Jeffrey Baker

Jeffrey Baker began his dance training at Toronto Dance Theatre where, on scholarship, he performed with the company as an apprentice. Jeffrey was awarded a Canada Council Grant to study at the Martha Graham School of Dance in New York City; he subsequently received a one-year scholarship and studied with Ms. Graham. Jeffrey has also studied with Finis Jhung, David Howard, and American Ballet Theatre, among others. He has performed with The Inner Stage, Les Grands Ballet Canadiens, and The Canadian Opera Company, and as a soloist with the Bat Dor Dance Company (European Tour), The Israel Ballet, Capital Ballet (Washington D.C.), and the Colorado Ballet.

A graduate of the National Ballet School Teachers Training Program, he was awarded with Distinction on his Associate I.S.T.D. (Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance) teachers examination, as well as Highly Commended on his Advanced I.S.T.D. Cecchetti Syllabus examination. Jeffrey holds an Honours Specialist in Dance (Faculty of Education, York University), a Bachelor of Education (Faculty of Education, University of Toronto), and a Graduate Honours Bachelor of Arts Degree in Dance (University of Waterloo).

Jeffrey has taught and choreographed for the Interplay Ballet School, Claude Watson School for the Performing Arts, Mayfield Secondary School for the Performing Arts, and the University of Toronto, among others. He was guest ballet teacher for Dancemakers, and has choreographed for the Fringe Dance Festival as well as working with Malgorzata Nowacka-May / The Chimera Project for Circus Orange. Jeffrey has been coaching and is rehearsal director for Malgorzata Nowacka’s critically acclaimed The Chimera Project Dance Theatre.

Jeffrey has invented a lighting system, the Baker Light Integrated Star System (BLISS), which provides, by means of rhythmical sequences of lights, a new visual strategy for Deaf and hard of hearing children to perform classical ballet in the classroom as well as on the performing stage. He holds a North American Patent on his invention.  He has taught ballet
 and created choreography for students at E.C. Drury School for the Deaf in Milton and three of these students acted and performed classical ballet in the Soulpepper/DEAF CULTURE CENTRE production of The Black Drum.

Jeffrey was awarded an Ontario Arts Council Grant for Artists in Communities and School Projects to teach Deaf and hard of hearing students at Northern Secondary School in Toronto as well as at E.C. Drury. Jeffrey has studied American Sign Language (ASL) at the Bob Rumball Centre for the Deaf as well as the Bob Rumball Camp of the Deaf and has received the American Sign Language and Deaf Studies Certificate from George Brown College. Jeffrey is grateful to have recently received a donation from Donald K. Johnson, O.C. in loving memory of his wife Anna McCowan-Johnson. This donation has been made to support Jeffrey’s continuing work teaching classical ballet at E.C.Drury School of the Deaf.