National Ballet of Canada

March 5, 2007...Toronto, Ontario... Tina Pereira, 24, of The National Ballet of Canada and Ulrik Birkkjær, 22, of the Royal Danish Ballet won The Seventh International Competition for The Erik Bruhn Prize on Saturday, March 3 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto.

Tina Pereira began the competition dancing with Keiichi Hirano in an excerpt from Le Corsaire for the classical portion of the competition. During the performance Mr. Hirano tore his Achilles tendon and Ms. Pereira continued on her own. During the intermission Artistic Director Karen Kain made a quick programme change, replacing the planned world premiere of veer by Canadian choreographer Sabrina Matthews with the balcony pas de deux from Romeo and Juliet. Principal Dancer Guillaume Côté, who was in the audience for the performance, stepped in to partner Ms. Pereira. The pair had performed the piece together at a recent guesting engagement.

Ulrik Birkkjær, a member of the Royal Danish Ballet's corps de ballet, danced the pas de deux from Flower Festival in Genzano and a new work by Tim Rushton, opus, with Yao Wei.
Eight dancers in total from The National Ballet of Canada, American Ballet Theatre, The Royal Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet competed for the prestigious prize. Each company was represented by one male and one female dancer between the ages of 18 and 26 who danced a classical and contemporary work.

Veronica Tennant and Rex Harrington, hosts of the evening, paid tribute to National Ballet of Canada founder Celia Franca, who passed away at the age of 85 on February 19, 2007 in Ottawa. The National Ballet of Canada performed Voluntaries in honour of Glen Tetley who died on January 26, 2007 at the age of 80.