Quick Facts

Born: Lac-Saint-Jean, Québec
Trained: Canada's National Ballet School
Joined: 1998
Principal Dancer since: 2004
Choreographic Associate since: 2013

Five Things to Know

1. 1A man of many talents, Guillaume is a trained musician and composer. He was appointed Choreographic Associate at the National Ballet in 2013.
    
2. 2Guillaume has danced Prince Siegfried in 11 versions of Swan Lake with 17 different dancers performing the role of Odette/Odile.
    
3. 3A film buff, Guillaume loves to watch movies when he is not on stage and can proudly recite the entire movie Wedding Crashers word for word.
    
4. 4Since 2014, Guillaume has been Artistic Director of Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur, the largest regional dance presenter in Canada. The festival supports and inspires artists from Canada and internationally with eclectic and original programming.
    
5. 5Guillaume will retire at the end of the 2024/25 season with Adieu: A Celebration of Guillaume Côté. He will create a new work, Into the fade, and will restage his thrilling Boléro. These two works will be featured alongside world premieres from two bold and exciting Canadian choreographic talents: Ethan Colangelo and Jennifer Archibald.

Favourite Ballets

1. 1Nijinsky
    
2. 2Romeo and Juliet (Alexei Ratmansky)
    
3. 3Manon
    
4. 4Swan Lake
    
5. 5Petite Mort

Full Biography

Guillaume Côté was born in Lac-Saint-Jean, Québec and trained at Canada’s National Ballet School. He joined The National Ballet of Canada in 1998 and became a Principal Dancer in 2004. In 2013, Guillaume was appointed Choreographic Associate. After 26 illustrious years with The National Ballet of Canada, Guillaume will retire as Principal Dancer at the end of the 2024/25 season. His extraordinary contribution to this company will be honoured on a special programme titled Adieu: A Celebration of Guillaume Côté in June 2025.

With The National Ballet of Canada, Guillaume has danced most of the principal roles in both the classical and contemporary repertoire. He has created a number of lead roles in ballets by James Kudelka including Ferdinand in An Italian Straw Hat, Prince Charming in Cinderella and Will in The Contract (The Pied Piper). He also created the role of Romeo in Alexei Ratmansky’s Romeo and Juliet and performed the role as a guest artist with The Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow.  

Guillaume is in great demand as a guest artist at major ballet companies around the world, such as Teatro alla Scala, English National Ballet, The Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, The Mikhailovsky Theatre, The Hamburg Ballet and Stuttgart Ballet. He also performed in Kings of the Dance, Gala des Étoiles, Stars of the 21st Century, The Vision of Manuel Legris, Roberto Bolle and Friends, The Hamburg Ballet’s 40th Anniversary Gala and the 44th Annual Nijinsky Gala for Hamburg Ballet Days as well as many other international galas. With English National Ballet, he created the role of Gene Kelly in Derek Deane's Strictly Gershwin. 

Guillaume is an accomplished choreographer, musician and composer. His choreographic works for The National Ballet of Canada include Frame by Frame, which is in collaboration with Robert Lepage, Le Petit Prince, Being and Nothingness, Venom, Enkeli and Dance Me To The End of Love. Awards for his choreography include the Audience Choice Award for Best Choreography at The International Competition for The Erik Bruhn Prize for Enkeli and third prize at Ballet Society Hanover’s 25th International Competition for #24. In 2017, he created Dark Angels for the National Arts Centre.  

In 2012, Guillaume choreographed and starred in the film Lost in Motion, presented at Toronto’s International Film Festival. The sequel, Lost in Motion II, was released in 2013 and was featured at the Dance on Camera Festival in New York City in 2014. In 2020, Lulu, choreographed by Guillaume won Best International Short Film at the 2020 Milan International Film Festival.  

In 2021, Guillaume founded his own company Côté Danse that focuses on the multidisciplinary creation of innovative works. In 2021, Guillaume created Touch, an immersive experience that incorporated projections, technology and dance and in 2022, Guillaume embarked on a cross-Canada tour for Crypto. He is also Artistic Director of the Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur, one of the largest summer dance festivals in the country.  

Guillaume won a Gemini Award in 2007 and the Galileo 2000 A Life for Music Prize in 2008 for Moving to His Music: The Two Muses of Guillaume Côté. In 2012, Guillaume was awarded La médaille de l’Assemblée nationale du Québec, a prestigious award from the province of Québec and in 2021, Guillaume was appointed a Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Québec for his significant contribution to the arts in Québec. 

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