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JOYSANNE SIDIMUS
Founder

Born in New York, Joysanne Sidimus trained with George Balanchine and was a dancer with the New York City Ballet. She continues to work internationally as a Balanchine repetiteur for The George Balanchine Trust and has a long standing relationship with the National Ballet of Canada in that capacity. Ms. Sidimus was also a Principal Dancer with the National Ballet of Canada and the Pennsylvania Ballet.

After retiring from performing, she founded the Dancer Transition Resource Centre and was its Executive Director until December 2005. She was the founding Vice-President of the Board of Directors of the Artists’ Health Centre Foundation, which created the Artists’ Health Centre, a comprehensive health care centre for artists, which opened in November of 2002 at the Toronto Western Hospital. In 2005, Ms. Sidimus was appointed to the Ontario Status of the Artist Sub-Committee.

Ms. Sidimus recently completed Reflections in a Dancing Eye: Investigating the Artist’s Role in Canadian Society, a book that she co-wrote with Carol Anderson and which was released by the Banff Centre Press in 2006. Ms. Sidimus is the recipient of many awards and honours including the Canada Council for the Arts Jacqueline Lemieux Prize for her outstanding contribution to dance, and the Governor General’s Meritorious Service Medal (M.S.M.) for making a significant contribution to the cultural life of Canada in founding the Dancer Transition Resource Centre. Most recently, Ms. Sidimus was a recipient of the 2006 Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement.