Having seen the group from so many angles and thru so many iterations, Staines had a novel understanding of its tradition. As she formed its potential to turn out to be one of many world’s main pre-professional ballet colleges into actuality, she understood the NBS’s duty to have an effect on the tradition of ballet coaching inside its personal partitions, after which worldwide. This problem was not small, and is an ongoing and ever-evolving activity, given the ballet world’s fondness for custom.

Among the adjustments Staines carried out had been as easy and as efficient as eliminating weight scales within the Faculty; the observe of weighing dancers had beforehand been routine. Staines as an alternative developed partnerships with athletic scientists, vitamin specialists, and bodily and psychological well being professionals. Easy adjustments result in milestones. In 2022, NBS was formally designated a Analysis Institute by the Authorities of Canada, supporting evidence-informed observe and giving college students the sources and assist groups wanted to coach just like the Olympic degree athletes they’re.

Staines additionally prioritized alternatives for college kids to develop choreography and management abilities, in addition to develop their creative voices round social justice points. She advocated for “nurturing the entire dancer.”

By means of and along with her function as Director, Staines based a number of initiatives that proceed to influence the native Toronto and wider international dance communities.

The Assemblée Internationale, based by Staines in 2009, for NBS’s 50^th anniversary, is a ballet training pageant that attracts dancers and administrators from pre-professional coaching colleges all over the world. NBS hosts coaching, rehearsals, performances, and discussions in regards to the evolving tradition and challenges of excessive degree ballet coaching, resembling dancer well being, audition processes, and most just lately in the course of the 2023 Assemblée, anti-Black racism in ballet.

Outdoors of her function at NBS, Staines has had constant involvement with the Prix de Lausanne, first as a juror, then jury President, after which as Inventive President till 2008. Notable wins embody the event of well being insurance policies and screening processes to make sure that competitor candidates weren’t solely wholesome sufficient to endure the bodily and psychological calls for of competitors, however that the scouting colleges who supply scholarships by the platform of the Prix met the identical requirements of well being and wellbeing on high of the standard of their provided coaching.

Different initiatives by Staines by NBS embody:

The Sharing Dance Program, which affords neighborhood dance packages for kids, adults and other people with numerous bodily, developmental and sensory wants, secured by multimillion greenback funding by the Public Well being Company of Canada.

The Symposium Addressing Racialization in Ballet, which, in partnership with the Dance Institute of Washington and Lauri Fitz-Pegado, had its inaugural occasion in 2022, specializing in solution-oriented discussions of fairness, variety and inclusion in ballet.

The Worldwide Audition Pre-Choice Tips, which holds the objective of standardizing audition video content material and format for firm auditions globally, to ease the fee and workload of auditioning dancers.

The Firm Life Program, which acts as a segue to the skilled dance world for pre-professional college students by pairing the rigorous day by day calls for of life in a ballet firm with the supportive atmosphere of an academic program.

Different associations that acknowledge Staines’ involvement embody Dance/USA, The Dance Advisory committee for the Canada Council of the Arts, and The Dance Group of Educators in Toronto. Amongst different awards, Staines acquired the Order of Canada in 2010, and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2013, each in recognition for her contributions within the subject of dance and dance training.

Staines will stay concerned with NBS and can proceed to advocate for the priorities she introduced throughout her time as Inventive Director. Whereas there’s a shortlist of candidates to take over the function (gathered from an in depth worldwide search), the college’s subsequent Inventive Director is but to be introduced. Says Staines, “I’m excited as a result of it’s clear that this shortlist are individuals who consider that now could be the time that we actually must proceed championing the significance of addressing anti-Black racism in how ballet is practiced.”

Staines hopes that her successor continues to cherish the significance of dance inside neighborhood and society, in addition to the college’s unique Skilled Ballet-Tutorial Program. “I hope for an understanding that artists needs to be supported and guided to develop their very own voice and study to make use of these voices responsibly and creatively to make sure that the standard of artwork, and the methods during which that artwork is shared, continues to strengthen why dance and ballet are central to individuals’s well-being. I hope that the incoming Inventive Director will all the time stay enthusiastic about scrutinizing behavioral patterns and coaching practices, all of which to say, traditions. I’m going to lean into considered one of my favourite expressions, that what is crucial, thrilling and most inventive, is consistently reflecting on whether or not you’re cherishing the grasp’s fireplace or guarding their ashes. I hope for that to be entrance and heart, together with the ability of intergenerational brainstorming, in order that it’s full circle. Management galvanizes when you could have the chance to hear and to champion, to not advise or constrain.”

By Holly LaRoche of Dance Informa.