Heather Ogden

Principal Dancer

Heather Ogden View Gallery

Quick Facts

Born: Toronto, Ontario
Trained: Richmond Academy of Dance in British Columbia
Joined: 1998
Principal Dancer since: 2005

Heather Ogden is sponsored through Dancers First by Ira Gluskin and Maxine Granovsky Gluskin.

 

Five Things to Know

  1. 1Heather was an athletic child and grew up playing softball in addition to dancing. In 2017, she revived her softball skills when she threw the ceremonial first pitch at a Toronto Blue Jays baseball game.
     
  2. 2She has worked extensively with The Suzanne Farrell Ballet and considers it to be her second ballet home.
     
  3. 3Heather starred in the short films Lost in Motion II (2014) and Lulu (2020), choreographed by her husband and fellow Principal Dancer Guillaume Côté. Lulu won Best International Short Film at the 2020 Milan International Film Festival Awards.  
  4.  
  5. 4When Heather joined the company, she was three inches shorter than she is now. As a result, she has danced all the Snowflake roles In The Nutcracker, small, medium, tall and Snow Queen.
     
  6. 5Heather married her first Romeo, Principal Dancer Guillaume Côté, in 2010. They have two children with whom they like to go on adventures in their spare time.

 

Favourite Ballets

  1. 1Romeo and Juliet
     
  2. 2Swan Lake
     
  3. 3Nijinsky
     
  4. 4…black night’s bright day…
     
  5. 5Mozartiana

 

 

Videos

 

Reviews

Swan Lake
“When Heather Ogden first floats onstage as the vulnerable swan Odette, she literally takes your breath away.”
– National Post

Romeo and Juliet
“Juliet (a light, bright Heather Ogden) is all recklessly fast footwork and wheeling jumps.”
– The Guardian

Balanchine’s Don Quixote
“Ogden is glorious in her interpretation of the servant/Madonna/princess beyond compare… Ogden’s solo in the garden in Act III is a show show-stopper. She seems to float on air as she exits on pointe in tiny rapid steps.”
– Toronto Star

Awards

Rolex Dancers First Award for her performance as Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty (2012)

Evelyn Hart chose to mentor Heather through the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Mentorship Program (2011)

My Theatre Award for Best Dance Performance for her performance as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (2011)

Other Projects

Ambassador for Rolex Canada (2014)