Brian Macdonald

Last October, Brian Macdonald was awarded the $50,000 inaugural Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts, in honour of his 50-year career as a dancer, choreographer and artistic director in the worlds of ballet, opera and musical theatre.

Macdonald was one of the original members of The National Ballet of Canada, joining the company in 1951. Five years later, after an arm injury nearly resulted in amputation, he dropped his career as a dancer and founded the Montreal Theatre Ballet. He subsequently became choreographer of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and artistic director of both the Royal Swedish Ballet and of the Batsheva Company of Israel.

In the 1980s, he mounted productions for La Scala, The Paris Opera, the New York City, San Francisco and Washington Operas, as well as Les Ballet Jazz de Montreal and The National Ballet of Canada. He has directed 15 productions, with Stratford Festival, including Gypsy, Guys and Dolls and The Mikado (the latter earned Macdonald two Tony nominations after it toured in London and Broadway). He has been Director of Dance Department at the Banff Centre for the Arts for the last twenty years.