France Dufresne

France Dufresne

France trained at Les Ballets Russes de Montréal and is highly experienced in the Vaganova technique. Her teachers included Maria Abdel-Malek (Bolshoi Ballet and former principal dancer with the Cairo Ballet), Mikhail Berkut (Bolshoi Ballet and founder of Les Ballets Russes de Montréal), Diane Joffe (American Ballet Theatre), and Mira Popovich (University of Alabama).

She began her career at age 17 as a soloist with Kalinka, a company affiliated with Les Ballets Russes, and later performed as a guest soloist with the George Mager Dancers and Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal. From 1983 to 1988, France was also a soloist with Ballet de Montréal Eddy Toussaint.

From 1990 to 1998, she served as artistic director and choreographer at Académie artistique des Moulins, where she trained a semi-professional company of 13 dancers, several of whom continue to pursue professional careers. In 1995, she received first prize for choreography at the inaugural edition of the Dans’Encore competition.

France returned to teaching in 2009 at Studio Bizz in Montreal.