Canada’s National Ballet School, Toronto

Deborah Hess trained in New York at the American Ballet Theater School with Valentina Pereyaslavec and subsequently with Kathleen Crofton before dancing with American Classical Ballet, Ballet de Wallonie in Belgium, Ballet Gulbenkian in Portugal and the New London Ballet in England. In her performance career she danced a wide range of roles from the classical, such as Odette in Swan Lake to soloist roles in contemporary works by such renowned choreographers as Lar Lubovitch. She worked directly with Bronislava Nijinska, Rudolf Nureyev, Hans Brenna, Asaf Messerer and Anna Marie Holmes, to name just a few. Upon her return to North America, Hess turned her focus to teaching and became the Assistant to the Director at the San Francisco Ballet School. On the recommendation of Erik Bruhn she was invited by Betty Oliphant to join the artistic faculty at Canada’s National Ballet School in 1981. Hess’s role has expanded during her tenure at NBS and she is now the coordinator of student exchanges between NBS and its international partner schools, including the National Ballet School of Cuba, the Australian Ballet School and the Hamburg Ballet School amongst others. In addition to her work at NBS, she continues to serve on the jury for the Youth America Grand Prix, Japan Grand Prix, Taiwan Grand Prix each year and was a juror alongside Fernando Alonso for the International Ballet Student Competition in Havana, Cuba.  Ms.Hess has been a guest teacher for the Boston Ballet Company, Royal Danish Ballet School, Jacob’s Pillow, the USA International Ballet Competition.