Guillaume Côté’s Adieu Is Just the Beginning

Kathleen Smith

May 23, 2025

Guillaume Côté has been a guest artist all over the world, from La Scala to Lincoln Center to Covent Garden. In recent years he’s also developed a robust choreographic practice, creating explosive solos, one-act ballets, and complex full-length productions like Frame By Frame, his 2018 collaboration with theater icon Robert Lepage. He’s also been artistic director of Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur since 2014 and runs his own four-year old company, Côté Danse. But despite all this diverse and far-flung activity, Côté has always come home to the National Ballet of Canada, which he joined in 1998 at age 17. (He was made principal in 2004 and choreographic associate in 2013.)

Now it’s time for Côté to say goodbye to that home base, with NBoC’s farewell program, Adieu: A Celebration of Guillaume Côté, running May 30–June 5. It features Côté’s new work, Grand Mirage, alongside a restaging of his ensemble piece Boléro, as well as world premieres from Canadian choreographers Ethan Colangelo and Jennifer Archibald. Just one day after Adieu closes, Côté will remount his full-length contemporary ballet Burn Baby, Burn, this time with Côté Danse, opening June 6.

As his farewell to NBoC approaches, Pointe spoke with Côté to learn more about his feelings about the past and hopes for the future.

On a dark stage, Guillaume Côté flies in a sauté with his right leg extended a la seconde, his arms flying back in a wide "V" with his hands level to his face. He wears a white unitard. Behind him, a line of four dancers in blue unitards pose with one leg bent and lifted slightly in parallel, prancing gently on the other, with arms extended straight sideways with hands flexed. — Guillaume Côté in Jerome Robbins’ *Opus 19/The Dreamer*. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann, courtesy National Ballet of Canada.

After 26 years with NBoC, how did you know it was time to leave?

It absolutely is my home. But I started reflecting a lot during the pandemic. I went through a long depression, and it was more difficult for me to get back to dancing than I had thought it would be. My body had changed. I really enjoy choreography and the other elements of the art form, but the actual dancing seemed more and more difficult. At the same time, there was some really beautiful, youthful energy coming up in the company and a huge turnover happening—Karen Kain had retired and Hope Muir had just come in.

How has it been preparing to say goodbye?

I’ve had the time to say goodbye in ways for which I’m very grateful. I got to do Romeo and Juliet with Sara Mearns. I got to do Onegin again with Jurgita Dronina. And now with Adieu I’m getting to also say goodbye as a creator and choreographer, sharing a program with wonderful choreographers I admire. I’ve been able to go through all the stages—the anger, the frustration, the acceptance—and now I’m kind of over it.

Guillaume Côté partners Elena Lobsanova onstage, who stands in arabesque on pointe with her arms in high third. She looks lovingly at Côté, who lunges in parallel toward her with one arm around her waist and the other extended high. He wears a white billowing tunic and tan tights and boots, and she wears a long white dress. — Guillaume Côté and former National Ballet of Canada principal Elena Lobsanova in *Romeo and Juliet*. Photo by Bruce Zinger, courtesy NBoC.

Any special highlights as you look back on your time with NBoC?

Some of my fondest memories have been in the third act of my career, especially the creation of Romeo and Juliet with Alexei Ratmansky. The other process that felt extremely special was taking John Neumeier’s Nijinsky to Paris. I’m a big history buff when it comes to dance, so it was pretty amazing to dance the role of Nijinsky on the same stage he danced on a hundred years ago.

Could you speak on the inspiration behind Grand Mirage?

It’s the story of a dancer at a time in his career when he needs to leave the past behind and move forward. He reflects on the roles he’s done, but also all the other things that go along with a career in which time is your enemy.

As dancers we start becoming one and the same with our career. We become who we are onstage. When it ends, we always “silver line” it: “Oh, it’s great,” and on to the next wonderful thing. But it’s not wonderful, because I gave my whole life to doing this thing that my body just won’t do anymore. So Grand Mirage is a way of me expressing this in a way that’s maybe not the farewell that some people would prefer, which is celebratory. It’s more about living with this frustration that the body has now become more of a cage. So this creation process has been really personal.

Guillaume Côté and Hannah Galway rehearse together, Côté holding Galway around her waist with one arm as he holds her right hand, which rests on her collar bone as she arches back over his supporting arm. Her other arm bends in to rest across his supporting hand, and her stomach. She closes her eyes as he looks at her with intense emotion, mouth slightly open. — Guillaume Côté and Hannah Galway in rehearsal for Côté’s *Grand Mirage*. Photo by Karolina Kuras, courtesy National Ballet of Canada.

What hopes/goals do you have for your future in dance post-NBoC?

I will shift my focus to Côté Danse because I love to work with contemporary dancers, and coach them. I also really love collaboration.

I have a deep sense of classical ballet, so if, one day down the line, it makes sense for me to take on an artistic directorship, I would really love that. Also, to gain much more knowledge in the field, which means attending forums and conferences, something I’m planning on doing more of next year. I want to make sure that I’m able to stay relevant beyond my tiny little world in Toronto.