Pacific Opera Victoria
Capriccio
February - March, 2010
Artistic Director of Ballet Victoria, Paul Destrooper has a successful international dance career spanning two decades. He joined the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Company in 1993 upon graduation from the School's Professional Division with the prestigious Prince Edward Award and the Arnold Spohr Scholarship. He was promoted to second soloist in 1997. He danced with Alberta Ballet for two seasons and with Oregon Ballet Theatre from 2003 until 2007, both as a Principal Dancer. Paul has worked closely with his past artistic directors beginning with John Meehan, William Whitener, André Lewis, Mikko Nissinen, Jean Grand-Maître and Christopher Stowell.
Paul has performed internationally many lead roles to rave reviews in both the classical and contemporary repertoire. He has danced principal roles in full length ballets such as Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet (Rudi Van Danzig), Lady of the Camellias (Val Caniparolli), Dracula (Mark Godden), M. Butterfly, Beauty and the Beast (David Nixon) and in works by world renowned choreographers such as Sir Frederick Ashton, Jerome Robbins, George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp, Jiri Kylian, Hans Van Manen, Rudi Van Danzig, Chrisopher Wheeldon, Paul Taylor and Lar Lubovitch.
He has taught and coached in professional schools including the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, and Northwest Professional Dance Project and has choreographed several works both in the US and Canada, including for Ballet Victoria.
Paul holds a BA in French Literature and Language from the University of Victoria, where he was twice the recipient of the Adeline Deloume Memorial Scholarship.
January 2010