Robert Desrosiers

Robert Guy Desrosiers (born October 10, 1953) is a Canadian dancer and choreographer. After a brief dance career, he founded the Desrosiers Dance Theatre and choreographed surreal and theatrical dances. After the company’s disbandment, he pursued a variety of artistic professions before returning as a freelance choreographer.

Early life and dance career Desrosiers was born in Montreal, Quebec.

In 1965 he studied at the National Ballet School and briefly danced with the National Ballet of Canada. His tenure with them was short-lived and he left to dance and perform in various dance companies in North America and Europe.

When he moved back to Toronto, he performed with various companies such as Ballet Ys, Dancemakers and Toronto Dance Theatre.

Choreography and Desrosiers Dance Theatre Inspired by his own choreography ideas, he created a Toronto-based dance company called Desrosiers Dance Theatre in 1980. Some of his early work included Nightclown (1980), Fools Table (1982), and Ultracity (1986) While popular, the production was expensive to produce and only showed for one year. The work was based on events from Desrosiers' own life when he felt that his mind and career were out of control. After performing at the Olympics, Desrosiers reworked the piece by removing some of the magic acts and rearranging the narrative plot. The updated piece toured throughout Canada and the United States.

Desrosiers' choreography in the 1990s put more emphasis on movement and less on theatricality. Some of this work included Jeux (1990) and Black & White in Colour (1993). In the film, Desrosiers' character is creating a new choreography for the company. In actuality, he is depicting the creation of his previous work, Blue Snake.

Desrosiers hosted a documentary about dancemakers in the Canadian community with Bravo! Canada from 2004-2006.

Awards In 1980 Desrosiers was the first recipient of the Jacqueline Lemieux Prize by the Canada Council. He later won the Jean A. Chalmers Award for choreography in 1985.