazine Paris wrote, "Evan McKie's limitless spirit and unusual storytelling abilities make him one of the brightest of all of today's most famous dance stars."

McKie has choreographed two dance works for Stuttgart's Noverre Society and a piece for Olga Smirnova of the Bolshoi Ballet in cooperation with the Youth American Grand Prix in New York. He is a visual artist specializing in portraits of artists and dancers and recently held an exhibition in Germany entitled SCHICHTEN.

Awards

Performance Repertoire

References

    This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, April 11, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.