Best of Fall 2012: Guillaume Côté shows off his brilliant ballet moves with three starring roles
Guillaume Côté is this city’s biggest ballet star since Karen Kain and Rex Harrington, and the National Ballet is taking every opportunity to capitalize on his freakish athleticism and blush-inducing looks. In the past season, the 31-year-old principal dancer mastered six starring roles with the company, performed guest artist stints with the American Ballet Theatre and the English National Ballet and premiered two of his own choreographic works. And yet he still found time to have brunch in Leslieville every Sunday morning with his wife, fellow principal dancer Heather Ogden. This season, he plays the iconic Russian dancer in John Neumeier’s brooding Nijinsky—a dream role for Côté, who says it was Neumeier’s choreography that made him fall in love with the theatrics of dance. He also suits up for the title role in Romeo and Juliet, which he helped shape last season in tandem with choreographer Alexei Ratmansky. But first he’ll have the opportunity to dance one of the few male leads in the company’s repertoire that he hasn’t already tackled: the Knave of Hearts, in a remount of Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The Knave is cheeky, exuberant and unabashedly romantic—an ideal match for the National Ballet’s very own Disney prince.
BALLET
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Nov. 10 to 25
Four Seasons Centre
(Image: Norman Wong. Hair and makeup by Natalie Ventola/Plutino Group)
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