ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Paula Urrutia
Artistic Director
Licentiate Cecchetti - CSC - CICB
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Paula studied ballet at the National Ballet School in Argentina, graduating from it’s 10 year program as a professional dancer with full teaching qualifications.
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Following her graduation, she continued to study with great artists of dance such as Lyde Peralta, Olga Ferri, Rada Echemboums, Sylvia Bazilis, Hector Zaraspe, Lazaro Carreno and Daniel Seillier.
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Early in her career, Paula danced with the National Ballet Company in Tucuman, Argentina. She then moved to Canada to perform with the Kokoro Dance company and the Vancouver Dance Theatre, followed by Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, L’Opera de Montreal, Les Ballets Contemporains de Montreal. She was also a principal dancer with Ballet ouest for several years. In 2002, Paula performed with Company 2000 in Brasilia, Brazil and worked with teaching greats, such as Vladimir Klos, Alexander Gorbatchvitch and Vera Timachova.
Throughout her career, Paula had the opportunity to perform soloist and leading roles from classical repertoire: Coppelia, Raymonda, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, la Bayadere, Carmen, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, la Fille Mal Gardee, the Nutcracker among many others.
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Once settled in Montreal, Paula decided to pursue her qualifications as a ballet instructor with the Cecchetti Society of Canada, acquiring Licentiate Status in 2008. Since then, she has had great success in presenting students to complete exams at all levels, including young teachers, with outstanding results.
In Canada, Paula has taught at numerous levels at several schools, both as a guest teacher and as a full-time instructor, including the following institutions, the Harbour Dance Center and A Star Studios in Vancouver, the School Of Dance in Ottawa, and in Montreal at Ballet Ouest, Ballet Metropolitain, and the Conservatoire de danse du Montreal. She also resided as the pedagogical director of Extravadanza for two years.
At Ballet Montreal Paula teaches all the higher levels of ballet.
Paula is a founding member of the Ballet Montreal Performing Arts School. As artistic director, her goal is to find new audiences for classical ballet with the Ballet Montreal Junior Company, and to combine Montreal’s great talent with her prolific experiences in the world of classical ballet and contemporary dance.