Karen Kain

Karen Kain was born in Hamilton, Ontario and trained at Canada’s National Ballet School. After joining the National Ballet, she quickly distinguished herself as an artist of extraordinary depth and versatility, and she formed an historic dance partnership with colleague Frank Augustyn. In 1973, the pair competed at the prestigious International Ballet Competition in Moscow, with Karen winning the Silver Medal in the Women’s Category and both dancers receiving a special prize for Best Pas de Deux. Karen performed in many of the great classical and contemporary works of her time, collaborated with international choreographers on new roles and appeared as a guest artist with such companies as Paris Opéra Ballet, Roland Petit’s Le Ballet de Marseille, Bolshoi Ballet, London Festival Ballet and Vienna State Opera Ballet. She also developed a close creative partnership with Rudolf Nureyev and performed with him often. In 1998, Karen became Artist-in-Residence with the National Ballet following her retirement from dancing in 1997 and the role was expanded to Artistic Associate in 1999. She was appointed Artistic Director of the National Ballet in 2005. The following year, she restaged Rudolf Nureyev’s The Sleeping Beauty for the company’s inaugural season at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto. During her tenure, the National Ballet embarked on 23 international tours and 29 Canadian tours, commissioned or acquired 71 works for the repertoire and received wo…