Position: Head of Senior School
Affiliation with organization: 2019 – Present
Born in Melbourne, Australia, Ms. Tait trained at the Sculy/Borovansky School of Ballet, Sydney and The Victorian College of the Arts with renowned Vaganova method teacher,Janina Cunovas.
After graduating, Ms. Tait joined Ballet Victoria, touring extensively and dancing alongside such noted artists as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Natalia Makarova and Valery and Galina Panov.
In 1983 she joined London City Ballet, dancing all major works with that company including Giselle, Coppelia, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Carmen, La Sylphide, Les Sylphides, The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, Paquita, Three Dances to Japanese Music among many others by various choreographers.
In 1987, Ms. Tait moved to West Australian Ballet, dancing principal roles in the traditional classical repertoire and was coached by prima ballerinas – Irina Kolpakova (Kirov Ballet) and Lucette Aldous (Royal Ballet and Australian Ballet.) She also performed works created by Artistic Directors Barry Moreland and Ted Brandsen and prominent choreographers such as George Balanchine, Lambos Lambrou, Graeme Murphy, Stephen Baynes and Edmund Stripe.
During her time with West Australian Ballet, Ms. Tait began teaching and coaching with the company, The West Australian Academy of Performing Arts and the Graduate College of Dance. In 2000, she was appointed Resident Guest Teacher with the Singapore Dance Theatre and also taught at LaSalle University SIA as teacher and assessor. In 2002, she moved to Canada to teach and coach at the School of Alberta Ballet and Alberta Ballet, becoming Ballet Mistress for the company in 2005. She has assisted in the mounting and coaching of such works as George Balanchine’s Who Cares?, Rubies, Allegro Brilliante and Serenade, Mikko Nissinen’s The Nutcracker, Christopher Wheeldon’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Kirk Peterson’s Othello and The Sleeping Beauty, Jean Grand-Maître’s Carmen, Vigil of Angels, The Fiddle and The Drum, Love Lies Bleeding and Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. She has restaged Edmund Stripe’s Unquiet Light for Alberta Ballet and was his assistant during the creation of his Alice in Wonderland and his new version of The Nutcracker in 2008.
A versatile character artist, Ms. Tait has performed in many of Alberta Ballet’s productions, notably as the Marquise de Merteuil in Jean Grand Maître’s Les Liaisons Dangereurses and The Queen in Kirk Peterson’s The Sleeping Beauty. She also created the roles of Lady Capulet in Jean Grand-Maître’s 2005 production of Romeo & Juliet and Babushka in Edmund Stripe’s The Nutcracker in 2008.
In 2011, she was appointed as Classical Tutor at The New Zealand School of Dance, returning to Calgary in 2013 to take up the duties of Head of Senior School at the School of Alberta Ballet.
