{"id":21625,"date":"2022-09-25T00:00:09","date_gmt":"2022-09-25T03:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/?p=21625"},"modified":"2022-09-25T15:54:42","modified_gmt":"2022-09-25T18:54:42","slug":"ms-bernadette-beliveau-a-ballerina-with-the-national-ballet-of-canada-shares-some-of-her-glorious-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/2022\/09\/25\/ms-bernadette-beliveau-a-ballerina-with-the-national-ballet-of-canada-shares-some-of-her-glorious-memories\/","title":{"rendered":"Ms. Bernadette B\u00e9liveau, a ballerina with the National Ballet of Canada, shares some of her glorious memories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Does the world-renown National Ballet of Canada<\/em> need an introduction?<\/strong> <\/em>Well, from its website (https:\/\/bit.ly\/3SvLw9P<\/a>), you can learn about the National Ballet of Canada<\/em>: \u201cLocated in Toronto<\/em>\u2026 \u201cit is one of the top international ballet companies, this company was founded in 1951 by Celia Franca. A company of 70 dancers with its own orchestra, the National Ballet has been led by Artistic Director Karen Kain, one of the greatest ballerinas of her generation, since 2005<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis company has performed for over 10 million people. The National Ballet has toured in Canada, the USA and internationally with performances in the UK, Germany, The Netherlands, Israel, Hong Kong, Japan, Italy and Mexico. Most recently, the company appeared in London, Los Angeles, Paris, Hamburg, Moscow and St. Petersburg, New York City and Washington. D.C.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, who is the former ballerina dancer, Ms. Bernadette B\u00e9liveau? <\/strong>Bambi is proud to introduce her to you in the post! Among her other impressive achievements, she has been a ballerina dancer with the prestigious National Ballet of Canada<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Bambi’s mind, it clearly takes much talent AND discipline to be able to lead and sustain such a career in time. Thus, as you can guess, she is fascinated by Ms. B\u00e9liveau’s national an international ballet career. However, she is even more fascinated with her capacity to re-invent and invest herself, with both discipline and passion, in a fulfilling Mathematics teaching career. Indeed, to describe her to you, perhaps the word “multi-talented” would be the most appropriate one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specifically, after an inspiring career in ballet dancing as featured in this post, she had a second career in life as a skilled Mathematician, teaching in CEGEP, which is Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s college system, and university, namely Sir George William\u2019s University (the original name of Concordia University prior to 1974). That was after successfully graduating with a Bachelor of Science, with a major in Mathematics, followed later by a Masters in Mathematics at Dalhousie University. It was before and after she became a mother, another full-time fabulous career, and after her child turned five. Of note, Ms. Bernadette B\u00e9liveau is fluent in several languages, including French, English, Spanish in addition to Hebrew and Russian, imagine!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before describing her incredible classical ballet dancing journey and career, Bambi has been fascinated to learn while preparing this post and interviewing Ms. B\u00e9liveau the following: She has been awarded the most prestigious M\u00e9daille de L’Universit\u00e9 Laval <\/em>for having earned the highest high school grades in the province of Qu\u00e9bec. Following this, she obtained the M\u00e9daille du Lieutenant-Gouverneur <\/em>for her university academic results in Maths and Physics. Bambi would have shared a picture, but sadly this highly symbolic honour was stolen twice :(. Not surprising that she was accepted in engineering at Polytechnique. Ms. B\u00e9liveau is in her eighties now. You can guess that she was the only woman to be accepted! In addition, she was also accepted in Pharmacy despite her young age, 16 only so. She got in as an exception. She was also accepted in both Physics and Maths undergraduate programs, as mentioned above. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is this post about?<\/strong><\/em> Before diving together into some of her career milestone details, this post is a tribute to the talent of Ms. B\u00e9liveau, as a ballerina. First, you will have the opportunity to discover some of her main career highlights. Second, with her generous approval, Bambi will share a few pictures within the text of this post, along with a precious La Presse<\/em> article from 1961 about the performance of Ms. B\u00e9liveau, along with her Ballet team of dancers (Montreal, Qu\u00e9bec, Canada). Third, you can read an interview Bambi conducted with her back in August, 2021, when she visited Sackville, NB. It is Bambi\u2019s hope that you will enjoy this post as much as she did whilst preparing it with her preferred Ballerina in the world ?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are Ms. B\u00e9liveau’s main career highlights?<\/strong> Ms. Bernadette B\u00e9liveau is an interesting phenomenon of talent because she did not start learning to dance, as a young child. Indeed, she began taking dance classes only in adolescence, once per week for over two years in Trois-Rivi\u00e8res before moving to Montreal (Qu\u00e9bec, Canada), following her “Cours de Lettre Sciences<\/em>“, which was the equivalent of a 13th extra year of high school back in the middle of the fifties. The latter is an additional year to mandatory school, which took place before the establishment of CEGEP (college) educational system, which is unique to the province of Qu\u00e9bec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. B\u00e9liveau faced a tough personal challenge: pursue her studies versus dancing? She finally decided to move to Montreal where she trained with the same professor from Trois-Rivi\u00e8res, Ms. S\u00e9da Zar\u00e9. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1956, she took part in dancing auditions and she danced with the \u201cMontreal Theatre Ballet<\/em>\u201d, which was founded by Mr. Bryan McDonald. At that time, he had the innovative idea to create ballets using Canadian composers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ms. Bernadette B\u00e9liveau with the Ballet Concert<\/em> in Montreal, Qu\u00e9bec<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Ms. Bernadette B\u00e9liveau and Mr. Michel Conte<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Simultaneously, Ms. B\u00e9liveau had some working contracts on TV. For instance, she danced in children\u2019s programs, as dancing animals, weekly for two years. In addition, she appeared in the  \u201cLes Couche-tard<\/em>\u201d (https:\/\/bit.ly\/3fcpQkF<\/a>), working with Mr. Roger Beaulu and Mr. Jacques Normand. Furthermore, she worked with Ms. Juliette B\u00e9liveau (Nicolet, Qu\u00e9bec). The latter was a talented French-Canadian actress and singer with the Family Plouffe<\/em>; a street in Montreal is named after her (https:\/\/bit.ly\/3r5avVL<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of note, Ms. B\u00e9liveau also danced in spectacles choreographed by Ms. S\u00e9da Zar\u00e9. In them, she reported having had the honour to dance with senior dancers from the National Ballet of Canada<\/em>, including Ms. Ir\u00e8ne Apin\u00e9 and Mr. Yuri Gotshalk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following all the above, Ms. Celia Franca, the founder and director of the National Ballet of Canada<\/em>, came to Montreal (from Toronto, Ontario) for auditions of dancing students. She offered Bernadette a summer scholarship. Following this, Ms B\u00e9liveau was invited to join the company. That was in the late fifties-early sixties. In total, she danced professionally for about 10-15 years, literally across all Canada, the USA, Mexico, as well in the French capital, Paris!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A picture of Bernadette with her fellow ballerina dancers from the National Ballet of Canada<\/em>.
Bernadette is the third to the left side<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

After the National Ballet of Canada<\/em>, Ms. B\u00e9liveau went to France. She trained with Ms. Ilich. Following this incredible international opportunity, she was offered work contract with the “Op\u00e9ra de Lille<\/em>“. She also was offered opportunities to dance in Marseille, Toulouse, Tour, and in Aix-en- Provence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following her journey in France, Ms. B\u00e9liveau returned to Canada. Around that time, Ms. S\u00e9da Zar\u00e9 founded the \u201cBallet Concert<\/em>\u201d company for many years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A PDF of an article in La Presse<\/em>, from 1961, about the National Ballet of
Canada\u2019<\/em>s Ms. Bernadette B\u00e9liveau! <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\nAs an anecdote, Ms. Zar\u00e9 happens to have known the sister of Mr. Charles\n Aznavour. This is how Ms. B\u00e9liveau learned how to sing \u201cKaroun Yerevan\u201d <\/em>?. Bravo to her!\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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