Reigning Ballerina Retires
Today, Annette av Paul is artistic consultant, teacher, and coach of classical ballet. Born, Stockholm, Sweden, 1944, she studied at Royal Swedish Opera’s Ballet School, before joining Royal Swedish Ballet, 1962. She was a sensational hit almost immediately when Bolshoi choreographer, Yuri Grigorovich, visiting Stockholm, 1962, plucked her out of school to play the lead role of Katerina in The Stone Flower which was touring Sweden at the time. Two years later, Canadian Brian Macdonald, at the time choreographer of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, entered her life. After they were married, they shared together their artistic talents, she as a ballerina, he as choreographer, and together, as well as independently, they have made a major contribution to international ballet. During her career as a professional dancer, the last 14 years as reigning ballerina with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Annette performed with Nureyev, Fonteyn, Bruhn, and Orlando Salgado from Cuba. She danced in the CBC’s first colour spectacular, Rose La Tulippe, and for Swedish TV and the BBC. She has done Sugar Plum, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, and Romeo and Juliet. She has starred in ballets by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Anthony Tudor, Kenneth MacMillan, Anton Dolin, Glen Tetley and José Limon, among others. Retiring, 1984, she became the founding artistic director, 1986, Ballet British Columbia. Today Annette is the associate director of the Dance Program, Banff Centre for the Arts. Former principal ballerina with the Royal Swedish Ballet, the Harkness Ballet of New York, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Annette av Paul Macdonald, 32 years a ballerina, today lives in Stratford, Ontario. In this view, Principal Dancer Annette av Paul is performing in The Hangman’s Reel, choreographed by Brian Macdonald for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Montreal, 1984. [Photo, courtesy of Ron Diamond]