Our Founders

Celia Franca Celia Franca was the Founder of The National Ballet of Canada and the Co-Founder, with , of Canada’s National Ballet School. Born in , England, in 1921, Franca started studying dance at the age of four. She won scholarships to continue her studies at both the Guildhall School of Music and the Royal Academy of Dancing. After graduating, she danced professionally with Ballet Rambert, Sadler’s Wells Ballet, and the Metropolitan Ballet.

In 1950, a group of balletomanes in invited Franca to help them to create a professional-level, classical ballet company in Canada. On November 12, 1951, The National Ballet of Canada performed its first official show.

Franca was a hugely influential figure in the dance community of Canada. She stressed the importance of developing Canadian choreography by bringing more than 30 Canadian ballets into the repertoire of the company. She also supported the company’s dancers who showed interest in choreography by starting the Choreographic Workshop series. To increase the company’s profile, she toured both nationally and internationally often during the 24 years she served as Artistic Director of The National Ballet of Canada.

In 1959, with Betty Oliphant, she started Canada’s National Ballet School, to help train more of Canada’s young dancers. In 1978, with Merilee Hodgins and Joyce Shietze she opened The School of Dance in Ottawa. In 1967 she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, and in 1985, a Companion, the highest level of honour this country bestows. Despite retiring from the National Ballet, she continued to be very involved with the company, until her death in 2007.

Betty Oliphant Betty Oliphant was, along with Celia Franca, the Co-Founder of Canada’s National Ballet School. Oliphant began to study ballet as a child in her native London, England. She had been diagnosed with pneumonia, and doctors recommended ballet as a way to regain her strength and breathing abilities. She studied with Marie Rambert and others, and by 17 had opened her own ballet school.

Oliphant moved to Canada in 1947 and four years later, at the request of Celia Franca, became a ballet mistress for The National Ballet of Canada. In 1959 the women banded together to form Canada’s National Ballet School, with Oliphant as the Founding Artistic Director. In 1969 she was made an Associate Artistic Director of the National Ballet, while still running the School. Oliphant realized that her interest and loyalty lay in the School, so in 1975 she resigned from the company to focus her energy on the School.

In 1973 she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 1988 the ballet school’s new, state-of-the-art theatre was named in her honour and in 1989 she retired from Canada’s National Ballet School. Betty Oliphant passed away in St. Catharine’s in 2004.