Hope Muir (born ) is a Canadian dancer, rehearsal director, teacher and the

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogu ...

of the

National Ballet of Canada The National Ballet of Canada is a Canadian ballet company that was founded in 1951 in Toronto, Ontario, with Celia Franca, the first artistic director. A company of 70 dancers with its own orchestra, the National Ballet has been led since 2022 ...

. She danced professionally in the UK and US for seventeen years, until her retirement from performing in 2006. Then, she began working as a rehearsal director and teacher. In 2009, she joined

Scottish Ballet Scottish Ballet is the national ballet company of Scotland and one of the five leading ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside the Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Northern Ballet. Founded in 1 ...

as a rehearsal director, and became its associate artistic director in 2015. In 2017, she became the artistic director of

Charlotte Ballet Charlotte Ballet is the oldest professional ballet company in North Carolina. It was founded as North Carolina Dance Theatre in Winston-Salem by Robert Lindgren, who was then Dean of Dance at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, ...

. In 2022, she assumed her position at the National Ballet of Canada, officially titled Joan and Jerry Lozinski Artistic Director.

Early life and training

Muir was born in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

and raised in

Etobicoke Etobicoke (, ) is an administrative district and former city within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the city's west end, Etobicoke is bordered on the south by Lake Ontario, on the east by the Humber River (Ontario), Humber River, on the ...

by a single mother, who sent Muir to dance classes at a young age. In 1987, when she was fifteen, she moved to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England due to her mother's job. She was among the ten of 400 applicants that were accepted to the London Festival Ballet School (now

English National Ballet School English National Ballet School is a specialist classical ballet school based in London in the United Kingdom. The School was founded in 1988 by Peter Schaufuss as the official school of English National Ballet. The School's current artistic d ...

), newly founded by

Peter Schaufuss Peter Schaufuss (born 1949 in Copenhagen, Denmark) is a Danish ballet dancer, director and choreographer. Biography He is the son of ballet dancers Frank Schaufuss (1921–1997) and Mona Vangsaae (1920–1983). Schaufuss trained at the Royal D ...

Career

Muir joined the

English National Ballet English National Ballet is a classical ballet company founded by Dame Alicia Markova and Sir Anton Dolin as London Festival Ballet and based in London, England. Along with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet and Scott ...

upon graduating. She remained in the company for four years, and mainly danced classical ballets. In 1994, she joined the

Rambert Dance Company Rambert (known as Rambert Dance Company before 2014) is a leading British dance company. Formed at the start of the 20th century as a classical ballet company, it exerted a great deal of influence on the development of dance in the United Kingd ...

, where she danced more contemporary works. In 2004, she moved to

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Hubbard Street Dance Chicago is a contemporary dance company based in Chicago. Hubbard Street performs in downtown Chicago at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance and at the Edlis Neeson Theater at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Hub ...

, where she remained until her retirement from dance in 2006, after performing professionally for seventeen years. After she stopped performing, she began working as a guest rehearsal director and teacher, remounting works by

Crystal Pite Crystal Pite (born December 15, 1970) is a Canadian Choreography (dance), choreographer and dancer. She began her professional dance career in 1988 at Ballet British Columbia, Ballet BC, and in 1996 she joined Ballett Frankfurt under the tutelag ...

, Helen Pickett and

Christopher Bruce Christopher Bruce (born 3 October 1945 in Leicester) is a British choreographer and performer. He was the Artistic Director of the Rambert Dance Company until 2002. Career Bruce trained at the Rambert School and became a dancer with the Ram ...

for various dance companies. She staged Bruce's ''Rooster'' for the

in 2008, and assisted Pite in choreographing ''Emergence'' for the company the following year. In 2009, she joined the

as a rehearsal director and was promoted to assistant artistic director in 2015. She also served as a rehearsal assistant to

Hofesh Shechter Hofesh Shechter (; born 3 May 1975) is an Israeli choreographer, dancer and composer based in London. He is the founder and artistic director of the Hofesh Shechter Company. Early life Hofesh Shechter was born in Jerusalem, Israel, in 1975. At ...

when he choreographed ''Untouchable'' for

the Royal Ballet The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded ...

. In 2017, she succeeded

Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux Jean-Pierre Bonnefous or Bonnefoux (; 9 April 1943 – 15 April 2025) was a French ballet dancer and instructor. He was during different tenures the artistic director of the Charlotte Ballet and the Chautauqua Institution. Life and career ...

as the artistic director of

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 United ...

, while

Patricia McBride Patricia McBride (born August 23, 1942) is a ballerina who spent nearly 30 years dancing with the New York City Ballet. McBride joined the New York City Ballet in 1959. She became a principal in 1961, becoming the company's youngest principal. ...

remained as the associate artistic director. Her appointment was announced in 2016, and she spent the year prior to her officially taking the post as artistic advisor and shadowed Bonnefoux. She was the first female artistic director in the company's history. In her first season, she founded the company's choreographic lab, which allows company members to create works that are presented at the company

black box theatre A black box theater is a performance space, typically a square or rectangular room, with black walls and a black, flat floor. The simplicity of the space allows it to be used to create a variety of configurations of stage and audience interact ...

. During her tenure, she commissioned twelve world premieres, and brought in works by female and international choreographers, including the US premiere of Christian Spuck's ''Leonce and Lena''. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, she led the company through various projects even though the dancers could neither perform on stage nor rehearse in studio. After performances of ''

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' (, ), Opus number, Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet (conceived as a '; ) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination featuring a Nutcracker doll. Th ...

'' were cancelled, she and rehearsal director Christopher Stuart choreographed ''A Fairy-Tailored Nutcracker'', which was performed for a social-distanced audience. In July 2021, it was announced that Muir will succeed

Karen Kain Karen Alexandria Kain (born March 28, 1951) is a Canadian former ballet dancer and was the Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Canada from 2005 to 2021. Early training and childhood Kain's mother enrolled her daughter in ballet trainin ...

as the artistic director of National Ballet of Canada in January 2022. She was invited to apply for the position by the National Ballet's search committee. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she was unable to have any in-person interviews with the company before she was hired. The position was renamed Joan and Jerry Lozinski Artistic Director after two of the company's supporters. When her appointment was announced, Muir stated she plans to prioritize the nurturing of choreographic talents and community engagement.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muir, Hope 1970s births Living people Artistic directors Canadian ballerinas Canadian contemporary dancers Canadian emigrants to the United Kingdom Canadian expatriates in the United States Canadian female dancers English National Ballet dancers National Ballet of Canada dancers People from Etobicoke Dancers from Toronto Scottish Ballet 20th-century ballet dancers 20th-century Canadian dancers 21st-century Canadian ballet dancers