"I've had a really amazing career," says Stephan Bourgond.
"Next year," the 31-year-old Saultite tells SooToday, "I'm going to be retiring and going to culinary school."
For one more season, he'll be a principal dancer with Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, the national ballet company of the Principality of Monaco founded in 1985 by Caroline, Princess of Hanover to fulfil the artistic vision of her mother, Princess Grace of Monaco.
Bourgond has travelled the world, appearing in major roles including Romeo in Romeo and Juliette, the golden slave in Sheherazade, Egeus in Le Songe, Faust in Faust, the king and the evil fairy Carabosse in La Belle, the father in Cinderella and the prince in LAC – a narrative ballet by Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo artistic director Jean-Christophe Maillot.
Bourgond was born in the Sault but his local history is a relatively short one.
He lived here just 10 years before he was accepted as a full-time student at Canada's National Ballet School in Toronto.
Bourgond attended Sister Mary Clare School on Glen Avenue.
He says he may have also put in a little time at St. John Catholic School on Churchill Avenue.
Kim Greco, Tania Castellani
He took his first dance lessons under Kim Greco and Tania Castellani at Kiana School of Dance Arts.
"I was basically just doing jazz. And then when I was nine they told me if I wanted to continue, I had to do ballet as well," he tells SooToday.
Bourgond wasn't, er, thrilled about that.
"I had to do it. So I did it."
At the insistence of his ballet teacher, he auditioned for the National Ballet School, which came to the Sault each year to hold tryouts for its summer program.
He was accepted into the summer program and then, as a full-time student.
Living away from home at age 10?
"I think my mom was okay to let me go because my dad was living outside of Toronto at the time so I wouldn't have been far from family."
"I would come back home to the Sault for holidays and see him every other weekend."
A typical day at the National Ballet School started at 8:30 a.m. with half a day of academic work, followed by a two-hour ballet class, followed by another half-day of academics.
Evenings consisted of rehearsals until 6:30 p.m., half an hour for supper, then a couple of hours of homework.
"The older I got, the more demanding it became because you'd have to prepare for school performances and things like that. Learning pas de deux, learning how to partner people, learning how to do some pretty difficult steps in big groups."
"Not only were we learning choreography, we were learning how to dance in a group, with a partner, how to perform."
Ontario Scholar
Bourgond graduated with honours as an Ontario Scholar, then moved to Hamburg, Germany to dance with the Hamburg Ballet under John Neumeier, who had come to Canada to coach the National Ballet School students in a ballet he'd choreographed.
After three years in Germany, he decided to move to the French Riviera.
"Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo looked like an extraordinary place," Bourgond told Monoco Life in a recent interview.
"Not only were there palm trees and a prince and princesses, but the work was dynamic and different and exciting. I was hooked! I flew over for an audition, got the job, and have loved growing up surrounded by such inspiring people."
After 11 years of touring the world, Bourgond is planning to retire from dance after the upcoming season.
Studying cooking in Ireland? Who does that?
The next chapter of his extraordinary life will take Bourgond to Shanagarry, County Cork, Ireland.
"I've always been interested in food and cooking. I come home and I'm with my nonna – my Italian grandma – I'm always asking for a new lesson."
Why Ireland, of all places, when you can go anywhere in the world to learn to cook?
"Living in France, when I say I'm going to Ireland to cook, they're all like: 'what are you thinking?' They just roll their eyes."
"The thing that attracted me to this school is that it's not only a cooking school, it has its own 100-acre organic farm attached, so you learn the farming as well as the cooking."
"My grandparents had a farm for a really long time and I was there quite often. I was too young to really participate in anything, but I think that just growing up in that kind of a setting – the smells, the animals, seeing the big machines – it makes you aware."
"At this school, I could wake up in the morning, I could milk a cow. I could make cheese and then with that cheese I can learn to prepare something."
But after so many years of world-class dance training, there's still a part of Bourgond that's not quite ready to quit.
Teaching?
While back in the Sault in August, he tried teaching a class at Richard Kim's Studio Dance Arts.
"Actually, it was so fun. It's so nice to be in a room with children who are eager and wanting to learn and listening to you, willing to try things."
"I've had such a rich career that it would be a shame to let that information disappear."
Sault Ste. Marie has a way of indelibly stamping itself on anyone who's lived here and Bourgond is no exception.
"One of the most beautiful things about my town is the surrounding nature and how dramatically it changes with the seasons," he told Monaco Life recently. "The colours in autumn are so rich, and I have never seen such a brilliant display in all of my travels."
"I try to get home every two years during the summer to visit my family, fill up on my Nonna’s cooking, and enjoy the quiet and simple life. There are a lot of silly little familiar things I miss from Canada. Really good maple syrup, to start! I miss how friendly everyone is. Canadians are always smiling and happy to see you."