The National Ballet of Canada’s fastest-rising star just left the company

When Siphesihle November joined the National Ballet of Canada as a corps de ballet member in 2017, it looked like the unusually gifted dancer would have a long and fruitful career with the company. Eight years prior, at just 11 years old, November had moved from South Africa to Canada to attend Canada’s National Ballet School. He was hand-picked by Karen Kain to join the company and rocketed through the ranks to become principal dancer at just 22 years old. But, after a brief tenure, the National Ballet of Canada has announced that November will be departing at the end of the 2025/26 season.

According to dance gossip, there were some clear signs that he was slowly stepping back. On Reddit, speculation that he might leave the company dates back at least a year, and November removed “ballet” from his Instagram bio several months ago. Some of the challenges he faced were present in Chelsea McMullan’s brilliant, sweeping documentary Swan Song, which captured the pressure on November to prove himself as the company’s second Black principal dancer. Additional pressure came from November’s being, by industry standards, a short dancer and requiring short partners.

Related: How the filmmakers of Swan Song captured the subtle drama of the National Ballet of Canada

But it turns out that his departure is as clean as his triple pirouettes—he’s leaving simply because he feels like it’s time to. For the moment, he has no concrete plans to dance with another company or to work as a freelance artist, and the company confirmed that nothing about his next moves has been shared with them.

One of November’s most vocal champions, artistic director Hope Muir, says Toronto may have the opportunity to see the dancer again. “Artists like Siphe will always have a home at the National Ballet. The conversation is open,” she says. “But, given how short a dancer’s career is, it’s really important for me to support their choices to move away, explore and realize their full potential as they see it.”

Related: How the National Ballet keeps its 30-year-old Nutcracker costumes looking fresh

Given that November was a singularly talented dancer capable of performing demanding roles in both classical and contemporary works—like his recent heart-wrenching performance in Crystal Pite’s Flight Pattern and his virtuosic portrayal of Basilio in Don Quixote—the next big ballerino has big slippers to fill.