This week we meet dancer Peter Smida who returns for his seventh season with Ballet BC.
Meet Peter Smida
Peter was born and raised in Kingston, Ontario. A former tennis player, he studied on scholarship at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School and graduated in 2007. He also attended summer programs and festivals in Banff and Prague. After working with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Ballet Victoria, Peter joined Ballet BC in 2008 and has since had the pleasure of performing works by Emily Molnar, Jorma Elo, Crystal Pite, Johan Inger and Medhi Walerski, as well as many others. In addition to his work at Ballet BC, Peter has also worked on independent projects with Donald Sales and has begun choreographing, showing his work at Dances for a Small Stage and the Shadbolt Centre for the Performing Arts.
Visit https://balletbc.com for more information on the Ballet BC 2014/2015 season.
20 Questions with Peter Smida
1. Your first job.
I was in a commercial for a watch when I was twelve.
2. The job you always wanted as a child.
I wanted to work for Disney as an animator.
3. Your pet peeve.
Close mindedness.
4. Your hero.
Can I have three? Jean-Luc Picard, Batman, and my brother. No particular order.
5. Your biggest indulgence.
Cookies and milk. I’m eight.
6. One thing no one knows about you (and you’re willing to share).
I trained under the Royal Conservatory of Music in recorder for five years.
7. Three things you would want with you on a deserted island.
Water, a knife, and a flint and steel.
8. The one word your best friend would use to describe you.
I asked him. He says original.
9. If you were not a dancer what would you be doing right now?
Not sitting in physiotherapy with my feet in a bucket of ice.
10. Hero or villain.
Depends on your perception.
11. Your life’s motto/mantra.
Work hard, love and relax.
12. Your favourite kind of dance (classical or contemporary).
That I’ve danced, First Flash by Jorma Elo.
13. The last movie you watched.
The Terminator. (I’ll be back).
14. If you were a breakfast cereal what breakfast cereal would you be?
Lucky Charms.
15. What will it say on your grave marker?
Hopefully something positive.
16. Who would you most like to have dinner with?
My friends and I’d leave an open invitation for William Shatner.
17. Your idea of happiness.
Being at peace, having fun and making art.
18. If you could go back in time, what would you tell your twenty year old self?
Stretch more.
19. The one thing in your life that makes you most proud.
My career.
20. Pirouette or fouette?
Pirouette – fouetté – pirouette!