✦ Origins ✦
Ballet BC was founded in Vancouver in 1986 as Ballet British Columbia, beginning in the mold of many regional North American ballet companies of the period: a mixed repertory spanning classical, neoclassical, and occasional contemporary works. For its first two decades the company built a solid regional reputation without a sharply distinct artistic identity of its own.
That changed decisively when dancer and choreographer Emily Molnar became artistic director in 2009. Molnar, who had danced with the National Ballet of Canada and with William Forsythe's Ballett Frankfurt earlier in her career, rebuilt Ballet BC's repertory around commissioned and licensed contemporary works exclusively, phasing out narrative classical repertory entirely. She left Ballet BC in 2020 to become artistic director of Nederlands Dans Theater itself. One of the company's earlier dancers was a young Crystal Pite, who performed with Ballet BC before going on to found Kidd Pivot and become one of contemporary ballet's most influential choreographers — a connection the company has long pointed to as evidence of its role nurturing major contemporary voices.
Artistic Identity
Under Molnar and her successors, Ballet BC built a reputation for programming drawn almost entirely from international contemporary choreographers rather than a single house style, favoring bold, physically demanding, and often abstract works over story ballets. The company's relatively compact size — smaller than a full-scale national ballet company — has made it well suited to touring an all-contemporary mixed-bill format internationally, and leadership transitions since Molnar's departure in 2020 have continued to build on that commissioning-driven identity rather than reverting to a more traditional repertory model.
Choreographic Voices
Since Molnar's departure, Ballet BC has continued to build its programming around invited choreographers rather than a single house style, with Spanish choreographer Cayetano Soto among the artists whose work has become a recurring presence in its seasons — part of a wider pattern in which the company treats its dancers as interpreters of many contemporary voices rather than custodians of one artistic director's vocabulary.
Why It Matters
Ballet BC is a clear case study in a mid-size regional ballet company completely reinventing itself around contemporary work rather than slowly incorporating it alongside a classical core. Its history is also inseparable from Vancouver's broader importance as a training ground for contemporary ballet talent, with Crystal Pite's early years there standing as one of the clearest examples of how a company's day-to-day work can shape a choreographic voice that later reshapes the field.