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 Madame Yordanova trained for nine years at Baku in the USSR and for five years with the Bolshoi Ballet where she received her Teacher’s Diploma in 1960. She holds diplomas in Choreography and Teacher Training from the G.I.T.S. in Moscow. In 1960, Madame Yordanova was Ballet Mistress of the Varna Norodna Opera in Bulgaria where she staged a number of classics including Romeo and Juliet, Raymonda, Le Corsaire, Coppélia, Les Sylphides, Giselle and Nutcracker. She has also worked extensively with the Ballet der Deutschen Oper, Berlin and with companies in Madrid and Valencia, Spain and in Nagoya and Kyoto, Japan.
In 1980, Madame Yordanova began to spend a portion of each year in Winnipeg, teaching at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, Professional Division Summer Session. Her expert teaching of the Russian style was an important component of the development of the teaching style of the School.
In 1995, she joined the artistic faculty full-time as Resident Guest Teacher. She worked extensively with the RWB dancers to prepare them for the Company’s 1987 premiere of Swan Lake, which she staged in the Russian style. In 1990, Madame Yordanova shared her expertise and talent in the staging of the RWB’s premiere of La Bayadère, Act II, featuring members of the Company together with young artists from the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. In celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the RWB School in 1996, she staged Don Quixote, with the school’s entire student body performing alongside Company members who were school graduates in the lead roles.
For the RWB’s 1999/2000 season, Madame Yordanova, along with Nina Menon, choreographed a new version of Nutcracker for the Company which premiered in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre on December 2, 1999.
 Nina joined the Royal Winnipeg Ballet after graduating from The Royal Conservatory of The Hague and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Professional Division. As a member of the corps de ballet she danced numerous soloist roles and in 1990 she made her choreographic debut at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s choreographic workshop. The success of this ballet and others, plus the commissioning by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet of her popular ballet La Soif, led Artistic Director André Lewis to appoint Nina Menon Resident Choreographer.
Highlights of Nina’s residency include Drunken Butterflies a ballet choreographed to polish composer Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki. This ballet explores the life of an immigrant family through dance and film. In 1999 Nina collaborated with Galina Yordanova on the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s new version of Nutcracker which premiered in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre. In the same season Nina shared with the world her East Indian ancestral roots by creating a ballet to The Gita Govinda. Collaborating with composer Mychael Danna (Felicia’s Journey, Mansoon Wedding, Vanity Fair) Nina’s ballet, The Gitagovinda, told an ancient story from her personal connection with the poem. The sacred poem was passed down to Nina by her grandmother.
During her residency, Nina choreographed several ballets for the Professional Division students and taught dance at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s Recreational Division. Nina now lives in Montreal with life partner Mark Godden and their two sons. She teaches ballet at Sheila Parkins Dance Academy and several Montessori schools. In her spare time she loves to garden.
 As the composer of three of the most well known ballets in history, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky transformed ballet into a staged musical drama with his colourful and emotional orchestration. Born in Russia in 1840, Tchaikovsky turned to serious composition at the age of 14. He studied at the new St. Petersburg Conservatory before teaching at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1877 Madame Nadezhda von Meck became his patron and long time correspondent, which allowed him to dedicate himself to composition.
Under her patronage he began a period of rich productivity that included Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. His final ballet The Nutcracker was created in 1892 and has become one of the most popular ballets performed in Western countries. In 1893 he died of cholera, though some experts believe that the cause was actually suicide. Tchaikovsky wrote 11 operas, six symphonies, three string quartets, three ballets, suites and symphonic poems, and numerous songs and short piano pieces.
 Paul Daigle has a first-hand understanding of the intricacies of designing for dance. A graduate of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, Daigle went on to perform for two seasons with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet before leaving in 1988 to pursue a career in design.
Paul has established a very creative and productive relationship with choreographer Mark Godden. Together they have collaborated on a variety of creations for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, including sets and costumes for Sequoia, Godden’s 1989 Clifford E. Lee Choreographic Award winning ballet, Godden’s two award-winning pas de deux, Myth and La Princesse et le Soldat, as well as Forms of Distinction, Rapsodie espagnole, and seven one-act Godden ballets Symphony No. 1, Angels in the Architecture, Dame aux Fruits, La Folía, A Darkness Between Us, Shepherd’s Wake and Miroirs. During the 1997/1998 RWB season he redesigned the sets for Antony Tudor’s The Leaves Are Fading and the costumes for Paquita. He also collaborated with Mark Godden on two new works, The Rite of Spring and Anywhere But London.
During the 1998/1999 season Daigle designed the scenery and costumes for Mark Godden’s first full-length ballet, Dracula. In 2003 Paul went on to win the Manitoba Motion Picture Industry Association, Blizzard Award for best costume design for Guy Maddin’s film adaptation of Godden’s Dracula.
Mr. Daigle designed the costumes for the RWB’s Nutcracker, which premiered at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre on December 2, 1999. In 2003 Paul was reunited with Mr. Godden to create the scenery and costume design for Mark’s full-length creation The Magic Flute which premiered in Winnipeg.
Mr. Daigle has also created set and costume designs for ballet companies other than the RWB, including Ballet British Columbia, Ballet Jörgen in Toronto, Alberta Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and Compañía Nacional de Danza in Mexico. Mr. Daigle has designed new creations by Mark Morris and Kevin O’Day for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. In 1999 Paul designed the scenery and costumes for Alexei Ratmansky’s full length production of The Fairies Kiss for The Kiev Ballet.
Paul is involved in the artistic life of his home in the Maritimes, chairing the New Brunswick Arts Board and continuing his work as designer. Paul has designed productions for Canada’s newest ballet company, Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada, including costume design for the October 2006 premiere of Igor Dobrovolskiy’s The Phantom of the Opera. He has also designed costumes for Neptune Theatre’s production of the musical Beauty and the Beast in 2007.
Brian Perchaluk is a set and costume designer based in Winnipeg. Born and raised in rural Manitoba, Brian graduated from the University of Winnipeg and the National Theatre School of Canada and later went on to apprentice at the Banff Centre. Over the past twenty-five years his designs have been featured on stages across the country including the Neptune Theatre, Atlantic Ballet Theatre, Canadian Stage, Theatre Passe Muriaille, the Grand Theatre, the Blyth Festival, the National Arts Centre, Persephone Theatre, Theatre Calgary, Alberta Theatre Projects, the Citadel Theatre, The Vancouver Playhouse, the Arts Club theatre, the Belfry theatre and two seasons at each the Stratford and Shaw Festivals.
In Winnipeg he has often worked for Prairie Theatre Exchange, Manitoba Theatre for Young People, Rainbow Stage, Le Cercle Molière, Manitoba Opera and the Manitoba Theatre Centre, where he has designed more than forty productions.
Among his favourite credits are M. Butterfly for the Manitoba Theatre Centre and the National Arts Centre, Les Miserables for the Neptune Theatre, Time and the Conways for the Shaw Festival, Nutcracker for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Hay Fever for Theatre Calgary.
In 1999 Brian received a Gemini Award for outstanding production design for his work on Journey and in 2003 a Jessie Richardson Award for outstanding set design for Mary’s Wedding.
 Michael J. Whitfield comes to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet with an extensive background in lighting design for theatre, opera and ballet.
A native of Victoria, BC, Mr. Whitfield received his training in theatre during the 1960’s and early 1970’s at the University of Victoria, Villanova University and the University of Illinois. Since 1974, he has enjoyed a long association with the Stratford Festival, where he has for many years been Resident Lighting Designer and has been responsible for the lighting design of a great variety of plays and musicals. He has also worked extensively in Canadian regional theatre, and his work is often seen at Winnipeg’s Manitoba Theatre Centre.
Mr. Whitfield is also much in demand as a lighting designer for opera, and his designs have been featured at the San Francisco Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, the Minnesota Opera, the Dallas Opera, the Welsh National Opera and at Canadian companies in Toronto, Montreal, Hamilton, Edmonton, Calgary, Banff and Vancouver. His lighting has been featured at the Canadian Opera Company for over 20 years, where recent designs include Salome, Jenufa and Madama Butterfly.
In the world of ballet, Mr. Whitfield’s work has been represented by Alice and The Nutcracker at The National Ballet of Canada, The Merry Widow at the American Ballet Theatre, and Romeo and Juliet at the Finnish National Ballet. His lighting has also been seen at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in The Sleeping Beauty and Anne of Green Gables.
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