Meet Ballet BC apprentice Nicole Ward, who joins Vancouver’s contemporary ballet company for its new season.
Ballet BC opens its 30th anniversary season with Program I, featuring a world premiere by Belgian-born choreographer Stijn Celis, the Canadian premiere of Solo Echo by Vancouver-based Choreographer Crystal Pite, and the return of the critically acclaimed Twenty Eight Thousand Waves by resident choreographer Cayetano Soto. Program I plays the Queen Elizabeth Theatre November 5-7. Visit https://balletbc.com for tickets and information.
Meet Nicole Ward
Nicole was born in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia but raised in Vancouver. She started dancing at four years of age, but it wasn’t until she moved to Vancouver that she began her professional training at Arts Umbrella. In 2014, Nicole toured Europe with the Arts Umbrella Senior Dance Company, where she performed Take Off by Fernanado Hernando Magadan in the Nederlands Dans Theater’s Switch’14 Gala. More recently she also had the incredible opportunity of working alongside sixty other dancers to create and perform Singularity by Crystal Pite/Kidd Pivot, a creation to music by Vancouver composer Owen Belton. Nicole is thrilled to be joining Ballet BC as an apprentice this season.
20 Questions with Nicole Ward
1. Your first job.
My first “real job” (a.k.a not babysitting) was teaching small children to ride bicycles at a biking camp in North Vancouver.
2. The job you always wanted as a child.
I always thought that I would be a teacher when I was younger.
3. Your pet peeve.
When people chew yogurt.
4. Your hero.
My hero is my daddy.
5. Your biggest indulgence.
Hazelnut almond butter!
6. One thing no one knows about you (and you’re willing to share).
When I was maybe six or seven years old I did equestrian vaulting, which is best described as gymnastics on a horse.
7. Three things you would want with you on a deserted island.
The first thing would probably be a hammock, second would be endless supply of coconut water, and third would be a companion.
8. The one word your best friend would use to describe you.
Easy-going.
9. If you were not a dancer, what would you be doing right now?
Travelling.
10. Hero or villain.
Villain.
11. Your life’s motto/mantra.
Seizing every moment of everyday and any opportunity that comes my way.
12. Your favourite kind of dance (classical or contemporary).
Contemporary.
13. The last movie you watched.
True Story.
14. If you were a cartoon character what cartoon character would you be and why?
I would be Princess Pocahontas because I love how connected she seems to be with herself and the world around her.
15. What will it say on your grave marker?
Hopefully something short, meaningful and simple.
16. Who would you most like to have dinner with?
I would love to have dinner with my father’s father, whom I never got to meet.
17. Your idea of happiness.
My idea of happiness is being able to find joy and pleasure in the little everyday things, because from there you’ll be able to obtain overall happiness and forever be able to be happy.
18. What will you be doing 30 years from now?
I have no idea, and that’s what is so exciting.
19. The one thing in your life that makes you most proud.
I am very proud of my family heritage.
20. Pirouette or fouette?
Fouette!