Dance in Canada Magazine Number 7, Winter 1976

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Dance in Canada Magazine Number 7, Winter 1976

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One copy of Dance in Canada Magazine Number 7, Winter 1976

Contains the following articles:
- Editorial by Susan Cohen
- Profile: The Schools by Michael Crabb
- The Brinson Report by Peter Brinson
- The Future? Other Views by Grant Strate, Betty Oliphant, Ludmilla Chiriaeff, Fernand Nault, David Moroni, Arnold Spohr
- Dance 1984 by Brian Macdonald
- Noticeboard
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Royal Academy of Dance Ballet Susan Cohen Education Schools Training Brian Macdonald Celia Franca Fernand Nault Ludmilla Chiriaeff Michael Crabb Les Grands Ballets Canadiens National Ballet of Canada Betty Oliphant Peter Brinson National Ballet School Grants Entre-Six Dance History Arnold Spohr Christopher Darling David Moroni Galina Panov Grant Strate Valery Panov Banff Centre School of Fine Arts Island Dance Ensemble L'Ecole Superieure de Danse Imperial Society of Teachers Dancing The Royal Winnipeg ballet Classical Ballet Hands Satire Style Teachers The Brinson Report
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01/01/1976
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Dance in Canada Magazine Number 7, Winter 1976
Dance Collection Danse
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107.2009-55-2082
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The Brinson Report: The Community Responds Profile: The Schqo/s Editorial Susan Cohen Editor I Redactrice This issue of Dance in Canada is devoted to the Peter Brinson Report to the Canada Council on the state of the three professional schools of ballet traini ng in this country. Those who attended the Edmonton conference of this organization remember the minor furor created there when Timothy Porteous spoke to clarify Council's vision of the dance scene and of its financial responsibilities . Many of his ideas were based on the theninternal document by Brinson . Because of its importance in the formation of Council's thinking on the issue of financial help to the National Ballet School and the professional programs of The Royal Winnipeg and Les Grands Bal Lets Canadiens and the position these schools will have in our dance culture, Dance in Canada sought and received Council's permission to publish in this issue parts of the report. Then in order to sound out its impact on the community, Dance in Canada asked for responses to it from the representatives of institutions most affected or concerned. To provide a background against which to assess the report, Michael Crabb, a frequent contributor to these pages, has written an article tracing the history and interests of the schools considered by Brinson. We hope for, indeed expect, that this issue will engender comments from our readers so that the dance community can engage in the responsible, mature dialogue in which decisions are made. Due to limited space, and our desire to print as full as edition on the Brinson report as possible, other reviews and articles originally scheduled for this issue have had to be put off until a later one.• Cette edition de Danse au Canada est consacree au rapport presente au Conseil des A rts par Peter Bri nson, au sujet de l'etat des trois ecoles professionnell es de ballet du pays. Ceux qui ont assiste a notre con fere nce, ten ue a Edmonton, se souviennent de !'ag itat ion qu 'avait souleve Timothy Porteous lorsqu'il s'est exp rim e dans le but de clarifier les vues du Conseil des Arts vi s-a-vi s le domaine de la danse et les responsab ili tes fin ancieres de cette communaute. Plusieurs de ces idees etaien t basees sur le rapport Brinson , document auquel le Conseil avait alors acces. A cause de !' importance de ce rapport dans la formation de !'opinion du Conse il, quant a la qu estion d'aide financiere a l'Ecole de Ball et Nation al et les programmes professionnels du Roya l Winn ipeg Ba l let et des Grands Ballets Canadiens, ains i que la po sition de ces ecoles dans le domaine de la danse, Danse au Canada a obtenu la permission de publier des extrai ts du rapport dans cette edition. Done, de fac;:on a po uvoi r evalu er son impact sur la communaute , Danse au Canada s'est adresse aux representants des institutions con cernees et affectees par le rapport, dans le but de co nn aitre leurs reactions. Afin de fournir un poin t de repere pour !'evaluation du rapport, Michael Crabb, que vous avez souvent eu !'occasion de lire, a ecrit un art icle sur l'histoire ainsi que les interets des ecoles ment ion nees par Brinson. Nous esperons que cette edition sou levera plusieurs commentaires chez nos lecteurs, de so rte que la communaute de la danse puisse s'engager dans un dialogue responsable et favorab le au x decision s. A cause de l'espace Ii mite, ainsi q ue notre desir de vous presenter une edition aussi comp lete que poss ible sur le rapport Brinson, d'autres artic les ont dG et re re portes a une date ulterieure.• ana WINTER E ditor/ Redactrice: Susan Cohen Profile: The Schools Design/ Dessinateur: Page Publications The Brinson Report Editorial Assistant: Deborah Burrett 1976 HIVER Michael Crabb Peter Brinson The Future? Other Views Grant Strate Betty Oliphant Ludmilla Chiriaeff Fernand Nault David Moroni Arnold Spohr T ranslator/Traduction: Murielle McCabe Advertising Representative: Gitta Levi Dance 1984 Special Thanks to/ Sinceres remerciements a: The Ontario Arts Council The Canada Council Gloria Cohen Jackie Malden Noticeboard Brian Macdonald Cover/ Couverture: Photograph by Christopher Darling of Betty Oliphant teaching students at the National Ballet School. Dance in Canada is published quarterly by Dance in Canada Association. The views expressed in the articles in this publication are not necessarily those of Dance in Canada. The publication is not responsible for the return of unsolicited material unless accompan ied by a stamped self-addressed envelope. Subscription: $6.50 per year. Single copy $2 .00 . The publication Dance in Canada is included with membership in Dance in Canada Association . Danse au Canada est publiee trimestriellement par !'Association de la Danse au Canada. Les opinions exprimees dans les articles de cette publication ne sont pas obligatoirement celles de Danse au Canada. Le redact ion n'assume aucune responsabilite quant au renvoi de materiel non solicite, a moins que celui-ci ne soil accompagne d'une enveloppe-reponse affranchie et adressee. Abonnement: $6.50 par an. Prix du numero $2.00. Les membres de !'Association de la Danse au Canada recevront d' office la revue Danse au Canada. All rights reserved . No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior written permission of t he individual contributor and the Dance in Canada magazine. Tous drois reserves. II est defendu de reproduire toute partie de cette publication sans avoir preaiabiement obtenu le consentement ecrit de tout auteur et de la revue Danse au Canada. Dance in Canada: 314 Jarvis Street, Suite 103, Toronto, Ontario M5B 2C5. ISSN 0317-9737. Pr The T In Canada there are three professional training schools for those who wish to pursue a career in ballet. Each is associated with one of the three major performing companies. The schools of The Royal Winnipeg Ballet and of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens are closely attached to the companies. They exist largely to supply a continuing need for new dancers within those companies. The National Ballet School in Toronto is however different. Apart from being the only profess ional school to offer a full academic program in addition to instruction in ballet, the National Ballet School is constituted separately from the Toronto-based company, The National Ballet of Canada. While a large proportion of The National Ballet's dancers are in fact graduates of the National Ballet School its avowed purpose is to be an institution catering for Canada as a whole . Because of t hese broad aims, the National Ballet School does nc claim to produce young dancers with any pronounc.;ed styl e that can be easily associated with a particular company. Since the schools of Les Grands Ba llets and of t he Royal Winnipegers have the needs of eir compan ies more specifically in mind , each co~sc·o s y impresses a noticeable style on its graduates. - - s :r2 •epo rt on Les Grands Ballets, former ::'es ::e-- ea -C aude Delorme states emphatically the of his compa ny and its school. = ·, : _ s· cu ltures in Canada, and the home - -=·= : . 2 1 Students of L 'Ecole Superieure. Photo: Andre Le Coz of one of them is the province of Quebec." Les Grands Ballets is supposedly one expression of that culture an its professional school, according to Delorme, "helps create an original style of dance in Quebec ." Similarly, the Winnipeg company has, since i beginnings in the late 1930's, tried to express in dance a sensibility that is peculiar to the West. When the c i ,. fathers commissioned the company's first ballet in 1939 Gweneth Lloyd was instructed to insure it had, "lots o~ leg," and was about, "the cultivation of the wheat" . Arno Spohr regards the special training offered in his school as the secret for preserving what he calls, " the uniq ue colourful character of The Royal Winnipeg Ballet. " In contrast, the National Ballet School hopes to give aideal training in ballet that will allow the graduate to · easily into almost any classically-based company . T s special role has to an extent justified the substantial fisc.: support accorded the National Ballet School by t e Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council. Now the other two schools are seeking public suppor: for their professional programs. This means there v, be increased competition for funds which , to judge bytr:.: federal government's present policies , canno t expected to expand significantly. The matter has g i = • se to general questioning of the aims of professional allet training in Canada and more specifically of the anner in which limited public support is shared . L'Ecole Superieure de Danse From Les Grands Ballets Canadiens' headquarters in the est end of Montreal, Ludmilla Chiriaeff oversees her two elated organizations, the performing company with Brian acdonald as its artistic director and the schools, headed by Fernand Nault. No special professional program existed in the province of Quebec until 1966 when at the instigation of he Quebec Department of Cultural Affairs, L'Ecole Superieure de Danse was founded. Before 1966 all instruction connected with Les Grands Ballets had been conducted through L'Academie des Grands Ballets Canadiens. The Academy remains an important adjunct of L'Ecole Superieure. Its main branches are in Montreal and Quebec where a staff of 15 gives instruction in ballet, modern dance, jazz· and character dance. In addition, specially trained teachers instruct in 18 other branches of the Academy spread across the province from Baie Comeau to Hull. Promising students can qualify for admission to L'Ecole Superieure although it is not necessary to have begun at one of the branches of the Academy to qualify for entry. L'Ecole Superieure is housed with the company on Queen Mary Drive in a prosperous and largely English part of Montreal. Its staff of 12 headed by M. Nault in some instances have teaching responsibilities in the Academy as well. It is not a residential school and does not offer an integrated program of academic studies at present. It does however include a teacher's course. On average, there are about 200 students registered . After audition, acceptable students enter a one-year t rial course (Elementaires avances) with four classes a week. After that there are four years of intermedi'ate instruction of three to five classes a week. Additionally there is an advanced class and special classes in pas de deux, modern, and Spanish. Approximately a quarter of L' Ecole Superieure's students are male. Naturally, the quality of education has suffered because, except for older students beyond academic school age, L'Ecole has had to accommodate itself around ot her people's timetables and instruct youngsters exhausted after a day of ordinary school. Although the Quebec Department of Cultural Affairs as implemental in the founding of L'Ecole and had given assurances of continuing financial support, the figures rec ord a gloomy history of inadequate public care . Superieure. She has not yet managed to secure any substantial new source of revenue but has ingeniously found a way of passing the financial responsibility for some of her students to the provincial government and in so doing, to make it possible for non-Montrealers to attend professional training under the immediate supervision. Having decided that there were "problems" with the Department of Cultural Affairs, Ludmilla Chiriaeff decided to work through the Ministry of Education. In principle she gained recognition for dance as one of the varied options Quebec high school students are entitled to select to complete the requisite number of credits for their diploma. Through this avenue she has found a way to bring her teaching into one Montreal school this year and has hopes of seeing the arrangement extended to other high schools and even into CEGEPs. Now there are 33 students at Pierre Laporte high school in St. Croix taking two daily classes of dance, taught by Les Grands Ballets, as part of the regular syllabus. Nineteen of these students, all of whom were recruited by audition, live outside Montreal and, by a provision of the Quebec Education Act, are therefore entitled to a maintenance grant for living in Montreal as long as similar teaching facilities for dance to not exist in their area. The allowance - $824 with $80 for travel - is like the whole program a very modest start, but once extended to the CEGEP level it could revolutionize dance training in the province. However, this process has not met universal approval. Some other teachers in Quebec fear the long range implications of what they see as cultural imperialism on the part of Madame Chiriaeff. According to Peter Brinson, the British dance authority who observed the operations in Montreal in preparing an assessment for the Canada Council , the instruction offered by L' Ecole Superieure is admirable but idiosyncratic. He notes that Madame Chiriaeff appears to have drawn her method from a broad range of styles but that its consequent eclecticism might not favour the dancer who wanted to go elsewhere than Les Grands Ballets. He suggests some sort of "dialogue" with the National Ballet School whose system he regards as an ideal academic form. The Professional Program of the School of The Royal Winnipeg Ballet As in Montreal, so in Winnipeg , there are two levels of instruction offered by the performing company and the separate professional program emerged from the general school. Even with nearly 3,000 students in some way or another receiving dance instruction through the Academy, that institution records modest deficits each year. The general school is headed by Jean McKenzie and offers ballet classes to everybody from budding Auroras to fat matrons on a commercial basis. The pressing need for a reliable supply of properly trained dancers who could fill any gaps in the company led Arnold Spohr to devise the first professional program. From 1962-1970, Jean McKenzie ran this together with her other teaching responsibilities. The burden was too great and the number of successful products discouraging. Thus, Madame Chiriaeff has had to concentrate her energies on the solution of two problems: how to increase the income of the schools and how to provide means for talented students outside Montreal to come to L'Ecole Therefore a separate program was founded in 1970 under the direction of David Moroni who had just completed his successful career as a principal dancer with the company. Since a founding grant of $22,000 in 1966 there was only a 1¼ times increase to $50,000 in 1973. From 1968-72, government support remained fixed at $45,000 each year. By the end of 1973, L'Ecole Superieure's accumulated eficit had reached $23,531 . 3 for a 10-month course is $1,500 for a five-day week of fou r classes per day: ballet, jazz, pas de deux or pointe an d repertoire. More than Les Grands' school, the Royal Winnipeger's professional program is geared to the needs of the company. Essentially Moroni has three supporting teachers, alt hough others from the company may occasiona lly appear. Daily schedule runs from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The school shares the modern and bright eight-studi o premises used by the company on Portage Avenue in th e heart of Winn ipeg. Since the company is so often away touring, the arrangement works satisfactorily. Advance d students of the professiona l program somet i mes "super" for the company and Moroni also produces a special school show with his charges . In addition to the regular 10-month teaching year, there is a summer school in Winnipeg during Ju ly and A ugust. The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is also heavily involved with the Banff Centre summer course in dance. Moroni regards himself as a disciple of the great teacher Vera Volkova who died last year. The school in general however did not meet with unqualified approval fro m Brinson when he made his rounds in 1974 on beha lf of the Canada Council. He was concerned about the extent of Moroni's knowledge of Volkova's methods and of t he damage that might be inflicted on young talent by bad teaching. The youth of that talent depends on a number of fact o rs. As in Montreal, there is no residential company school and so it is only at the older levels that intensive instruction is possible. The professional program in Winnipeg is structured in "levels". Talent rather than age determines at what level a new student wi ll enter. Levels one to five are part of a junior program . Six and seven form the senior progra m and level seven is regarded as the final pre-compa ny stage. Last year, nearly one-third of the students in levels six and seven were Americans. Most of the present company of the Royal Winn ipeg Ballet has graduated from the school but that does no mean each spent a ful l period of training there . Da vid Moroni and students at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. Phot o: Gerry Cairns For two years, the new program continued to operate within the general school's budget but now is administered separately and has its own board of directors. Nevertheless it remains dependent on the financial resources of the general schoo l. Grants awarded to the company cannot be diverted to the school as Les Grands Ballets discovered when they simp ly lent some company money to their school and got a rocket from Ottawa. · Unfortunately, the general school last year only made a $16,685 profit while the professional program's loss was $76,115. Manitoba is a little province without a big tax base and provincial funding bodies have not responded to the ballet school's desperate need . The Canada Council's recent offe r of a first-time $10,000 subvention hardly meets the bill eith er. At present t here are 42 students in the professional program, 15 have free tuition and another five enjoy ma intenance bu rsaries. Otherwise the profess ional rate 4 Arnold Spohr does not have such extensive plans as Madame Chiriaeff. " We don't need a big school to se rvice the world. What we need is enough money to train a certain number of students each year for the com pany. We're just small. $40 ,000 or $50,000 a year would do us. We're not asking the earth ." The National Ballet School That great celebrity of the dance, Lincoln Kirste in, las~ year described the National Ballet School as , " the best o the continent and on a level with the ballet academies o London , Leningrad and Copenhagen." From tne outside, the National Ballet School bel ies th is glowing tribute. Really it's a jumble of old bui ld ings o Maitland Street in downtown T oronto: a former Q uaker church which had passed to an unusual Baptist sect a an assortment of houses. There have been extension s a improvements, but the school's physical plant is far fro ideal. Studen ts even as junior as grade 10 have to be pu. out to board in nearby apartments. The staff roo m was christened "the rat trap " by Bolshoi instructor Euger Valukin when he taught there in 1965 . As the head of the school is the aging but still act i e igure of Miss Betty Oliphant, a respected personality in ball et circles around the world. She was for a time ballet mistress to the youthfu I National Ballet of Canada and had er own private school until becoming founder-principal of the National Ballet School in 1959. Until 1963, the school was constitutionally linked with the company itself but since then, although very closely associated, the two institutions have been run independently. Miss Oliphant with characteristic bluntness has said that if she does not like the way the company is going she will not encourage her graduates to enter its ranks. The National Ballet School was the first of its kind in North America; a residential school intended, in Miss Oliphant's words, "to develop the innate talent of young people who want to become, and of whom many will become, professional dancers." The school is concerned with education in its broadest sense, the development of th e whole person: "artists, not just technicians, people, not puppets." The school strives to be truly national in its approach and responsibilities even if in the eyes of some this is nei t her desirable nor in fact the case. Students are admitted as early as age eight and may continue beyond the end of the academic program in g rade 12 to further study as graduate students. At the base of the admission procedure is a large-scale auditioning expedition conducted each year from January to March right across Canada. This year it will include 23 cities. About 90 of the 500 applicants this year will be chosen to attend the school 's summer program in Toronto after which 30-35 will be admitted to the full program. Occasionally students will be squeezed in under special circumstances. In addition, "special" students from other backgrounds may also be admitted at a senior level. Here they may be engaged with other graduates in the school's highly regarded three-year course for ballet teachers or they may be taking further dance education. This year most of the nine graduates are taking the teacher's course and of the 24 "specials" 13 are taking further professional dance training. In the regular program there are roughly 130 students, 75% of whom are on bursaries. These vary from $100 to the full fee and are based on availability and parental means. The full fees for day students are between $800 and S1000. Residential students pay $1800 to $2150. These igures do not represent the full cost since, like the bu rsaries, they are supported by revenue from operating grants . Unlike the schools in Winnipeg and Montreal, the ati onal Ballet School has received fairly stable public - p port even if it is not adequate for the institution's needs. This year for example, the school will receive $600,000 '•om the Canada Council and $283,000 from the Ontario s Council. Public funding began in 1963 at $10,000. he school is efficiently run. Uniformed students are ·arely seen standing about chatting . They are .usually in a ~ ass or rushing to one. Betty Oliphant is now called "director and principal" a d governs affairs from a diminutive office tucked away a t he back of a little house. She controls a staff of 65, eluding administration . There are 31 teachers of whom ·s are in the academic division, headed by Vice-Principal Lucy Potts. Upper level students, however, attend a nearby co llegiate for science instruction and some sports. The bal let division is headed by Vice-Principal Carole Chadwick who also assists Miss Oliphant in the running of the school. Of the 13 dance teachers, three are men . (Of the student enrollment roughly one-third are male.) The schoo l also produces a series of lecture-demonstrations for schools. The National Ballet School is known as a establishment but in fact it has drawn on a sources. It invites a distinguished number teachers. It does however submit students for Society exam inations. Cecchetti variety of of guest Cecchetti Because it has so often to turn away students, the schoo l is hoping to expand and a plan for this has been seen by Secretary of State Hugh Faulkner and will eventually go to the Cabinet. The need is critical. Although the National Ballet School has its critics and is the object of a certain amount of jealousy, it has been widely admired by a variety of knowledgeable authorities. Of the th ree schools in Canada it has produced the largest number of top calibre ballet dancers and now, after 17 years has an international star to its credit, Karen Kain. Those who criticize The National Ballet for a lack of distinctive style and a neutral coldness blame the school for what they regard as spiritless, mechanical training; but history shows that greatness is not the same as popularity. Whether current squabbles over the sharing out of the public purse w ill lead to a diminution of the National Ballet School's important position remains to be seen . Betty Oliphant teaching students at the National Ballet School. Photo: Christopher Darling The Brinson Report Introduction Since 1957, the year of its founding, the Canada Council has provided grants to Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, The National Ballet of Canada and The Royal Winnipeg Ballet. In 1964 it received a request for an operating grant from the National Ballet School, which has been associated with The National Ballet in practice if not in its formal structure. This request posed serious problems for the Council, both financial and constitutional. The total amount of funds available for dance is always limited and the more invested in schools, the less available for companies and vice versa. Arts schools combine education with professional training. Under our constitution the former is the responsibility of the provinces. Nevertheless, when the Council received assurances that the artistic quality of the National Ballet School was extremely high and that it was performing an essential role in the development of ballet dancers in this country, it decided to provide an operating grant which has been increased in each subsequent yea~ At the same time, the Council has been providing operating grants to a single national theatre school in Montreal. In both cases the schools conduct auditions across the country, draw their students from every province, and offer courses in both English and French. These are important elements in obtaining support from the federal government. The Council received requests for operations grants from the professional school of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in 1973, and of The Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 1974. Before embarking on a policy which was bound to require considerable additional funds, not only in the dance field, but potentially in other disciplines as well, the Council decided it needed an assessment of the three ballet schools from a qualified observer. This assessment would be based on visits to the three schools and interviews with those responsible for them but it would have to be prepared within fairly severe limitations of time and cost. (1974 was a year of restraint in the Council's budget.) The Council is grateful to Peter Brinson for performing this service. We expect the content of the report to be controversial but we believe that, in the long run, such controversy can contribute to the development of the arts. The report and its general recommendations were submitted to the dance sub-committee of the Council's Advisory Arts Panel ( Anna Wyman, Richard Rutherford and Fern and Nault) which agreed that it should be sent to the Council without comments other than that it was a very good report. After reading the report, Council members approved first grants of $10,000 each to the professional schools of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and The Royal Winnipeg Ballet. The Council's first grant to the National Ballet School was for $10,000. The report contains two different kinds of comments and recommendations. The first are of general application and we believe they should be given the widest circulation. The second apply to particular organizations and individuals to whom we have shown them. It is not Council's practice to publish the assessments it receives of individuals and companies since we believe that in some cases this could be damaging to those assessed, would inhibit the assessor, and would provoke unnecessary acrimony and divisiveness within the dance community. We have already received some vigorous comments on the report and we would be interested in the reac tions of your readers. The Canada Council 6 Winnipeg Ballet and a two-year pre-professional course proposed by L'Ecole Superieure des Grands Ballets Canadiens. No study of the three institutions concerned, and espec ially no consideration of the future of professional training for classical ballet in Canada, can be complete without considering a)the role of the dance departments of York University and Ryerson Polytechnic in producing teachers, dance historians and other specialists; b) the role of independent dance teachers and their professional organizations in Canada, including examinations and examining bodies; c)the related problems of dance teacher training, dance education in primary and secondary schools, and the pay, status and conditions of dance teachers across Canada. Peter Brinson Editor's Note: The following excerpts of the Brinson Report are reprinted with the permission of the Canada Council. PART I: Summary of Conclusions Very little of worth is ever achieved quickly in classical ballet. It takes 10 years to train a student to professional standard; another 10 to turn the young professional into a mature artist in a company. It takes at least 10 years, too, to establish firmly the foundations of a professional school; another 10 (assuming firm foundations!) before hat school begins to reveal its style and influence the p rofessional theatre to any significant extent. Therefore he following study and conclusions are presented as a c ontribution to thinking about the next decade of rofessional training for classical ballet in Canada. Since an important proportion of young talent flowing into the national school and the two professional programs may first come to light through early training from independent teachers in their own studios or in general schools, and since the whole future of professional dance in Canada depends on proper training of teachers, the Council might give thought to the need for a further study of this subject while recognizing it is an area primarily for provincial governments where the Council can make no financ.ial contribution itself to realize any recommendations . The study, therefore, would be advisory to the Council, but could be accepted for action by the levels of government concerned according to their situation. Indeed, without such a study anything the Council pursues from the present study might suffer from being based on inadequate measures to realize and encourage the potential dance talent available in Canada. Having a relatively small population, Canada needs to take very special measures to ensure that talent is neither wasted nor overlooked. In effect the Council already treats the National Ballet School as an institution of national significance, but has not explained to the dancing profession the cogent reasons for doing so. This has led to much jealousy and misunderstanding. Hence it is necessary to end at all costs in the provinces the present misunderstanding of the National Ballet School and the Council's policy towards it. As part of this system, it might be helpful to establish some kind of national adviser, independent of the institutions concerned, to give advice where help is needed, and develop cooperation and collaboration. Someone would be needed of the stature of Dame Peggy van Praagh, now retiring from the Australian ballet. General In all professional institutions assisted by Council there should be at least the quality of orthopaedic and pediatric supervision provided at the moment only by the National Ballet School. This must needs include an insistence on properly fitting shoes. Because of its international quality the National Ballet Sc hool should be considered the national centre of ex cellence and should receive Council support acc ordingly as a national institution. The establishment and recognition of such a national institution is the key to ~ e development of professional training for classical all et in Canada. Therefore the Council should consider how it might initiate discussions between companies, government departments and shoe manufacturers to improve the chronic shoe situation. This affects the standard of almost all schools in Canada except the National Ballet School which has made its own arrangements and so might provide a model for others. Because of the geography of Canada and the mportance of sustaining local pride and interest in the development of professional ballet it is desirable to foster rovincial centres of quality. The first two such centres m ight be the professional .student program of The Royal Canadian salary levels for dance teachers in so highly skilled a profession are scandalously low and thus depress standards. Hence they merit the attention of everyone concerned to raise the standards of dance teaching across Canada. 7 PART II: The Nature of the Problem Introduction and Qualifications At t he Council's request, I have studied the work of the National Ballet School during January of this year and saw the professional student programs of schools attached to The Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens during June. As part of that study I have seen copies of all three submissions and documents put to Counc il on behalf of these organizations, so that this report takes account of their submissions. During each visit I had discussions not only with the institutional directors and members of their teaching staff, but with presidents of their related company and board members, as well as certain officials or representatives of provincial and city governments, appropriate arts councils and other organizations. My study was taken very seriously by everyone, was well arranged by the three institutions concerned, and revealed an interest in the problem of training for classical ballet from a circle far outside the professional dance world. Any study of three such institutions inevitably becomes a study of the nature and development of professional training for classical ballet throughout Canada. Therefore my conversations came to embrace these wider problems, not least because it was relevant to discover the degree of provincial, city and local support for such train ing. Often too in discussion I was asked to define the problem in light of historical experience and explain why the Council had asked me to study it. Though I do not know what particular considerations prompted the Council to invite me when it did, it is right that I should take this hint and state my background. That background , after all, informs the principles and viewpoint guiding this study. For similar reasons I feel it would be helpful to summarize for you the way major dance institutions outside Canada view the problems which arise in training professional dancers and the solutions generally accepted by them. This will provide a background of personal and general experience against which to study the particular situation of Canada. The principles and viewpoin t I bring to my work are drawn from professional experience in UK and Canada covering theatrical performance and dance education. In the theatre I founded and directed a classica l touring company within the Royal Ballet, whose programs i continue to c reate. In dance education I was d irectorgeneral of the Royal Academy of Dancing and initiated its reorganization. I am today chief examine r in History of Ballet to the Associated Examining Board and lecturer in UK to dance and theatre schools as well as guiding the quite extensive dance program of the Gulbenkian Foundation. My Canadian experience goes back to 1970 when I first lectured in the dance department of York University, Toronto, where I am now adjunct Professor. I gave courses two years running at the National Ballet School and undertook for the Canada Council in 1970 a brief study of the National Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Grands Ballets Canadiens leading to a report. Because of this Canadian experience and an identification with Canada which results - it has been easy to understand the problems of the institutions concerned , and comparatively simple to note st rengths and weaknesses in staff, organization or program . The difficulty has been to avoid being too sympathetic, mainta i ning a ba lance between demanding top profess ional sta ndards and what can really be achieved in 8 local circumstances, a balance too between wha professional ballet school or program sho uld expected to offer in academic education and what it m offer in technical training. :: e • Past history and present expe rience abroad are "e foundation upon which classical ballet has arise n as : exists now in Canada. Though dance is the oldest for :::" expression known to mankind , classical dance dates o from the Renaissance, starting first in Italian Co urts, r eflowering under the patronage of French kings. Balle:: 500-year-old history, therefore , is an ex pressio n ::' European taste and manners. It is an art of Euro e belonging to no one European country, just as Katha a-:: Kathakali express India, but flourish in Delhi an d Mala::ia· In the beginning ballet's style and vocab ular, :· movement derived from the manners and dancers o - s XI V's court where steps were first codified- but als '•:peasants, tumblers and acrobats. Since then its tee and artistry have been developed over the years by 'eateachers and choreographers who have given it na•i -a accents by applying its technique and t rad it io-s ·: national physiques and temperaments. Afte r Italy a-:: France this happened in Denmark, then Russia. -!:!Britain. One day it will happen in Canada, tho ugh e need a great Canadian choreographer as we ll as a national school and fine teachers -to co mple e :-e process. School and teachers, however, co me firs . Canadian classical ballet today (one can begin al•ea_ to speak of it as such) is founded on the w o rk o British and some Russian immigrant ballet teac e::s before and after the second world war. Volko ff in Tor -: Lloyd and Farrally in Winnipeg; Oliphant in or -:These four names convey my meaning, but t ere a many, many more scattered through Canad ian ci ·es a""' townships . They brought with them a know ledge apractice of the principal European teach ing me cs some deriving from a long trad ition like the Russ a- aCecchetti systems; others teaching methods more ·e: like the British Royal Academy of Dancing syll abus . C _: what they began came the Winnipeg Bal let in e , then the National Ballet in the East. Because of the possible to include Canadian-born dancers i companies from the start. Nothing can demonstrate: - the significance of the contribution of indi vidual ::J' teachers to the encouragement of a native talen . The companies, once established, en ri ched teaching methods further through their neecs a practice. Winnipeg, for example, presently addec :: RAD origins a strong influence from Volkova's teaching in Copenhagen . But it was the Nationa 3a School which drew most systematically upon the e of European experience. Essentially Cecc hetti- : which made it an inheritor of the Italian-Russian tra:: · it added something also from the French Bo ur -tradition in Copenhagen, and the Soviet Vaga- method in Leningrad as well as from Volkova, and _,. British practice in London. Al l this has been sifte:: applied to physiques and temperaments found in Ca-ac:a. So it is fair to say that the National Ballet Schoo l co-· directly in the great traditions of class ical : descended from the court of Louis XIV, but at t e time is developing its own variation and practice, aca: tradition to the Canadian situation . Even so, a special problem affects all those w ho s:: develop classical ballet in a "new" country . T he •:;: must be faced by Balanchine in New York a-:: Christensens in San Francisco as well as in Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal. What is known today as the Russian school emerged at the end of the nineteenth century marriage of French and Italian traditions upon Russian physiques and temperaments. What is known as t he British school emerged after the Second World War from a mingling of French, Italian and Russian traditions upon British physiques and temperaments. In each group of physiques and temperaments there was a recognizable national quality, like a prism, reflecting the old tradition in a new way, adding something of its own . One day this will happen in Canada. But while Canada is absorbing so many post-war arrivals, widely different in national orig in, it is difficult to speak of "Canadian" physiques and temperaments in quite the same way. The variety of physiques and temperaments which make up the Canadian nation at once enrich and complicate the process of professional training for classical ballet. This variety influences the selection of children at first audition, the nature of their schooling to take creative account of differences, and ultimately the development of classical companies sufficiently homogeneous in physique and style to do justice to the classical tradition. I do not present this problem as a handicap. Rather, combined with the rich legacy from traditional teaching described above, it could become one of those factors which gives to Canadian ballet a special characteristic and excitement which will stamp it "Canada". But the prob lem places a very special responsibility upon those charged with guiding the direction of training for classical ballet in Canada. The creation of a Canadian identity out of this variety (itself, surely a signally strong argument for encouraging the dance among Canadian arts) will come about only as a result of good teaching founded on sound principles so organized across the country as to give opportunities to every scrap of talent, the differences and t he simi larities. One is returned at once, therefore, to the central importance of schools and teaching. Again there is a difference between Canada and Europe. In Britain, say, or Russia, there are state academies for very talented children while others of less talent have the choice and help of teachers turned out by the state academies and hence teaching to a known standard. In Canada anyone can open a school who has a minimal know ledge of dance steps. No anatomical, physiological or even pedagogical knowledge is needed. The same, perhaps is true of acting o r music. But here no lasting damage is done to the child - beyond a lifetime's waste of talent and lost opportunity w hich no nation can afford. In dance training one adds to t hese two serious losses the grave risk of lasting physical damage. Having travelled many thousand miles now in Canada and seen very many products from Canadian dance schools, I have to conclude that the quality of teaching is dangerously uneven in this respect, to say the least. Only good teachers and good teaching produce good dancers, yet really good teachers are as rare as really g ood dancers - and more valuable! At present in Canada the general standards of examination and teacher training are sustained from the United Kingdom . Examiners from e Roya l Academy of Dancing and Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (the two big UK examining bodies) to ur the country to the studios of those teachers who su bscribe to their methods. Canada owes these UK bodies a great deal but their service is really to themselves and on ly secondarily to Canada. It is also necessarily incomplete. What Canada now needs, surely, is the same central national reference point for standards as has been shown to be necessary in Europe. Canada needs the equivalent of the great state academies of Britain and Russia, working with these examining bodies as the Royal Ballet School does in London . Alone among countries of the American continent Canada has the potential for such an academy in the National Ballet School. Hence I argue below a case for national recognition. But, if such a step might help to raise and sustain standards, what are good standards? What is good teach ing? Historical experience shows that the education of a dancer requires a combined effort between parent, dance teacher and academic teacher. The dance teacher needs not only the ability to teach, and a knowledge of anatomy, physiology and the dance vocabulary, but a mature judgement plus psychological insight. The academic teacher, whether training in a dance school or in a general school, needs to give the would-be dancer that cultural education which can rep lace the instinct of a child, so often right, with the reason of an adult. The academic teacher must be convinced, and the dance world must be able to convince her/him, that dancing is a serious art. Neither dance teacher nor academic teacher, of course, can be given that special spark which marks the fine teacher from the ordinary one, but the dance teacher, if he is to do his job with distinction and command the respect of the education profession, needs to have had, and be seen to have had, the same sort of rigorous preparation and testing for his vocation as other kinds of teachers. He needs to have proper status, proper pay and a recognized system of training leading to recognized qualifications. I return later to this theme. What now of the child? Dancing is for everyone. But ballet as a profession is for the ve ry few . No child should be prevented from learning to dance. They should be urged to do so. But they should underst and that professional classical dancing is far removed from social danc ing, even from many forms of modern dance. If a child does not have what it takes physically to become a professional classical dan,cer, or starts too late, success is very unlikely. The training of a professional c lassical dancer needs to start around the age of 1O for both sexes. Since a dancer's body is his instrument, as the violin is for the violinist, there is little point in trying to create it from inadequate materials. Legs and back must be straight, for example, the feet have straight toes and good insteps; the proportions of the body should be good and so on . If the body is too fat, too short or too tal I, or the back excessively long compared with the legs, the instrument may be fl awed in maturity, so cannot be accepted for training . Or if there are very promising other qualities it might be accepted in rare instances only after careful discussion with medical advisers. There must also be physical beauty, at least in the girl, or the promise of an artistry which can convince the majority of an audience the dancer is beautiful, even if not so by regular standards . And in the child's response to music will be found, or not, the promise of musicality without which no dancer can be a true artist. Such are the lessons of experience in every great school throughout the world. It takes about 10 years to train a professional dancer fo r the stage; another 10 to turn the young professional dancer into a mature artist. During the 10 years of his training the dancer will seek to acquire an alphabet of 9 movement at the same time as he develops the instrument for dancing, his body, into as perfect an instrument as possible. This is done in training sessions lasting 1½ hours each, carefully arranged according to the experience of dance teachers over 300 years in many countries. The dancer begins slowly with support at the barre to develop posture, turnout, balance and co-ordination. He proceeds slowly through class in such a way that every part of the body is prepared, and at the end the body is extended and tested through the dance phases of the last part of class, allegro. It follows, then, that the preparation of the dancer is so important that the quality of a ballet company's school tends to determine the quality of that company. But is so rigorous a method of training necessary for today's dancer and today's repertory? Apart from the fact that choreographers are demanding ever more brilliant technique, this technique has to be a means to an end, not an end in itself. It is a system of physical education which enables the dancer to be expressive in every type of movement, including "contemporary" or"modern" dance. Hence it has become the basic training of all professional dancers of every kind . To acquire it up to the level required by classical dance takes as long as any other vocational specialist education and should be recognized as such by t he educational authorities. To hasten the process of t raining risks not only physical strain but psychological stra in. Therefore a professional ballet school needs the resources and flexibility to allow a child in which it has confidence to go its own pace. If this can happen the artist will flower in proper maturity, as Pavlova, Ulanova and Fonteyn did, without burning themselves out in midcareer because they acquired in school nothing else but technique. Hence the dancer needs an education properly balanced between the physical, intellectual and emotional. And the dance school needs to stress within a sound general education the special importance of music, 10 painting and literature parallel with dancing. The ballet, as Arnold Haskell once said, "is only interesting as a branch of the theatre. Only the complete theatrical personality is interesting as a dancer". For this reason I have made a special point of inquiring at each of the institutions I studied what provision was made for education beyond technique. The road, then, between steps at school and dancing on stage is long and arduous. Moreover the relevance of these steps to modern life is often questioned, like the classics themselves. Ignoring for a moment the box-office pull of the classics, one has to affirm the classics as the syntax of ballet. Dance the classics well and all things are possible. Master the classics, as Picasso did in his sphere, and they offer you a base for invention, creation, all the most revolutionary artistic departures, because they require a mastery of technique which is the beginning of communication . But to master the classics needs a great school. This is the problem. Because of these lessons of international experience I argue a case that the National Ballet School should be the national centre of excellence and guardian of standards at least so long as its present regime and methods are sustained. Hence the work of this school is placed first. But a centre of excellence in a country the size of Canada becomes remote and ineffective unless it helps sustain and is sustained by provincial centres of quality. I examine two such possible centres in Winnipeg and Montreal, placing them between the national centre and the wider fabric of general dance schools, independent ballet teachers and university and other dance departments dotted across the country. For reasons shown above, these last cannot be ignored, even in a specialist study of three particular institutions. The Future? Other Views Arretons done d'opposer des obstacles au developpement des affaires culturelle . ... Ludmilla Chiriaeff We consider ourselves to be a national institution. Bett_v Oliphant Art is individual. No.one should put a stamp on it. Arnold Spohr It is impossible to divorce a reading of t he expu rgated Brinson report from conjecture about those pa rts not for our eyes. The whole question of confidentiality immed iately arises. A report of such significance to the national dance community should not be received , evaluated and acted upon beh ind closed doors. A bureaucratic office is accountable to the people it serves, a point the dance community should remember more often . Was public accountab ility ever a part of the motive for the commissioning of the Peter Brinson study o r did the Dance Office of the Canada Counc il calculate such a study would lend support to a predetermined plan of action? I suspect this plan was to finally ordain , by way of greatly increased funding, the National Ballet Sc hool as the national school for all of Canada. All other existing schools would become satellites at best. Peter Brinson endorsed this plan and went further to anoint the National Ballet School as the cent re from which an "indigenous" classical code will eventually flow. In fact, the mandate for the National Ballet School recommended by Mr. Brinson is far greater than was ever given to the schoo ls of Moscow , Lening rad, London, Paris , Copenhagen or Milan. Those ballet schools existed in good health to prov ide dancers for the great companies they served and remained shining examples t o the world by virtue of the excellent standard of dancing exhibited by t hose companies. Nowhere in history has an important schoo l assumed the responsibil ity to prov ide dancers and to watchdog teach ing standards for an entire nation . The Royal Ballet of Eng land for instance, retains a powerful position of influence in Great Britain (and abroad) by producing well schooled dancers fo r The Royal Ballet. The product is excellent; thus the influence is marked . It utilizes the methods set by The Royal Academy of Dance and The Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing . The School does not impose standards on the nation . It simply does its job well in tra ining dancers for The Royal Ballet and incidentally for the rest of the world . Any argument now raised that the National Ballet School was founded to be a school for all of Canada deserves to be knocked flat. Whatever the intention later became, the National Ballet School was founded by Celia Franca whose first responsibility was to the National Ballet. 1 Miss Franca so endorsed the principle that every great ballet company needs a strong school t hat she insisted on the estab lishment of the school early in the history of The National Ballet, despite intimidating financial and organizational difficulties. The birth of the school is still to the enormous credit of Celia Franca as well as Betty Oliphant. The fact that school and company were set up with autonomous boards of directors was an organizational convenience and makes no case for the school's spiritual or artistic independence. Nothing here written should be construed as an attack on the excellence of the National Ballet School. It is obviously a fine school , as the product proves . Karen Kain, Frank Augustyn, and Veronica Tennant are !:Jut a few of the many fine classical dancers who have become assets to The National Ballet. Other graduates dance internationally and in othe r Canadian ballet companies . This is commendable, but my point is that, pa rallel with all other major schools, historically and presently, the 1 The National Ballet School was founded in 1959 with Celia Franca as director and Betty Oliphant as principal. Miss Franca retained t his t it le until 1965 when she became artistic advisor and Miss O li phant beca me director and principal. 12 Grant Strate. Photo: Christopher Darling viability of the National Ballet School depends on its attachment to The National Ballet Company, its primary showcase. One can no mo re argue that the National Ballet School is the representative danse d'ecole for all of Canada than one can argue that The National Ballet is Canada's one legitimate ballet company . Those parts of the Brinson report available to us must be looked at in the light of events just passed; events which tend to tarnish the integrity of the Canada Council. First public mention of the terms of the report was given by the associate director of Council , Timothy Porteus, at Dance in Canada's Edmonton Conference last June. He announced that funds would be allocated for the first time to the schools of The Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens . This was indeed good news as we all assumed this to be a positive move toward decentralization. Mr. Porteus and Monique Michaud, dance officer of the Canada Council, were later interviewed by Dance in Canada Magazine and did not indicate any conditions were attached to these new funds . Alas, this was not true as Arnold Spohr and Ludmilla Chi riaeff were soon to find out. Both received letters from Mme Michaud requesting the submission of a teaching plan or project for their schools before release of the funds. These submissions are to be evaluated by an advisory committee of Council for which occasion Betty O liphant will join the committee . Council's emerging policy was further elucidated by a press release dated November 28 announc ing a grant increase to the National Ballet School of $280,000 to a total of $600,000 for the 1975-76 fiscal year (backdated to April 1 presumably). By comparison, the $10,000 offered to Winnipeg and Montreal is tokenism. The attached conditions for the receipt of the $10,000 are a slap in the face. In 1961, the Canada Council commissioned a study from which it ser ious l y considered the artistic amalgamation of the three major ballet companies into one national treasure, which obviously has not happened. Three consultants were invited to assess these three companies .2 Now on the strength of one learned opin ion, Richard Buckle - dance critic for the London Sunday Times; Guy Glover - producer, di ~ector, National Film Board of Canada; Lincoln Kirstein - director general, New York City Ballet. 2 that of Peter Brinson, Council seems intent to create a situation which will centralize dancer training and inevitably standardize dance styles from coast to coast. I recently attended an exciting performance of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. The dancing was stronger than ever before. The material was demanding and highly inventive. Since then I had the pleasure of viewing The Royal Winnipeg Ballet's production of The Nutcracker on CBC TV. It was impeccably produced and beautifully danced. On both occasions I tried to visual ize the same performances danced by dancers trained at the National Ballet School. (I recognized no National Ballet School product in either production .) There is no doubt that the " look" would have been quite different and wrong for the artistic intentions of these established companies. How fortunate we are to have various dance styles and artistic intentions! Why shou ld Canada be forced to one model of excellence? I am struck by one huge silence in the Brinson report. While constantly attesting to the better accomplishments of the National Ballet School, he fails to point out that unti I now it is the only school in Canada to receive financial support from the Canada Council. The other two classical schools have gone it alone for some time. If schools had been supported by the Canada Council in exact proportion to the support given to their parent companies (a sensible policy, it seems to me), Mr. Brinson could have made fairer qua I itative assessment because no one school would be existing under a handicap. Furthermore the schools of the Toronto Dance Theatre, Anna Wyman Dancers, Contemporary Dancers of Winnipeg et al would be assisted as they should be. What is this penchant for "centre of excellence and guardian of standards"? This is not nineteenth century England. Even the Arts Council of Great Britain would no doubt choke on such language. Allow excellence to emerge in its own way. Council should not attempt to engineer excellence by artificial stimuli. A flower without a field is a hot house flower. I urge the Canada Council to rethink its position here. A large discrepancy is growing between Council's moral commitment to the regions and the way it is allocating funds. To some extent we are all victims of our own backgrounds. Mr. Brinson is assuredly a victim of his. Page one of his report immediately sets the tone . What could be more categorical than: "It takes 10 years to train a student to professional standard; another 10 to turn the young professional into a mature artist in a company. It takes at least 1O years, too, to establish firmly the foundations of a professional school; another 10 ( assuming firm foundations!) before that school begins to reveal its style and influence the professional theatre to any significant extent." more simplistic than: "Because of its international quality the National Ballet School should be considered the national centre of excellence and should receive Council support accordingly as a national institution . The establishment and recognition of such a national institution is the key to the development of professional training for classical ballet in Canada." or more patronizing than: "Because of the geography of Canada and the importance of sustaining local pride and interest in the development of professional ballet it is desirable to foster provincial centres of quality. The first two such centres might be the professional student program of The Royal Winnipeg Ballet and a two-year preprofessional course proposed by L 'Ecole S uperieure des Grands Ballets Canadiens." At first blush the report gives heart to every xenophobic Canadian in search of identity. It tells us that if we but follow the example of civilized Europe we too will attain magnificence. No reference is made to the cultural relationships with the United States, yet to many of our professional companies they have been extremely fruitful. Even the established ballet companies of Europe are looking to a Glenn Tetley, Murray Louis, Jerome Robbins, Louis Falco and even a Gene Kelly for their contemporary repertoires. If adherence to the great traditions compounded since Louis XIV produces a constipation of ideas so that Europe must look to the new world for catharsis, Canada will do well to study carefully the means of encouraging innovation while preserving European traditions . Mr. Brinson throws the mantle to the National Ballet School. "But it was the National Ballet School which drew most systematically upon the wealth of European experience. Essentially Cecchetti-based, which made it an inheritor of the Italian-Russian tradition, it added something a/so from the French Bournonville tradition in Copenhagen, and the Soviet Vaganova method in Leningrad as well as from Volkova, and current British practice in London. All this has been sifted and applied to physiques and temperaments found in Canada." Every school has the right to select the student type best suited to its chosen style. Mr. Brinson suggests that as Canada grows up it will develop a distinctively Canadian "physique and temperament" which will eventually justify a single dance method . One might refer to the English physique and temperament. One might also refer to the Russian physique and temperament. (I really wonder what the ballet schools of Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, and Tashkent would say of this.) As yet, we do not have a stereotyped Canadian , and federal policies on multiculturalism will certainly slow down the processes of homogenization. Even if Canada does achieve an identifiable physique and temperament, what is the cultural advantage? Presumably it would better facilitate the creation of corps des ballets to service nineteenth century classics. Mr. Brinson's credentials are impressive. He has firm principles and high ideals. He believes that certain truths concerning the training of a dancer and the development of an indigenous art form are inviolable. During his many visits to Canada over a span of five years he was able to hold his princip les intact. They did not change with his Canadian experience. The philosophies and policies of the National Ballet School are closest to the roots of Peter Brinson . He was obviously comfortable in that situation. Certainly he spent more time there than with the other two schools. So much time in fact that despite his reputation for fairmindedness the other schools could not but receive short shrift in this study. Worst of all, the sections of the Brinson report available to us lack clarity. The report written as it was by one person is inadequate and its research hasty. At best, it can only be regarded as support for a plan of action already launched by Council. If Council really uses it as informed 13 consultation on which to base policy, it is guilty of gross irrespons ibility. Is Mr. Brinson really recommending that the National Ballet School become the nation's one danse d'eco/e; to set, evaluate and police one method of classical dance? Does he also support the contention that the National Ballet School is not the school of The National Ballet, but the school for all of Canada? If so, he avoids saying that the National Ballet School then becomes the school for The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and, oh yes, The National Ballet of Canada, as well as all future classical companies. And if he really believes the classical code "is a system of phys ical education which enables the dancer to be expressive in every type of movement including 'contemporary' or 'modern dance' , he would seem to endorse the National Ballet School as the centre of everything that dances in Canada. The Canadian dance community will have to be crazy or asleep to accept this version of its future. Grant Strate Chairman Dance Department York University Betty Oliphant. Photo: Christopher Darling I am very happy to read the complimentary references to the National Ballet School, and to find expression of an approach to the education of dancers which is close to my own. This school does stress "with in a sound general education the special importance of niusic, painting and iiterature parallel with dancing". We recognize, as does Mr. Brinson, that ballet "is only interesting as a branch of theatre"; we know that we need to strengthen this aspect of our program, as of many other aspects, but resources are desperately limited. We hope that the effect of Mr. Brinson's report will be an increase in government and private support which will enable us to develop a richer artistic program while not sacrificing the vigour of our 14 technical training and of our study of the classics. Mr. Brinson makes it clear that such training is the basis not only for performance of the classical repertoire, "they offer you a base for invention, creation, and all the most revolutionary artistic departures". But Dance in Canada readers are probably more interested in our claim to be a national school in fact as well as in name, and in the recommendation that the School "should be considered the national centre of excellence and should receive Council support accordingly as a national institution". We had supposed that the Council did recognize us as "a national institution". We certainly consider ourselves to be such . But by confusion of names, and by some accidents of birth, we have been supposed by many to be an adjunct of The National Ballet Company. I cannot too vigorously insist that we are in reality completely autonomous. Our aim is to discover latent talent across the nation by auditions in many cities from coast to coast and to provide an opportunity for the development of that talent without reference to ability to pay. Our graduates are under no obligation, and indeed under no moral pressure, to join the National Ballet Company if invited. That many do is natural because of the number of openings, the familiarity with the company and with many of its members which contiguity develops, and the glowing success in the company of such graduates, many of t-hem relatively recent, as Veronica Tennant, Karen Kain, Nadia Potts, Frank Augustyn, to mention only a few. Our aim is to develop the special talents of each graduate, and to provide a training which is not specific to any one company but which enables them to adapt to the style of any good company. We would like them to find employment in Canada, and we would like them to be employed in classical ballet, but we accept the fact that some will find more appropriate employment in the United States, England and Europe, as have, for instance Martine van Hamel, David Walker, Murray Kilgour, Cheryl Liss, etc. We also accept the fact that some will turn to other forms of dance. We would like to see more of our graduates in The Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens; but this can only happen if the artistic directors of these companies see in our graduates the talent and the training that will make them valuable members of their companies. One last comment; let us not in a flurry of youthful nationalism weaken our ties with the "two big UK examining bodies" (the Royal Academy of Dancing and the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing). We have achieved much in the last quarter of a century; but we still need the strength which comes from being part of a great international artistic community. Our roots are deep in Western civilization; we must be careful not to damage them. Betty Oliphant Director and Principal The National Ballet School Winnipeg Ballet et des Grands Ballets Canadiens qui ont amene le developpement de la danse dans ce pays et de nous traiter en consequence. Certes, ii ya encore beaucoup a faire et nous sommes prets a nous atteler a la tache encore et encore si on voulait bien nous aider au lieu de nous envoyer, sans consultation ou explication prealab le, a l'ecole du Ba llet National que dirige madame Oliphant, dont je respecte la competence dans son propre milieu, milieu qui n'est cependant pas le n6tre. Arretons done d'opposer des obstacles au developpement des affaires culturelles et etablissons des liens qui permettraient une collaboration sa ine et benefique, pour le bien de !'evolution de la danse au pays. Ludmilla Chiriaeff Fondatrice Les Grands Ballets Canadiens Ludmilla Chiriaeff teaching at L 'Ecole Superieure. Photo: Pierre Gaudard II va sans dire que ma situation est delicate car ii s'agit entre autre de l'Ecole Superieure que j'ai fondee et dirigee depuis 1966 et que meme si j'ai toutes les raisons de prendre ombrage a certaines conclusions hatives et malhabiles du rapport, ce n'est evidemment pas sur ce plan que je veux repondre. L'enjeu est bien trop important et depasse de loin les personnes impliquees. De toute fac;:on, chacun a le droit a son opinion. Ce qui est important aujourd'hui, c'est que peut-etre ce rapport pourrait influencer (ou l'a deja fait) le Conseil des Arts du Canada a croire que c'est ainsi que devrait se batir l'enseignement du ballet au pays. La, je me dois de dire NON avec toute la force de mes convictions. Certes, nous nous sommes soumis avec espoir et resignation a l'examen que l'on nous a fait subir car nous avons accueilli avec reconnaissance ce que nous croyions etre une remise en question de la politique du Conseil des Arts face aux ecoles du Royal Winnipeg Ballet et des Grands Ballets Canadiens. Cela me rappelait, cependant, singulierement (et je ne devais pas etre le seule) une epreuve du meme genre en 1961 ou la survie du Royal Winnipeg Ballet et des Grands Ballets Canadiens etait en jeu car on avait decide en haut lieu qu ' une seule troupe de danse etait suffisante pour servir tout le pays. On avait alors pris la precaution d'engager trois juges pour faire le travail. On n'a jamais su exactement quel eta it le verdict de ces specialistes sinon que le Conseil des Arts a continue de subventionner le Royal Winnipeg et Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de fac;:on rtiguliere. Fernand Nault and Ludmilla Chiriaeff De toute fac;:on, je crois qu'il n'etait pas necessaire de faire la preuve que la danse au Canada a besoin d'au moins trois compagnies de ballet de notre envergure. 11 me semble egalement que l'on a pas besoin d'etre genial pour voir que ces compagnies de danse, avec toutes les troupes satellites qui se torment tousles jours, dans nqs regions importantes, (l'ouest du Canada et le Quebec) ont chacune besoin de leur propre ecole de danse dans leur esprit et leur style respectifs . J'ai lu le rapport de monsieur Peter Brinson, rec;:u par l'Ecole Superieure (dont je suis le directeur depuis un an et demi) concernant les methodes d'enseignement des trois principales ecoles de danse classique, mais me refuse a croire que le Conseil des Arts du Canada fondera l'aven ir de l'enseignement du ballet au pays sur cette seule et unique recommandation. L'avis d'autres maitres (internationalement reconnus) aurait ete bien differente. Ceci dit, permettez-moi d'ajouter que depu1s des annees et sans aucune aide du Conseil des Arts du Canada, nous avons produit des danseurs, professeurs, choreographes, maitres de ballet qui sont entres dans nos troupes et dans bien d'autres compagnies et ecoles, et y ont oeuvre avec succes. Aussi je crois qu'il serait juste de reconnaTtre cette contribution et tant d'autres du Royal Monsieur Brinson a une expertise quelque peu limitee au Royaume Uni ou ii a oeuvre comme ecrivain, historien, critique, conferencier et administrateur, mais jamais encore en tant que danseur ou pedagogue. J'ajoute aussi que monsieur Brinson se contredit a plusieurs reprises dans son texte meme et tellement que j'ai !'impression qu'il fouette plusieurs chats la fois, sauf l'ecole du Ballet a 15 N ational qu'il connaissait deja a fond pour y avoirtravaille pendant deux saisons. professeurs, etc.,que peut se permettre l'ecole du Ballet National. Que doit-on penser lorsque monsieur Brinson ecrit: Si le Conseil n'est pas conscient des dangers que represente, du point de vue culture! et geographique, le fait de mettre tous ses oeufs dans un meme panier, nous ne pouvons qu'esperer que tous ceux qui ont interet a preserver la diversite qui existe, au point de vue danse, a travers le pays, sauront faire connaltre au Conseil leurs ressentiments de fac;;on categorique et unanime. " In effect the Council already treats the National Ballet School as an institution of national significance, but has not explained to the dancing profession the cogent reasons for doing so. This has led to much jealousy and misunderstanding. Hence it is necessary to end at all costs in the provinces the present misunderstanding of the National Ballet School and the Council's policy towards it. Does the Council in fact have a policy? ff not it should enunciate it, followed by a vigorous campaign of explanation and public relations. The aim of such a campaign should be to show how professional training for classical ballet in Canada can become one system to the benefit of all with the National Ballet School setting the national standards in close relationship with provincial centres." Fernand Nault Directeur de l'Academie et de !'Ecole Superieure des Grands Ballets Canadiens et que l'on retrouve a la page 219 de son livre Ballet for all (ecrit avec Clement Crisp) une contradiction directe avec les vues exprimees dans son rapport: " Classical ballet has always made itself sympathetic to the national characteristics of the countries into which it has been introduced. It has been able to incorporate elements and personality traits of each of its host countries so that one can speak of English, Russian, American or French ballet and know that while they share a common vocabulary of steps each nation has bent the form to the shape . most suitable to them temperamentally. It is one of the wonders of ballet, this supremely adaptable nature which can partake of local coloration and yet retain the core of a shared common heritage. The blend of classic and modern dance elements which is emerging in the United States is, unquestionably, another phase in the perpetual dialogue between classic dance and indigenous dance forms." David Moroni. Photo: Gerry Cairns Aussi lit-on dans son rapport la declaration suivante: "ft takes at least 10 years, too, to establish firmly the foundations of a professional school;· another 10 ( assuming firm foundations) before that school begins to reveal its style and influence the professional theatre to any significant extent." Monsieur Brinson rappelle aussi que la formation d'un danseur classique prend dix ans. La-dessus nous sommes tout a fait d'accord. Je me demande alors· pourquoi monsieur Brinson a accepte de porter un jugement sur !'Ecole Superieure de Danse des Grands Ballets Canadiens (non subventionne alors par le Conseil des Arts) quand celle-ci, au moment de sa visite, n'existait que depuis huit annees. Dernierement, en decembre 1975, monsieur Timothy Porteous annonc;;ait une augmentation de la subvention accordee a l'ecole du Ballet National, laquelle passa it de $300,000 a $600 ,000. Au meme moment, le Conseil offrait, pour la toute premiere fois, a l'ecole du Royal Winnipeg et a !'Ecole Superieure des Grands Ballets Canadiens une somme de $10,000 chacun. Aussi longtemps qu'une telle disparite subsistera entre l'ecole du Ballet National et ces deux ecoles, ii sera impossible que l'ecole du Royal Winnipeg et celle des Grands Ballets Canadiens puissent offrir les memes avantages, services, bourses aux etudiants, salaires aux 16 Brinson did not fully understand my plan of action at the beginning. I have always felt one must establish a structure first. We wanted to establish a seven-year system in hopes that the talent will increase. At the time he was here, we only had a limited level to begin with. Winnipeg being where it is, and finances being what they are, we could only draw our students from the city, not from the outlying communities; just as the National Ballet School at the beginning could not attract the talent they can now. But nobody then said 'don't try' because the standard was not high enough. We are still laying foundations. But we are not ignorant. We know certain bodies will not be dancers, that they will be weeded out. Should I ignore a system, a structure, because of this? The Canada Council has supported other things just to help them get off the ground . What is wrong with doing that in Winnipeg? The competition, if there were schools in Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and even Vancouver, would be all to the good. After all, we are not swindling people to establish another school. We are trying to add to our cultural heritage. Moscow and Leningrad are quite different as schools and styles, but they do exist and are both state-supported. We are trying to create a different atmosphere, an alternative, here. Some people cannot survive in the atmosphere of the National Ballet School. One young girl was rejected by the National Ballet School, and here, finding the atmosphere to her liking, she has settled in and developed; she's blossoming and will soon become a member of the company. Were National Ballet School graduates to come here, they would have to undergo a change in style, become more versatile. In any case, having young people here, understanding the company, its values and style, is valuable to the company as well. When we have to supplement the company, the dancers are here already being nurtured . I'm concerned as to when a dancer is a product of a school, anyway. We say, as the National does, that the o nly training of worth was done here. And 80 per cent of the members of the company in the last two years have gone through the scholarship division. Standards are increasing there. The dancers who went into the company t his year are better than those who went in at first. We'd li ke to do things to increase those standards - guest teachers, better facilities, etc. - but we simp ly lack the fu nds. We can't prove anything without the money; but we c an't get that money. So where the National Ballet School has the cream of the crop, we are limited to picking dancers from Winnipeg who are out of high school and al ready mature. The British standard is what Peter Brinson knows and the National Ballet School corresponds to that. But should all companies be The Royal Ballet? And should we be the National Ballet School? There are three schools here now and we should be as proud of them as we are of the three companies. We didn't invent ballet in Winnipeg . We've t aken our system from some guest teachers, companies, Cecchetti, from Volkova . It's the physical means we want, not artistic direction. The professional program was draining the resources of t he general school. Now we are on our own . We were ask ing for $20,000 to help. When you consider individuals can receive up to $6,000 from Council, it makes you w onder why we are having trouble getting another $10,000 for a whole school. David Moroni Director Scholarship Prog ram School of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet I became a board member of Dance in Canada because of its very important title. As director of The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, I've always been interested in the company first, but also in our relationship to dance in Canada, in the U.S . an d the world. My outlook, an open one, encompasses every aspect of the art of dance. If one wants to do the best for The Royal Winnipeg Ballet as I do, one has to draw fro m all sources . My feeding ground is the world: I had to go to Russia, Denmark, London and New York as well as other cities that offered ot_her styles of dance. Arnold Spohr T he U.S . would be a desert of dance without American Ballet Theatre, Robert Joffrey, Martha Graham , etc. Who is to say who the companies of the future_ shou ld be? If they give something of great value, then companies should be encouraged. Art is a growing , progressive activi ty which should be allowed to flower in its prope r time and place. The school situation we are concerned with is similar. Every academy will produce people in its own distinct way . Everyone should be allowed to have this privilege. Our company is fed from our school, and from t he Banff Centre School of Fine Arts. As an individual I have my own characteristics , standards, opinions, style and my own creative ends. No one should impose his style and priorities on anyone else. Arnold Spohr Artistic Director Royal Winnipeg Ballet Because of the classical basis I wanted for our school, I ent to the foremost institutions and top teachers. It was my decision that instigated the work that culminated in the sc hool of The Royal Winnipeg Ballet under Mr. Moroni. It as needed to fulfill what I required for the company. On ce you have found the answer that works for you , you ave found your roots and you grow from this soil. If, as would have been the case in 1961, only one co mpany remained in th is country, it certainly would not e representative of Canada. The three ballet companies i Canada now do represent the country in their very nique, very personal way. Art is an individual thing and o one should put a stamp on it. 17 Dance in Canada 1984 Dam'e Celia Franca once again has been drawn out of retirement to resume artistic direction of the company she founded in 1951 under the name of The National Ballet of Canada, now known officially as the State Ballet (Canada Council Edict No. 1066). This is the seventh time Miss Franca has returned to save the company after the resignation during the last 1O years of a series of artistic directors: Alexander Grant O.B.E., Dame Peggy Van Praagh, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Dame Antoinette Sibley, Sir John Percival and Sir Michael Crabb. Dame Celia immediately announced that this fall Natalia Makarova would revise Baryshnikov's rev ision of Bruh n's revis ion of Swan Lake and in the spring Panov wil l revise Bruhn's revision of Nureyev's revision of Sleeping Beauty. To save money, Miss Franca herself will revise Makarova's revision of Baryshnikov's revision of Bruhn's revision of the original Franca version of The Nutcracker. In a surprise move announced in London today, John Fraser, dance critic of the London Times, the New York Times & Le Monde, has resigned his Canadian citizenship. This wi ll enable him to be knighted by King Charles next week for his work with retarded choreographers . In becoming a knighted British citizen Sir John Fraser thus becomes the first Canadian eligible to be nominated artistic director of the State Ballet. M iss Franca, telephoned at the headquarters of the State Ba llet in the new IBM Building in Toronto, refused comment. Arnold Spohr, for several decades art ist ic director of the former Royal Winnipeg Ballet, now the Flin Flon Ballet (C.C. Edict No. 3445) d ied recently from overwo rk. He was buried in an old Royal Winnipeg Ballet tou ring bus in a moving ceremony attended by many generations of friends and dancers. The Flin Flon Bal let, for t he last 10 years allowed only to dance in northern Man itoba and South America (C .C. Edict No. 4058 designed to elim inate the word Royal and to protect the major Canad ian ci ties from artistic impurities) continues to tour triumphantly and was last reported somewhere in Argent ina. Director of the State Ballet School, Lord Peter Brinson, announced an increase in the School's annual grant from the Canada Council. "It is with some pride" he said " that we accept an additionai $2 ,000,000 bringing the total grant in 1984 to $8,000,000". Thus the State Ballet School is now receiving double the grant of the State Ballet. "This is as it should be" , he added, "for the State Ballet School, offering simultaneously classical ballet and psych iatric care, now supplies dancers world-wide". In a recent sales campaign advertising their product the State Ballet School placed coupons in a variety of dance magazines of 18 many countries. The response was extraordinary. Coupons specifying age, sex , height, weight mailed before Friday from anywhere in the world are immediately processed : dancers, including any number of exact replicas up to 12, arrive Monday. Lord Brinson regrets that the school can supply only a limited number of French Canadians, but the C.C .- Edict No. 4557 prohibiting any . Quebec chi ldren once trained in Toronto from returning to Quebec should help to remedy that situation . The Toronto Dance Theatre, due to change its name next week (in response to C.C. Edict No. 7999 prohibiting any but the State Ballet to dance in Toronto) has been left the rights to all of Martha Graham's works in her recently probated wil l. Somewhat confused by this sudden turn , the Oakville Dance Theatre is taking a year off to reconsider its position. The Petit Ballet Quebecois (formerly Les Grands Ballets Canadiens but obliged by C.C . Edict No. 8989 prohibiting any but the State Ballet to have more than 12 dancers or to claim to be Canadian) is now again under the direction of Fernand Nault, Brian Macdonald having recently defected to Russia in search of his identity. Mr. Nault announced immediately that he wil l choreograph a new ballet for the fifteenth anniversary of the October revolution, Flames of Montreal, designed as a companion piece to the French Canadian classic Tommy, now nearing its 4,000th performance. Madame Ludmilla Chiriaeff has announced the successful formation of yet another branch of L'Academie of Les Petits Ballets Quebecois in northern Labrador, and adds that she is pained by the recent C.C. Edict No. 10484 that although l'Ecole Superieure is supported by the Quebec Ministry of Culture, and has 24,000 students it nevertheless does not meet the standards of the Betty Oliphant System of Selection (BOSS) and therefore doesn't exist. The Yo rk University Dance Theatre under the direction of Grant Strate & Susan Cohen continues its underground and subversive existence. Obliged by C.C. Edict No. 556640 to travel only on foot and to perform only in high school audito riums only to the music of Canadian composers, it somehow continues to gain audience and unfortunately has become a rallying point for the natives. Brian Macdonald Artistic Director Les Grands Ballets Canadiens Valery and Galina Panov, guests at the Royal Winnipeg Noticeboard People On The Move ••• • Danny Grossman, formerly a principal with the Pau·1Taylor company in New York and currently teaching in Toronto, spent some time in Regina choreographing for th e Regina Modern Dance Workshop and teaching class . Two of his pieces, Inching and Fanfare, were part of their December season at the Globe Theatre. Grossman also took part in the Halifax Dance Co-op's Christmas workshop, teaching modern • • • • Jamie Zagoudakis, co-director of Prism Dance Theatre, was in Edmonton before Christmas choreographing a work for the Alberta Ballet Company • • • • Norbert Vesak, a Canadian with works in the repertoire of the National Ballet, the Contemporary Dancers of Winnipeg and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, has been asked to choreograph for the City Center Jaffrey Ballet and to direct two operas for New York City Opera • • • • Brian Macdonald, whose Time Out Of Mind and The Shining People of Leonard Cohen were seen on CBC's Musicamera, January 28, was in Cuba during January mounting Time Out of Mind for Alicia Alonso's company • • • • Michael O'Gorman of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School has been accepted into the London Festival Ballet • • • • Barry Smith, who received 19 a Canada Council arts grant this year to study in New york, appeared with the Martha Graham Dance Company in their Broadway winter season • • • • Mexican Gerardo Avila, teaching at the Dancenergy Studio in Victoria, B.C., gave concerts at the Victoria Art Gallery Open Space in October. He gave further performances in January and February at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Planetarium, and the Burnaby Arts Centre • • • • Valery and Galina Panov performed as guest artists with The Royal Winnipeg Ballet during its special Christmas s~ow, December 26 to 30. On the same program was Dianne Bell, who left The Royal Winnipeg Ballet to join the Berlin State Opera. She was partnered by Klaus Beelitz in Norbert Vesak's new dance, Once for the Birth • ••• David Best, British philosopher and author of Expression in Movement and the Arts, returned to Canada in October and November for a three-week lecture tour in Ontario universities. Best had first visited Canada for the Dance in Canada conference in Edmonton last June. The Ontario CAHPER Dance Committee sponsored a special weekend seminar dealing with the application of his theories to dance • • • • Peter Brinson is now chairman of the National Study on Dance Education in Britain be ing undertaken by the Gulbenkian Foundation • • • • Peter Boneham takes off for Saskatchewan shortly to work for the Regina Modern Dance Workshop. • • • • A number of individuals were awarded Canada Council grants for various projects in the latest round of arts grants competitions . The award is worth $6,000 and travel expenses. Sean Boutilier, from Brampton, Ontario, will take a year at the National Ballet School and Evelyn Hart, from Dorchester, Ontario, will study with David Moroni in the last year of The Royal Winnipeg Ballet's scholarship program. Marie-Jose Robinson, from Montreal, will study at a variety of New York dance schools. Two interesting grants go to John Chapman, of Downsview, Ontario, to research the Romantic period in Britain, specifically, British and French nineteenth century ballet, and to Peter Sever, of Toronto, to research cultural policy and administration in several societies. Robin Colyer gets her grant to study choreology • • • • Celia Franca, the founder and former artistic director of the National Ballet, got a senior arts grant of $15,000 from the Council to write a history of the company and her memoirs Two Explorations grants go to David Drum and Judy Jarvis, both of Toronto. Drum, a chiropracter, received $4,000 to enable him to research the application of bio-mechanica l principles to the training of dancers; Jarvis, 1974 Chalmers Award winner will use her $2,000 for new dance and theatre productions'. Federal Funds For Companies Company Saved • • • • The Island Dance Ensemble, a new modern dance group from Charlottetown, received a $5,000 Canada Council Explorations grant this year. The artistic director of the six-member group is Blaine Vany, who has wide experience in ballet and modern dance. With the funds, the company hopes to undertake programs in movement education in the school system, special programs, as well as performances in local galleries • • • • Another Ca~ada Council Explorations grant of $4,500 went to the Hahfax Dance Co-op. The grant will be used to organize dance workshops under professional teachers and choreographers throughout Nova Scotia • • • • Vortex a Toronto group, was awarded $2,268 from Explorations t~ make a colour film exploring man's relationship to space • • • • Le Theatre du Bonhomme Sept-heure of Montreal received $5,000 from Explorations to produce theatre experiments combining dance, acrobatics, mime and music • • • • The Regina Modern Dance Workshop has ~ad a _number of grants from various sources th is year, including $8,000 from the Canada Council for spring p~rformanc~s, and $31,000 from the L.I.P. program which will help maintain RMDW dancers on salary for 23 weeks • • • • Prism Dance Theatre, under Jamie Zagoudakis and Gisa C<;>le, won a Canada Council project grant of $7,500 for their spr~ng performances • ••• The University of New Brunswick Dance Theatre performed three times in Fredericton, St. John, and Moncton, as part of the New Brunswick Women's Art Festival • • • • With the $5 000 project cost grant Tournesol got from the Ca~ada Council, the company was able to hire Jennifer Munro as manager to co-ordinate their cross-Canada tour. •• •• The Alberta Ballet Company made an appeal to the provincial government for funds to keep the company afloat this year. Their appeal was answered by the cabinet's agreement to a $50,000 bank loan, announced by Horst A. Schmid, Minister of Culture for the province. •• •• Ballet Vs requires male and female dancers of soloist calibre with a strong ballet technique and some experience in modern dance. Applications, including photos and references, should be sent to the Directors, Ballet Ys of Canada, 366 Adelaide St. E., Toronto • • • • The Mountain Dance Theatre has a position vacant for a business manager; if interested, address all correspondence to 6450 Gilpin St., Burnaby 2, British Columbia. Boost To National Ballet School Clowning Around • • • • Encouraged by the Peter Brinson Report, the Canada Council has almost doubled its grant to the National Ballet School. Last year, the school received $320,000; this year, the grant went up to $600,000. • •• • The Theatre Resource Centre,. a new space recently opened in Ottawa, organized a two-year actor's training program which began in September. The TRC program includes workshops in mime, clowning, and 20 Council Awards Individual Grants Encouraging Choreographers • • • •. 1:h~ Ontario Arts Council is now offering grants to allow ind1v1dual choreographers to pursue projects they would not otherwise be able to complete, announced Charlotte Holmes, theatre and dance officer of the Council. $15,000 has been set aside this year and it is h~ped this amount will double next year. Individual grants will not exceed $3,000. Applications will be judged by a selection jury. Deadlines for applications are January 1, March 1, May 1, and August 1. For further information and application forms, write to the Ontario Arts Council. Positions Open Entre Six performs Pierre et le Loup dance. Ellen Pierce and Linda Rabin are leading the dance workshops which began on February 8 and continue until April 30. The 3-month program includes modern dance technique with elements of ballet, dance improvisation and compos ition, choreography and dance production. It also includes mask work, colour exploration, kinetics, voice, clowning and concentration in focus techniques such as juggling, unicycling and tight rope. For further information, write Linda Rabin, c/o Theatre Resource Centre, 222 Breezehill St., Ottawa, Ontario K1 Y 4N2. (613) 722-2889 • • • • The Centre of Movement in Toronto is offering an intensive spring dance course for 6 weeks (May and June, 1976) with classes in body alignment, integration movement, joy of moving, beginning and intermediate dance, improvisation and composition, mime, juggling, circus and theatre arts. The course is open to children and adults. It will be taught by Ruth Bernard (dance therapist with a background in dance, gestalt patterning and rolfing), Frau Til Thiele (former director of the Mary Wigman School in Berlin, and teacher of mime for Berthold Brecht) and Ripple Jackson (juggler, mime and circus artist) as well as guest artists. For information , write to the Centre of Movement, 121 Avenue Road, Toronto . New Theatre Opens ••• • David Y.H. Lui, member of the board of Dance in Canada, has opened a new theatre in Vancouver with a gala evening of music and dance featuring Louise McNaughton and Craig Sterling of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. The theatre, which seats 325, is the only privately ow ned and operated theatre in Western Canada. Lui plans t o present five of his own productions each year. Photo Study • • • • Christopher Darling, a Toronto photographer, put together a 27-minute slide presentation which tells t he story of Coppe/ia and shows how the National Ballet assembled its production . The educational presentation was designed specifically for school children (grades4-8) but is also interesting for older children and adults. Christopher Darling is available to show and discuss his presentation, or interested parties can consider buying the complete package for educational purposes. For further information, phone (416) 922-6818. Association Activities ••• • A regional Dance in Canada Committee was recently organized in British Columbia with Gisa Cole as chairman. They hope to establish a number of services such as providing information on available grants, lists of publicity outlets, making the Dance in Canada newsletter more available and creating a forum for discussion of local and national dance issues • • • • The Vancouver Ballet Society is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 1976. Recently it has sponsored visits by Janet Sasson of San Francisco, and Lois Smith. A ten-day Spring Ballet Sem inar to be headed by Frank Bourman, ballet master of The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, is in the works. The Society publishes a 20-page newsletter and anyone interested in joining and receiving the newsletter should write to the Vancouver Ballet Society, 1308 West 37th Avenue, Vancouver, V6M 1M2 • • • • The University of British 21 Contemporary Dancers in The Gift to be Simple. Photo: J. Coleman Fletcher Columbia Dance Club sponsored an intensive study session with Linda Rabin this winter. Another recent guest was Won Kyung Cho who gave a performance and classes in Korean classical dance. They are currently offering modern classes taught by Drelene Gibbs, and ballet classes by Karin Burak. From April 19 to 25, a workshop in Doris Humphrey reconstruction with Janet Descutner of the University of Oregon will take place • • • • There has been a great deal of activity at the Halifax Dance Coop this year. Master classes with Murray Louis, Le Groupe de la Place Royale, and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens have been held, with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the Contemporary Dancers of Winnipeg still to come. Through the Outreach program, Blaine Vany from Charlottetown has been teaching classes. A workshop was held at Christmas and another will be held in the spring . There are two scholarships of $100 each available to help students attend the spring workshop, and the Coop will also help pay the travel expenses of students·who wish to attend master classes. During the Chance to Dance program this July, classes will be held simultaneously in Halifax and Wolfville, while a Workshop on Wheels tours the province. News From the Schools • • •• 22 A number of interesting guests have visited York University's Dance Department lately: Selma Jeanne Cohen, editor of Dance Perspectives; Ruth Priddle, who is researching creativity in dancers; Deborah Jowitt, performer, choreographer and dance writer for the Village Voice; and Elaine Siegel, a dance therapist. Guests still t6 come: Don Hewitt to teach ballet, Helen McGehee to teach modern, and Michael Crabb, dance editor of Performing Arts in Canada. Master classes will be held with Entre-Six (March 8) and LarLubovitch (February24). A student workshop is scheduled for March 1 and the • •• • spring student concert will be held April 8 to 10 Master classes are also being planned at Simon Fraser University with Entre-Six (February 11) and members of the Martha Graham Dance Company (April 1). The annual Dance Workshop production, directed by Iris Garland, will be held on March 19 and 20. Karen Rimmer and Savannah Walling , both of whom teach at S.F.U ., will be presenting new works at that time . From May 31 to June 25, an intensive dance residency program is planned. Judy Jarvis and Danny Grossman will be guest teachers. New Works And Seasons • • • • The University of New Brunswick Dance Theatre gave its annual season at the Fredericton Playhouse Theatre in February. During March, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens wi ll be presenting the program Hommage a Pierre Mercure in Montreal, with new ballets by Fernand Nault, Ludmilla Chiriaeff and Brian Macdonald, as well as a work by George Balanchine • • • • Lawrence Gradus, artistic director of Entre-Six, tried his hand for the first time at creating works for children during the Christmas holiday program: Claire de Lune, Feu d'artifices, Le Danube bleu (a confrontation between two monkeys) and Grad us' own Pierre et le loup. The company has expanded its repertoire with Vladivostok by Andrea Smith, a York University graduate now dancing with the Louis Falco Company in the United States. Entre-Six toured Western Canada from mid-January until the end of February • • • • Both Peter Boneham and Jean-Pierre Perrault, co-artistic directors of Le Groupe de la Place Royale, offered new works during the company's Montreal season (Jan. 14-24) at the Centaur Theatre. Boneham did Une Studebaker pour Jimmy and Perrault, 100,000 Signes. Le Groupe toured Ontario in February • • • • Les Ballets Jazz, performing in various centres in Quebec during January and February, begins a tour of the western provinces in March . Eva von Gencsy's Up There and Jazz Sonata, Richard Jones' Homage a Duke and Alain Ferrier's Syncop will be presented • • • • On February 21, Le Groupe Nouvelle Aire held a studio performance giving new works by Edward Lock and I ro Tembeck as wel I as pieces by actors, comedians and musicians. In a conscious effort to lighten their repertoire, the Toronto Dance Theatre produced La Belle Epoque de Paris, a cabaret-style entertainment with music, dance, wine and cheese, at Toronto's St. Lawrence Hall for one week in January. David Earle created a new version of Parade for the occasion. Parade was originally choreographed in 1917 in a landmark production by Massine to the score by Satie. TOT gave a second Toronto season at the MacMillan Theatre in February, showing Legend, The Reprieve and L'Assassin Menace. In late April, TOT holds a third Toronto engagement again at the MacMillan. Also in the offing are a mini-tour of southwestern Ontario and possibly a two-week residency at the University of Western Ontario • • • • The National Ballet of Canada opened its spring season at the O'Keefe Centre February 7. During the four weeks there, the company is mainly performing pieces from previous seasons. The only additions to the repertoire this year are Rudi van Dantzig's Monument to a Dead Boy and Kisses, by National dancer Ann Ditchburn. • • • • Fifteen Dance Laboratorium, "Under New Management" (i.e. in the hands of Elizabeth Chitty and Susan Aaron) from December 18 until January 17, will host a great deal of activity in the next few months. A number of individual choreographers will use the facilities to present works, among them Grant Stitt and Janice Hladki, Terrill Maguire, Patricia White, Elizabeth Chitty, Carolyn Schaffer, Martha Bell, Barbara Zacconi, as well as the Rinmon and Tournesol companies • • • • The Marijan Bayer Dance Company will perform in several Ontario centres in April and May. A new piece, Scythian Suite, is in the works. The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, now on a nine-week tour through the United States and Eastern Canada, won't actually return to give a Winnipeg season until late April. A work mounted by George Garcia, Paquita, has been • • • • The added to the company's repertoire Contemporary Dancers of Winnipeg always break their home season into segments. They gave the second in January at the Playhouse Theatre and then embarked on a tour of Eastern Canada ending in mid-February. Several new works were given: Five Cameos, by artistic director Rache l Browne, Fragments from a Distant Past by Norman Morrice (the visit of the former artistic director of Ballet Rambert was made possible by a grant from London's Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation) and The Angel Within and The Gift to be Simple, both by Norbert Vesak. The company's long-range plans include outdoor performances in a summer series, Dance in the Parks, sponsored by the city of Winnipeg • • • • The Regina Modern Dance Workshop gave a program of improvisations and works in progress last November at the Mackenzie Art Gallery of the University of Did You Know That ..... 15 Dance Laboratorium Is The Only Dance Theatre In Canada! It Is Available To Dancers To Choreograph And Perform Write · Phone · Visit 15 · ISSA George St. Toronto MSA ZM8 416 · 869·1589 DANCE INTO SUMMER 76 at the Elliot Lake Centre d'Elliot Lake Eleventh Annual Summer School of the Arts 28 June - 13 August an interdisciplinary approach to MUSIC, DANCE, and the ARTS Our dance program is designed for the serious student and includes: Ballet (including R.A.D. syllabus) Modern Character Jazz Variations Music BARBARA COOK, A.R.A.D., A.T.C. and staff For Detailed Information Write: The Director, Elliot Lake Centre 180 Mississauga, Elliot Lake.Ontario 23 Saskatchewan in Regina (not in Saskatoon as previously stated by Dance in Canada); in December, they gave a circus-style performance at the Globe Theatre, Regina. Spring plans involve a three-week tour of the province in April and a May performance in Regina • • • • Several new pieces have been added to the repertoire of the Saskatchewan Dance Theatre: Passage and Elegy, both by Larry McKinnon, The Dancing Master, by John Wilkins, Walkabout, an improvisational piece by Sallie Lyons and Metallics by Paul Sanasardo. The company has been busy performing in both Saskatchewan and Alberta, and giving lecture-demonstrations in schools. The Pacific Ballet Theatre performed January 22 at Simon Fraser University and are scheduled to appear again, this time at the Queen Elizabeth Playhouse in April • • • • The Vancouver East Cultural Centre is showing itself, as usual, to be tremendously hospitable to dance: The Evelyn Roth Moving Dance Sculpture Company appeared there on November 23; Mountain Dance Theatre on January 13 and 14; and the Paula Ross Dance Company from February 25 to 29 • • • • An informal dance program, a collage of contemporary dancers and students in Vancouver, was given at the University of British Columbia on December 2 and 3 • • • • Tournesol performed February 21 at the Centennial Arts Centre in Surrey. They also recently conducted a special·weekend workshop at the Burnaby Arts Centre called Dance: Its Meanings and Origins. In April, they set out on their first cross-country tour· The Anna Wyman Dance Theatre, having completed a seven-week tour of British Columbia, set out on January 29 for a tour of the northwest United States which finishes March 4. In June, the company performs at the Theatre of the Riverside Church, New York and in mid-July they give a week of performances in London, England. The Royal Winnipeg Ballet in Hands ~-Schedule of Coming Events-......... The engagements listed below are only those which were confirmed at the time of printing. For other performances in your area, and for theatres and times, please check your local listings. • Nova Scotia • Halifax Sydney Yarmouth March 29 March 31-Apri l 2 May 17, 18 April 3 March 30 Royal Winnipeg Royal Winnipeg Tournesol Royal Winnipeg Royal Winnipeg Ballet Ballet Ballet Ballet • New Brunswick • Sackville March 23, 24 May 14, 15 March 25 Charlottetown March 26-28 Fredericton Royal Winnipeg Ballet Tournesol Royal Winnipeg Ballet • Prince Edward Island • 24 Royal Winnipeg Ballet • Newfoundland • Cornerbrook Grand Falls St. John's Stephenville April April April April 7 8 9-11 4-6 Montreal March 19, 20, 25-28 March 25 May 6-10 March 16-18 April 1-3 Royal Royal Royal Royal Winnipeg Winnipeg Winnipeg Winnipeg Ballet Ballet Ballet Ballet • Quebec • Quebec Les Grands Ballets Canadiens Groupe Nouvelle Aire Tournesol National Ballet of Canada Les Grands Ballets Canadiens • Ontario • Barrie Chatham Kitchener London Ottawa Strathroy Tillson burg Toronto May 2 March 16 April 19 March 14, April 9, 10 April 30 March 11-14 April 3 March 15 March 13 March 3-6 March 3-6 March 18-20 April 1-3 April 7-10 April 8-10 April 25-May 1 April 22 April 28-May 1 Marijan Bayer Dance Company Toronto Dance Theatre Marijan Bayer Dance Company Toronto Dance Theatre Marijan Bayer Dance Company National Ballet of Canada Les Baliets Jazz Toronto Dance Theatre Toronto Dance Theatre National Ballet of Canada Elizabeth Chitty Carolyn Shaffer Martha Bell Barbara Zacconi York University Student Spring Concert Toronto Dance Theatre Marijan Bayer Dance Company Tournesol • Manitoba • St. Boniface Winnipeg April 10, 11 March 18-20 Tournesol Contemporary Dancers of Winnipeg • Saskatchewan • Regina Saskatoon March 18 April 16, 17 March 16 April 14, 15 Les Ballets Jazz Tournesol Les Ballets Jazz Tournesol • Alberta • Banff Calgary Edmonton March 8, 20 March 9, 10 April 7 March 12-14 April 3, 4 Les Ballets Jazz Les Ballets Jazz Tournesol Les Ballets Jazz Tournesol • British Columbia • Campbell River Comox Duncan Golden Kamloops Nanaimo Prince George Shawnigan Lake Ucuelet Vancouver Vernon Victoria March 14 March 13 March 6 March 31, April 1 March 22-24 March 10, 11 March 28, 29 March 7 March 12 March 29-30 April 25-27 April 30 May 15 March 25-26 April 1 Tournesol Tournesol Tournesol Tournesol Tournesol Tournesol Tournesol Tournesol Tournesol Les Ballets Jazz Vancouver Choreographers Pacific Ballet Theatre Mountain Dance Theatre Tournesol Les Ballets Jazz 25 modern dance unique energy technique using minimal muscular tension performing company being formed 625 yonge st toronto, ont 92'2 · 1771 sru,,, SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Centre for Communications and the Arts M Intensive Summer Dance Residency with Judy Jarvis and Danny Grossman A four week (Moy 31 - June 25 inclusive) intensive workshop in technique and composition on the Durnoby, Dritish Columbia, campus. The workshop runs from 9 om to 4 pm with opportunity for evening work and rehearsals. Further information and application forms may be obtained by writing to: Tony Besant, Workshop Coordinator, Centre for Communications and the Arts, Simon Fraser University, Durnaby, Dritish Columbia V5A 156. Deadline for applications: April 30, 1976. Successful applicants will be notified by moil posted on May 7, 1976. Lois Smith School 0f Dance Programme of the George Brown College of Applied Arts and Technol ogy 81 A Front Street East Toronto, Canada MSE 188 (416) 363-9945 AT BLUE MOUNTAINg~~~1~1~WOOD JULY 5 - AUGUST 14, '76 ballet • pointe • modern • jazz spanish • variations A residential programme for serious dance students aged 14 years and over, Elementary to Advanced levels. Facil ities include six large studios and an open air stage where students will perform with a symphony orchestra. A few partial scholarships available. FACULTY Lois Smith Former Prima Ballerina/ National Ballet of Canada Donald Himes Lucy Harrison Kenneth Lipitz Mary Neill Guest Teacher David Adams Royal Ballet, England SToronto 5chooI um2Pc}er In Once BRANKSOME HA LL JULY 5 - JULY 31 Professional Faculty - Kirov Method. :: .a a J ablokova-Vorps, Artistic Director, Mari Aslamazova. arc a Cross ey o and a Pascaluta-Giurgiu, Bernd Juche, Jon Rodriguez. Elena Z"l :ira~ eva :- rothy Carter - National Dances, James Colistro - Jazz Saffel Dance Curriculum Includes: : assi cal Ballet Techn ique, Pointe, Variations, Partnering. Charac er. ational ces, Jazz Ballet, Workshops And Adult Body Placement C lasses for Elementary, -~ermediate, Advance Students and Professionals. =E - Teachers Seminar. te rnationally Acc laimed Kirov Method ::s,s dence Accommodations For Students 10 Years Old And Up For Brochure Write To: O. Vo rps , General Manager, Toronto Summer School In Dance 5 Armou r Blvd., Toronto, Ont. M5M 3B9 T el.: (416) 489-7597 :.a -----------------------~ Ryerson Polytechnical Institute Theatre Department 50 Gould Street, Toronto MSB 1E8 Canadian College of Dance Summer School '76 Classical, National, Modern R.A.D. and I.S.T.D. Syllabi Jazz. Elementary to Advanced Teachers July 19th to 28th Students August 2nd to 20th A unique magazine - Dance Une revue unique in/ au Danse Canada a unique offer! une offre unique! 1 year subscription/Abonnement d'un an: $6.50 D 2 year subscription/Abonnement de 2 ans $12.00 D Li brari es/Bi bl i otheques: $10 .00 □ (please add $1 .00 for subscription outside Canada) (Priere d'ajouter $1 .00 pour les abonnements en dehors du Canada) N ame/ Norn ..... ....... . .. . .. ... .• . .... ... . . ..... .... .. , . Address/Adresse . , .. .. , . , . , .. ....... , . , ................ , Province ..... , .... ........ ... Postal Code Posta l .... , .. . Please find enclosed my cheque/ money order made payab le to Dance in Canada . D Veuillez trouver ci-inclus mon cheque/ mandat-poste, payable I a Danse au Canada. D I Please bill me/Veuillez me facturer O I I This magazine is included with membership in the Dance in Canada Association. I Cette revue est fournie gratuitement aux membres de I /'Association de la Danse au Canada. I Dance in/au Canada, 314 Jarvis Street, Suite 103, Toronto, Ontario MSB 2C5 Canada, Telephone (416) 368-4793 I I 27 Tournesol First Cross-Canada Tour! Spring, 1976 March 5 7 10 12 13 14 22-25 26 28,29 31 April 3, 4 7 10, 11 14, 15 16, 17 28,29,30 May 1 6, 10 14, 15 17, 18 20, 21 28 Victoria Shawnigan Lake Nanaimo Ucuelet Comox Campbell River Kamloops Vernon Prince George Golden Edmonton Calgary St-Boniface Saskatoon Regina Toronto Toronto Laval Fredericton Halifax Newfoundland Medicine Hat June 16-20 Vancouver Home Season! THE NATIONAL BALLEf OF CANADA Founder Celia Franca ~ O'KEEFE CENTRE .FEB.7-MAR.6 Vanessa Harwood Mary Jago Karen Kain Nadia Potts Veronica Tennant Frank Augustyn Gary Norman Tomas Schramek Sergiu Stefanschi Hazaros Surmeyan Monument for a Dead Boy Offenbach in the Underworld Kisses Don Juan La Sylphide For more information contact: Tournesol, Jennifer Munro 11387-128th Street Surrey, B.C. (604) 524-3052 Kettentanz Swan Lake Coppelia The Sleeping Beauty O'Keefe Centre (416) 363,6633 28 ~or-c: Q. ~ 0 :ii .,.. :g ,.!. alberta contemporary dance theatre P.O. Box 834, Edmonton, Alberta T5J 2L4 "C N CO .. - r,.. cu cu -II) > -<II 1 .! :: -r:::s C: II) ooal :ii Auditioning Male And Female Dancers For The 1976-1977 Season II) C0 r,.. II) * 8 Month Contract Extensive Performing Season In Western Canada Opportunities To Choreograph Send photo and resume before April 10, 1976 Artistic Directors: Jacqueline Ogg and Charlene Tarver Managing Director: Ronald Holgerson ONUP And find that item you've looked for everywhere else. Or just browse yourself silly in our brand new inventory of books that are all about the same things. Theatre and Dance! Upstairs at 659 Yonge St. Toronto M4Y 1Z9 (416) 922-7175 DANSKINS ARE FOR DANCINC '1t ~-. ">-,. ~· ..• ,., ,• ' PROFESSIONALS IN ANY FIELD DEMAND THE FINEST. AND DANSKIN HAS BEEN SERVING THE NEEDS OF PROFESSIONAL DANCERS FOR ALMOST A CENTURY. WE'VE BEEN KNITTING "STRETCH" TIGHTS AND LEOTARDS LONGER THAN ANYONE ELSE IN THE DANCE WORLD BECAUSE WE INVENTED THEM. THAT'S ONE OF THE REASONS DANSKIN IS THE NAME THAT PROFESSIONAL DANCERS CAN AND DO RELY ON. WRITE FOR ILLUSTRATED BROCHURE DC DANSKIN , INC., 1114 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10036 DANSK/NS

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