Announcing the recipient of the 2024 Joysanne Sidimus Ballet Grant

October 23 2024

We are thrilled to announce that Alexander Stevens is the laureate of the inaugural Hnatyshyn Foundation – Joysanne Sidimus Ballet Grant! This $10,000 grant is designed to help the most promising young Canadian ballet dancers entering the final or penultimate year of a full-time, multi-year post-secondary program or entering a full-time post-secondary program of one year or less at a recognized ballet company. The goal of the grant is to bridge a critical gap between dancers’ full-time training and early professional life by providing funds that can be used to help with tuition fees, training materials, and travel to auditions.

Read on to learn about Alexander Stevens, the selection process, and the way this award came to be.

About Alexander Stevens

Alexander Stevens is a student at Canada’s National Ballet School in Toronto. He is enrolled in the Company Life Program, which provides rigorous ballet training and professional development opportunities for dancers after their completion of high school.

“When I was young, I had a big imagination and I would entertain my family with stories, dances and songs that I created. I loved watching shows with music, singing and dancing. When I was three, my parents took me to see the National Ballet of Canada’s The Nutcracker and I loved it. I started taking ballet lessons because I wanted to do what I had just seen.

I began studying at Canada’s National Ballet School when I was ten. I have been fortunate during my time there to work with teachers and students from all over the world and to connect with them intensely through ballet. I have come to understand that ballet as an art form has the power to communicate beyond spoken language and across geographic and cultural boundaries.”

“I love dancing classical ballets that tell the stories that have been a tradition in ballet throughout its history. I also thoroughly enjoy the abstract quality of contemporary dance and exploring the unstructured flow of movement within the body. I have been fortunate to work with talented choreographers on new works. It is deeply satisfying to be a part of the creative process of making something new and to bring it to life through ballet.

I aspire to join a ballet company that is renowned for its commitment to both classical and contemporary ballet. That way, I can play an integral part in keeping the classical ballets that I love so much alive and be deeply involved in the creation of ballet’s ever-evolving contemporary vocabulary. I hope to embark on a lifelong journey of exploring ballet and dance in all its forms and give back to the art form in a meaningful way.

I am thrilled and honoured to be awarded the Hnatyshyn Foundation’s inaugural Joysanne Sidimus Ballet Grant. This grant provides me with generous financial support as I attend the Company Life Program at Canada’s National Ballet School and allows me to fully focus on transitioning to a professional ballet career. I am so grateful for this opportunity to pursue my love of dance and to grow as an artist.

I am truly appreciative of the support that the Hnatyshyn Foundation provides to performing artists and would like to thank the jury members for this inspiring recognition. I would also like to thank Mavis Staines and my ballet teachers for their incredible guidance and encouragement.”

Jury

Stevens was selected from a nation-wide pool of candidates from Canada’s top ballet schools. The jury was composed of Arlene Minkorst, Martin ten Kortenaar and Jillian Vanstone.

Arlene Minkhorst, now retired, has worked as the School Director Emeritus at the Tulsa Ballet Center for Dance Education, as the Director of Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, and as an international guest teacher and adjudicator.

Martin ten Kortenaar is a soloist with the Staatsballet in Berlin. In 2013, he received the Hnatyshyn Foundation Developing Artist Grant for Classical Ballet (awarded from 2005-2013).

Jillian Vanstone danced with the National Ballet of Canada from 1999 to 2022, where she was principal dancer from 2011 onward. Since her retirement from dancing, she has been teaching and coaching around the world, including at the Queensland Ballet in Australia and at the Royal Ballet and Opera in the United Kingdom.

About Joysanne Sidimus and Lynda Hamilton

The Joysanne Sidimus Ballet Grant is generously supported by Lynda Hamilton, who requested we name the award after her friend and colleague Joysanne Sidimus.

Joysanne Sidimus is one of Canada’s most esteemed ballerinas and a former board member of The Hnatyshyn Foundation. As a répétiteur for The George Balanchine Trust, Ms. Sidimus has staged Balanchine’s works for dance companies and schools the world over. Born in New York , she studied under Mr. Balanchine at the School of American Ballet and then joined his New York City Ballet. She later performed as a soloist with London’s Festival Ballet and as a Principal Dancer with the Pennsylvania Ballet and The National Ballet of Canada. Ms. Sidimus is the founder of the Dancer Transition Resource Centre and was its Executive Director for twenty years. She was also the founding Vice President of the Artists’ Health Centre, a comprehensive health care facility for artists at Toronto Western Hospital. In 2003, she was awarded the Governor General’s Meritorious Service Medal and in 2006, she received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement.

We are especially grateful to Ms. Sidimus for allowing us to use her name, because she was a good friend of Mrs. Hnatyshyn’s:

“Gerda Hnatyshyn was one of the most influential people in my life and so I am deeply honoured to see my name attached to her beloved foundation for this scholarship.”

Lynda Hamilton is a passionate advocate for the physical and mental health of performing artists. She has dedicated her career to supporting initiatives and institutions that offer artists support at various stages of their careers. Notably, along with Ms. Sidimus, Ms. Hamilton was a co-founder of the Dancer Transition Resource Centre, a national, charitable organization dedicated to helping dancers make necessary transitions into, within, and from professional performing careers. She also founded the Valleyview Artist Retreat, offering free, week-long retreats for artists and arts administrators to find inspiration and respite. In 2021, Ms. Hamilton was honoured with the prestigious Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Volunteerism in the Arts. We sincerely thank her for her support.

We look forward to following Alexander’s career in the coming years! Who knows what stages we might see him on?