The province's only professional classical ballet company, Ballet Victoria, draws its dancers from training grounds across the world. Three of the current company dancers, the compelling Sebastian Fairley, Takeru Hatsushika, and Isabelle Jutras, offer a glimpse into the talent and drive found throughout the troupe.

"Ballet Victoria is the only dance organization in BC with a professional training program where dancers train with the company daily," says Artistic and Executive Director Paul Destrooper.

All three arrived by way of Goh Ballet's youth company in Vancouver, though their routes there could hardly have differed more. Vancouver-born Sebastian trained at Goh Ballet Academy and earned the Vancouver Ballet Society's Erik Bruhn scholarship before continuing at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School's Professional Division. Takeru spent thirteen years training across Japan before joining Goh Ballet at seventeen, where he won Best Male Dancer at the 2018 Global Dance Challenge, and went on to a soloist post with the Tajik National Opera and Ballet Theatre. Isabelle, born in Québec, trained in ballet, jazz, contemporary, and musical theatre across Canada and the United States before choosing to focus on ballet with the company in Vancouver, touring through community outreach programs along the way.

Their shared point of origin traces back to Chan Hon Goh, recently appointed Vice President of the Royal Academy of Dance, and the academy she founded, Goh Ballet Academy. Sebastian, Takeru, and Isabelle carry that training with them into a company built on the same standard, one shaped daily by dancers teaching dancers.

Over the past decade, half a dozen dancers have joined the company through its Aspirant Program, while others have gone on to companies elsewhere or built practices of their own. Sebastian and Isabelle now count among the Conservatory's faculty, a development Destrooper considers central to how the next generation learns. He shared, "Having active professional artists teach and demonstrate is unique. Students see the steps with clarity in the studio and on the stage. They learn and develop faster."

Even so, Destrooper is candid about where the company's growth must come from next. "The challenge is getting people to come and see a performance," he explains. "Many people still have never seen much ballet beyond Nutcracker. Taking a chance on discovering other repertoire will invariably change one's perspective."

The season ahead sees all the dancers of the company move through very different registers. Ballet Rocks opens in October with a contemporary edge, setting up a sharp contrast with December's Gift of the Nutcracker, a company tradition staged with the Victoria Symphony. March turns fully classical with Romeo and Juliet, and the year closes in May with the comic energy of Don Quixote. The versatility, he notes, traces back to the training behind it: "The Ballet Victoria dancers have a mastery of the classical technique, dramatic cinematographic acting and a fluid contemporary movement quality. It is only natural for them to perform to rock music, Opera, jazz, or classical scores."

"Ballet Victoria makes accessible an art form that many perceive as elitist," Destrooper adds, pointing to humour as one of the company's trademarks and touring as proof the approach resonates, filling houses and drawing standing ovations across the province.