Grant Strate.

TLC MIND AND BODY are inseparable," says pioneering dance educator Grant Strate. In 1970 he founded Canada's first degree-granting dance program at Toronto's York University. Later he became director of The Centre for the Arts at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, now known as the School for Contemporary Arts. "I've always championed the status of ballet within the university arts hierarchy." In June, The CORPS de Ballet International--an organization dedicated to advancing the cause of ballet in higher education--presented him with its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Strate, 77, came late to dance. "I was a practicing lawyer when summoned in 1951 to become a founding member of the National Ballet of Canada. I never learned by rote, nor have I ever believed it's the way to learn. For me, movement and thought, investigation, go together. I've always encouraged students to think for themselves. The most effective learning is self-discovered. A university environment can foster that."

Despite his long professional ballet experience as a performer, choreographer, and teacher, Strate always has resisted making a strict dichotomy between ballet and modern. "In the end, it's all one. I believe in ballet and its evolution within a framework of contemporary thinking. I like the current melding of purposes and objectives."

Strate, among Canada's most honored dance figures, still teaches in Vancouver. "They say my combinations are 'challenging.' I guess I tend to approach teaching as a choreographer. For me it's not just steps but the flow, the transitions." www.corps-de-ballet.org.