Sixty years is a long time for a dance troupe conceived by a group of volunteers.

The National Ballet of Canada celebrates its diamond jubilee this season, marking the occasion by commemorating its past. 

Accompanying the wide array of events that coincide with the milestone is an archival exhibit. Featuring historical photos and contextual copy as well as vintage tutus and pointe shoes, it makes its way into the halls of the National Film Board’s Mediatheque this week.

“We thought it would be nice to share our history,” says Julia Drake, the company’s director of communications.

It took Drake and company archivist Adrienne Nevile two months to gather the material, which had to be ready for the company’s Western Canadian tour last September.

It’s since appeared at City Hall, the Toronto Reference Library and the University of Toronto.

Drake and Nevile’s work was helped by the digitization of the company’s archives 10 years ago.

“We’ve got a really great archivist and a really great system,” says Drake. “We didn’t just stumble onto anything.”

Rather than create a straight timeline, they broke the company’s history into segments concentrating on different aspects of its history including a look at the day-in-the-life of a dancer, the production side of the company and the conditions under which dancers would have to work in the early years.

“They’d dance on concrete or go to a hockey rink and dance on the ice.”

There’s also plenty of info about the three Toronto women who coaxed English Choreographer Celia Franca to come to Canada and found the National Ballet.

“I think she saw an opportunity to form and be in charge on something,” says Drake of Franca.
“She was a force to be reckoned with.”