Director
Born in Amsterdam, Joost got in touch with dance at the age of 15, when friends asked him to join them in a ballet class. It was “love-at-first-sight” and after taking amateur ballet classes for a short time, he started his professional dance training at the Rotterdamse Dansakademie. He danced professionally with Netherlands Dance Theatre, the Royal Ballet of Flanders in Antwerp, and Maurice Bejart’s Ballet of the XXth Century in Brussels. In 1977 he immigrated to Canada with his Canadian-born wife, dancer Marilyn Lewis-Pelt and joined the Royal Winnipeg Ballet for four seasons, the final two seasons as Principal Dancer.
After retiring as a full-time dancer, Joost built a career in the arts as a producer, arts administrator and agent, including five seasons as the Dance Programmer at Harbourfront Centre’s Premiere Dance Theatre in Toronto. His final job in the arts was as General Manager of Theatre Passe Muraille. Next, he started a small business from scratch and for the next 25 years built Black Tulip inc., an administrative services business, providing bookkeeping and payroll administration to small businesses and individuals.
In August 2020, Joost retired from Black Tulip and moved with his wife Marilyn and their Greyhound Libby to Sidney, BC and they have loved every day since, of retirement living on Vancouver Island.