It’s time to review who is still with us and who is not. The National updated their website for ‘The Company’ section, which revealed a few departures we were previously unaware of. Good news:
Double A is still with us for perhaps his final season. Those that have disappeared unannounced previously were all from
the corps de ballet: Wei Chen, Klara Houdet, Tamara Jones, Catherine Maitland, Amber Munro, James Shee, Joseph Welbes, and sadly for moi,
the very lovely Antonella Martinelli who inspired the below prose:
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I still have not found the time to post my Sleeping Beauty review (too busy at work). I was very impressed by the stage presence of Antonella Martinelli, who played the double role of villager and one of the evil knitters (Carabosse’s executive assistants)! She is obviously a very fast dresser and very beautiful!
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A naked bat like creature appears to be hatched à la an alien emerging from its sea-pod à la ‘The Body Snatchers.’ Every moment thereafter you forget you’re in the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts as these wicked bat-men and bat-women emerge from their cave to go about their routine chanting 1,2,3,4,5,6, and then finally 7,8,9,10,11,12…reminiscent of Leslie Feist’s impossible-to-get-out-of-my-head hit tune! For some reason, I felt strangely attracted to these hedonistic bat-women dressed skin-tight for sin-Evil is good when you look that good! Antonella Martinelli was especially HO double T!!
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Now I’m going to break a ballet critic’s unwritten rule and extend kudos and bravi galore to an unnamed dancer in the ballet program:
Antonella Martinelli! She created such beauty on stage, always in character, dancing as if she was living her sweet dream; I couldn’t help but divert my orbs to her when I should have been watching the main action on stage! Martinelli evokes memories of the silent screen actress Louise Brooks, in that you immediately pick her out of a crowd. If only the National could somehow capture her ‘je ne sais quoi’ and bottle this living work of art! I admit it; I am a victim of her ballerina magnetism. Below is a review of Antonella Martinelli from ‘An Italian Straw Hat.’
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“One dancer who I was quite smitten over danced and silent acted with such ebullience I noticed her all the way from the corps de ballet. The apple of my eye radiated a Snow White/Betty Boop/Charleston Girl kind of beauty. Perhaps she was a new dancer recently hired from another company, a call up from the National Ballet School, or contracted to fill out casting. Sadly, I have no idea who this beauty is? I cannot critique her ballet dancing as her role just called for watching the story unfold on stage and do some waltzing. She was often paired with Alejandra Perez-Gomez. Kudos to the mystery brunette for always staying in character and so obviously enjoying her time on stage.”
There you have it; an undiscovered talent, at long last discovered! I hope Mrs. K gives her some soloist roles like the pussy cat in Sleeping Beauty, a chocolate in the Nutcracker, or filly for An Italian Straw Hat. She looks like she would be a great Kitri for Don Quixote. We’ll have to wait and see what the future has in store for this delicious silent screen beauty. The time has come to bid adieu to the cobwebs of ballerina antiquity and make way for the sweet dew of youth!
Congrats to Kathryn Hosier, Dylan Tedaldi, Jaclyn Oakley, Giorgio Galli for being promoted from apprentice to the corps. I highly doubt the 2010/2011 roster is set as of yet but the National may go light 2 corps dancers from 31 to 29 given they don’t have that many full length ballets that require a big cast and they will have to contend with the HST along with an uncertain economy along with ever increasing competition for the arts entertainment $.
I am very disappointed Antonella Martinelli is no longer with the National, as I believe she had great promise and offered more than just a 100% fat-free technical image Mrs. K appears to be shaping the company into. Dancing is more than just how many fouettés you can whip out; it’s also about beauty, silent acting, and stage presence.

Good luck to all those who are no longer with the NBoC. It’s a small miracle any of them made it is far as they did when you look at how many pursue a career in ballet only to never make it to a professional company-Especially one as prestigious as the National Ballet of Canada. It does make one ponder how fleeting life is and how we should all go for it and not waste one precious fleeting moment to make a difference.