Quick Facts

Born: Sydney, Australia
Trained: Tanya Pearson Classical Coaching Academy in Australia and the Tanz Akademie Zürich in Switzerland
Joined: 2011
First Soloist since: 2018

Jack Bertinshaw is sponsored through Dancers First by an anonymous donor.

Five Things to Know

1. 1Travel was a significant part of Jack’s childhood and training. He lived in Japan for a while before returning home to Australia, where he began studying dance. From there, he moved to Zürich and then to Toronto to join The National Ballet of Canada.
    
2. 2He took his first dance classes in jazz, acrobatics and tap, a skill he puts to use in the tap-dancing role of The Mad Hatter in Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
    
3. 3In 2018, he created the lead role of Norman McLaren in the world premiere of Frame by Frame by Guillaume Côté and Robert Lepage, receiving a Dora Mavor Moore Award nomination for Outstanding Performance.
    
4. 4Jack’s repertoire includes the title role in Pinocchio, Peter/The Nutcracker in The Nutcracker, Camille de Rosillon in The Merry Widow, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet and Benno in Swan Lake.
    
5. 5Jack performs a wide repertoire of classical and contemporary ballets, such as The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Cinderella, Angels’ Atlas, Emergence, Cacti and The Dreamers Ever Leave You.

Full Biography

Jack Bertinshaw was born in Sydney, Australia and trained at the Tanya Pearson Classical Coaching Academy in St Leonards, Australia and the Tanz Akademie Zürich in Switzerland. Jack joined The National Ballet of Canada as a RBC Apprentice in 2011 and was promoted to First Soloist in 2018. 

Most recently, Jack reprised the role of Norman McLaren which was created on him for the world premiere of Guillaume Côté and Robert Lepage’s Frame by Frame and danced in the world premiere of MADDADDAM by Wayne McGregor. His repertoire includes the title role in Pinocchio, Peter/The Nutcracker and Uncle Nikolai in The Nutcracker, Camille de Rosillon in The Merry Widow, Seryozha in Anna Karenina, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Benno and Rothbart in Swan Lake, Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire, Gurn in La Sylphide, Brother Clown in The Winter’s Tale, Lescaut in Manon, Diamond Man in The Sleeping Beauty and Mad Hatter in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. He has also danced roles in Giselle, Cinderella, Onegin, Nijinsky, Anna Karenina, La Fille mal gardée, The Seagull, Allegro Brillante, The Four Temperaments, Rubies, Theme and Variations, A Month in the Country, Paquita, The Four Seasons, The Second Detail, The Concert, Carousel (A Dance), Piano Concerto #1, Emergence, Angels’ Atlas, Cacti, Watch her, Being and Nothingness and The Dreamers Ever Leave You. 

Jack was awarded the Patron Award of Merit in 2013. He was also a finalist at the Prix de Lausanne in 2011 and received the Mary Day Artistry Award at the Youth America Grand Prix and the Silver Medal at the Tanzolymp in 2010.