About
Ballets Jazz Montréal is an internationally renowned contemporary dance repertory company that has been evolving steadily and dynamically since 1972. Thanks to the unwavering faith of Geneviève Salbaing and Eva Von Gencsy, this vibrant energy has traced its path over the last 50 years. As an ambassador of Quebec dance to the world, Ballets Jazz Montréal offers the world an explosive, original, and accessible artistic product, renowned for the excellence of its interpretation.
The company's hallmark is its focus on the unique personalities of its performers. With their eclectic backgrounds, these high-caliber artists represent the very soul of Ballets Jazz Montréal. Their distinct personalities and the quality of their interpretation invariably win over audiences and critics from all walks of life.
With Alexandra Damiani as Artistic Director since 2021, the company has never been more in touch with the times. While retaining the essence of the company's origins, Ballets Jazz Montréal also collaborates with unique voices in contemporary dance.
By emphasizing values such as openness and vulnerability, Alexandra Damiani has perpetuated the company's tradition as a veritable research laboratory. While choreographers are invited in residence to share their explorations, performers have the opportunity to flourish alongside internationally renowned creators. The company's success is based on this particular alchemy, which makes each creation the fruit of a unique encounter between choreographers and dancers.
All Ballets Jazz Montréal works bring an element of humanity, fearlessness, and emotion to the highly technical skill that each dance requires. With accessibility and quality as key values, the company succeeds in integrating pleasure and humanity into its strong, expressive, and demanding pieces.
The company engages internationally renowned choreographers to develop their own research in line with Ballets Jazz Montréal's identity, generating a repertoire that is both exclusive to the company and accessible to all audiences. Ballets Jazz Montréal has had the pleasure of collaborating with such unique faces of contemporary dance as Crystal Pite (Canada), Rodrigo Pederneiras (Brazil), Mauro Bigonzetti (Italy), Aszure Barton (Canada), Cayetano Soto (Spain), Wen Wei Wang (Canada), Barak Marshall (Israel & the United States), Itzik Galili (Netherlands), Andonis Foniadakis (Greece), Benjamin Millepied (France), Annabelle Lopez Ochoa (Colombia & Belgium), Ihsan Rustem (United Kingdom), Anne Plamondon (Canada), and Juliano Nunes (Brazil). With such high-profile names in its repertoire, Ballets Jazz Montréal believes in mutual enrichment based as much on openness to others as on diversity of styles.
Through its productions, shows, and educational activities, Ballets Jazz Montréal encourages discovery, stimulates the imagination, and shares its passion for this discipline with all its audiences, local and abroad. With over 3,200 performances in 60 countries, and an audience of over 3 million, Ballets Jazz Montréal is considered one of the world's leading ambassadors of dance and Quebec's artistic vitality.
In 2016, the Prix Rideau Hommage was awarded to the company and its then-artistic director in recognition of Ballets Jazz Montréal's impact and assiduous presence on Quebec stages.
In 2020, the company received the Prix de la danse de Montréal for the category of international dissemination presented by CINARS.
In 2022, the company celebrated 50 years of creating, exploring, and sharing with its public around the world.
"Ballet Jazz Montreal is by far one of the highlights of today's theater experience and should not be missed, if only to observe what it is like to work together for a unified vision, with real artisans and exceptional artists."
Joanne DiVito, LA Dance Chronicle (Los Angeles, USA)