Vincent Warren

Vincent de Paul Warren C.M. (born 31 August 1938) is a Canadian dance historian and lecturer. After a distinguished career as a ballet dancer and teacher, he became widely known and respected as a historian and archivist. He is celebrated as a leading figure in the dance world of Canada.

Vincent de Paul Warren was born in Jacksonville, Florida. He and his fraternal twin Denis were the youngest of their parents' fourteen children. Influenced by his mother's love of opera and music, Vincent was a sensitive boy, receptive to what he has called "a fantasy life of beauty." At age ten, he saw the ballet movie The Red Shoes (1948) and discovered his future profession. At eleven, he began taking ballet classes with Betty Hyatt Ogilvie, a former Balanchine dancer. His twin brother Denis was drawn to the Roman Catholic church and at thirteen left home to join the clergy, but Vincent continued his dance training throughout his teenage years. He graduated from high school at eighteen, and soon he, too, left home, headed for New York City with a letter of introduction to Igor Schwezoff, a Russian-trained teacher at the American Ballet Theater School. He was given a scholarship to study at the school, where he excelled in classes. As a promising student, he was soon offered another scholarship, at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School, where Antony Tudor was teaching. At age nineteen, in 1957, he auditioned for a position in the company at the Met and was hired as a member of the corps de ballet.

Warren danced with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet for two years, 1957–1959, during which time he took the opportunity to expand his training with leading teachers in New York City. In dance classes with Merce Cunningham and James Waring, he became adept in the expressive styles of modern dance while continuing to study classical ballet technique with Igor Schwezoff, Anatol Oboukoff, and Antony Tudor. In 1959-1960, he danced with the Santa Fe Opera Ballet and then the Pennsylvania Ballet, based in Philadelphia. In 1961 he joined Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montréal, where, except for dancing as guest artist with Ballet Nacional de Guatemala (1963) and seasons with the Théâtre Français de la Danse in Paris (1969–1970) and the Cologne Opera Ballet (1970–1971), he remained until his retirement from the stage in 1979. After more than a decade of living and dancing in Canada, he became a Canadian citizen in 1973.

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