Karen Kain

Karen Alexandria Kain, born March 28, 1951, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, is a Canadian former ballet dancer who served as Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Canada from 2005 to 2021. Her Broadway appearances include Makarova and Company and Coppelia, both in 1980.

Kain's mother enrolled her in ballet training with the goal of improving her posture, poise, and discipline. When Kain was eleven, in 1962, the family relocated from Ancaster to Erindale Woodlands in Toronto Township so she could attend the National Ballet School of Canada. Upon completing her studies there in 1969, she received an invitation to join the National Ballet of Canada. She was elevated to principal dancer in 1971, and her partnership with dancer Frank Augustyn drew widespread attention as early as 1973, when the two won prizes at the Moscow International Ballet Competition. That year, Kain took silver in the women's competition and, together with Augustyn, claimed first prize for best pas de deux, performing the Bluebird pas de deux from Sleeping Beauty. Rudolf Nureyev played a significant role in bringing Kain to broader prominence in Canada.

Throughout her performing career, Kain danced roles in both classical and modern repertoire, including Swan Lake, Coppélia, The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, La fille mal gardée, Onegin, The Taming of the Shrew, Pastorale, Carmen, Concerto Barocco, and A Month in the Country. She worked as a guest artist with numerous international companies, among them Roland Petit's Ballet National de Marseilles, the Bolshoi Ballet, the London Festival Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, the Hamburg Ballet, the Vienna State Opera Ballet, and the Eliot Feld Ballet. Around 1980, she became a subject of The Portraits of Andy Warhol.

Kain stopped dancing in 1977 but returned to the stage in 1981 with the National Ballet of Canada, continuing to perform for fifteen more years. In 1996, she reunited with Augustyn to appear in her husband Ross Petty's pantomime production of Robin Hood at Toronto's Elgin Theatre. She retired as a professional dancer in 1997, the same year she received the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards companion award from the National Arts Centre.

In 1998, Kain joined the National Ballet of Canada's senior management team as artistic associate. She supported artistic director James Kudelka during a wrongful-dismissal suit brought by principal dancer Kimberley Glasco. When Kudelka departed, Kain succeeded him as artistic director in 2005, a position she held until 2021. Her final project in that role, a production of Swan Lake, is the subject of Chelsea McMullan's 2023 documentary film Swan Song.

Kain's honors are extensive. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1976 and elevated to Companion of the Order of Canada in 1991. She became a member of the Order of Ontario in 1990. In 1996, she became the first Canadian to receive the Cartier Lifetime Achievement Award. The French Government named her an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters in May 1998, the same year she was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. She received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement in 2002, as well as the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal that year. She holds honorary degrees from the University of Toronto, York University, McMaster University, Trent University, and the University of British Columbia. In 2009, she served as president of the jury at the Prix de Lausanne ballet competition. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal was awarded to her in 2012. In April 2021, Canada Post honored her with a permanent domestic stamp as part of its recognition of legends of ballet.

Beyond performance and administration, Kain served as founding board president of Canada's Dancer Transition Resource Centre. Her autobiography, Movement Never Lies, was published by McClelland and Stewart in 1994. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation produced a documentary about her, Karen Kain, Prima Ballerina, in 1989. In 1976, she appeared in a televised production of Giselle alongside Nadia Potts, Frank Augustyn, and Anne Ditchburn, first broadcast in 1986. She also appeared in a 1985 episode of the Canadian television series Seeing Things. In 2008, an arts-focused public middle school in Etobicoke was named the Karen Kain School of the Arts in her honor. Kain has been married to actor and theatrical producer Ross Petty since 1983.