Our Mission, Mandate, and Values

Kittiwake Ballet is Newfoundland and Labrador’s professional dance performance company. Our mandate is to cultivate and foster awareness, appreciation and enjoyment of the arts by providing high-quality dance performances and to advance the art of dance by providing instructional workshops, classes and seminars related to dance.

With the vision of redefining the art of dance, we engage artists who live and work in Newfoundland and Labrador to create inspired, professional performances that enrich audiences. Our values are passion, creativity, integrity, professionalism and community-mindedness.  We have a special interest in developing creativity and expression through dance and we nurture young dancers through artistic development opportunities. We foster a sense of community in our outreach to public schools, dance studios, seniors and the general public.

About Kittiwake Ballet

Rooted in St. John’s, and aiming to represent the diverse spirit of our entire province, our programming combines the beloved family-friendly productions that have made our company a pillar of performing arts in our region with contemporary ballet productions that will make our mark on the global dance scene. Our productions are inspired by Newfoundland and Labrador culture’s intersections with universality, allowing them to resonate with audiences throughout our province and across the country. We develop and nurture exciting, authentic and sustainable partnerships with artists of all backgrounds and disciplines.

Kittiwake Dance Theatre was founded and led by Linda Rimsay until 2006. Rimsay produced the company’s first performance of The Nutcracker, which we have presented annually since 1987. Under Linda’s leadership, Kittiwake offered dancer and choreographer residencies and an annual summer dance festival. Martin Vallée succeeded Linda in 2007 and brought a deeper focus on classical and story ballets, as well as our first live music experience in 2016 by the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra (NSO) and our first tour of The Nutcracker in 2018. Vallée served as Artistic Director until 2023, and was succeeded by Yukichi Hattori in 2024.

In 2018, Kittiwake shifted its focus - after decades as a community-based company, we decided to professionalize. We hired the first full-time dancer, incrementally adding to the roster since then. We now boast a roster of four full-time company dancers.

To reflect our new identity as a professional ballet company, Kittiwake rebranded in 2025, becoming Kittiwake Ballet.