Barbara Bourget
Barbara Bourget, photo by Yukiko Onley
Barbara has been teaching dance for more than 50 years and has choreographed over 180 dance works. She began ballet training at the age of 11 with Mara McBirney, from 16 to 19, was a scholarship student at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School and also performed with the company. At the age of 19, Barbara joined Les Grands Ballets Canadiens for several years. For the past 50 years, Barbara has been performing with contemporary dance companies including Mountain Dance, Paula Ross Dance Company, Evelyn Roth Moving Sculpture Company, Judith Marcuse Dance Projects, EDAM, and Kokoro Dance. Her butoh studies have primarily been with Koichi and Hiroko Tamano, Natsu Nakajima, Yumiko Yoshioka, and Akaji Maro, as well as workshops in Germany, Japan, and San Francisco.
Barbara's classes merge elements of butoh and contemporary dance and include improvisation and choreography from the dance works that she has created. Dance critic Max Wyman wrote that Barbara danced with her heart on her sleeve and her body on red alert. Her classes develop a rigorous attention to the art of dance.