Karen Kain - Career

Career

Kain became a principal dancer in 1971, dancing central roles in a wide array of ballets, eventually becoming a well-known dancer in Canada, with the help of legendary dancer Rudolf Nureyev. She worked as a guest artist with Roland Petit's Le Ballet National de Marseilles, the Bolshoi Ballet, the London Festival Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, the Hamburg Ballet, the Vienna State Opera Ballet, and the Eliot Feld Ballet. Kain is a subject of The Portraits of Andy Warhol, c. 1980.

In 1977 Kain stopped dancing, but resumed again in 1981 with the National Ballet of Canada, where she danced for a further 15 years. In 1996, Kain reunited with Frank Augustyn to appear in her husband Ross Petty's panto production of Robin Hood at Toronto's Elgin Theatre. Kain retired as a professional dancer in 1997.

In 1998, Kain returned to the National Ballet of Canada as part of the senior management team, in the role of artistic associate. She supported artistic director James Kudelka against principal dancer Kimberley Glasco in a wrongful dismissal suit. In 2005, she succeeded Kudelka as artistic director.

Kain was the founding Board President of Canada's Dancer Transition Resource Centre. Kain's autobiography, Movement Never Lies, was published in 1994 by McClelland and Stewart.