Canadian Ballet Youth Ensemble

2014 - The Canadian Ballet Youth Ensemble performs The Nutcracker with The National Ballet of Cuba in Burlington - December 18-20 at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre

2013 - The Canadian Ballet Youth Ensemble performs The Nutcracker with The National Ballet of Cuba in Havana - Children enjoyed the opportunity to perform the Nutcracker in Havana, Cuba - Jan 2 - Jan 7

2012 - The Canadian Ballet Youth Ensemble performs The Nutcracker with The National Ballet of Cuba in Havana - Children enjoyed the opportunity to perform the Nutcracker in Havana, Cuba - Jan 2 - Jan 7

2011 - The Nutcracker, at Hamilton Place in December with guest dancers from the world renowned National Ballet of Cuba

2010 - Legends of The Water, Mississauga Living Arts Center with guest dancers from The National Ballet of Cuba, choreographer Eduardo Blanco - December

2010 - Life a Legend, Hamilton Convention Centre, celebrating Alicia Alonso’s 90th birthday and her lifetime dedication to dance - December

2010 - Orbit of a Legend, Hamilton Place. Movie premiere on the life of Alicia Alonso, one of only 10 top prima ballerinas in the world. Panel discussions with guests Gary Smith, Veronica Tennant, Michael Crabbs. - December

2010 - Sensuality in Motion, Hamilton Place. Local artists Martin Kendrick displays his creations for ArtCracker. - December

2010 - Hansel and Gretel, at Hamilton Place in February with guest dancers from The National Ballet of Cuba in Havana - December

2010 - The Canadian Ballet Youth Ensemble performs The Nutcracker with The National Ballet of Cuba in Havana - January 1

2009 - Lester Tomme, Hamilton Place. Eminent Art Critic discusses Esthetics, Sensuality in Cuban National Ballet

2009 - Stars of Ballet, Mississauga Living Arts Centre in December, with guest dancers from the world renowned National Ballet of Cuba

2009 - The Nutcracker, at Hamilton Place in December with guest dancers from the world renowned National Ballet of Cuba

2009 - Belma Diamante wins the 2009 Hamilton Tourism as Hamilton’s Arts and Entertainment Ambassador. The Nutcracker wins honourable mention as largest Festival of the year. - April 2 -http://revistadebate.ca/portal/content/view/1469/1

2009 - Family Day Celebrations with Hanel and Gretel, at Hamilton Place in February with guest dancers from the world renowned National Ballet of Cuba.

2009 - The Canadian Ballet Youth Ensemble announces the formation of the first Cuban School of Ballet in Hamilton, an affiliation of the National Ballet of Cuba. - January 1
http://revistadebate.ca/portal/content/view/1489/1

2008 - Nutcracker Nation, Hamilton Place in December. Award winning author Jennifer Fisher shares her insights into the world’s most popular ballet, The Nutcracker, and its impact on popular culture.

2008 - Hansel and Gretel, at Hamilton Place featuring principal dancers from The National Ballet of Cuba.

2008 - Giselle, at Hamilton Place in October 2008 with guest dancers from the world renowned National Ballet of Cuba.

2008 - The Nutcracker, at Hamilton Place in December with guest dancers from the world renowned National Ballet of Cuba.

2007 - JazzCracker repeats its performance at Hamilton place. Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite dazzles the audience with an afternoon of jazz, tap, modern ballet by Proarte Danza; choreography by Roberto Campanella;, featuring the Chicago Band, Ernest Dawkins’ New Horizon Ensemble and Hamilton Al Star Jazz Band; special guess Mercedes Ellington, granddaughter of Duke Ellington.

2007 - ArtCracker Gallery features the works of Pedro Pablo Oliva and Cosme Porenza Almaguer. Praised as the instigators of a modern renaissance in Cuban painting in the seventies, their successful careers have taken them across Europe and the Americas. Their styles, imagery and accomplishments span the breadth of artistic achievements of their generation.

2007 - CBYE introduces the first annual “Legends of the Ballet” Speaker Series event with the world’s legendary ballerina, Madame Alicia Alonso. A presentation held at Hamilton Place for audiences of all ages to have a once in a lifetime opportunity to hear this humble icon of the dance world describe her extraordinary life. Those interested in classical ballet and those that support the love of dance were thrilled with Alicia’s energy. Dancers, teachers, choreographers, parents and the public listened to the many challenges in the life of Alicia Alonso and witnessed first hand that “dare to dream” is all that is required as motivation for achievement in life.

2007 - CBYE makes international news by inviting The National Ballet of Cuba as their guest artists for The Nutcracker, a stunning performance choreographed by the legendary icon Alicia Alonso.

2006 - CBYE repeats its partnership with Ballet Ouest de Montreal for the production of The Nutcracker

2006 - Jazz Cracker, a World Premiere Performance Takes the Stage in Hamilton. Members of CBYE together with ProArteDanza danced their way into the holiday season - adding a contemporary beat to their feet - in a new performance called the Jazz Cracker.

Choreographed by Roberto Campanella the program featured Duke Ellington’s version of the Nutcracker Suite. The performance was a combination of contemporary ballet, tap, jazz, and music that celebrated the launch of the Nutcracker Festival – a holiday event hosted annually by CBYE. The Jazz Cracker features music composed by jazz legend, Duke Ellington, and his interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s lyrical Nutcracker score, featuring the Hamilton All Star Jazz Band, with music direction from Russ Weil. Also featuring guest artists Bil Holinaty on the clarinet, Ray Podhornik on the trumpet and Doug Richardson on the saxophone.

2004 - "Hamilton’s Welcome to Rex Harrington and Evelyn Hart” is presented at The Dofasco Centre For The Performing Arts. In consolidation with ProArteDanza, the program featured some of the country’s most accomplished dancers culled from both classical and contemporary backgrounds. The evening included Canadian ballet luminaries REX HARRINGTON and EVELYN HART, CHRISTOPHER BODY, former National Ballet dancer returning from his performances on Broadway in Moving’ Out, ROBERT GLUMBEK, returning from a two-year contract with Mannheim Ballet, ROBERTO CAMPANELLA, KATE ALTON of Overall Dance, ALISON DENHAM of Dancemakers, GRAHAM MCKELVIE, formerly of Toronto Dance Theatre, ANDREA NANN formerly of Danny Grossman, and GAIL SKRELA, formerly of Ballet British Columbia and Mannheim Ballet. The performance received great reviews presenting a unique choreography that reflected the European model of merging classical and contemporary dance vocabulary.

2004 - Encore Dance(s) On Tour is presented at Hamilton Place featuring 15 superbly talented world dancers performing the many colours and passions of dance of all styles.

2003 - CBYE presented “Poetry and Dance Unite” featuring the Oscar nominated author Michael Ondaatje, for the book “The English Patient”. While Michael entertained the audience with readings from his poetry collection, his works were interpreted by artists into dance, and music which dazzled the audience with a truly unique performance.

2003 - “Evening of Elegance” fundraiser returned to Ancaster. Graciously hosted by Cavaliere Franco Silvestri and Mrs. Lea Silvestri, the evening was filled with the ambiance of ballet, music and fine dining. Honorary guest, Austin Clarke ( Winner of the 2002 Giller Prize, Winner of the 2003 Regional Commonwealth prize for best book “The Polished Hoe”) read exerpts from his book. Featured performers were dancers Christopher Body, Evelyn Hart and Mila Filatova.

2002 - Kiev officials were so impressed by our 2001 sell out performances of The Nutcracker at Hamilton Place that they invited our dance Company to represent Canada during the week long celebrations of “Days Of Kiev” in May. The Company re-mounted the production of “Snow White” which featured our students dancing on stage with principal dancers from Kiev Ballet Theatre. Our dancers received a prestigious award from one of the most prominent ballet schools in Europe “Deaglia”.

2002 - CBYE launches the book project with two performances of Snow White held at Hamilton Place. The concept behind the project is to promote literacy awareness through dance.

2001 - CBYE creates a pre-professional dance program to offer opportunities to committed students to further develop their talents into professional dancers. The program’s regimented curriculum provides training at a very early but critical stage for emerging professional dancers.

2000 - CBYE introduces dance workshops with prominent dancers. Students were given the opportunity to train for two weeks with Robert Desrosiers, a prominent and provocative figure in contemporary Canadian dance since the early 1980’s. Workshops have also been held with Robert Glumbek and Sehij Shvydkij.

1999 - CBYE introduces the Nutcracker Art Gallery as part of the Nutcracker Festival. This portion of the festival features prominent artists from around the world and locally. Each year a new artists is featured. Our featured artists have included Eric Kwiatek, Pat Gagic, Anatoliy Valiev, Toller Cranston, and most recently Robert Derosiers.

1998 - The Nutcracker Festival won “Best Community Involvement” provincial award through Festivals & Events Ontario.

1997 - The CBYE expanded their program to include touring performances for students in Brantford, Kitchener and Mississauga in order to support funding for their Hamilton performances and to promote the existence of the CBYE in Hamilton. They were welcomed to
the Sanderson Centre, Centre in the Square and the Living Arts Centre theatres and also by the Mayor and businesses who funded advertising and promotional material. In 1997 school and public performances reached 16,000 in Hamilton, 4,000 in Brantford, Kitchener and Mississauga 7,000.

1997 - Major undertaking: Hamilton/Dundurn Castle based production of The Nutcracker Ballet featuring 30 dancers from the world famous Kiev Ballet, 150 CBYE dancers and a choir of 50 inner city school children. The incredible support from local media, businesses and arts organizations, not only provided "sold out" audiences with a first class ballet performance, but also a multifaceted Nutcracker Festival which promotes the performances at Hamilton Place, downtown businesses and tourism through UPCOMING EVENTS, and hotel, restaurant, Dundurn Castle packages. The standing ovations at every performance were a strong indication of audience support and it was interesting to note that two thirds of the evening audiences were adults of all ages. The production is now in its 8th year. Auditions for The Nutcracker production are held in May and are open to all dancers within Hamilton and the surrounding community. A panel select teachers choose the cast members based on their talent, technique, musicality and artistic ability. A two week training camp commences in August where role assignments take place. Rehearsals begin in November and follow through to mid December.

The Nutcracker Festival was established as a collection of events created to promote and support involvement in the joint production of the Nutcracker ballet performance at Hamilton Place Theatre.

1996 - The company presented 8 performances of Snow White and achieved 95% capacity audiences in a 2,200 seat theatre (Hamilton Place).

1995 - CBYE presented 8 performances in a 750 seat theatre (DuMaurier Centre) of Pinnochio, a world premier original production.

1991 - CBYE started out as part of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra’s School shows. This arrangement continued for three years.