Dance in Canada Magazine Number 9, Summer 1976

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Dance in Canada Magazine Number 9, Summer 1976

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One copy of Dance in Canada Magazine Number 9, Summer 1976

Contains the following articles:
- Editorial by Susan Cohen
- Cuban Connection by Brian Macdonald
- Profile: Jean-Pierre Perreault A la découverte de la danse ballnaise by Suzanne Asselin
- Etoile de nuit by René Picard
- Paris: Tendances actuelles by Lise Brunel
- Studio Place: Toronto by Jennifer Oille
- Choreography and Music by Terrill Maguire
- In Review The Royal Ballet by Nancy Goldner
- Toronto Dance Theatre by Virginia Solomon
- Regina Modern Dance Workshop by Mac Swackhammer
- Noticeboard
- Letters from the Field
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Dance in Canada Magazine
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Choreography Royal Winnipeg Ballet Ballet Collaboration David Earle Peter Randazzo René Picard Susan Cohen Toronto Dance Theatre Modern Dance Brian Macdonald David Haber Fernand Nault Les Grands Ballets Canadiens Maria Formolo Marianne Livant Patricia Beatty Monique Michaud Les Grands Ballet Canadiens Music Brydon Paige Lawrence Adams Miriam Adams Nancy Goldner 15 Dance Laboratorium Royal Ballet Visus Foundation The Brinson Report Alicia Alonso Allan Risdill Bill Holahan Caroline Dudan Christian Trovillas David Davis David Langer David Watkins Elaine Rudnicki Everard Woods Frank Garoutte Gary Goodwin Iris Schmidt Jane Honor Janice Lebloud Jean-Pierre Perreault Jennifer Oille Linda Steams Lise Brunel Louis Horst Mac Swackhammer Michael Byron Kenneth Lipitz Muna Tseug Peter Boneham Robert Starer Sarah Pettitt Sir Frederick Ashton Suzanne Asselin Terrill Maguire Virginia Solomon Dance and Theatre Arts Calgary Society Les Grnads Ballets Canadiens Regina Modern Dance Works The Royal Ballet Young People's Theatre Dry Run Hot and Cold Heroes Hybrid Layers Nighthawks Quartet The Rainbox Dance Time out of Mind Visions for a Theatre of the MInd Performing Spaces Radio Staging
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01/07/1976
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Dance in Canada Magazine Number 9, Summer 1976
Dance Collection Danse

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107.2009-55-2084
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Editorial Susan Cohen Editor I Redactrice Far away places and strange-sounding names. This issue of Dance in Canada has taken that to heart by looking at the impact of some foreign cultures and figures on Canadian performers and writers. Brian Macdonald, artistic director of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, went to Cuba in January to mount Time out of Mind for the company there. The Cuban company has since toured the piece throughout Eastern Europe, with great success. Jean-Pierre Perreault, co-artistic director of Le Groupe de la Place Royale, went to the other end of the world, to Bali, to be precise. The island has always had a special pull on his imagination and Montreal writer, Suzanne Asselin, who makes her first appearance in our pages, questioned him in detail about his brief journey there. From Paris, Rene Picard talks about a dance subculture we sometimes forget and Lise Brunel examines some of the newest companies and outstanding modern figures in France today. Back home in Canada , dancer Te rrill Maguire takes a look at the collaboration of dance and music from the viewpoint of her own backg round and freelance writer Jennifer Oille considers Studio Place, an a bitious p lan for a dance comple x in Toronto w ic ra i to th e formidable barriers of politics and money. I e iew this issue are the Royal Ballet (Frederick As to choreography, A Month in the Country), he o Dance Theatre and the Regina Modern Da ce Wor s A reminder to our readers that Dance in Ca ada publishes for the moment in the lang uage of origi , French or English. We know you app rec iate the financial difficulties of complete bilingual presen tation of t e magazine and we can assure you we are sti ll try ing to fin funding in order to return to that format as soo n as possible.• Avez-vous deja reve " de erres lointaines et de noms aux resonnances et ranges"? Dans ce numero, Danse au Canada a pris ce reve a coeur et etu die !'i mpact que cree, chez les danseu rs et ecriva ins canadiens, certaines cultures et pe rsonnal ites et rangeres. Brian Macdonald, directeur art istique de la troupe Les Grands Ballets a C ba, en j anvier dernier, pour Canadiens, s'est ren monter Time Out of in avec la trou pe de ballet locale. Son article est ne des expe ie ces qu 'il a vecues la-bas. Depuis, la co mpagnie cuba in e a remp orte un vif succes avec cette piece au co rs d'une t ournee en Europe orientale. Jean -P ier e Pe reault, co-directeur artistique du Groupe de la lace o ale a voyage l'autre bout du monde, a Bali r e: re exact. Cette lie avait toujours gra ndeme n asci e son i ma gination et l'ecrivain montrealais St.za e ssel in, dont c'est la premiere apparitio da s os na es , le qu est ionne en detail su r sa breve visi e da s 1~ e. e Paris, Rene Picard nous parle d'un e sous-c · t.. e e la danse que nous neg ligeons ~e j e e u n reg ard sur quelques-unes nag ies de danse moderne et des e de la France d'aujourd'hui. De a-aca a a seuse Ter rill Maguire examine la a se et la musique, d'apres sa _,,. e- 0 :Jer-so elle. L'ecrivan pigiste Jennifer dio Place, cet ambitieux projet c - :: - - ex.e e a a sea oronto qui s'est heurte a des : ::Jes e· ' i anciers de taille. Notre Revue ::i Ja la plu s recente choregraphie de e e 3a .! , onth in th e Country), le Toronto a e - -ea·~e ,~ e =te_ i a odern Dance Workshop. a =- :::ie er a nos lecteurs que Danse au ~rs les artic les dans leur langue .... a g lais. Nous savons que vous e es financie rs que represente la compre ez es :::· pub licatio er: e·e=e-t ilin gue de notre revue et nous tenons a · ~sass ·e· e nous cherchons toujours les moyens e ,. a ce en qui nou s permettraient de retou rner le ol s 6 possible ace genre de publication.• SUMMER ETE 1976 Cuban Connection Brian Macdonald Editor/ Redactrice: Susan Cohen Profll: Jean-Pierre Perreault A la decouverte de la danse ballnalse Design/ Dessinateur: Page Publications Etolle de nuit Suzanne Asselin Rene Picard Paris: Tendances actuelles Lise Brunel Editorial Assistant: Deborah Surrett Studio Place: Toronto Jennifer Dille Choreography and Music Translator/Traduction: Louise Meilleur Terrill Maguire Advertising Representative: Gitta Levi In Review The Royal Ballet Nancy Goldner Toronto Dance Theatre Virginia Solomon Special Thanks to/ Sinceres remerciements The Ontario Arts Council The Canada Council a: Regina Modern Dance Workshop Mac Swackhammer Noticeboard Letters from the Field Cover/ Couverture: Photo by Barry McGee of Alicia Alonso, artistic director of the National Ballet of Cuba. 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 o f unsolicited material unless accompanied 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 ex primees dans les articles de cette publication ne sont pas obligatoirement celles de Danse au Canada. Le redaction n'assume aucune responsabilite quant au renvoi de materiel non solicite, a moins que celui-ci ne soit accompagne d'une enveloppe-reponse affranchie et adressee . Abonnement: $6.50 par an . Pri x 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 the individual contr ibutor and the Dance in Canada magazine. Tous drois reserves . II est defendu de reproduire toute partie de cette publication sans avoir prealablement obtenu le consentement ecrit de tout auteur et de la revue Danse au Canada. Dance in Canada: 314 Jarvis Street, Suite 103, Toronto, Ontario M58 2C5. ISSN 0317-9737 . (Brian Macdonald is artistic director of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. He describes here, with some excerpts from his journal, his trip to Cuba to mount a ballet for the National Ballet of Cuba.) When Prime Minister Trudeau's official visit to Cuba was announced last December, I immediately contacted a friend in the Department of External Affairs to ask if any kind of cultural exci1ange would coincide with what appeared to be amounting to a state visit. Yes, I was to ld. All systems go! I proposed mounting my ballet Time out of Mind for the National Ballet of Cuba whose artistic director was Alicia Alonso . Alicia Alonso: the body is unbelievable, her grandson is in the corps. Photo: Barry McGee . Several years ago my agent in Paris, who also represents Alonso and the Cuban company in Europe, suggested to me that the Cuban company , both in technique and temperament, would dance this ballet very well. Money became the immediate problem. The Cubans could pay for nothing outside of Cuba. I was unwilling to fly there at my own expense and work several weeks giving them the ballet. Now External was suddenly ready to make it happen. They would come up with the fee. While they started proceedings on an ambassadorial level, I wrote Alicia. At best a long shot. Christmas came, Nutcracker ad nauseum, and I went on planning the Homage to Pierre Mercure , our own next big program . Dec. 29/ 75: 7 a .m. "Hello! This is Aleeecia. When are you coming?" The line via Miami not clear though Alonso was. She wanted me there pronto. She will arrange the gala with Trudeau and Castro. Cuban dancers will be very happy. I will bring decor, no? Cuban government will pay hotel. Who would pay trip? We haggled as though in a flea market, screaming over the Miami static. O kay, okay, okay, I'll try. Better find out if External really wants to go through with it. External did. Time out of Mind danced by the Cubans, Kamouraska in a Havana cinema, concerts by Camerata, and an exhibition of hard-edge Canadian painting were the four elements of a cultural exchange to mark the occasion of Fidel and Pierre and Margaret's first contact. I bedevilled External and Air Canada for tickets, advice, details, schedules, possibilities, alternatives. Could I teach that complicated ballet in time? I asked Linda Stearns, our treasure of a ballet mistress, who knew the work, if she would go to Havana and get things started so that I could come later. My ballet master, Brydon Paige, fluent in Spanish, asked to go with her. We put together a care package of videotapes of the complete work, rehearsal and master tapes (did the Cubans have the same equipment; God help us if they didn 't!), 20 pairs of clean kneepads, a costume to be copied, diarrhea pills, trave ller's cheques, tickets via Miami and Kingston, Jamaica (only one flight a week) requested but not confirmed . A week passed with no news. Then, an early morning call from Brydon in Havana .. . rehearsals had been slow to start but were going well , tapes and video all worked, dancers were super especial ly the leads, Alicia very coope rative, blocking almost finished , home at the end of the week. I put half of Fernand Toupin 's decor in two cartons, tried desperately to get my reservations confirmed and managed to schedule an hour at the airport in Montreal with Linda and Brydon (arriving) and me (departing) . What a briefing! Linda had prepared cast lists, names and advice for every contingency. With any luck I should be 2 able to pull it off. Trudeau 's schedule hadn't been inal ized, but the gala was on and Alicia was confident. inda handed me the last of her pills. I left for Havana. Jan. 20/76: en route Kingston: beguiled Panam into not charging overweight for the damned decor. Love the suspension in time and air. Thoughts go high. Oxygen, maybe, or rum. Isolation. Time doubles or halts. I love it. What the hell do I know about Cuba? Hemingway, Castro, Lecuona. Rebels in the hills, pigs in the bay, missile crises. Cuban Varna winners, glowing reports of the company in Paris. Defections. Memories of Alicia dancing at the Royal Alex. 1951? Christ, I don't have a reservation from Kingston to Havana tonight. Next flight next week! More rum. El Consejo Nacional de Cultura y la Embajada de Canada En ocasion de la visita del Primer Ministro Pierre Elliott Trudeau y la senora de Tr udeau el honor de invitarle al estreno del ballet One carton broke in the Kingston airport. There wasn't anything else to do but tie my belt around it. The couple behind me in line were told there were no seats (did they w ait a week?). I boarded holding gifts for Alicia in one hand and my pants up in the other. "A distinguished Canadian choreographer arrived in Havana this evening to prepare one of his ballets for a gala in honour of the visit of Prime Minister Trudeau . ... " t ienen TI EMPO FUERA DE LA MEM ORIA coproduccion canadien se-cubana coreografia de Bryan Mac Donald interpretada par el Ballet Nacion al de Cuba Tenl ro G a rcia Lorca P r ado y San R a fa el Havana reminded me of Tel Aviv late at night: everyone at the airport shouted, security was very t ight, the Ministry of Culture's welcome was cordial and correct. It's a dark city, palm trees, boulevards full of every old car in the world sputtering and shaking and telling quite clearly of economic blockade. Uniforms everywhere. My assigned interpreter was a tough little charmer, Hortensia, fluent in French and English, and dictatorial. The Hotel Sevilla was all but dead, no toilet paper, no plugs, no hot water. Like Leningrad in '63. 27 de ene ro 1976 8:30 p.m. In vita tion to the National Ballet of Cuba's premiere of Tim eoutof Mind. Early the next morning to work. From the first moment at the studios, that extraordinary communion that takes place between dancers working together for the first time, but on the highest profess ional level, happened. My ballet had been completely set; Linda and Brydon had done their work well (I heard later that Linda had been carried around the room on the dancers' shoulders at the end of the last run-through). I changed details to suit them, but not much. The boys were very macho , with high jumps a// of them, good turns, big attack, effortlessly musical. The girls were too self-effacing . Time is a contest of hostilities and attractions. I worked to bring tr.c:se qualities out in the women though I knew I was asking them to go against a tradition and instincts hard to change. We sat on the floor, talking mostly in French as we did in rehearsals, and discussed the ballet thoroughly, my motives in choreographing it (I was raging at the world when I composed it in 1962, at sex and death and the loss of my beloved first wife) and how I wanted them to dance it - off-balance and daring, impatient and hard. I told them of the premiere in Leningrad in 1963 at the Maryinsky, of Larry Rhodes and Elizabeth Carroll , of how my own company danced it in Montreal, how elephants select a mating territory and how the shifts from animal to human instinct are dotted through the movement. I had a very warm and moving contact with the Cuban dancers during the next few days. We all tried to gain the most from that brief encounter and if there was more left to be said or done, I was unaware of it. Jan. 22/ 76: so to the big blue studio upstairs where Alonso was rehearsing (Cecilia Valdez, a new full-length ballet on a famous Cuban story and music) for premiere (hers) Sunday, playing a young girl. The body is lo ll tDJ ll :Jo 1. 5 fllir:3 . 7,o:,_ 1]0 l hr 30 "U>. :Jo <0 , 35 DJ Zl,DJ C Press Itinerary: the ballet was optional 3 unbelievable, taut and honed. Peering at herself in the mirror through her one good eye gives her the appearance of a seer. Feet workable . Dramatic focus astounding. More. Riveting. Lithe into and down from lifts. Old dog. Everyone very solicitous and respectful. She stopped after a few moments, welcomed me very correctly, thanked me for Time, was I pleased with the dancers, could she help me in any way? No? Then, back to work. I was told later she takes class from her daughter every morning at 8 a.m. before the company arrives and that her grandson has just been taken into the corps. My leading boy, Lazaro, had been trained as a teenager at the Kirov in Leningrad; there was mercury in his blood and t e kind of uncertainty in his eyes t hat bespeak insti cts barely un der control. His partner, Caridad, was a oga y, i h a c rew-cut like a marine but the smi le of e. T ey understood the mating game in a I loved them. pany schedule by asking for more 1 t off her holiday to Mexico so g night to g ive the light cues. el ed fl esh out the decor w ith 4 lighting tricks. I insisted on understudy rehearsals and had the costumes re-worked. The Cubans met me with patience each time and I began to feel confident that the premiere would be worthy of the occasion. The days moved quickly. I had a cassette of a Mercure piece I was to start on my return, and the score. I studied each night, restless to start a new work. One morning when the toilet wouldn't flush, I wrote "Bay of Pigs" on the bathroom door and asked for a new hotel. Hortensia managed. She gave me a political history pre- and postrevolution with real pride and not very many questions about life in Canada; I quickly found out we could exchange political opinions without the doubletalk the Russian interpreters use. Hortensia believed, and I began to see her country and its extraordinary progress through her eyes. The opening night grew closer. The Trudeaus arrived, I got caught up in rounds of official receptions, met Castro and talked to him with Pierre as interpreter. Trudeau made a tremendous impact in Cuba and I watched the Canadian press corps' resentment of it start to show itself. Castro's constant companion-goons undid some of the goodwill developing on both sides . When he invited Trudeau to a Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Time out of Mind. Photo: Andrew Oxenham . rendezvous in the mountains, Margaret went with them, finally not coming to the premiere. The large Canadian press contingent completely ignored the Camerata concerts and when Time was danced for the first time that night at the Garcia Lorca Theatre, all but three of them went instead to a local nightclub. I was disappointed, but so pleased with the quality of the Cubans' dancing that it barely mattered. Jan. 27/76: Premiere. Scattered audience of officials, the dancers were nervous, especially Lazaro, and were not as convincing as at dress rehearsal. I reassured them. Don't race. Stay in control. Make every movement clear. Hang on to the dramatic focus through every lift or pirouette. Be antagonists. Let it all hang out. We only got an ovation, I said facetiously, is that usual? Wait for the Cuban public, they said, not officials, wait for tomorrow. Cuban balletomanes are unbelievable, shouting to the dancers when they bow, applauding tricks shamelessly, prolonging their favourites' curtain calls in any way possible. On our second night they pulled out all the stops and for a while I thought they would only be content if they could carry the dancers out into the streets of Havana with them. "See," Lazaro said, "that is our real public!" So the National Ballet of Cuba now had a piece of mine in their repertoire, a work that I had choreographed in 1962 for Robert Jeffrey, that had been danced continually since its birth by the Het National Ballet of Holland, the Alvin Ailey company, various editions of the Harkness or Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. The Cubans are free to do it when and where they please. "A gift from the people of Canada to the people of Cuba, " the program is supposed to read, "on the occasion of the visit of Prime Minister Trudeau, January 27, 1976." Did External know what they had done? The goodbyes were hard . Many gifts and a long talk with a fine young Cuban choreographer, Alberto Mendez, whom we should invite to do a work for us soon. Alicia had left for the Tokyo contest. Hortensia gave me a pile of books on Cuban history. The pills were all gone and my stomach was queasy. The near-brutal security at the airport made me long to get out. In Mexico City I stayed at the Holiday Inn, got drunk in a hot bath and the next morning in Montreal went directly from the plane to start choreographing my new ballet. Quod erat demonstrandum. 5 Jean-Pierre Perreault, co-artistic director of Le Groupe de la Place Royale. Photo: Robert Bedard. Profil: Jean-Pierre Perreault A la decouverte de la danse balinaise ......,_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Suzanne Asselin _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __,.., Bali est une petite ile d'lndonesie perdue sur la carte du monde. C'est aussi l'un des rares endroits au monde ou la danse est synonyme d'etat d'ame. J ean-P ierre Perreault, un jeune choregraphe de 29 ans au G rou pe de la Place Royale a Montreal, a bien voulu o s livrer ses impressions du sejour qu'il a fait a Bali a r e e 1975, grace a !'aide financiere du Conseil des A rts. Bali: Une il e aux cent mille noms Se::e · e :;~e l'on a tour a tour surnommee ''l'lle .ee e es D- mons". ''l' lle des Dieux" , ''l'lle aux e - e-:: es e: . e passe, n'est pas nee d'hier. Son :➔-:: e ;: :: -s :e -, e ans d'h istoire et sa culture a ·::r.e-e-: e·e -a·- -e"' par l' I nde. Chose certaine, sa fonct ion de son etendue illes carres. Sa population Iron et d emi d'hab itants. =-~-o:1- 6 C'est aussi un peuple particulierement enthousiaste et amical d'apres les multiples eloges de Jean-Pierre a son egard. "Certaines troupes de danse m'ont emmene en tournee. J'etais presque un des leurs. Comme je voyageais seul sur ma moto, on avait bien soin de m'entourer partout ou j'allais. Meme s'ils ne parlaient ni fran<;ais ni anglais, les enfants me suivaient, s'asseyaient a cote de moi, me prenaient par la main, me caressaient. Le contact physique est tres important pour les Balinais. " Mais pourquoi di able etre alle si loin? Jean-Pierre, qu'i me taut interrompre parce qu'il devient trop volubile m'explique les raisons qui ont motive ce voyage d'exploration. "Je dois dire que le premier contact que j'a eu avec Bali, ce n'est pas avec ses danses mais avec sa musique. Ce n'est que quelque temps plus tard, lors d passage d'une troupe de danseurs balinais a Montreal, e 1973 je crois, que j'ai ete fascine parce genre de danses. parti r de ce moment, je me suis mis a lire beaucoup su r e • eatre, la danse et la musique indonesiens. Mais apres -es lectures, j'ai vite fait de remarquer plusieurs :::ontradictions entre les auteurs de ces etudes. Aussi, avais trouve tres peu de documentation sur la danse ::al inaise en particulier. C'est ce qui m'a decide d'aller fair _. sejour a Bali. J'avais besoin d'aller m'abreuver aux - u rces memes de cette civilisation si opposee a la n6tre." Au debut, je pliais trop et je pointais mes pieds. Autre caracteristique tres importante: les jam bes ne sont jamais levees. C'est au niveau du torse et des bras que se concentrent les mouvements qui sont tres petits , minuscules meme. On dirait des miniatures tant les gestes sont raffines et precis. De plus, tousles muscles doivent etre contr61es." Soudain, Jean-P ierre devient tres anime: tout son corps e-x prime et respire cette merveilleuse odyssee. Ses yeux ou lent de haut en bas et de droite a gauche un peu a la aniere des danseurs balinais, ses bras s'agitent et :fessinent des mouvements qui font penser a de la cal ligraphie . .. entre deux gorgees de cafe. "Ain si, les principales caracteristiques de la danse balinaise se resument a peu pres a ceci: les yeux (qui roulent dans t outes les directions possibles) et les sourcils sont extremement mobiles. Tous les mouvements s'accordent au rythme du 'gamelan' (chaque village a son orchest re) tant6t tres lent, tant6t tres rapide. Les jam bes sont ouvertes et pliees, les bras sont les plus souvent ouverts et legerement souleves pour faire en sorte que les epau les paraissent relevees aussi." II devient de plus en plus bavard et replonge de plus elle au coeur de son voyage aussi fantastique et ·ncroyable que s'il avait vecu dans le meilleur des mondes: " A Bali, tout le monde danse. Une vendeuse de legumes le j our devient une grande danseuse le soir venu. II n'y a pas e separation veritable entre la vie sociale, religieuse ou artistique. Danser est une experience tres naturelle. Les enfants y sont inities des l'age de cinq ans." De village en village . . . Sac au dos et camera en bandouliere, Jean-Pierre se romenait de village en village: "Quand j'arrivais dans un il lage, je disais que j'etais un danseur. Automatiquement po ur eux, j'etais un danseur balinais. lls ne faisaient aucune difference, sinon que j'ai les cheveux blonds. L'lle de Bali est le centre de leur univers, leur cosmos. lls ignorent souvent et se soucient fort peu de ce qui se passe aill eurs." La danse balinaise: un art de vivre Tout naturellement, un peu a la fa<;:on balinaise de vivre, nou s glissons doucement au coeur meme de notre entretien: la danse. "Q uand j'ai demands a apprendre des danses, on m'a demande lesquelles je voulais apprendre. On m'en a enseigne quelques-unes (ii y en a des dizaines et des dizaines, sacrees ou profanes) du debut a la fin, sans me montrer le vocabu lai re. Pour eux, <;:a devait etre u ne chose acquise." II se leve brusquement de son fauteui l pour m'illustrer ce qui vient: "Un professeur m'a enseigne une danse intitulee Le roi des animaux. Elle le faisait com me si l'on enseignait La mort du cygne a un eleve qui entre dans un studio de ballet pour la premiere fois. Par contre, je comprenais assez bien les mouvements. Qa faisait un mois qu j'observais leurs danses tousles soi rs. Mais j'ai_d0 forcer mon professeur a m'enseigner quelques exercices de base. Par exemple, ii faut savoir plier les doigts de fa<;:on appropriee. De plus, la danse balinaise s'execute la plupart du temps sur place. Elle est tres rarement projetee dans l'espace. Ainsi, on peut facilement executer une danse dans quatre pieds carres. Petit a petit, je decouvrais d'autres rythmes, d'autres mouvements et j'apprenais a util iser d'autres muscles demon corps." Expliquant en details et executant au ralenti les mouvements qu'il avait eu le temps de ma'itriser, ii ressemblait vaguement a l'une de ces nombreuses sculptures qui ornent les fa<;:ades des mi lie et un temples que l'on retrouve sur l"ile. "C'est tellement difficile a expliquer, la danse balinaise", s'empresse-t-il d'ajouter. "Ainsi, les pieds et les yeux travaillent le plus, a des rythmes differents, en surcro'it. Par contre, on ne travaille jamais la pointe, toujours la demi-pointe. Et on ne releve jamais la jambe au complet. 11 est interessant de noter que, chez ce peuple, certaines danses sont executees exc lusivement par les femmes et d'autres, exclusivement par les hommes . Parallelement, certaines sont dites "sacrees" (c'est-a-dire qu'elles sont des illustrations de la religion hindoue) et les autres beaucoup plus recentes sont dites "profanes" et ne sont appreciees que pour leur beaute esthetique, et art istique. Du sacre au profane Les danses dites "sacrees" regroupent plusieurs types de danses. Le Barong, par exemple, est une figure mythologique bien connue dans l'He de Bali. Elle est executee par deux hommes, l'un dansant avec la tete et les pattes de devant de l'animal mythologique et l'autre danseur, soutenan t les pattes de derriere et la queue. Cet animal peut etre a la fois lion , tigre, vache, elephant, etc. Si un village est afflige par une ep id emie, on danse le Barong. Les Balinais croient que cet animal a un pouoir de'magie blanche' qui eloigne les pouvoirs mechants de la'magie noire'. Malgre toute sa precieuse antiquite, Bali s'est quand meme modernisee. Ainsi. certaines danses sacrees ont peu a peu perdu ce caractere pour devenir profanes . Les danses traditionnelles ont ete simplifiees et l'on ajoute plusieurs nouvelles compositions que cadrent beaucoup plus avec la vie quotidienne des Balinais. Les quelques danses class iq ues encore tres vivantes sont le Pendet (danse de bienvenue), le Baris (danse patriotique et rituelle executee par des hommes), le Legong (danse la plus connue en dehors de Bali et executee par des jeunes filles). Quelques danses classiques. Jean-Pierre poursuit son recit en m'expliquant l'enseignement d'une danse sacree dans un petit village ou ii etait de passage. "Alors, le vieux professeur s'approche. II prend par la main les deux petites fill es a qui l'on doit apprendre la danse de bienvenue. 11 leur fait repeter les memes mouvements jusqu'a temps que cela leur soit devenue tres nature!. Jusqu'a temps que ces mouvements fassent partie integrale de leur corps. Ensuite, ii leur enseigne la danse du debut a la fin." La danse appelee Baris est une danse guerriere. Et cette danse rituelle remonte au-dela du Moyen-Age. Ainsi, ii existe a Bali plusieurs danses Baris, chacune portant le nom de l'arme utilisee pour executer la danse. Cette danse est executee par de jeunes hommes demontrant leurs habiletes guerrieres. Elle met surtout en evidence la fermete et !'assurance du geste et la facilite des danseurs a manier l'arme guerriere. De ce fait, le Baris est aussi une danse tres patriotique. 7 siecle passe. Mais si on remonte un peu dans l'histoire, le Legong etait a l'origine une danse de cour executee par des petites filles pour les rois balinais. C'etait alors une danse-pantornime executee par plusieurs danseuses. Comparant les danses indiennes et balinaises, JeanPierre ajoute: "Si on regarde la danse indienne, taus les mouvements ont une signification . A Bali cependant, c'est le mouvement-en-soi qui prend de !'importance. Ce n'est pas sa signification qui importe, mais le rnouvernent en tant qu'acte-en-soi. C'est-a-dire la fac;:on dont le spectateur vale voir et la perfection qu'on y amene. Ainsi, le mouvement ne sert qu'a accentuer l'action et non a apporter une explication. C'est la danse a l'etat pur, quoi. C'est le corps qui s'exprime a partir de rythmes, de gestes et d'energie sans cesse renouveles." De la danse balinaise ii n'y a qu'un pas a la danse moderne . . . Qu'est-ce qu'un adepte de la danse moderne comme Jean-Pierre Perreault a-t-il bien pu retenir de cette experience en ce qui concerne son travail de choregraphe? "Ces quelques semaines que j'ai passees en contact etroit avec la danse orientale ant radicalement change ma fac;:on de voir les choses. C'est-a-dire que cela m'a permis de constater la simplicite et la subtilite des mouvements de danse balinaise. L'important dans tout cela, c'est de voir comment on peut utiliser un maximum d'energie et immobiliser un mouvement dans l'espace. Ce voyage m'a aussi appris une autre fac;:on d'envisager le rythme. D'autre part, je trouve que les choregraphes en general sont un peu trap bavards: ils font trop bouger, sans trop savoir pourquoi." Jean-P''Hre Perreault. Photo: Robert Bedard. II y a aussi le Kecak, danse ex lusivement par des hommes . Ce t te danse semble avo i r fortement impressionne Jean- Pierre puisqu'i l y revien t sans cesse. Le Kecak est, semble-t-il une des danses qu i frappent le plus le visiteur du passage. Elle est parfois surnommee " la danse des singes," et a bonne raison. Quelque cent a cent cinquante hommes mi-vetus sont reunis, en silence, en cinq ou six cercles concentriques autour d'une lampe a l'huile de coco . Tout a coup , ils se redressent en lan<;:ant des eris aigus puis retombent subitement par terre en emettant des sifflements. Pu is, ils poussent des sons bien rythmes en alternance avec des chants a tonalite tres basse. Soudainement, ils to m bent tous par en arriere sur le dos l'un de l'autre. Puis ils se relevent et reprennent leurs chants, balanc;:ant leurs corps de droite a gauche et p rojetant leurs bras ve rs l'avant ou vers le haut. En choeu r, les hommes chantent Ke-cak ke-cak ke-cak a plusieurs repr ises. C'est la raison pour laquelle on a appelee cette danse de ce nom. "L e Legong est pour moi la danse la plus feminine et la plus elegante qu'il m'ait ete donne de voi r. C'est une danse tres abstraite, et c'est l'une des raisons pour lesquelles la danse bali naise m'a beaucoup interesse", me lance JeanPierre. Cette danse du Legong est execute par trois jeunes fill es. Les deux dan seuses principales appelees 'Legongs' so nt assistees par u ne se rvante baptisee 'Tjondong' . Elles so nt toutes habill ees de costumes dores tre brillants et so nt coiffees d'un esorte de couron ne peinte dore et ornee de fleu rs que l'on appelle 'fra ng ipan i'. Le Legong est la danse la plus familiere en deh ors de Bali et elle date du 8 Faisant allusion a ses toutes recentes creations, ii exprime son changement d'attitude en ces termes: "Quand je suis revenu a Montreal, j'avoue que j'etais un peu mele par ce que j'avais vu la-bas. Je remettais tout en question, parce que mes valeurs ont ete bousculees. Mais maintenant, je sais ou je vais . Ainsi, 100,000 signes (la premiere choregraphie faite apres son retour a Bali) etait vraiment le produit brut de ce que j'avais assimile. Contrairement a Monuments que j'avais fait avant departir, une choregraphie ou le moindre mouvement etait precis, etudie, 100,000 signes est une oeuvre completement relachee. II n'y a pas de technique. Tout est flou. Le vocabulaire est imprecis." En conclusion, ii apporte les reflexions suivantes sur sa conception personnelle de la danse: "Maintenant, je sais mieux qu'avant comment utiliser le potential des danseurs en general. Souvent, ils n'emploient meme pas le dixieme de ce potentiel. La plupart d'entre eux n'ont appris a bouger que d'une seule fac;:on. De plus, ils ignorent souvent comment utiliser leur reservoir d'energie et ne connaissent qu'un seul type de rythme." 11 conclut en ajoutant cette remarque: "I I taut que l'energie soit concentree et accumulee pour en arriver a repeter des mouvements sans se fatiguer. Cette methode m'a permis de reculer les possibilites inherentes de chacun des danseurs avec qui je travailletous les jours. De toute fai;;on, meme le professeur le plus qualifie ne peut faire des prodiges avec un eleve tant que ce dernier ne decouvre pas par lui-meme ce qu'est la danse." Ainsi, la danse est beaucoup plus qu'une activite physique, une arene ou prevaut la technique impeccable et la beaute superficielle. Comme l'ecrit si bien Roger Garaudy dans son livre intitule Danser sa vie: "Par la danse, le corps cesse d'etre une chose pour devenir une question ." Bali ne l'a pas encore oublie. Etoile de Nuit ....._______ Rene Picard _______,_,.. Rencontree dans la rue vous vous diriez en vous retournant: "Quelle jolie femme". Danoise? Autrichienne? Oui, Allemande. Secretaire? Etudiante? Que peut-elle bien faire dans la vie? Iris Schmidt est danseuse; depuis u n an elle travail le avec un groupe de dix-sept danseuses et le choregraphe new-yorkais Apshow . Un samedi apres-midi de fev rier elle me recevra savamment negligee (a !'exception des grosses c haussettes de laine blanche qu'elle a enfilees, car elle est fr ileuse des pieds) et elegamment deco iffee dans son gentil appartement du 16ie arrondissement a Paris. Une fois rassure, le chat siamois quitte la piece et j'entreprend de poser mes questions. 11 y en aura beaucoup car Iris me plait et son metier m'interesse. Ballet, danse moderne, nous ne savons pas encore ou la situer. Evidemment Iris toute jeune a etudie le ballet pl usieurs annees dans sa ville natale, pu is son pere, pour d es raisons professionnelles a demenage et la famille a su ivi. Le nouveau lieu de residence n'offrant pas de possibilites d'etudier la danse et etant trop eloigne d'un c entre ou ces etudes auraient pu se faire, Iris deviendra pl us tard Bremen un agent de transport responsable de lots de marchandises voyageant a travers le monde a partir de l'Allemagne. a La vie reserve souvent des surprises et heureux ceux a q ui elle en reserve car aujourd 'hui Iris est une vedette et_ .. s urement pas cause des marchandises. a Chaque soi r depuis un an apres dix heures, Iris s'appelle Trucula Bonbon . Avec un minimum de costume elle ex hibe le maximum de son magnifique corps au spectacle du Crazy Horse. Elle anime la nuit, participe de la magie d u Paris by night. Elle adore son travail , elle se dit artiste et el le a parfaitement raison. Le spectacle du Crazy Horse se deroule com me un film , sans bavure, sans anichroche, sans arret; c'est rode la perfection, c'est divertissant. Dix-sept femmes plus belles les unes que les autres reprennent chaque soir une serie de tableaux au profit de ceux qui vivent la nuit ou de ceux qui en tatent, une fois en passant. a Son publ ic est des plus heteroclites: tourisme international , provinciaux, hommes d'affaires, fonctionnaires internationaux .. . on " remplit" chaque soir, depuis de nombreuses annees. Rares sont ceux qui regretteront d'y etre venus . Ce raffinement dans l'erotisme d'un spectacle de boHe de nuit demeure l'apanage d'une grande ville, peut-etre meme exclusivement celui de Paris. Trucula Bonbon parle de son travail avec interet, avec c onv iction. Chaque soir elle reprend ses numeros en y mettant tout son potentiel, chaque soir elle cherche a etablir le contact avec le public. Un jour elle fera peut-etre elle-meme ses choreg raphies, elle les a deja faites d'ailleurs avant d'entrer dans ce temple de la vie nocturne qu'est le Crazy Horse, pu isqu'elle a presente des spectacles d ans les theatres d'Espagne, d'Afrique, de Suede et d'lsrael. Actuellement elle rend de son mieu x celles de Apshow. Iris Schmidt. Derrie re ces deesse de la nuit qui peut-il se cacher? Be lles, seduisantes " bien faites" qui sont ces femmes? Souvent des artistes dont les reves artistiques ont emprunte des voi x differentes des chem ins " classiques ", des artistes qu i chaque soi r creent leur personnage, le font viv re et le projettent. Femmes convaincues elles trouvent dans leur travail plaisir et satisfaction . Trucula y proclame meme son emancipation , elle travaille ainsi parce "qu 'elle le veut" et ce en toute liberte. Trucula Bonbon est une etoile de nuit privilegiee , elle travail le dans l'une des meilleures boHes de Paris dont la reputation n'est plus a se faire. Elle sent plus ou moins nettement qu 'elle se retrouve dans une classe a part au sein de la profess ion. Cependant tout comme elle, la nuit venue, des centaines de danseuses et danseurs arpentent les rues de Pa ris, en voiture, a pied ou en taxi; en route vers leur scene respective souvent craintif d'un retard inadmissible car a minui t les reflecteurs s'illuminent, le rideau scintillant de ses fils d'argent se leve - le spectacle commence: danseu rs, chanteu rs, ventriloques , travestis, musiciens, mag iciens chacun a son adresse dans cette immense ville. Chacun , avec son fard, ses reflets , son sourire attenue la noirceur et la solitude de la nuit, en rappelant dans les lieu x la mag ie du spectacle , comme l'on fait avant eu x, M ist ingu et, Josephine Bake r, Chevalier, Zizi Jenmaire et to ute une armee: "There's no people like show people." 9 Bien que la vie choregraphique officielle soit essentiellement centree sur les grandes reprises d u repertoire ou sur la venue des compagnies etrangeres de renom , une place se fait peu a peu pour de jeunes compagnies qui preferent le moderne a la tradition et recherchent l'authentique plut6t que !'exhibition . Leur existence n'est pas des plus faciles car peu de theatres se risquent a les produire, preferant des valeurs plus reconnues. Parmi eux le Theatre de la Cite Internationale, pratiquant cette politique d'accueil , vient de permettre a une troupe de province d'avoir enfin son premier spectacle dans la capitale . Le Ballet de poche forme voice quatre ans a Grenoble, n'ex iste que quelques mois par an , faute de moyens suffisants (ii ne rer,:oit qu 'une · petite aide de la ville et aucune subvention de l'etat). Brigitte Real qui en est la fondatrice, aime a s'entourer de danseurs-choreg raphes dont elle monte les oeuvres en meme temps que les siennes. Christine Conti est, des trois choregraphes du programme actuel, la seule qui s'en tienne a une vision exterieure et conventionnelle d'une danse decorative. Caroline Dudan, Jane Honor and Christian Trovilla s in Trio. Photo: Pascal Rieu. Le travail de Brigitte Real est beaucoup plus subtil tant au niveau de la connaissance et !'interpretation de la musique que de la composition choregraphique . Claranight (sur une tres belle part ition de Jean-Marie Morel) est une piece sensible et poetique, teintee de lyrisme, que l'on peut rapprocher, pour la purete de sa forme, de certains ballets de Paul Taylor. Comme en filigrane au contraire est tout en retenue, en silences, en simultaneite des p resences su r scene, en epure graphique; la musique (Klavierstuck de Stockhausen ) apparaissant en filigrane de la danse comme pour en souligner la motivation et le climat. Du groupe se degage !'interpretation de Bernadette Meulien tout a la fois sensible et discrete, feminine et precise. Sa danse a cette continuite dans l'espace et le temps , dans le mouvement et le non-mouvement qui pourrait servir a illustrer cette phrase de Cunningham que cite Brigitte Real: " la nature de la danse c'est le calme dans le mouvement et le mouvement dans le calme ... comme une plante qui attend pour grandir . .. comme un eclat de lumiere reste suspendu dans l'air." Le troisieme choregraphe, Katushi Izumi, tout en theatralite et violence a la japonaise, cree un contraste et dynamise le spectacle. 11 recherche l'effet, exacerbe les situations, pousse au paroxysme le souffle et le cri. 11 derange, agresse meme, sans toutefois atteindre la clarte necessaire a une denonciation . Messiah est une sorte de Passion dont la puissance approche le deli re; Venus une fresque baroque de la femme a travers les siecles. En donnant a Carolyn Carlson la possibilite de creer une troupe de recherche a !'Opera, Rolf Liebermann, son d irecteur, a quelque peu bouleverse les structures de ce tres traditionnel theatre qui absorbe a lui seul l'essentiel des subventions choregraphiques de l'etat. Paris: T endances actuelles Lise Brunel En quelques mois !'ex- danseuse de la compagnie americaine N ikolais a su apporter a ses danseurs, franr,:a is pour la plupart, une connaissance du corps et de ses relations spatio-temporelles, et une disponibilite d'esp rit qu ' ils n'avaient pas auparavant. La compagn ie , essentiellement moderne, ga rde une position tres marginale vis a vis des gens de l'Opera qui ne s'y melent guere. On imagine aisement que cette i mplantation ne s'est pas faite sans remous . .. Comme un pha re cependant, Carolyn Carlson a tres vite suscite les passions, attire une foule de danseurs modernes et un public avide d'art contemporain . La recherche de Carlso n a d'e mblee associe a la danse un travail theatral donnant aux eclairages un role important ou John Davis a apporte une grande part de creation artistique. Le plus recent spectacle, cree en fevrier, Wind, Water, Sa nd, est le plus riche de tous par la multiplicite des moyens employes, et novateur en la matiere par son tilisation d'une video en direct (sous la direction de Jack oore). Sous !'etiquette d'opera, cette oeuvre en 37 actes est construite d'une maniere ouverte et aleatoire comme 'ont montre ses transformations successives; un opera qu i remet en question la notion et la forme d'oeuvre finie; une suite de tableaux qui superpose les niveaux de perception en un puzzle dont not re monde interieur saisit son propre enchainement d'images. Aucune anecdote, au cune suite logique; des personnages qui entrent et sortent: des chanteurs, des danseu rs, des comediens, des musiciens. Le chant joue sur le son et la syllabe , le verbe egrenne des mots isoles que l'oreille selectionne au hasard de leur evocation poetique, la danse sculpte l' espace en vibrations kinesthesiques dont les ondes creent des climats successifs. L'eau , le vent, le sable ne so nt pas decrits, racontes, exprimes, ils n'apparaissent qu' en transparence par touches successives ou le son se prolonge par le geste, la danse par l'image, la couleur par la lumiere. La camera video n'intervient que par moments, cernant un detail qu 'el le reproduit en gros plan: image fi ctive d'un reel simu ltane ou !'instant se dedouble, vision totale de !'ensemble scenique et vision fragmentaire agrandie sur l'ecran. On y voit le blanc eclatement de la lu miere jouer soudain sur la transparence d'un verre ou d'un tissu. On y voit le mot eclore sur les levres du co medien a la manie re d'une bu lie de savon qui s'elance. L'art choregraphique de Carolyn Carlson a-t-i l gagne ou perdu dans cette profusion de moyens qui ont ete mis a sa disposition? Sa fac;:on de danser n'est plus le seul centre d'interet mais reste la base du spectacle: mouvements f lu ides qui soudain se suspendent, brusques saccades des bras a la poursuite d'une ombre, lentes traversees ou tou rnoiements . . . En se prolongeant en echo sonore, en se fondant dans la couleur, en se multipl iant sur les ecrans de tulle, en s'immate rialisant au jeu des lanternes mag iques, !'invention choregraphique s'augmente d'une di mension qui enrichit la perception onirique du monde c arl sonnien. Wind, Water, Sand plonge le spectateur dans un etonnement sans fin ou la pensee prend la releve de tant de sensations rec;:ues, capables de reveil ler l'imaginai re le plus profondement enfoui. Sans aucun moyens financiers au contraire, deux groupes de jeunes choregraphes viennent de prendre l'excellente initiative de reunir leurs danseurs et leurs efforts pour presenter une serie de spectacles. L'occasion leur fut fournie par une commande du Centre Culture! A mericain. Une dizaine de danseurs au total , et trois choregraphes orig inaires des Etats-Unis mais installees Paris. De cette reunion est ne un veritable t ravail de groupe stimulant la creativite de chacun et mettant a sa d isposition un plus grand nombre d'interprete. A travers la purete des lignes cho regraphiques de Jane Honor, resonne l'echo emotio nnel de quelque souvenir ou d'u ne nostalgie, d'un vecu qui parfois se teinte d'humour. Le c hoi x d'une musique " live" lui fa it associe r a son trava il les ri ches improvisations de Ron Pitt ne r a la percussion et !' interpretation du superbe FRX-Home de Lubomyr Melnyk par les deux guitaristes Ray Vogel et Gregory M iezelis. Tout en nuances et en decalage de temps, un tres interessant t ri o qu 'elle dansait avec Ch ristian T rouillas et Caroline Dudan lui a permis d'obtenir une c ommande du Bal let pour Demain/ Centre Culture! de L' Abbaye des Premontres qui organise un seminaire a Pont a Mousson dans l'Est de la France. a Studio Place: Toronto .....,_______ Jennifer Oille _ _ _ _ _ _, ,,! Perhaps the National Ballet, the Royal Winnipeg and Les Grands Ballets can afford Toronto's O'Keefe Cent re at $27,000 a week, manned by a union crew at $8.50 each an hour. However, the Toronto Dance Theatre uses the MacMillan Theatre at $875 a week and Les Ballets Jazz rents St. Lawrence Centre at $750 a day. The alternatives of Hart House, York University and Seneca College are all heavily booked with other priority commitments . But at least those theatres have lights and a suitable stage. The theatre-churches , Bathurst Street United and St. Paul 's, don 't. The Pavlychenko Dance Company recently played West Park Vocational School and the Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers settled for the Art Gal lery of Ontario. Everyone from Gerry Eldred, genera l manager of the National Ballet, to Grant Strate, ex-cha irman of the department of dance at York University, tacitly agreed that Toronto lacked a technically, spat ial ly and economically feasible theatre for dance. But it was left to Lawrence and M iriam Adams to take the initiative. It was the same kind of initiative t hat impel led Lawrence Adams to abandon the pinnacle of principal dancer and Miriam Adams the cloister of the corps at the Nat ional Ballet to start Fifteen, the 41-seat Dance Laboratorium which actually pays choreographers and dancers to perform. Naturally they jumped when an ad ap peared in a local Toronto newspaper offering fo r tender a Transi t Comm ission sub-station and giving a two-wee k deadl ine for bids , the decision to be made by To ront o C ity Counc il. Th e Adams deci ded that this was going to be Studio Place, a dance com plex. The sub-station, a uni que st ructure, w as large and empty and possessed a c rane insi de which All istair Grant, an innovat ive arc hitect wi th the Ron Thom Partnership, t urned into a mo bil e light ing grid to accommodate a proscen iu m. are na, t hru st, or in12 the-round situation with a flexible seating arrangem en: and movable floor in a basic facility that would comp rise studios, offices and video spaces. Because it was locatec in the St. Lawrence project - a high density hous ing development, a ready-made community context existe c people could use the dance centre for educati or, recreation , creativity and physical fitness - a facility tc affect the quality of life in every way. Gerry Eldred envisioned rehearsal space fo r the National Ballet and a home for its workshop productio ns The Dance in Canada Association contemplated it as ne headquarters. Lois Smith and Judy Jarvis both requestec studios for their classes. Studio Place implied a solutio n t t he factional ism now existing between Toronto dance groups , a divisiveness substantively ideologic a substantially economic. Studio Place's all-inclusiven ess could eliminate the financial scramble to subsid izi? individual , expensive and inadequate centres and provial? one focus for previously competing ideologies. However, Young People's Theatre, which had beemarshalling its forces for two years , also had its eye on t old sub-station . YPT impresario Susan Rubes had t e support of Alderman William Kilbourn in City Cou nc Other political powers had already decided the fate oft Transit Commission building . Timothy Porteous of t Canada Counci l assumed the building already belon gec to YPT . Fal lardeau , in charge of capital funding for t e Secretary of State, had already alloted YPT $500,000 f • renovations and allowed that it would be " awkward" f • another party to apply for that funding and even mo e " awkward" if that money were to revert to the bud ge • YPT lost the bui ldi ng. He refused even to look at Stud: Place plans. The Ontario Base Funding Program in ch ar_:: of provinc ial capital grants for the Depa rtment of C ultu e = = = 5TL' DY CF ~~OOJ2~==-· :2~"-.C::'/ A- :ONS' ~ ~r-i~ T'G 2:~ -C."'~ -rnE _,,.HCH A~ i-i l"'f'EC :"3 47 i7 and Recreation had already provided YPT with yet another $500,000. In other words, two levels of government had destined -1,000,000 for a plan developed by Cadillac Fairview onstruction a traditional, inflexible proscenium 1heatre rendering the building structure obsolete when he need grew obsolete, a project with no community ori entation, but located in a community project The Adams realized the deck was stacked - a mere ·wo-week deadline was given any other group to develop expensive, complex architectural plans and to find •u nding. Nevertheless they went ahead. The mayor of Toronto remained neutral, but his aide r emarked that $1,000,000 for Humpty Dumpty seemed r ather odd. The St. Lawrence Project Planning C ommittee , which had never been consulted, expressed shock that priority was being given a million-dollar theatre w hen they were having trouble raising lesser sums for h ousing. And Young People's Theatre was clearly shaken by the u nexpected rivalry of a less expensive, flexib le theatre b uild ing with much greater potential community i nvolvement. To defuse any opposition on the eve of the cru cial council debate, YPT hired E.H. Zeidler of Ontario Place fame to redesign its interior plan into a flexible co mmunity-oriented space complete with basketball cou rt The general meeting of City Council voted 15 to 6 to give th e building to YPT with the provision that the Co mmissioner of City Property help Studio Place find alte rnate space. Except that the city had no property. Studio Place is going to be. The Adams have incorporated into a non-profit organization and are searching for a site which will provide a home for Fifteen, r.,~e..::..:,,: ,J_ .::C. L-l"cO~I: F"'"'"~faz.:.A~1. I P tc~,A <..;1-..E.R 5 ~EE; ~~~jO :'17'- absorbing its rare ambience-the antithesis of the market mentality which makes the dancer into a technician useful to somebody, a puppet on a string, a Petrushka. When Studio Place does come into being, it will provide a dance theatre with lights, sound, curtains, flats, floors, stages, dressing rooms and toilets; it will be available to the Touring Office of the Canada Council, private booking agencies and producers of dance performances with rents adjusted on a sliding scale based on audience projections; the user may raise the curtain himself or have access to a wealth of non-union aid; the stage will be anything the choreographers and performers want it to be . Studio Place will cut the duplicated hardware of disparate dance schools by offering communal barres , phones, accountants and lawyers. It will house Visus, a non-profit video organization, documenting all aspects of dance. Its activities will be directed both inward funnelling funds back into the dance community - and outward - disseminating information and activities of all types to the community. Its light and sound equipment will circumvent external rentals. A xerox machine will bypass the College Copy Shop. If the National Ballet wants to make a commercial for television , for example, Visus, rather than a private production company, could do it Studio Place and hence dance will be self-supporting rather than supportive of service agencies. Designed, furthermore, to be self-supporting on a rental basis, it will not require on-going public financing. After all , the milk and honey deficit spending days of the fifties have passed ; the free-for-all government grants of the sixties have gone. A new economic climate prevails and so must a new mentality. There is no room anymore for theatrica l monuments designed for the needs of a particular period. Studio Place will notpour any concrete future generations will have to chip away. 13 Choreography and Music .......,_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Terrill Maguire . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Music may well be the single most significant factor, outside the intangible element of inner compulsion, which stimulates a choreographer to create a dance. To me, music is the link connecting motion to art. Even a dance performed in silence contains an innate music of the mind, soul and muscles made manifest through the pulses, phrases, and dynamics of the body in motion. Nearly everyone is aware at some level of the powerful emotional and physical effects of music within ourselves, regardless of intellectual knowledge of musical structure. Different lifestyles may shape different preferences and degrees of response, but the rhythmic and emotional aspects of music are still highly accessible - and communicable. It is only natural then that choreographers have turned to music to inspire, initiate, and accelerate creativity as well as to emphasize the movement message by supplementing the visual/kinetic response with an auditory one. After all, sound has its origins in motion: the vibratory movement of particles through space and time. Although it is a truism that music and dance stem from common roots and have mingled for centuries, their relationship has become more controversial lately. The debate is generally over the dominance of one form or the other; a sort of jealousy of precedence; or even whether music and dance compositions should be combined at all. I'd like to clarify the debate by looking at the three most common methods of pairing music and dance. Probably the most typical is to have a choregrapher make use of an existing piece of music, upon which the dance is then more or less based. The second method involves composing music to accompany an already existent dance, and the third combines the first two in various ratios in that the choreographer and composer interact to create complementary pieces. I myself prefer the third, the collaborative approach. Id eologically and philosophically, it seems to be the most just, since both artists potentially can make contributions of equal importance. I think there are many practical benefits to be found in the stimuli and momentum provided by two compatible energies working together. But let's examine all these situations more closely. In the first case, when a choreographer bases a dance on existing music, there is a potential problem which should be ac 'lO ' edged: even though the choreographer may be pa/'1£; a :•bute to the composer through the a ce. e c ay be a reluctant recipient. I can e instance of downright hostility, reca a: eas~ w e a ... ce~, • ec c oser told choreographer Dana 't need you !" Even Debussy, e :z :::ie a popular choreographic 14 resource, seems to have been indifferent to this functio"Pourquoi?" he queried, in reference to Nijinsk choreography to Afternoon of a Faun. Near the other er of the spectrum, Robert Starer is somewhat mo receptive. He at least professes curiosity. In a Dan Perspectives (#16) on the subject, Starer, who h composed several scores for Martha Graham, as wel l for Daniel Nagrin, Anna Sokolow and Jose Limo comments: "To have one's musir, danced to (and I mea composition that was not intended for dance) is of cou flattering and often revealing, but only in the sense tha is fascinating to find out what another person hears one's music. If the choreographer happens to imaginative and tasteful, the result may be eininen: rewarding. Yet this situation lacks the most importa element of artistic satisfaction: to realize one's o intentions." To bring the composer-choreographer issue into fo e in terms of my own experience, I questioned Micha Byron . He was not only the most accessible compose' being my husband, but also the one with whom I did first artistic collaborations. I wanted some kind of policy statement, in view of so of the information I was uncovering about ot er composer's ideas, and also in view of a past inciden· reticence on his part. I had wanted to use a tape o• partially-improvised piece which he'd created some yea back with a variety of musicians. I'd had designs on , piece since I'd first h_eard it, intrigued primarily by its ee quality. But it was four years before the dance which I 'elt was to work with it began to emerge. By then, Michael as reluctant to have heard a piece which he associated wi phase he'd left behind. Regardless of any value judgmer he was placing on the piece, I felt strongly that it was va in conjunction with the dance that I was making. I have admit that I did some rather persistent nagging, w eventually led to an agreement to let me use a part ic section which he edited; ultimately it even seemed revive some fondness for the piece. My question to referred to this episode. "How did you feel about the way the music was usec that dance, Hybrid?" "Which dance was that?" "You know, the one with me and Danny and Karen a Howard, that was on the winter concert at York?" 'Umm ... (long pause) . . . well . . . I liked the sole version you did at A-Space best .. .' cause it was smokey, the way you made the space, and the music·spooky . . . only the smoke smelled awful ... (We'd a fog-machine to create the right environme~ atmosphere, and machine-fog really does srstrangely.) . . . Actually, I liked what you dld rea .ecause it had so little to do with the music, y'know atimean???? (Admittedly true: I hadn't structured the ::ance according to the music, which was rather a:ructural anyway. Instead, I'd chosen to use the music - ore as a sound environment of auditory evocations. Like ·~ e fog it was essentially an atmospheric element which existed in its own right, at the same time and place as the oance.)" I n the second case, where the music is composed to fit a articular dance, the composer is more or less obliged to mply musically with the choreographer's fixed s·ru ctures . Althouoh this method has been in practice at ast since the sixteenth-century French courts, currently : is somewhat out of favour. First of all, the composer's ~eative freedom is infringed upon by the dance's esignated structure of beats and measures. Even where sJ ch specific limits are not demanded by the '1oreographer, he or she may not possess, or perhaps be this working method far more suitable than any other he'd experienced. While Horst was willing to de-escalate the importance of his musical compositions to better serve the dance, I know of no other major composer who feels that creative fulfillment resides in creating music solely to complement dances. Norman dello Joio, whose music was also used by Graham, never worked for her in the same fashion as Horst. In his very first exposure to a music-for-dance situation, he was shown a completed work by the company, then told to go compose music to the exact counts, as arranged on a chart. He declined: "I could not compose according to a plan that had been preset, for I would have had to follow arbitrarily a scheme conceived by somebody else, a scheme conceived without regard to musical values. It would have made me feel rather like a typewriter, just filling in empty spaces." (Dance Perspectives #16) And now for some local opinions: Terrill Maguire. Photo: Vahe Guzelinian. able to communicate, sufficient material for the composer to relate to musically. Either that, or the choreographer's expressed wishes are so vague as to leave only the alternative of writing an autonomous score which will hopefully relate to the dance in a parallel fashion. Naturally enough, composers have expressed definite opinions regarding composing for a specific dance. In that same Dance Perspectives, Louis Horst, perhaps best known for his long-time association with Martha Graham, is one of the few composers who defends the practice: "The fact of starting with the dance is important, because the dance should be the centre of interest, the point of tension. The music should be transparent, open and spacious, so the audience can see the dance throughout it. If the music is so th ick and overloaded, as it is apt to be if it was written to be heard alone, it obscures the dance." His first score for Graham was created according to co unts on which she had based the dance and he found "Michael, how would you feel about being shown a completed dance, given the counts, and commissioned to compose music for it?" "Couldn't do it. The way I work, everything comes at once. You know that. Anyway, that's the way it used to be. The composer was like a tailor." Even in those instances where the choreographer posesses musical "values" and a respect for the contribution which the composer's work makes to the dance, it is still not difficult to sympathize with the discomfiture of the composer asked to work in restricted format not of his/ her own choosing. The ideal to which I aspire is that neither dance nor music dominates the other. There is really no need , especially for a choreographer working in a non-commercial mileu, to abdicate to the music, nor to my knowledge is there ever any accompanying demand by a composer that a dance 15 done to his music must adhere in its form to the musical structure. However, in order to assure that the integrity of one's work is being upheld, it is best to maintain contact, and probably the best form of contact is that beginning at the work's inception and continuing throughout, resulting in an active collaboration between the composer and choreographer. As independent partners, these two individuals can not only be aware of each other's progress, but can provide mutual stimulation, encouragement, and support. Exposed as they are to one another's ideas and methods, they find that artistic territories are opened up. Furthermore, it is far less lonely than working in isolation. For a long time there have been some significant examples of choreographer-composer couplings in modern dance. Martha Graham and Louis Horst, Merce Cunningham and John Cage, Laura Dean and Steve Reich and several others on today's scene demonstrate the advantages of such partnerships. Needless to say, enduring teams like these do not emerge full-blown. In order to get started, then last productively, these While I consider all those semi-spontaneous dance experiences to have been useful, they were limitea because they lacked conscious direction. But they were a base on which to build . partnerships must be nurtured carefully with respect and understanding to maintain rapport. To borrow a phrase from jazz, "when the recipe is right, you can really cook." project of our own, outside the limitations of the gro : And , we eventually did . My own interest in musical collaboration grew out of the physical inspiration I felt from dancing to live music, at first strictly in a recreation sense. Doing rock 'n roll dancing to live bands at clubs, parties and other events led me into organized sessions with musicians; circumstances were such in my life that I was always in contact with such peop le. Usually I played around, experimented and basically had fun with these jam sessions, but they also brought out ideas and some loosely formed st ructures , particularly on the few occasions when performance opp ortunities emerged . There were a number of informal musical performances happening in Cali forn ia during th at period (the late 1960s and early 1970s) and the fact that I was associated with some of the peop le active i t ese prov ided me not only with the experience of worki g w ith mu sic ians, but also another opportun ity to da ce. 16 The next phase was in a sense a transitional one dancing and choreographing for a music-theatre gro ui:: called The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. I began tc work in a more focussed fashion; we were putting toget he• shows in which I had to deal specifically with the pieces o music the musicians were using, and they had to deal w it .. the choreography which I was setting for them mysel~ Thus interactions were set up and pieces developed. T he,. were somewhat limited as artistic statements since t he purpose of the group was to provide entertainment (a nc make money - we hoped) rather than "High Culture." • was during this experience, however, that Michael and as members of the group, first met and recognized a" artistic rapport. Tired of constantly playing flashy hot licks on the trumpet, Michael suggested that we work on a We began the piece with an idea he had wh·_ encompassed both sound and movement images. heard sounds made by an organ and antique cymbals asaw movement as a constant dynamic, a seamless flo took these ideas, worked within those parameters anc doing so, discovered a whole new way of working wr has affected me significantly ever since. Durin g : development of the piece, we worked b0th indepen der· and reciprocally, giving and taking suggestions, ad, and comments , until its performance at the Cal ifo,.... Institute of the Arts shortly thereafter. Since then we ra continued to work in combination , with varying inte s and contact, depending on circumstances. We have a worked independently of one another and I have ,e,e11r working with other musician/ composers. My refe reand intention is to continue to explore this collabora· route, because the more I do so, the unexpected spaces I come across. In Review The Royal Ballet April 19 - May 15 New York ::: th in the Country was the item most : pated during the Royal Ballet's visit to - ·ngton, D.C. and New York this past -g. Not only did it mark Frederick • n's return to full-scale choreography 'levitably held the promise of being a _el t o his masterpiece, Enigma Variations. atter ballet is indeed a genre painting many of the virtues of a nineteenth•-"fY play, especially in the w ay its ::·o nal impact grows out of an accumulaof data of all kinds rather than out of ce variations (a counterpart to mono- _es) per se. Thus a direct treatment of a , w ould seem to be a natural for Ashton. : A shton 's ability to delve into all kinds of -s n Enigma Variations certainly"qualifies " - o take on Turgenev. As it turns out, A : " t h in the Country is no Enigma • ations. Nor is it a satisfactory work in genev's terms or its own. o nth in the Country has one moment of • . Toward the end, when Natalia Petrovna : t he tutor Beliaev finally declare selves lovers in a pas de deux, he wafts ;o rward in a lazy zigzagging path while ar ms twine in the air. Her arms could be mes li ng in silk or idly fingering ropes of lll!!'arl s, but in fact it's the luxuriousness of love s is touching. These moments are true to • em otion, true to Chopin, true to the time of .a' (summer) , and true even to the economic ,JS of Natalia's household. If proof of these "' ing gestures' excellence were needed, it -::pe ns that Ashton uses them later on as a :· of Natalia's lovesick mind and body. • uch of the ballet consists of love dances, : although they lack the emotional power c literary maturity of this one, they could -.e amounted to a lovely suite of duets d a plausible abstraction of the play. Either : J d istill or you do not distill. Ashton gives ~s elf the impossible task of doing both. -ad he proceeded to axe all the characters of e play except for Natalia, the tutor, and _ aged Vera, he could have made a "">eau tiful ballet on the theme of triangular :,e. Instead he eliminates some of the :·aracters, which commits him to deal with - re than triangular love and yet eliminates .ry important parts of the story. Further- re, all the particulars embedded in the :a let - variations for subsidiary characters , _ ·s of domestic life, and most of all J uli a Trevalyan Oman's meticulous detailing of a drawing room, down to the fragile birdcage standing by the piano in a nook of the room commit Ashton to a genre ballet and to finding organic re lationships between the everydayness of life and the love duets. Th is he fails to do, so that no matter how love ly the two aspects of the work may be, they are out of synchronization with each other. For example, an absolutely delicious slice-of-life dance about the search for the master's keys seems to be an advertisement of Ashton 's unique skill with the mundane. For all its warmth and clever staging, it is Ashton saying, "Now I am being a playwright." The same fate falls to the maid's dance with a basketful of berries and to Ko lya's dances with his toys. These dance variations, and other bits of business more directed than choreographed, are ways of opening up the love triangle into genre form - expanding t he dance into speech, the monologues in to d ialogues - and they all creak. Because Ashton wants to create a story ballet instead of an abstract ballet, he must plot the love triangle. Since the play has no plot, but is rather an account of what people are th inking , Ashton must invent one . The one he invents is unfortunate, because it uses the device of entrance and exit. In a sense, A Month in the Country is a series of intrusions by a third party and the flustered exit of the most embarrassed party paced at the licketysplit tempo one associates with high comedy, particularly French bedroom farce. This is a long, long way from Turgenev. Worse, this frenetic pacing is underscored by the choreography, which is nervous and fussy . At first I assumed Ashton was overchoreographing to Chopin to show us Natalia's restless boredom. But that tone, an intensification of The Dream's feverish undercurrent, persists until the final duet I have described between Natalia and the tutor. I also assumed that fussy choreography was meant to elucidate Chopin's core of vitality. Slowly, however, dancing outpaces Chopin, rendering the former born bastic and the latter pecked to bits. A Month in the Country changes from Feydeau to a mixture of/ Love Lucy and Fall River Legend. In changing Vera from sacrificial lamb to a brat, Ashton mangles the play's theme and import , but he also mangles his own ballet. Perhaps no ballet can really give life to people's inner lives, and perhaps it was truly foolish and not without a trace of hubris for Ashton to take on Turgenev, who is, after all, a precursor of our finest psychological dramatist, Anton Chekhov. Perhaps too, Ashton realized th is in midstream and so abandoned the play for all intents and purposes . But as so often happens in midstream , one cannot abandon the anchor cleanly and absolutely. There is always one toe hanging on for dear life. Lynn Seymour is Natalia. Anthony Dowell is the tutor. Denise Nunn , from the ensemble, is Vera. Small , bouncy Wayne Sleep is Kolya. Marguerite Porter, one of the most promising of the Royal Bal let's soloists, is the maid. Two of the world's best dancer-actors, Derek Rencher and Alexander Grant, play the adm irer and husband of Natalia, respectively. In other words, Ashton has chosen the cast with his usual skill and insight. And as usual with ballets of serious intention, the cast is only as good as the choreography. Only Lynn Seymour's ravishingly arched feet made powerful non-choreographic dance points, and to my mind the most powerful manifestation of Ashton 's genius was his decision to build her dances around her feet. Nancy Goldner Does Ashton read Turgenev as Feydeau gone hysterical? Even that inter pretation would be more plausible than the one emerging from the ballet's c limax. Little Vera surprises her beloved tutor and her motherfigure Natalia in an embrace, calls the household to the scene of the crime, and hurls accusing fingers at the illegal lovers. Natalia then gestures wildly to he r husband , in the tone of television sitcom sh ows. At this point, 17 Toronto Dance Theatre April 27 - May 1, 1976 Toronto Nighthawks , Peter Randazzo's newest work given its premiere this spring season, is based on a painting of the same name done by Edward Hopper in 1942. Both deal with the peculiar kind of isolation shared by those who come out in the late hours of the night to sit silently in bars and restaurants until the dawn chases them away. Randazzo, however, has elaborated on the moods which Hopper can only hint at in his picture. Although his characters are creatures of the night, they "share our loneliness, aloneness and fantasies." Their frustrations , their fears and their desires are those of every urbanized man. David Davis' set - a large bar with stools set on stage right - catches the 1940s ambience of Hopper's paintings. Throughout the work , the bar takes on a real presence. It becomes the recipient of all that cannot pass between two human beings - the support for those who sit alone, the base on which dreams can be enacted , the object of the bartender's care. Tragically, it absorbs the feelings which man can never communicate. As the curtain rises, the bartender, danced by David Wood, is seen at the bar. The music of Tommy Dorsey electronically re-scored by Ann Southam sets a re laxed low-keyed mood. Suddenly, there is an ominous rumble. The bartender leaps in terror, falls, then clears his eyes with sweeping arm gestures and sits down at the bar. This Alice-in-Wonderland plunge takes him from a state of aloneness a largely self-imposed exile - to the land of the lonely, a place where feelings are involuntary and overwhelming . Here desire and fantasies explode. The patrons enter, each caught up in his own impressions. Sara Pettitt comes off well as a blowsy 1940s doll and Peter Randazzo is as close as one could come to Eliot's Hollow Man. Randazzo has a paradoxical controlled looseness and an unhinged quality that enables him to move his limbs in puppet-like fashion. He moves about with flat feet in a kind of bounce-shuffle that gives an abstract soulless character to his role as observerparticipant. He sees and mimics all the roles played in the bar - the routine conquest, the poised swaggering , the meaningless chattering. He even executes some empty cartwheels of fun. As the patrons leave, the ominous rumble is heard again and the bartender is almost crucified by an agonizing reality. In the second and third episodes, the bartender explores the deadening effects of 18 alcohol and sees the world of the undes ira of gangsters and prostitutes. Here to o, is no release from the state of loneli es& Instead, this repetition, which begins to the audience restless, gradually revea ls terrifying truth of what Robert Frost w• For those "Acquainted with the N i aloneness and loneliness eventually bee interchangeable. The strange mood of Hopper's painti ; echoed on the stage as the curtain fa lls. Visions for a Theatre of the M Randazzo's second offering, is dominate: an anonymous musician who sits on s:a tapping a resonant wood block. In opening and closing sections, the tr-ee dancers' movements are orchestrated b :repetitive hollow sound . During the mi section , the tapping ceases and the da n slip out of their Grahamesque cloaks a caps. Have they gained some kind of re lea~ This kind of specific symbol is not ccliched but superfluous and distracti ng. Although there is some tentat ive exp _ ation of group relationships in this sec the movement which began in a t igcontrolled manner remains so. Quick tu rns the head to left and right, semi-oriental ju and arm movements combine to give a : two-dimensional effect. The expected vis leads to nothing. Disappointing ly , :dancers are called back by the musicia n. capped and re-cloaked, to begin what have never really stopped doing. If ·purpose of all this is that there should be purpose, then Randazzo has excelled . ·=- In Visions, the same soulless quality wh :.carried Randazzo through Nighthawks gi,ei his dancing an existential touch well su itec • the piece. He has a definite flair fo r •absurd . Helen Jones and Susan Macpherscon the other hand, are too calculatin_ vacuous. On the same program , David Ear e Quartet, another premiere , offers :-_ hackneyed bondage-freedom metaphor o :::e again. Patricia Beatty's hot and cold her _ remains as fresh and concise a summary _ the si xt ies as a Rauschenberg painting . -er female is a marvellous combination of toughness and seductiveness that are fo -: in the aggressive ritual of the rock generar-- Virginia so· o Sarah Pettitt of the Toronto Dance Theatre in Nighthawks. Regina Modern Dance Workshop May 6 - 9, 1976 Regina zeprinted with the permission of the Regina_eader-Post. "'1 ove a body within an empty space and the _::ace will change. Positive shapes describe -eg ative space. Photo: Christopher Darling. folk, and country and western to silence. The choreographies are done by the dancers, particularly their co-directors Marian ne Liv ant and Maria Formolo. Susan Jane Arnold designed the costumes and lighting which played an important role in the show. Miss Formolo's education as a sculptor has influenced her choreography greatly. Forms and brief tableau are as vital as movement in her work. Even her style of movement is slightly more angular and solid than the linear flowing motion of the other dancers, especially Connie Moker. For The Rainbow Dance, elastic strings ::retch between arms and legs. When the bs are shifted, the bands create the boxes - which the dancers move. The strings : ange the environment on the bare stage e movable scenery and set up dynamic e si on which emphasizes the twisting - sc les and planes of bodies under skintight : stumes invisible in the blue light. This sculptural quality is directly contrasted by Dry Run, created by guest choreographer Peter Boneham of Montreal. Dry Run completes the second section of the performance and is done without music. The slap of the dancers' feet on the wooden stage and their exaggerated breathing are the accompaniment. The sound springs directly out of the dance, completely different from customary musical frameworks which are danced upon. Small bells are added to the dancers' bodies, one by one, punctuating the action. Circular motion is important in Dry Run which dissolves into a red-lit spiral running off stage. he company performed a two-hour :·ogram, dancing to music which ranged - m medieval Italian through contempora ry If the evening 's second section can be called experimental , the third brings the company back to the actuality of the Th e Regina Modern Dance Workshop :e ebrates this discovery with The Rainbow : ance, part of the second section of its spring - _rformance. contemporary situation. Dehumanization, the problems of highrise living and the boredom of waiting are the themes of the third part. Layers, choreographed by Allan Risdill, places the dancers behind death masks. The audience grows used to strong eye contact with dancers, especially with Belinda Weitzel. The loss of this makes the bland sightless faces particularly shocking. Connie Moker and David Weller fight their way up through the layers of depersonalization to dance a graceful love duet, followed with jealousy by three hooded furies. Housing and Bus Depot+ Auction are the only pieces using stage props. A ladder symbolizes apartment houses where "One man's ceiling is another man's floor," through which the dancers weave an aggressive contest for survival. Bus Depot+ Auction ends the performance on a comic level. Modern dance is in many ways the extension of natural movement. This chair dance explores the kinetics of waiting. It seems to be saying that dance is a part of everyday activity, echoing comic strip characters created by Charles Schultz: "To dance is to live; to live is to dance." Mac Swackhammer 19 Regina Modern Dance Workshop. Photo: Dick Gustin. • • • • The Summer Festival of the Arts at British Columbia's Burnaby Arts Centre is showing several dance events this summer: The Family Bathtub Puppet Dance Theatre from Seattle, Washington ; four BC contemporary dancers (Janice Leblond , Peggy Florin , Hugh Macpherson and Muna Tseng) in an evening program ; and diverse communi ty ethnic dancers in a special evening of ethnic dance • • • • The co llaboration between Anna Wyman and Michael Hayden (whose sculpture she saw in Toronto this winter) has resulted in his creating a 36-foot ladder of neon light units that can be sequenced in different co lours, patterns and speeds, controlled by a technician working a li ghti ng board. The scu lpture can be suspended and is flexible enough t o form any desig n. " T he ligh t s alone are a kind of choreography," says Anna Wym an who created a new piece using the sculpture this summ er. A supplement to Hay den's sculpture is a laser deflector asse mbly in wh ich a laser beam generates patterns analogous to the music . The stagi ng and cre ation of this new production for the Anna Wyman Dance th ea re ancouver was made possible through grants fro he Ca ada Cou c il and the DuMaurier Council for the Pe rformi ng Arts • • • • e Paul a Ross Dancers have added two peop le o i s adminis ra i 1e s· e: Stephen Ch itty as administrative di rec or a a Ed eaga as rector. 20 • • • • Contemporary Dancers of Winnipeg have announced plans': next year. In early November they begin a six-week tour of WesteCanada and after that, they embark on a college circuit tour of -,e American Mid-West. Four choreographers will be engaged - ~ Glauser, Anna Blewchamp, Cliff Keuler and Paula Ross - and art is• : director Rachel Browne is also creating a new piece to a su composed by a local musician. This piece will be shown in Jan uaduring CDW's home season. CDW 's fund raising campaign has al rea= collected $35,000. The Manitoba government has agreed to match;-;; amount raised by the company dollar for dollar. On January 10, 19-Contemporary Dancers will appear at Ottawa's National Arts Ce n °e • • • • CBC 's Music to See (May 30) featured Alberta Ballet Compa soloist Lillian Baldyga, Shelley C ronie and John Kaminski in three ne works, all choreographed by ABC director Jeremy Leslie-Spin ks. - -= company , in its final appearance this season (June 17), presented e pieces by promising Alberta choreographers: from the A lbe~.: Contemporary Dance Theatre, Ron Holgerson created Departu -= from the Grant MacEwan Community College, Morri Murray sh o ,;: Hoedown and Moira McLoughin staged Canon; three ABC dancaemade their choreographic debuts, including Paula Groul x, Da, : Watkins (For Four, to Two ) and Lambros Lambrou (In Sum merti er= •••• In June, the Alberta Contemporary Dance Thea tre went or;;- ·= : ic tour of Egypt, Israel and Cyprus, in a two-hour show for the - ;ed Nations Peacekeeping Forces stationed in these countries •• • Regina Modern Dance Workshop has just wound up a tour of - .nern Manitoba and Saskatchewan. In each community visited, the ~pany performed repertoire works and then invited local musicians ::; ay afterwards, providing music for an informal dance in which -.:!)'O ne, audience and performers, took part. The idea for this grew _. of the company's experiences during its spring season in Regina - its tour of southern Saskatchewan. After appearances in Montreal : at Conference '76 in Halifax, the company sets out for another ·ee-week residency program and tour aiming to involve dance and -ce rs more fully in community life. RMDW also is instituting a dance ::: ange program this fall in which other groups - native dancers, ~ai nian and Highland dancers, karate and yoga practitioners - will nv ited to perform and trade ideas about their fields. Also busy in e search for funds, the company received $1500 from the Regina : :1 Council for workshops this fall•••• The Royal Winnipeg Ballet -- added Australian dancers Gary Norman and Gailene Stock to its _ster of principals. Both danced with the National Ballet for two years. add ition RWB corps member Eric Hornstein has been promoted to ,: oi st status and principal Ana Maria de Gorriz, recently wed, is ea in g the company to settle in Montreal. Five Canadian students the professional student program have been absorbed into the 71 pany. New works we can expect to see sometime next year at the :: ',B include a piece by Stuart Sebastian to Glazunov's The Seasons, -d t wo by Oscar Araiz to Mahler's Fourth Symphony and Bach 's agnificat. The RWB embarks on a heavy touring schedule in the year - a fall tour of Western Canada and Western and Central U.S. (mid: :I. to Dec. 10) - before its Christmas stand in Winnipeg . ,mneth Lipitz of the Contemporary Dancers of Winnipeg in The to be Simple. Photo: J. Coleman Fletcher. Muna Tseug and Janice Lebloud in Orange. Photo: Jennifer Lee Scott. • • • • The National Ballet has announced its plans for its 25th anniversary season (Nov. 12-20) at Toronto's O'Keefe Centre. Cranko's Romeo and Juliet will make a welcome return to the repertoire (new costumes will replace those lost in a major fire) and a new addition is Frederick Ashton's La Fi/le Mal Gardee, the piece American critic Nancy Goldner once called "a happy masterpiece." Also in the works is a huge conference on ballet, drawing on a pool of international artists and authorities. It seems like a marvellous way to celebrate an anniversary. (Dance in Canada Magazine will devote its November issue to the National Ballet.) Fernando Bujones was so impressed by NBC principal Veronica Tennant when he guested with the company this winter that he called upon her as a partner in several subsequent American performances. Tennant's growing reputation in North America has been confirmed by offers from the H urok organization for appearances throughout the country. Karen Kain, performing with Roland Petit's Ballets de Marseille at the Paris Opera in Petit's new work Nana (based on Emile Zola's naturalistic novel), took Paris by storm. Afterwards she partnered Rudolph Nureyev in London's Festival Ballet production of Sleeping Beauty. Frank Augustyn took the role of the Bluebird in the same production and London critics acclaimed both Canadian dancers. Leaving the National Ballet for the Royal Winnipeg is principal dancer Gary Norman (originally a star with the Australian Ballet); accompanying him to Winnipeg as a soloist is Gailene Stock. Stephen Jeffries of Britain's Royal Ballet (recently named Dancer of the Year by Dance and Dancers) will replace Norman. His wife, Rashna Homji , will join the company as a soloist. Hans Van Manen's Four Schumann Pieces, originally choreographed for Anthony Dowell of the Royal Ballet, was added to the National's repertoire during the company's annual appearance at the New York Metropolitan Opera House this summer; Rudolph Nureyev took the leading role. Before its big anniversary season, the NBC undertakes its semi-annual tour of the Atlantic provinces and Quebec (Sept. 20-Oct. 13) • • • • Toronto Dance Theatre has had an unusually busy summer. In July the company took part in the Cultural Olympics in Montreal and then returned to Toronto to give its first summer season, ten performances at Toronto Workshop Productions in July (all performances began at 10 pm) . The company presented seven works from the repertoire and three original pieces choreographed by senior dancer Susan Macpherson, TOT musician Ricardo Abreut and ex-TOT dancer Kathryn Brown . TOT has added two new members to its roster, Chuck Flanders and Dindi 21 Everard Woods and David Watkins of the Alberta Ballet Co. in Trios. Lidge. In August David Earle and Patricia Beatty joined Danny Grossman (guest choreographer and dancer with the company next season) and Judith Hendin in performances at the Dance in Canada Conference '76 in Halifax • • • • Marijan Bayer, artistic director of Toronto's Marijan Bayer Dance Company , went to Hamilton, Bermuda this summer to set three of his works (Picaresque, Scythian Suite and Tubular Bells) on the Bermuda Civic Ballet. Two of his dancers, Linda Mazur and Bertrand Lariviere, guested with the Bermuda compa ny at that time. On his return, Bayer will begin a new piece in collabo ration with composer-musician David Tanner, a former member of t he Canadian rock group Lighthouse • • • • The University of Western O ntario Modern Dance Group rece ived a grant to present a dance concert at the University's Talbot Theatre (June 24-26) • • • • Dance makers is going to take advantage of Toronto Workshop Productions with a season of new works there at the end of November • • ••B allet VS did a special Wintario-sponso red tour of Ontario for the province's own Cultural Olympi_ c s program in August. The tour included three free open-air performances in Toronto (Aug. 8-10) at Queen's Park Circle in Toronto. The tour presen ted contemporary Canadian ballets by Robert Desrosiers. Terr il l Maguire, An n Ditch burn, Gail Benn and Stephen Greenston. Bal let YS has a heavy to u ri ng schedule ahead of it-Western Canada in late September and October and Eastern Canada in November • • • • Judy Jarvis , invited t o c h oreograph a piece for the reperto ry company of the Brigham Yo ung U n iversity, in Provo, Utah , went there for 10 days at the end of Augu st. • • • • Les Grands Ballets Canadiens will be coordinating its activities next y ear w ith th ose of visiting troupes. Ballet Cologne and the Dutch Nat ional B allet will ap pear i n October and in April, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. T he company itsel f w ill present a new Swan Lake, recreating as accurately as possi bl e th e o riginal Russian version in St. Petersburg. A t C hristmas Les Grands pe rfor ms Nutcracker fo r the last time before reti rin g it from t e re e oire and , in an unconventional gesture, Les G rands w ill allm • aJa ences to ch oose their favourite works from the rep ertoire i ri r ee or o' " G reatest Hits" selected by audience b allo. i h '1 e ne' o o' as e ial Can ada Co uncil grant, the company h eld its arnua c o·eog•ar:~e•s· • ·or ksho p at t he Centaur 11 Theatre (June 2-5 . T • one ,•, •, o• s , _a erne M ey er, as sociat e director of Eng land"s ,• es:er~ - - ea:·e ::a 11: a d ·ounde r an d di rector of the 22 Northern Dance Theatre of Great Britain, were shown as well as w or • s by Alexandre Belin, Judith Marcuse, Renald Rabu and B riaMacdonald . Les Grands lately seems to be very effective in engag i ; the cooperation of Quebec's general artistic community an d t~;; company organized a dance gala on May 28 at the Expo Theatre. T - e purpose - to raise $25,000 for victims (primaril y artists left homeless of the Guatemala earthquake. Headlining the program was legendary Cuban dancer Alicia Alonso, former American Bal s· Theatre star and founder of the Cuban National Ballet, dancing a pas de deux from Swan Lake with Kirov-trained Jorge Esquival. Severa dancers from the National Ballet of Guatemala took part in the be ne' • Christa Murtins danced with Vincent Warren (a principal of Lese Grands), and Richard Deveaux and Sonia Juarez performed severa pas de deux. Also on the bill were members of Les Grands, Le Thea National du Mime du Quebec, Entre-Six, Le Groupe Nouvellaire, Le~ Ballets Jazz and Le Groupe de la Place Royale •••• Le Groupe de a Pl ace Royale co-artistic directors Peter Boneham and Jean-P ier•= Perreault choreographed a new piece together, Les Nouveac. , Espaces, for the Cultural Olympics and w ill show it again in ::;c November Montreal season at the McGill University Theatre, alo :;: with new works by the two directors . Then, in November as we ll, Groupe undertakes a tour of Quebec and Ontario, including a fi ve- da, appearance at Ottawa's National Arts Centre (Nov. 1-5) • • • • e Groupe Nouvella ire is spending the fall in an extensive series c workshops in order to develop new pieces for the repertoire . Plan s a•: also afoot for a dance festival of all Quebec companies organized the provincial government in Quebec City in which Nouvellaire , take part • • • • Les Ballets Jazz got the Cultural Olympics under .a this summer with a new piece by artistic director Eva von Genes called Fleur de /is, a kind of history of the world, wr itten by Ma ree Dube and composed by Claude Leveillee. Half the company then we-· to Banff for a residency and teaching situation there w ith Eva Gencsy. In the fall, plans inc lude a tour of Quebec in October and a t• :: to the Caribbean in November. Les Grands' artistic director Br ia.Macdonald is setting Carapaces on the company with mus: by his long-time collaborator Harry Freedman, performed (o n ta by the Canadian rock group Lighthouse. It will be shown in Janu ary:; Les Ballets Jazz. -= = = • • • •Island Dance Ensemble (based in PEI) took part on J un e 1~ the PEI Arts Council Festival with a dance worksh o p. 0 n June 21 _ · ou pe showed Tri-Cycles, a work on patterns in life and nature, augurating Charlottetown 's three-day Natal Day Festivities • • •• Jn iversity of New Brunswick Dance Theatre conducted workshops .;.'ld demonstrations at the New Brunswick Art Teachers Association ,lay 6) and performed at the New Brunswick Museum in St. John ~u ne 12) as part of a program celebrating the opening of the new art ;all ery wing there. Haber's Personal Management , • • • Dance in Canada board member David Haber, former artistic c·rector of the National Ballet, has established a new personal an agement firm. Already enlisted under his banner are National al let principals Karen Kain, Frank Augustyn and Veronica Tennant. udging by the enthusiastic response to the service he offers, it seems : ere is a great need for personal management in this country and --iaber is probably the individual most qualified in Canada to do it. State Of The Arts At Couchiching •• • • The 45th Couchiching Conference considered the state of the arts in Canada in 1976, 25 years after the publication of the Massey "leport. The conference was held August 3-8 at Geneva Park, Lake Co uchiching, Orillia, Ontario. worth a maximum of $7,000 plus travel and production cost allowances where necessary. This is the greatest number of arts grants ever awarded by the dance office of the Canada Council. High Schools Get In The Act • • • • Four Ontario high schools carry a credit course in dance and a new course, the fifth , has been added to the grade 13 curricu lum at Toronto's Harbord Collegiate. Cultural Olympics: An Orgy Of Dance • • • • The following companies and soloists performed at the Cultural Olympics, that orgy of theatrical offerings accompanying the 21st Sports Olympiad in Montreal this summer: Les Ballets Jazz, Les Ballets Modernes du Quebec , Le Groupe de la Place Royale, EntreSix , Toronto Dance Theatre, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Le Groupe Nouvellaire, Compagnie de danse Eddy Toussaint, Dancemakers , Regina Modern Dance Workshop, the Judy Jarvis Dance and Theatre Company, Paula Ross Dancers, Kathryn Brown , Rachel Browne and Le Theatre de Danse Contemporaine. I Dancemakers (Gary Goodwin, David Langer and Bill Holahan) rehearsing Forest. Grantsmanship Calgary Coordination Of Dance • • • • Because of reservations expressed by some of its member companies about the effectiveness of Dance in Canada Association, t he Canada Council has used a new and unusual formula for funding the association in 1976-77 in order to test the association's relationships with professional companies in the field. Of the total $27,500 grant awarded (a 10% increase over last year's grant), $12,500 w as divided among ten member companies who have the option of either keeping the money for themselves or handing it over to Dance in Canada. At a subsequent board and regional meeting that took place in Montreal, the Quebec membership recommended that the association reject the formula on principle and thattheten companies selected by Council as arbiters request the funds for their own use. A letter to this effect has been sent to Council from the chairman of the board of Dance in Canada. • • • • The Ontario Arts Council has awarded Dance in Canada Association $4,000 towards operating, administrative and program costs for Conference '76 in Halifax this summer•••• Nine dance rs received Canada Council arts grants this round of competition: Brian Armstrong , Peggy Baker, Anna Blewchamp, Valerie Ford , Helene Gren ier, Le igh Griffiths, David N ixon , Merle Salsberg and Barry Smith (a renewal). The award is • • • • Two members of Dance in Canada Association, drama professor Robert Greenwood and physical education professor Sylvia Shaw (both at the University of Calgary) have formed the Dance and Th eatre Arts Calgary Society (DAT ACS) to aid sponsorship and coordination of performances and other theatre and dance projects. DAT ACS also hopes to establish contacts with resource personnel , to provide information on available funding , and to aid in communication between various performing groups and between these and the Calgary community at large. Dance To Be Heard, Not Seen • • • • The CBC is scheduling a new 90-minute dance music program for weekly radio broadcast next fall. Harry Mannis is the host for the program (no title set as of this writing) which will be heard every Sunday on CBC-FM at 3pm. The first subject (November 7) will be the National Ballet's anniversary production of Frederick Ashton 's La Fi/le Mal Gardee and the following week, the program will cover the new Swan Lake of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. In addition to music, the program will air interviews, profiles, discussions and reviews from Canada and from other countries. 23 Letters from the Field A la Redactrice: Je vous serais obligee de publier la lettre ouverte su ivante dans vos colonnes. Dans sa lettre au Redacteur de Danse au Canada (livraison 'Spring 1976, N° 8'), M. Fernand Nault fait trois affirmations, a savoir: 1) qu'i l n'a pas donne son accord au Rapport Brinson; 2) qu'i l n'a pas eu !'occasion de lire ce rapport en entier; 3) qu'il m'a ecrit pour demander co pie du rapport et que je la lui ai refusee , et n'ai pas voulu recevoir ses critiques du rapport, alleguant qu'elles arrivaient trop tard. Permettez-moi de repondre aces affirmations dans l'ordre ou elles sont faites: 1) Le Rapport Brinson a ete presente au sous-comite de la danse de la Commission consultative des Arts, le 28 octobre 1974. Etaient presents: Mme Anna Wyman et MM. Fernand Nault et Richard Rutherford. Le sous-co mite a discute du rapport et a resolu de recommander son adoption au Conseil des Arts, sans modification et avec la seule observation que c'etait un expose courageux, qui allait droit au but et provoquerait sans doute des difficultes politiques pour le Conseil , lequel etait seul apte a juger de l'opportunite de faire face aces difficultes. Le rapport du sous-com ite a ensu ite ete presente a la Commission consultative des Arts en seance pleniere; M. Nault etait present, et la recommandation du sous-comite a ete adoptee a l'unanimite. Par la suite le Conseil des Arts , saisi de la recommandation et des observations de la Commission consultative a, com me on le sait, adopte le Rapport Brinson. 11 est normal qu 'un rapport soit presente a la Commission consultative des Arts avant de l'etre au Conseil puisque cette Commission (entierement composee d'artistes), a precisement pour mission , comme son nom l'indique, d'agir aupres du Conseil comme conseiller en matieres artistiques. A noter de plus que M. Nault, au moment de l'etude du Rapport Brinson, en etait a sa troisieme an nee comme membre de la Commission. 2) Le rapport presente a la Commission cons ultative contenait non seulement ce qui a ete re produit dans Danse au Canada (l ivraison 'W inter 1976, N° 7'), mais aussi les recommand ations. La seule partie demeuree confidentielle est !'analyse particuliere des trois ecoles, pou r les motifs invoques dans !'Introduction au Rapport Brinson , reproduite dans Danse au Canada . Le sous-comite a re 9u cette meme explication lorsque le rappo rt lu i fut presen e. Les Grands Balles Ca adiens ont depuis e rapport et les reco mma n ue la parti e e ent l' Ecole e•e qu'il ne lui cer:e a a lyse 24 publique, mais ne s'oppose pas a ce que l'ecole le fasse, si elle le juge a propos. 3) Je n'ai pas refuse a M. Nault le texte complet du Rapport Brinson . Dans la lettre qu'il mentionne, et que j'ai bien re9ue , ii ne me le demandait pas. S'il l'avait fait, je n'aurais pu acceder a sa demande avant d'en avoir re9u l'autorisation du Consei I. Lorsque cette permission m'a ete donnee, j'ai expedie le rapport aux Grands Ballets Canadiens ainsi qu'aux deux autres ecoles. II est possible que M. Nault n'ait pas garde copie de sa lettre, qui etait ecrite a la main. Dans cette lettre, datee du 19 fevrier, ii me prevenait qu'il ne pourrait assister a la prochaine reunion de la Commission consultative des Arts , et poursuivait: "Je profile de cette occasion pour vous parler du rapport de Monsieur Brinson que vous nous avez si gentiment laisse lire lors de notre derniere assemblee". Nulle mention que je n'aurais pas donne a chacun le temps ou !'occasion de le lire convenablement. M . Nault, dans sa lettre a Danse au Canada, affirme que j'ai refuse de recevoir ses commentaires sur le Rapport Brinson , alleguant qu 'ils arrivaient trop tard. II etait trop tard en effet, quatre mois s'etaient ecoules entre la reunion de la Commission consultative des Arts et l'arrivee au Conseil de la lettre de M. Nault. Seulement, cette lettre ne contena it pas de commentaires sur le Rapport; elle sou levait une objection de orincipe sur les mecanismes d'evaluation des ecoles, observations qui auraient pu etre faites a la reunion a laquelle M. Nault avait assiste. J'ai done repondu a M. Nault, dans une lettre datee du 3 mars 1975: "En pratique done, nous avons le Rapport Brinson et c'est, en fail, une seule opinion . C'est la raison pour laquelle nous vous l'avons presente en souscomite avant de la faire voir au Consil. C'est a ce moment, car vous y etiez, qu 'il aurait fallu di re ce que vous m'ecrivez maintenant . J'aurais pu, si les autres membres etaient d'accord , faire part de cette reserve au Conseil ". · J'ai cru devoir faire cette mise au point , non pas pour nu ire a M. Nault, mais pour montrer que le Conseil, dans cette affaire, s'est comporte de fa9on parfaitement reguliere , et en accord avec l'avis unanime de sa commission consultative, don! M. Nault faisait partie avec deux autres representants du monde de la danse. Ce mode de consultation , con forme a la maniere d'agir habituelle du Conseil, est sans doute perfectible , mais dans !'ensemble, ii parait avoir bien servi la cause des arts au cours des annees. Monique Michaud Chef du Service de la danse Conseil des Arts du Canada (Translation provided by the Canada Council) To the Editor: In his letter to the editor of Dance in Canada (Spring 1976, issue N° 8) Mr. Fernand Nault makes the following three statements: 1) that he did not give his approval to the Brinson Report; 2) that no opportunity was given him to read the report in its entirely; and , 3) that his written request for a copy of t he report was refused by me as were his rese rv ations concerning the report, on the grounds that they we·e forwarded too late for consideratio~ I should like to reply to these allegations int =order in which they were made: 1) The Brinson Report was submitted to t e dance sub-committee of the Ca nada Council 's Advisory Arts Panel on Octobe r 28 1974. The sub-committee cons isted of Mrs. Anna Wyman , Mr. Fernand Nault and Mr_ Richard Rutherford . All three were present. The sub-committee studied the report ana decided to recommend its adoption to the Council without amendment, and with the sole observation that it was a courageo us statement that went to the heart of the matter, but that since it was likely to raise poli tica prob lems, only the Council was in a positio to decide whether it was prepared to face those problems. Subsequently, the dance sub-committee's recommendations and report were submitted to the Advisory Arts Panel in plenary sess ion and were unan imously adopted, Mr. Na ut being present. At a later meeting the Canada Council, having been duly made aware of the observation s o' its Advisory Arts Panel , adopted the Brins on Report. It is normal procedure to submit a report o' this nature to the Advisory Arts Panel before bringing it before the Council. As its title indicates, the 'raison d'etre' of the Adviso ry Arts Panel is precisely to advise the Cou nci l on artistic matters. It should also be noted that Mr. Nault was serving his third year as a member of the Panel when the Brins on Report was considered. 2) The report presented to the Advisory Arts Panel included not only that portion whic appeared in Dance in Canada (Winter 1976, issue N° 7) but also the recommendat ions. The only portion of the Brinson Report whic remained confidential was that wh ic contained the specific analysis of eac school. The confidentiality of that portion o' the report was maintained for the re asons outlined in the ' Introduct ion to the Brin so Report' as published in Dance in Canada. T he dance sub-committee was given the same explanation when the report came up fo, study . The Grands Ballets Canadiens have since received a copy of the Brinson Report with t e recommendations as well as the anal ys dealing specifically w ith l'Ecole superi eure The Counci l does not feel that it should ma e this analysis public, but has no objecti on the Grands Ballets Canadiens doing so. 3) Mr. Nault was not refused the com ple~e text of the Brinson Report. I did indeea receive the letter to which Mr. Nault refers. : did not, however, include a request for a coo of the report. In any case , before compl yir;; with such a request , I would have had to see• the Council 's authorization . When I a : receive Council 's permission to do so, I se~· the report to the Grands Ballets Canadiens GE well as to the other schools. Perhaps '· Nault d id not keep a copy of his letter da•e: February 19, 1975, which was hand written. this letter, he informed me that he cou ld 1' • attend the forthcoming meeting of Advisory Arts Panel, and added: " ... I ta ke·~ s opportunity to mention the Brins on Re which you so kindly let us read at our as· meeting". In no way did Mr. Nault inti a·= that the members of the Ad visory Arts Pa~= were not given ample time and opportun • read the report. ·-= n his open letter to Dance in Canada, Mr. ault further states that I refused to accept his eservations concerning the Brinson Report as they were being voiced too late. It was ndeed too late, as four months had elapsed netween the Advisory Arts Panel meeting and :he arrival of Mr. Nault's letter in my office. hi s letter, in fact, did not comment on the report as such ; it merely objected in principle -o the mechanics of the evaluat ion procedure, an objection which could have been raised at t he meeting at which the report was presented. In my letter dated March 3, 1975 , I herefore replied : "As a practical matter, we h ave the Brinson Report and it is one opinion o nly. For that very reason it was presented to t he dance sub-committee before being su bmitted to Council. At that time , you should have made your reservations known. With the approval of the other members, I could then have made the Council aware of your reservations". ambassadors when we venture abroad. Arnold Spohr, our artistic director, is constantly experimenting with Canadian choreography. He has brought NorbertVesak to the front, and is including works by Lawrence Gradus and Larry Hayden - both Canadians - in the coming season. I believe a look into the RWB by your staff wou Id reveal rewarding material for future issues of Dance in Canada. Also, I would like to bring to your attention the Banff Centre of Fine ns. ooe you w ill be sending someo ne o co e • e estival performances , August 3 - 6, a d o ake a good look at all that is happe i g ere - it's another rich source of material for Dance in Canada. I hope I have perked up your ears enough that you will investigate these subjects. Tha nk you for listening. Frank Garoutte Royal Winnipeg Ballet I thoug ht I should set the record straight, not out of any ill feelings toward Mr. Nault, but because they show that the Council handled this matter in a perfectly normal way and in accordance with the unanimous reco mmendation of its Advisory Arts Panel , of which Mr. Nault was a member along with two other dance personalities. While this method of cons ultation may not be perfect, it does seem to have been generally beneficial to the arts over the years. Monique Michaud Head, Dance Section, Canada Council. To the editor: I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you and the rest of the staff of Dance in Canada for the exposure you are giving Canadian dance. Compared to Dance Magazine from New York, Dance in Canada shows the world the rapid growth of Canadian companies and artists. EDMONTON,ALBERTA NOV. 10-12 alberta contemporary dance theatre Box 834 Edmonton, Alberta T5J 2L4 My main concern in writing to you is the possibility of future coverage of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. I have been a member of the company for seven seasons, but have failed to see the RWB and its artists get the exposure they deserve. Please excuse me for tooting my own horn for a few minutes, but the Royal Winnipeg Ballet is one of Canada's greatest exports and we are considered Canadian Jacqueline Ogg Charlene Tarver Ronald Holgerson 423-4193 REPRESENTING CANADA'S FINEST ARTISTS AND ATTRACTIONS INTERNATIONALLY & TOP INTERNATIONAL TALENT IN CANADA Dauid Ciaber Hrtists management Inc. ARTISTS' MANAGEMENT TOUR DIRECTION AND CO-ORDINATION PRESENTATION PRODUCTION CONSULTATION Tel: (416) 964-2385 1235 Bay Street Suite 500 Toronto Ontario M5R 3K4 Canada Cable: Haberarts 25 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! The Upstairs at 659 Yonge St. Toronto M4Y 1Z9 (416 ) 922-7175 National Ballet Of Canada Toronto August 16 - 21 Ontario Place St. John's, Newfoundland September 22 - 25 The Newfoundland Arts and Culture Centre Halifax, Nova Scotia September 29 - October 2 Rebecca Cohn Auditorium Dalhousie Arts Centre Charlottetown, P.E.I. October 5 & 6 Confederation Centre of the Arts Fredericton, New Brunswick October 8 & 9 The Playhouse Sherbrooke, Quebec October 12 & 13 Salle Maurice O'Bready Cultural Centre University of Sherbrooke Toronto November 12 -20 O'Keefe Centre a season celebrating the 25th anniversary of the National Ballet of Canada 157 King S:Tee- Eas:. -:-oroc:·o. On:ario MS C 1G9 26 Nelson (416) 362-1041 BALLET: An illustrated History Mary Clarke & Clement Crisp/$14.50 " . . . the fairest, most comprehensive and best-illustratec history of theatrical dancing now available .. . a mu ltitude of fascinating and unfamiliar pictures, ... of enormous value." Lincoln Kirstein "a most interesting and informative book for all students .. ." Alicia Markova 245pp / b&w photos throughout BALLET TECHNIQUE Tamara Karsavina Forward by Margot Fonteyn/$3.75 =- Technical essays of interest to both student and teac by the famous ballerina of the Diaghileff era. "She as found the way to tra nslate her balletic wisdom in to prosa Dame Margot Fonteyn Illustrated with 27 b&w photos CANADA ON STAGE CANADIAN THEATRE REVIEW YEARBOOK 1975 "A dazzling province-by-province record of plays professionally produced in Canada from January 1 to December 31. The pictorial value alone makes it an instant collector's item." The Toronto Sun "An excellent catalogue of theatre. Attractively designed, handsomely produced, crammed with information that is nowhere else so readily accessible, this is a most important theatre book." The Toronto Sun "A handsome and exhaustive account of everything and everyone who trod the boards in this country last year. For those who follow theatre closely, it is positively invaluable." The Globe and Mail • covering 100 theatres • over 350 photos • cast lists • production dates • directors • designers • playwrights • 320 pages • completely indexed • hardcover $14.95 (plus 35¢ postage & handling) CANADIAN THEATRE REVIEW, York University, 4700 Keele Street., Downsview, Ontario. 27 International Dance Conference The Canada Council offers to professionals in the arts: The National Ballet of Canada 25th Anniversary Ballet: Classical and Conteilll2sarythe next · years Louis Applebaum Peter Brinson Lukas Foss Harry Freedman Alexander Grant Robert Joffrey Ming Cho Lee Veronica Tennant Dame Ninette de Valois Norman Campbell George Crum William Littler Timothy Porteous Chaired by Vincent Tovell Senior Arts Grants for those who have made a significant contribution over a number of years. Worth up to S1 6,000 to cover living, production and travel costs. Closing dates: October 1 5, 1 976 for all disciplines and April 1, 1 977 for a second competition in visual arts and writing only. And others to be announced presenting papers on Ballet and Dancers Funding Criticism Film Video Music Design Choreography Nov.15, 16,1976 TownHall. St.Lawrence Centre for the ArtsJomnto. Registration Fee !inclusive all sessions) S60.00 (Limited registration- students S20.00) M.ail Order Regisrracion form co National Ballet of Canada. 15- King uee Ea.st. Toronto M.SC 1C9. 28 ■ Arts Grants for artists beyond the level of basic training. Worth up to $8,000 plus program costs not exceeding S1 ,000 and travel allowance, if needed. Closing dates: October 15, 1 976 for all disciplines and April 1, 1977 for all disciplines except music . Also, applications are accepted at any time for: Short Term Grants Travel Grants Project Cost Grants Film Production Grants Video Production Grants For further details, consult our Aid to Artists brochure or write to: The Canada Council Arts Awards Service P.O. Box 1047 Ottawa, Ontario K1P5V8 Lois Smith 1976 / 77 SEASON PROFESSIONAL COURSE School 0f Dance Programme of the George Brown College of Applied Arts and Technology 81 A Front Street East Toronto, Canada M5E 188 (416) 363-9945 A 2-year full time programme for advanced students intent on a performing career in dance. The course offers instruction in ballet, pointe, pas de deux, modern, jazz, reperoire and Benesh notation as well as providing regular performances to gain stage experience. In addition to the highly qualified faculty of the school, students will have the opportunity of working with renowned Guest Teachers. 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