The longtime artistic director of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet announced he will be stepping down from the role in 2025 -- ending a 50-year career with Canada's oldest ballet company. Royal Winnipeg Ballet dancers Sophie Lee and Liang Xing play Annie and Gordon in Going Home Star - Truth And Reconciliation in Winnipeg, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods
February 23, 2023 - 3:11 PM
WINNIPEG - The longtime artistic director of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet says he will step down from the role in 2025, ending a 50-year career with Canada's oldest ballet company.
André Lewis became the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's artistic director in 1996, and in 2018 he was also appointed chief executive officer of the company.
The company said in a statement Thursday that the board of directors has begun the transition and will launch an international recruitment plan to hire his successors.
Lewis's role will be split into two, with new people coming on to take over as executive director by June 2023 and artistic director by 2024.
Lewis began his dance training in Ottawa before being accepted into the professional division of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School in 1975.
He joined the company in 1979 where he had a career as a dancer for 10 years before he shifted to a management role.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 23, 2022.
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