Remarks by
The Honourable Anita Neville, P.C., O.M.
Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba
RECEPTION HONOURING ANDRE LEWIS, ROYAL WINNIPEG BALLET
Government House
Tuesday, May 6, 2025, 5:00 p.m.
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Fellow Manitobans, lovers of the arts, welcome to Government House and this celebration of a career dedicated to beauty and creativity.
This celebration of human cultural expression takes place on Treaty One land and in the heartland of the Red River Metis, in a province located on the treaty territories and ancestral lands of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Dakota, and Dene and the Red River Metis and are the ancestral lands of the Inuit.
As Manitobans, we cherish the arts for advancing understanding, creating beauty and bringing people together in collaboration partnership to build a better world founded on our common humanity.
Generations of Manitobans have taken pride in our province’s rich arts community, and, in a pantheon of renowned artists and institutions that is far larger than an outsider would expect from our population.
When Manitobans speak of the achievements and significance of our arts community, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet is a well-deserved central part of that conversation.
On stages around the world, on film, in Assiniboine Park on a summer night and at home in the Centennial Concert Hall, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet has delighted and inspired countless lovers of dance.
And through its school, the company has trained professionals and introduced new generations to the magic of movement.
A record of artistic and popular achievement like that doesn’t happen without the continuity, vision, dedication and inspiration provided by great leaders.
And for 50 years, since coming to Winnipeg as a student in the school’s professional division, André Lewis has been providing those contributions in all the roles he has had – as a dancer, artistic director, and ambassador of dance.
It is a pleasure for me to join the friends of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet this evening in celebrating a career of bringing dance to Manitoba and indeed, to the world.
André, I thank you for enriching life in this city and province for five decades, and I thank all of those who have supported the RWB and helped André and the company bring magic into our lives with every performance over many years.
Thank you. Merci. Meegwich. Shalom
