Out Spotlight

Today's Out Spotlight is one of the most accomplished and acclaimed male dancers of his era during his 20 years with The National Ballet of Canada. Today's Out Spotlight is Rex Harrington.

Rex Howard Harrington, OC FRSC was born October 30, 1962 in Peterborough, Ontario.  He studied at Canada's National Ballet School and joined the National Ballet of Canada in 1983 and becoming a principal dancer in 1988.

He has partnered with many renowned ballerinas such as Ekaterina Maximova, Carla Fracci, Karen Kain, Veronica Tennant, Alessandra Ferri, Susan Jaffe and Evelyn Hart. He has  performed with such companies as La Scala Theatre Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Stuttgart Ballet.

His classical roles include Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (ballet), Basilio in Don Quixote (ballet), Kastchei in The Firebird, Eugene Onegin in Onegin (ballet), and Apollo in Balanchine's Apollo (ballet). James Kudelka created several roles on Harrington, including Rothbart in Swan Lake(1999), Peter/The Nutcracker in The Nutcracker (1995), and the central role in The Four Seasons(1997). Choreographer Glen Tetley also created the roles of Lewis Carroll in Alice(1992) and The Young Gentleman in La Ronde(1988) for him.

Harrington retired from the stage in 2004, although he came out of retirement to dance the role of Prince Gremin in the National Ballet of Canada's 2010 production of Onegin (ballet).

Harrington has appeared in Norman Jewison's "The January Man", as well as the film adaptation of "The Four Seasons", for which Rex won a Gemini Award in 2000.  His television credits include CBC specials "Karen Kain: Dancing in the Moment", and "Wild Hearts in Strange Times" featuring dance artist Margie Gillis. In 2002, he made his musical theatre debut in "Robin Hood" at Toronto's Winter Garden Theatre. Harrington has also been a recurring guest judge on So You Think You Can Dance Canada since Season 1.

In 2000, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2005, he was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame and in 2006, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by York University and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He is currently Artist-in-Residence at the National Ballet of Canada, and is a Board member of the Dancer Transition Resource Centre.

Harrington's mother, who first encouraged him to dance, has schizophrenia and he has spoken out against the stigma attached to mental illness, most notably through the "Transforming Lives" campaign of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.

Harrington and his partner Robert Hope wed in 2011.