Greta Hodgkinson and Jillian Vanstone in the monumental piece of dance art Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.Aleksandar Antonijevic
In a season which saw the National Ballet of Canada tour Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to Manhattan, the company ended the 2014-15 fiscal year with a modest surplus.
At its annual general meeting on Thursday, the National revealed it was $65,000 to the good. It wasn't a matter of executive director Barry Hughson pulling a rabbit out of his hat; the surplus was company's sixth in six years.
The favourable balance sheet came as a result of fiscal discipline and the help of turnstile types and what Hughson called a "growing family" of benefactors.
"None of what has been achieved would have been possible without the support of our donors, patrons and volunteers," he said.
The company, it was announced, had 1,700 performances and outreach events, with a total attendance of 833,091. There were 82 performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto with 141,157 in attendance and 1,600 community events reaching 655,408 young people and their families.
On the road, the company performed at the Music Center in Los Angeles, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and – for the first time in 26 years – the Lincoln Center in New York. All told, 36,526 audience members witnessed the tour first-hand.
At home, the company's annual winter run of James Kudelka's The Nutcracker was a sugarplum success at the box office, where returns were the best in the production's nearly 20-year history, according to artistic director Karen Kain.
Looking forward, the National will unveil its first new full-length Canadian commission in 10 years. Le Petit Prince, an adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's novella by principal dancer and first-time choreographer Guillaume Côté, will premiere on June 4.
Brad Wheeler