Rex Harrington
Artist-in-Residence
Rex Harrington O.C., Artist-in-Residence
Biography
Rex Harrington, O.C., Artist-in-Residence
During his 20-year career as a dancer, Rex Harrington galvanized and thrilled audiences around the world with his magnetic stage presence and powerful gift for dramatic characterization. Renowned both at home and internationally for his portrayals of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Siegfried and Rothbart in Swan Lake, Albrecht in Giselle and Prince Florimund in The Sleeping Beauty, Mr. Harrington’s name is synonymous with ballet at its most charismatic.
As well as enjoying a successful international career as a guest artist, dancing with such companies as Teatro alla Scala, San Francisco Ballet and Stuttgart Ballet, and with such remarkable ballerinas as Ekaterina Maximova, Carla Fracci and Alessandra Ferri, Mr. Harrington also created many seminal roles as a dancer. Among these are the central role in James Kudelka’s The Four Seasons, an Elder in Mr. Kudelka’s The Contract (The Pied Piper), Lewis Carroll in Glen Tetley’s Alice, the Young Gentleman in Mr. Tetley’s La Ronde, as well as lead roles in ballets by such choreographers as Jean-Pierre Perreault, William Forsythe and Jiří Kylián.
A native of Peterborough, Ontario, Mr. Harrington studied at Canada’s National Ballet School. He joined The National Ballet of Canada in 1983, became a Principal Dancer in 1988 and retired from the stage in 2004. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2000 and was given a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2005. In 2006, he received an Honourary Degree from York University and was appointed to the position of Artist-in-Residence with the National Ballet. Mr. Harrington returned as a guest judge on CTV’s So You Think You Can Dance in 2009.