One is a ballet superstar, the other a revered teacher and choreographer. They both soar on Canada Post commemorative stamps

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This article was published 29/04/2021 (1943 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Karen Kain and Fernand Nault, legendary figures in the world of ballet, have been honoured with the release of commemorative stamps. Canada Post revealed them on April 29, International Dance Day.

It’s the first time such an honour has been extended to individual ballet stars, according to Jim Phillips, director of stamp services at Canada Post.

Kain, an internationally celebrated ballerina, has been artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada since 2005. Nault, who died in 2006, was primarily known as the choreographer who put Montreal’s Les Grands Ballets Canadiens on the international map.

Each Permanent domestic stamp, designed by Stéphane Huot, features a dynamic image of its subject in performance. Kain almost breaches the borders of the three-by-four-centimetre stamp as she flies through the air as the Black Swan in a 1977 photograph by Andrew Oxenham. Nault is equally airborne in a 1947 outdoor photo shoot on Montreal’s Île Sainte-Hélène.

“I’m completely thrilled,” says Kain. “It’s something you never imagine being honoured with. It makes me very proud.”

As Phillips explains, decisions about who or what will be featured in commemorative issues are based on the recommendations of a stamp advisory committee. The committee includes outside appointees who bring a range of cultural backgrounds and expertise to the table. While the committee may generate its own recommendations, it also welcomes suggestions from the public. This is how Kain’s and Nault’s names came into play.

2020 marked Kain’s 50th anniversary season with the National Ballet and the centenary of Nault’s birth. Both events triggered many requests to Canada Post from their admirers.

The commemoratives were to have been released last year with an in-person event, but the Crown corporation was obliged to postpone because of the pandemic. Eventually, with no immediately foreseeable end to the public health crisis, Canada Post decided to launch with a virtual event and, looking at the calendar, chose International Dance Day 2021 as the ideal date.

Phillips says commemorative stamps are not only intended to honour their subjects but also, more broadly, to educate. The new stamps, for example, are intended, to quote a Canada Post news release, “to raise awareness of Canada’s prominence in the global ballet community.” But they serve a more specific educative role too.

As a ballet superstar, Kain became a Canadian celebrity — albeit a reluctant one — early on in her career. Her name resonates even among those who’ve never been to a ballet. The importance of Nault, in contrast, has not been as widely acknowledged. In his two decades with American Ballet Theatre in New York he was never a stage star but was widely respected latterly as a teacher and ballet master with an exceptional memory for steps.

Summoned back to Montreal in the mid-1960s by Les Grands Ballets Canadiens founder Ludmilla Chiriaeff, Nault choreographed a money-making production of “The Nutcracker” that the company still performs. His staging of Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” was a sensation at Montreal’s Expo 67. His 1970 ballet version of the Who’s rock opera “Tommy” was a smash hit that toured widely, attracting a generation of newcomers to live dance performance. Nault, who almost went into the priesthood before following his artistic passion, was also known for his personal modesty and generosity.

Commenting at the time of Nault’s death, Gradimir Pankov, then Les Grands Ballets artistic director, expressed a widely shared sentiment. “We have just lost not only a great artist, but a great man. Fernand Nault will remain in our hearts forever.”

Michael Crabb is a freelance writer who reviews dance and opera performances for the Star.