Dance in Canada Magazine Number 14, Fall/Winter 1977/1978

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Dance in Canada Magazine No 14 Fall-Winter 1977-78 compressed.pdf
Dance in Canada Magazine No 14 Fall-Winter 1977-78 compressed.pdf
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Dance in Canada Magazine Number 14, Fall/Winter 1977/1978

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One copy of Dance in Canada Magazine Number 14, Fall/Winter 1977/1978

Contains the following articles:
- Editorial by Susan Cohen
- Dance in Canada Conference '77: Many Minutes of the Meeting by Elizabeth Zimmer
- Growing Pains by Michael Crabb
- Three Philosophical Approaches to Dance by Rose Hill
- Northern Saskatchewan Diary by Maria Formolo
- Profile: Peter Randazzo by Virginia Solomon
- Training the Dancer II by Rhonda Ryman
- Letters from the Field
- In Review
- Noticeboard
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Dance in Canada Magazine
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Choreography Royal Winnipeg Ballet Pedagogy Touring David Earle Peter Randazzo Susan Cohen Le Groupe de la Place Royale Toronto Dance Theatre Michael Crabb Conferences Betty Oliphant Maria Formolo Veronica Tennant Monique Michaud Grants Elizabeth Zimmer Style Lawrence Adams Twyla Tharp Jean-Pierre Perreault Virginia Solomon Regina Modern Dance Works Nighthawks Lauretta Thistle Graham Jackson Mary Fraker Oscar Araiz Adagietto Continuum Peter and the Wolf Audiences Rhonda Ryman Workshops Rose Hill American Ballet Theatre Holly Small Artpark Mikhail Baryshnikov David Best Agnes Mille Beryl Dunn Eliot Field Iris Garland Martha Graham Jeffrey Ballet Company Robert Jeffrey Lincoln Kerstein Tamara Karsayma Kyra Lober Martha Graham Dance Company Fred Mathews Lubomyr Melnyk Kelly Rude Marine Sheets Tay Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore The Nutcracker Agnes de Mille Astral Light Luna Mbira Nanti Malam Amber Garden L'Assassin Menace I Had Two Sons The Letter A Simple Melody Starscape Visions for a Theatre of the Mind Jupiter's Moon Andrea Smith Keith Urban David Weller Housing Aesthetics Directors Contact Juries Kinesiology Dance in Literature Manuels Technique Phenomenology Repertoire Jackie Malden Robert Greenwood Books on Dance Rite of Spring Joan Sinclair Toronto Free Theatre Groupe Nouvell'Aire
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01/10/1977
Magazine
Dance in Canada Magazine Number 14, Fall/Winter 1977/1978
Dance Collection Danse
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107.2009-55-2089
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$2. Fall/Winter 1977-78 Automne/Hiver Canada rence'77 CAPEZIO" Keeping pace with the changes in dance is a challenge that CAPEZIO has been meeting since 1887. MALABAR is proud to offer the com plete range of Capezio Toe Shoes, the classics like Assoluta, Nicolini and Pavlowa feature the standard shape with a tapered toe in varying strengths - ASSOLUT A No. 1 the lightest, NICOLINI No. 2 medium , and PAVLOWA No. 3 the strongest. ULTIMO offers a flatter shape with a medium broad toe, and the newest 37S Hargrave Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2K2 ph. 204-943-4506 Ja.spe, A enue, Edmonton, Alberta T5J 1Z7 ph. 403-423-3551 ~.. Road, Th der Ba y, Ontario P7B 3A6 ph. 807-345-0651 Capezio is CONTEMPRA with an extra broad squared off toe. Ultimo and Contempra are stocked in No. 2 Strength only but may be special ordered in varying strengths. MALABAR'S also offers a wide range of exciting fashion dance wear by Capezio and other famous makers your copy of our complete catalogue is waiting for you . Why not drop us a line today and we will rush it out to you. C ~-tfc&z5 ( ce-c:~ Ce)The ~~National Bal let School l AUDITIONS Dance in Canada ISSUE NUMBER 14 FALL/WINTER 1977-78 AUTOMNE/HIVER DANCE IN CANADA CONFERENCE '77 Many Minutes of the Meeting Elizabeth Zimmer Growing Pains Michael Crabb Three Philosophical Approaches to the Dance Rose Hill Northern Saskatchewan Diary Maria Formolo COMPLETED APPLICATION FORMS SHOULD BE RETURNED TO THE SCHOOL NO LATER THAN: Peter Randazzo • January 20, 1978 for: • Training the Dancer Sudbury Sault Ste. Marie Thunder Bay Winnipeg Regina Saskatoon Edmonton Calgary Victoria Vancouver • February 9, 1978 for: • Peterborough Belleville Ottawa Montreal Sherbrooke Trois Rivieres Quebec Chicoutimi • March 4, 1978 for: • PROFILE: Virginia Solomon Rhonda Ryman EDITORIAL LETTERS FROM THE FIELD IN REVIEW NOTICEBOARD EDITOR: Susan Cohen BUSINESS MANAGER: Nikki Abraham DESIGN: Dreadnaught EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Holly Small TRANSLATOR: Louise Meilleur SPECIAL THANKS TO: Ministry of Culture and Recreation, Ontario The Canada Council BC Cultural Fund COVER: Danny Grossman in Curious Schools of Theatrical Dancing, Part 1 (see Joan Sinclair's review of the Dance in Canada Conference '77). PHOTO CREDITS: Fredericton Saint John Moncton Halifax Charlottetown St. John's • March 11, 1978 for: • Hamilton London Windsor February 9, 1978: 1st Toronto Audition March 11, 1978: 2nd Toronto Audition Financial Assistance is available for full-time students For further information and Application Forms contact: The Registrar, 111 Maitland Street, Toronto, Ontario M4Y 1E4 Andrew Oxenham, cover, p. 34; Michael Crabb, pp. 4, 7; Eric Dzenis, p. 19; Christopher Darling, p. 20; Jan Woo, p. 37; Daniel Heon, p. 39; Cartoon by Jane Townsend, p. 29. Dance in Canada is published quarterly in Toronto, Canada by Dance in Canada Association. The views expressed in the articles in this publication are not necessarily those of Dance in Canada. The publication is not responsible for the return of unsolicited material ·unless 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 Associatton. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior written permission of the individual contributor and the Dance in Canada magazine. Back issues of Dance in Canada are available in microfi lm from Micromedia Limited, Box 502, Station's', Toronto, Ontario M5M 4L8. ISSN 03'7 -9737 Second class mail registration number 03874 Return postage guaranteed. Please send notification of change of address, subscription orders and undeliverable copies to: Danse au Canada est publiee trimestriellement a Toronto, Canada par /'Association de la Danse au Canada. Les opinions exprimees dans !es articles de cette publication ne sont pas obligatoirement ce lles de Danse au Canada. Le redaction n'assume aucune responsabilite quant au renvoi de materiel non solicitC, a mains que celui-ci ne soit accompagne d'une enveloppe-reponse affranchie et adressee. Abonnement: $6.50 par an. Prix du numero : $2.oo. Les membres de !'Association de la Danse au Canada recevront d'office le revue Danse au Canada. T ous dro is reserves. II est defendu de reproduire toute partie de cette publication sans avoir prCalablement obtenu le consentement Ccrit de rout auteur et de la revue Danse au Canada. Pour recevoir les vieux numfros de Danse au Canada en microfilm, adressez-vous Micromedia Limited, Box 502, Station's', Toronto, Ontario M5M 4L8 . ISSN 0317 -9737 Le numero recommande de la paste deuxiCme dasse 03874 Le frais d'envois paye. S'il vous plait faites parvenir votre changement d'adresse, les abonnements et les numCros non livrCs 3: Dance in Canada/Danse au Canada 3 Church St., Suite 401, Toronto M5E 1M2 DANCE IN CANADA 2 DAN SE AU CANADA Editorial Susan Cohen Dance in Canada, the association and the magazine, are both at a point of transition. The Association's rambunctious, raucous five-day conference in Winnipeg last August served notice on the arts community and on funding agencies that the stereotype of the dancer is no longer acceptable. Whatever else that conference demanded (and it was not always compellingly or logically argued by its most vocal members), the dance community made one major statement- artists now want a say in how decisions that affect their lives are arrived at and want to be responsible for themselves and the presentation of their art. By providing an atmosphere of questioning and an opportunity to exchange artistic and political ideas, the Association has been responsible for that. This issue deals mainly with the Winnipeg conference, that extraordinary emotional orgy. Elizabeth Zimmer and Michael Crabb look at it from two different perspectives - the personal and the general. Rose Hill's lecture on dance aesthetics, one that tended to get lost in the welter of name-calling, tirades and political exchanges in Winnipeg, is reprinted here; its preliminary work on comparing three philosophers on dance cannot help but challenge us to think about the art and its place in education and society. Rhonda Ryman, who presented a paper on anatomy at the conference, continues her series on dance training and points out that new ideas in training will demand a different breed of teacher, as familiar with anatomy, principles and theory as with techniques. The magazine too is at a point of transition. Next issu e, Michael Crabb will take over as editor and I will have moved on to a new position. I am pleased with the accomplishments of Dance in Canada in my three years as editor. The magazine was founded with the idea that Canadian dance and dancers had something distinctive to say - but they had no written outlets, there were few writers to discuss the ideas in and about the art, and there was little or no point of communication among the regions, companies and artists producing that art. Since I became editor, we have gone a long way towards creating that forum for the exchange of ideas. We have begun to develop a stable of Canadian writers who can communicate about dance sympathetically and knowledgeably. By looking at personalities and artistic ideas, I hope we have challenged many of the assumptions about dance in this country which motivate everyone from the bureaucrat to the teacher, from the performer to the audience. Although Canadian dance is our main concern, we have looked at it in the international context by presenting significant international developments for comparison. Michael Crabb will expand on my spade-work. He has demonstrated curiosity about the field, a knowledge of the art in Canada and outside, and a sensitivity to the spectrum of contemporary dance. Michael is an example of the new, pioneering Canadian dance writer. I am proud of the part this magazine has played over the last three years in establishing a body of literature and promoting a generation of readers and writers of Canadian dance. Dance in Canada will never again be an art with no one to speak for it. Danse au Canada, association et revue, se trouvent tou deux a la croisee des chemins. Lors des cinq jours de sa conference impetueuse et harassante a Winnipeg en aour dernier, !'association a signifie au monde des arts et aux agences de financement que le stereotype du danseur etair maintenant devenu inacceptable. Quelque autre chose qu'ait pu exiger la conference (ce qui n'etait pas toujour exprime de fa<;:on irrefutable ou logique par la plupart de membres presents} , le monde de la danse a fait une declaration d'importance, a savoir, !es artistes veu lent desormais un mot a dire dans !es prises de decisions qui affectent leur vie; ils veulent etre responsables d'eux memes et de la presentation de leur art. Et !'association a ete le principe moteur de ce changement en cream un climat de mise en question et en permettant !es echanges d'idees artistiques et politiques. Ce numero traite principalement de la conference de Winnipeg, orgie emotionnelle extraordinaire. La revue traverse aussi une periode de transition. Le prochain numero presentera Michael Crabb comme nouveau redacteur et j'occuperai alors de nouvelles fonctions. Je suis tres fiere des realisations de Danse au Canada au cours de mon mandat de trois ans a la redaction. La revue a pris naissance parce qu'on croyait que la danse et !es danseurs canadiens avaient quelque chose de concret et personnel a dire, mais qu'ils ne disposaient d'aucune ressource pour l'ecrire; ii y avait peu d'ecrivains pour discuter la philosophie de notre art et peu ou point de communication entre !es diverses regions, compagnies et artistes. Depuis mon arrivee comme redactrice, nous avons parcouru une longue route vers la creation d'un echange d'idees. Nous avons entrepris le developpement d'une ecole d'ecrivains canadiens capables de communiquer sur la danse de fa<;:on sympathique et bien informee. Un regard sur les personnalites et les idees artistiques me permet d'esperer que nous avons releve les defis que les nombreuses hypotheses sur la danse chez nous posent atous, du bureaucrate au professeur, de l'executant a l'auditoire. Quoique la danse canadienne demeure notre souci principal, nous l'avons etudiee clans un contexte international en presentant les developpements de signification internationale aux fins de comparaison. Michael Crabb ne se contentera pas de poursuivre mes travaux de sape. II en elargira !es cadres. II a demontre une curiosite du milieu, des connaissances de la scene artistiqu e au Canada et ailleurs ainsi qu'une grande sensibilite envers le monde de la danse contemporaine. Michael personifie ce nouvel ecrivain de danse canadien qui fait oeuvre de pionnier. Je suis fiere du role que notre revue a joue au cours des trois dernieres annees clans l'etablissement d 'un corps litteraire et la creation d'une generation de lecteurs et d'ecrivains de la danse canadienne. La 'danse au Canada' ne sera jamais plus un art sans porte-parole. DANCE IN CANADA 3 DANSE AU CANADA Elizabeth Zimmer Many Minutes of the Meeting In any case, the conference was in Winnipeg, but not R ose Hill, quoting Harold Osborne, in her paper on aesthetics at the con{erence: 'We move forward with our of it; it had less a regional quality than an emotional own generation, but we think and speak in the terms of tone, a fever pitch of commitment by a number of the preceding generation.' people to ideas neglected until recently by the dance community. In my view, the importance of this meeting, Lawrence Adams, at the Dancers to Dancers Forum: and I thought it a very important meeting indeed, lay in ·Pension plans are part of the r 9 50s myth of securing its exposure of these ideas - the political and economic our lives. Rather than worrying about them, we should realities facing the professional dance community - and be discussing alternative ways to support ourselves, in its debate of the relationship between art and politics, examining the lives we're living now and the implica- between training and creativity, between the search for standards and the opportunity to survive and experitions of those lives.' ment. Of course, it was impossible for one person to be Robert Greenwood, at the Annual General Meeting: everywhere; meetings spread over acres of campus; "Let's stop being each other's problems and start being thundershowers caught us unaware; sometimes the each other's solutions.' imperative of a midnight conversation overruled the intention to take a morning technique class. Almost always several sessions ran simultaneously, and I, as From the moment I stepped off the bus at the University dance writer-cum-student, had to choose between of M anitoba, I felt tension in the atmosphere. A exercising my body and expanding my mind. Saturday parti cularly thorny meeting of artistic and administra- morning I took a class with Rachel Browne of tive directors was in progress, the entire registration Contemporary Dancers, played hooky from what turned office was being turfed out of its nest to make room for out to be a tempestuous session on Teaching Standards a dance performance, and Linda Rabin, choreographer in Dance, listened to a fascinating paper on Philosophiof that performance, was gliding across the lawn of cal Approaches to Dance by Rose Hill of McMaster University, missed a session on preparing dance proTa che Hall, gathering branches to use as props. By Sunday 3 20 delegates, all told, had appeared. grams for children during the same period, took a ballet Con pi cuously rare, at registration and throughout the class from Contemporary Dancers' Kenneth Lipitz in the conference, were non-professional Winnipeg partici- afternoon, spent an hour with some folks from ants, or for that matter, non-professionals from Saskatchewan demonstrating contact improvisation, and anywhere. Even the professional dancers from Winnipeg barely had time to grab supper and catch a bus to the ",·ere hard to locate; the Contemporary Dancers left for theatre. ea t coast touring in mid-conference and the Royal John Juliani, over and over at the conference: 'Why are innipeg were busy rehearsing. The two Manitoba companies had contributed a great we being so polite?' eal to organizing the program and performance aspects o the fifth annual Dance Canada conference, leaving the ~ Ianitoba Department of Recreation the task of coping, Sunday was the Annual General Meeting, during which best it could, with the complexities of on-site Betty Oliphant pulled the National Ballet School out of anagement. Anything that could go wrong, did; Dance in Canada Association, Roger Jones, the che dule changes were constant, communication Association's treasurer, resigned and someone stood up ·· - cult, hospitality rudimentary. and accused Canadians of being turkey farmers, slow to DANCE IN CANADA 4 comprehend what is going on around them. When some members wondered what the Association was doing for them, others countered by asking what they were doing for the Association. The -meeting started off on a strange footing when Jones interrupted his treasurer's report to announce his resignation because of the continued vendetta by members of Dance in Canada Association against the dance officer of the Canada Council, sniping by independents and small groups against larger institutions, the low organizational standards in the Association's programs and doubts as to whether Dance Canada had anything to offer professional companies. A faction of the Association's membership (including Jones and other Toronto Dance Theatre personnel, Betty Oliphant, Joyce Boorman and Jacqueline Lemieux-Lopez, both former members of the Dance Canada board), it seemed, wished to have no part in any action critical of the Canada Council, while other members, notably Lawrence Adams, saw themselves as gadflies whose role it was to make Council aware of changing trends and values in the dance community. Adams, himself a drop -out from the National Ballet, functioned as a Lord of Misrule at the conference, reminding us at many junctures of the options down unfamiliar roads. Driven to the edge of the meeting hall by an agitated, chain-smoking majority, I listened with growing distress as Toronto Dance Theatre co-director Peter Randazzo, wearing dark glasses, took the podium. Clearly offended, with his voice barely under control, Randazzo was obviously shaken by an article in Adams' fringe newspaper Spill in which Adams himself questioned whether Toronto Dance Theatre's new facilities would give its directors more opportunities to make dance. Betty Oliphant was also incensed by the piece which cast a cynical glance at the financing, landholdings and standards of the National Ballet School. By an obscure train of association, Adams likened arts institutions to the Mafia-both are up to no good. The presentation of a slate of new officers for the coming yea r set off a fresh round of wrangling. Although Adam was not named in the 1977/78 slate, he was ::ompdy re-nominat ed from the floor. Joyce Boorman ? ·e .'.:or an ad hoc group which deplored the continuing DANSE AU CANADA Tension at the Annual General Meeting. From !eh to right, Lawrence Ada ms, Jacki e Malden. Robert Greenwood and (standing) Iris Garland. Grant Strate making a point during the conference. appearance of Adams and Grant Strate, both charter members of the Association's board, among t he nominees. No one ever articulated the reasons - beyon personality conflicts - for these objections. Though thev were unable to prevent the subsequent election of Strate and Adams to the board, they did register strong suppor: for a bylaw change favouring proxy votes. Since rehearsa'. commitments prevented their participation in the ele · tions, several dancers were vocal in support of th aresolution. I watched with amazement as all pretence a: procedure was abandoned. One member after another took the floor to support or denounce the Associati o and its executive. Metaphors of marriage and divorce abounded. The nadir came when Joseph Shulman, from the Toronto Dance Theatre administration, went so far as to propose non-confidence in the board and t suggest that the Association consign itself to limbo fo the comingyear, abandon plans for its 1978 conference. and take time to re-think, retrench- or self-destruct. Himotion was deemed unconstitutional. Acting chairman Iris Garland steered the meetin~ between the Scylla of hysteria and the Charybdis o• paranoia using her inimitable, inexplicable brand o · personal radar. Sounding the emotional depths of the meeting from moment to moment, she permitte everyone to be heard - an important catharsis fo:: wounded egos. The meeting adjourned for lunch while votes were counted, reconvening in a somewhat calmer atmosphere. Participants seemed willing to give th15 unlikely, unwieldy organization, hobbled by competin interest groups and fiscal strains, another year o: grudging attention and cooperation. The newly electe board includes Iris Garland (formally elected chairman . Brian Macdonald, Martine Epoque, Grant Strate, Lawrence Adams, Maria Formolo, Gerry Eldred, Robe : Greenwood, Iris Bliss Hamilton and Gisa Cole. Iris Garland, at the Annual General Meeting: 'It's timer stop dividing ourselves up as the haves and have-not: DANCE IN CANADA e·re a family and regardless of what we're doing, we ?-t!d respect one another.' -ame to the conference eager to dance as much as - ible, but the lure of the forum became so great that I ~e t most of the last two days listening and talking. :~ critics Max Wyman, Bill Littler, Michael Crabb, C3.Simir Carter, Lauretta Thistle and Diana Brown, I ; - ·opated in an exchange with dancers who seemed : inclined than in previous years to regard the critic as ~ ir enemy; they are beginning to understand that arts rnalists are in real ways their allies, hoping to educate --e ubli c, encourage them to attend performances and ::- ·e out attention for dance in the swamp of mass media :.o e ch iefs often feel that the arts are not worthy of any -pace at all in daily newspapers or on the airwaves. - ortun ately, most of the Winnipeg press coverage of :-e confe rence showed a lack of sensitivity to any but the - st conservative dancing, and wire services across the :: umry picked up on all the political struggles, recalling ::.:- a.: oft-repeated truism about CBC policy-makers: when : -omes to the arts, the only good news is bad news. ::...a er that afternoon came a long, tense encounter -· the Canada Council in which dancers demanded - re ay in who judges them, and in decisions about ..._o gets the available funds. The Council, represented . among others, its dance officer Monique Michaud, 3. ·s it wants to fund good dancing by good dancers. _ .rn_- young choreographers questioned the definition of · '. emphasized the difference between their work lassical and even modern dance, and affirmed its .:~ue. demanding the right to work and be funded !!Side the dance establishment. ne Canada Council programmed several lengthy hes at the beginning of the session by touring officer Cripton, Michaud, External Affairs representative .: ·id Anido and the Council's associate director - ;::;Jothy Porteous. The speakers had barely finished their :-- entati ons by the time the meeting was scheduled to - ourn, leaving little time for questions and dialogue. - -ociation members felt they had been filibustered- and _ :.1...,·ed once again. They insisted on extending the time, ·-ing dinner to pursue, with the Council representa. qu estions about the quality of the relationship ·een the Canada Council and the dance field, about make-up of Council juries and panels. After lengthy - .:. emoti onal confrontations, it appeared Council was no to reassess its policy on the make-up of evaluation '" -oute to this forum, a few minutes late, I became -- •• cally the only observer of an environmental dance - -. staged by some York University people, which _ -ed, unannounced, in the courtyard of the Fletcher -__ e H a ll (as pregnant a name for a meeting place as .-e heard!). A man with a briefcase hurried across • ;ace, sat down and read a newspaper, and hurried again, continually appearing and disappearing. ople did 'ordinary' things as well, over and over. elighted, as my perceptions of the changing day, • .1mpus spaces, re-ordered themselves around these · ately casual performers. ·ng the Annual General Meeting in the middle of _ n'erence instead of in the dying moments at its end, 5 DAN SE AU CANADA helped maintain a level of political awareness throughout the five-day session. Opportunities to dance and learn related techniques were still plentiful, however. As the more politicized members of the community holed up in lecture-halls and caucus rooms, many others took master classes in techniques ranging from ballet to Limon, Cunningham, Graham and Lewitzky, as well as in Menaka Thakkar's brand of Indian classical dancing. They studied stage lighting and make-up, methods of publicity and fund-raising, took workshops in how to book a tour, watched films and demonstrations of historical dance, heard a variety of papers and were invited by Arnold Spohr to attend rehearsals at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet studio. There's no way to hold a master class in the New or Post-Modern Dance but issues surrounding experimental dance were batted around in a forum devoted to that subject. One writer called it radical dance, subversive dance; a choreographer said it was a new way of organizing movement in the performing environment, taking a free fall from formal technique and movement, into uncharted areas. One thing is certain: Canadian dancers are no longer all the docile, well-trained, passive creatures of yore. They're demanding control of their own lives, the chance to be creative and innovative, to survive on the basis of their own radical visions, rather than by supporting antique visions of ethereal loveliness . Margaret Dragu, a Toronto choreographer who grew up on the Prairies, says she wants to do things that come 'from where we are, for the people who are here.' In another forum, Dancers to Dancers, an interesting split emerged between ballet and contemporary dancers on the final afternoon. There was much discussion of pension plans for dancers, a subject complicated by relatively early retirement and high rates of disability. Dancers raised questions about their own relation to company direction and the quality of their participation in artistic decision-making. Political lines seemed very evident when one member of the National Ballet observed to a group of mostly hungry, mostly contemporar y dancers, that he'd almost like to be unemployed for a while just to see what it felt like. No account of the conference could neglect the five fascinating performances at the Manitoba Theatre Centre (see Joan Sinclair's review) . The charter bus rides in and out of town provided opportunities to make and renew acquaintances, discuss performances and plan parties. At Monday's concert, Dance in Canada Association, in the person of M ichael Crabb, anounced that this year's winner of the Chalmers Award in Choreography was Paula Ross of Vancouver. It will be interesting to observe the future direction of the Association. My fear is that the so-called New dancers will find it more and more important, the more traditional dancers less so, and that will be a pity, because the entire community has enormous amounts to learn from one another. Iris Garland to the host province at the last concert: 'Thank you for letting us have our riot in Manitoba'. DANCE IN CANADA 6 DANSE AU CANADA Michael Crabb Growing Pains Childhood has its pleasures, a heady irresponsibility among them, but adolescence brings the agony of selfdiscovery. This is as true of human associations as it is with individuals. Anybody who has kept close to the Dance in Canada Association since its emergence in r 973 knows the truth of that. While unavoidable, however, adolescence can at least lead to a calmer maturity. If the people who got together in Winnipeg last August for Dance in Canada's fifth annual conference had kept this broader perspective in mind, the whole affair might not have become as grim and potentially suicidal as it was. Regarded from the right perspective, the r 977 conference can be seen as a positive step forward - possibly the Association's most productive conference ever. There was a nice historical twist about holding the conference in Winnipeg. It was there 30 years ago that a still tiny and unsteady Canadian dance community signalled its will to survive. In r 948, the first of the Canadian Ballet Festivals was Winnipeg's creation. It was right that Dance in Canada should come back to the place where it really began. Yet, ironically, the fact that Dance Canada was holding its conference in Winnipeg was the least apparent aspect of its complex and emotionally-charged activities. Contemporary Dancers, ostensibly one of the conference's co-hosts, made only a brief appearance and then left for Jacob's Pillow, while the Royal Winnipeg Ballet was preoccupied with rehearsals for its performance on the last night. Montreal, Edmonton and Halifax each had an engaging and distinctive regional flavour. But in Winnipeg there was far less sense of a local dance community than at these previous conferences. Dance Canada does however leave the organization of its conferences to the local community. There is no dictation of form or content from the head office. Perhaps there should have been. Confusion reigned at the beginning, until a bewildering succession of program changes slowly knocked the conference into shape. Fortunately, the organizational problems had no serious affect on the quality of the conference program. As in the past, there was a tightly packed schedule which encompassed things for doers: master classes, workshops and demonstrations; and things for talkers: forums, lectur es and discussion groups. There was no distinguishable focus to all these activities, but that scarcely mattered when individually they were as outstanding as, for example, Rose Hill's learned paper on the philosophy of dance or Sandra Caverly's presentation on Bournonville technique. When it was decided last year to extend the conference to five days the point was to reduce the pressure, to allow people to see and do more things at a tolerable pace. As it worked out, there was as much scrambling as ever. But nobody seemed to mind. It's exciting even if it leaves you physically and emotionally flattened. Five days of conference also meant five evenings of performances. In a way they symbolize both the achievements and shortcomings of the association that produces them. They mix amateurs and professionals in what have sometimes been marathon-length shows, and present material which runs the full gamut of what may be comprehended by the word 'dance'. At its best the experience can be inspiring and at its worst, totally demoralizing. Programming and quality control, two elements in which one's naivety might seem to be vital concerns for the producers of a dance festival, have little obvious bearing. You have to take the festivals for what they are. As Grant Strate remarked, attending one of these performances is like going fishing. You don't know whether it will be an old boot or a sturgeon. This year, the evenings of dance were generally shorter and there was some kind of programming. Even so, there was plenty of grumbling about this item or that. People would leave early, only to miss something important, or would hover around the dose-circuit television in the lobby, where it was only a short step to the bar. Looking on the bright side, there was a clear impression that Canadian dance is vital, even if some of its forays may prove ultimately to have no point. It's good to provide a platform on which the avant-garde and the traditionalists can appear close to one another before an audience of their peers. It is hard on the audience in one way and refreshing for it in another. Conference sessions and performances are, however, not the most memorable things about Winnipeg. What made the 1977 conference so exhausting and important was that it became a crisis of personality. The red-hot sessions were, in their essence, political. They brought into the open issues and personal conflicts which have been troubling Dance in Canada since it began. DANCE IN CANADA t 7 I ~ '"'I j ~ . - -· ·ng was brought to a head in the stormy, a::izing Annual General Meeting which might easily . ~ OYed from pantomime into the theatre of the -.:: had it not been for the sane, compassionate - . on given it by Iris Garland, newly-elected chairman ociation. -· ne for whom Winnipeg was his first Dance in :::a conference might find it improbable to realize . .., ..\.ssociation grew out of the Canada Council. In _ :. 1 97 2, Monique Michaud, then the dance officer Council and today the head of a much expanded ·\·ision, invited a broad assembly of peop le from ·-:·e community to meet in Ottawa. The agenda was ..ic::·,. ~ ,cu to clarify and explore the role of the Council. eople who met in Ottawa were so intoxicated pleasure of coming together and sharing poirits • .- hat plans were soon afoot for a permanent - - arion to serve the needs of dance in Canada. rather than practicability was the prevailing and, when the Dance in Canada Association J. ]_· became a legal fact on May 3 1, 1973, an ..--.··-c=_--.Jy ambitious list of objectives was drawn up +- ~ the best of motives. A healthy community is onolithic, abstract or homogenous. Dance ,,._....._...,__,- rhe shortened title most people use) included .-ery strong personalities with radically different - ; only about what should be done with dance in ut a bout what dance itself is or might be. The - ·arion was supposed to include everybody, :1als and amateurs, artists and managers, - and critics, anyone in fact who laid claim to an - n, or involvement with, dance. This, coupled :-e geographical fragmentation of the dance - ~-- created a foundation itself deeply fissured. ·· rake a political and social historian of -~_,L,'.e patience and mental penetration to disen- e omplicated story of the Association's de.w,~:,~:r.=t:;. -i:. T wo bro adly separate trends, however, have = . . . . .-.... DANSE AU CANADA been discernible. On the one hand, Dance Canada has worked hard to function as a communications network for the widely scattered members of the community. Two of its most valuable and practical achievements have been the newsletter, irregular but immensely informative, and the magazine which has grown rapidly under Susan Cohen's truly dedicated editorship to become a respected and imaginative publication. On the other hand, Dance Canada began to assume an artistic and political personality of its own. Artistically it leaned towards the radical, experimental and avantgarde. Politically it became a mildly revolutionary force, dedicated to making the Canada Council listen to what the Association considered to be the needs of dance in this country. This trend, though perhaps not realized by those most immediately involved, was part of a much broader development within the arts generally towards a new 9efinition of that vague word 'culture.' Similarly the Council, in all its various branches, found itself dealing with a movement to democratize the arts - one which did not make very much sense when fed through the outmoded conceptions of the Canada Council's godfather, the Massey Commission and its high-minded report. Since the Council's reason for being is to spend money, it was money that became the issue between Dance Canada and the Council, or, to be more exact, the process through which the distribution of a fixed Council budget was made. Since the Council itself adhered to the principle of 'few ... but roses', the question became, 'How do you know when you've got a rose?' Those who already knew they were roses in the eyes of the Canada Council did not greatly like the idea of a self-appointed gardener introducing new strains that also claimed equivalent rosehood. Big companies felt threatened by the ravenous clamour of the unfed little ones, while the little ones themselves could not see why the big ones needed so much care. There were even people who said the big companies were part of a conspiracy to resist progressive horticulture. The argument became intensely inwardlooking. Paranoia became the favoured neurosis and personal antagonism the order of the day. As the rift between the Association and the Council deepened over the issue of assessment procedures for grants, it looked very much as if Dance in Canada was really concerned with the needs of professional companies. The issue, however, actually divided the companies as well since they did not all agree with the Association's stance - whatever that was. (It was never absolutely clear.) Over the last three years, the inner stresses became more serious. A great deal of the Association's human energy seemed to be concentrated on making the Canada Council accept the idea that it, not a panel selected by the Council, must be listened to as the voice of the dance community. The events of the Winnipeg conference cannot be understood outside this scenario of accumulating personal antagonism, deep-rooted ideological disagreements and a Council distracted by attacks, not just from the dance community, but from artists of all kinds on several discrete fronts. At the Association's General Meeting, scheduled in the middle of the conference instead of being tagged on at the end, the tacit conflict of three years exploded into the DANCE IN CANADA open. Names were named, accusations made, reputations laid on the line, self-flattering postures assumed, resignations tendered, thin skins punctured and the Association's whole existence placed in jeopardy. It was an emotional orgy which in fact had a tonic effect. The future looked brighter from that point on. Tempers cooled. Reason by and large prevailed and the Association, though shaken, emerged with a much clearer idea of what it is and should be. It would not be true to say that any real solutions have been found for the inherent conflicts which divide the Association but a clearer sense of how such solutions might be developed certainly did emerge. At the root of it was an open acceptance that the Association's constituent elements must agree to differ, but respect each other in those differences. Instead of allowing unresolved problems with the Canada Council to envelope and throttle the general health of the Association, it now seems more likely that this problem will be localized in a continuing forum of artistic directors and managers. The newly elected board of directors, having seen the Association come dangerously close to self-destruction, has a more urgent awareness of the need to reflect all the diverse concerns of its members. Dance Canada is still in the midst of a difficult identity crisis, but the way through it is a bit clearer and less problematic. The most fruitful direction, the one which emerged from the Winnipeg conference, seems to involve a remodelling of the Dance in Canada Association as an umbrella for a number of distinct divisions for dancers, 8 DANSE AU CANADA for educators, for directors, etc. There w ill be things done in common and things done separately. Diversity is the key. Just as Canada itself defies homogenization so it would seem does its dance community. However, diversity does not prevent Canada from existing as a nation, albeit a rather quarrelsome one, nor should it prevent Dance in Canada from finding a role where it can make a significant contribution to its own membership and to the cultural life of Canada. WINNI CONTEMP DI A 'a'ICEBS n.&.• RachelBrowne -Artist1cD1rector P.O.Boxl764 Winnipeg,CanadaR3C 2Z9 Telephone (204) 943-4598 1 DANCE IN CANADA 9 DANSE AU CANADA Rose Hill ree Philosophical Approaches to the Dance: The Theories of Langer, Best and Sheets -e hilosopher's responsibility to develop theories - ;;- o aesthetics and the arts. But philosophers - have paid little or no attention to dance. Yet we x lanations to queries such as: What is meant "'e say dance is expressive? Of what? What is the -.i: on for an emotionally charged movement? If expressive of the dancer's emotions, can ...,,_....__•,r.,..s be set to judge such emotions or do we assess _:ical performance? What is meant by aesthetic • rzt and appreciation? If the arts are primarily ~,:c,,n__ ,-ccied with emotion, what significance can this have _ :e .icher of dance? - _ prulosopher accepts the responsibility of interpret-...: providing explanations for these questions. As Langer says, 'Philosophy is a living venture' ,:; and Form). Its questions concern the implica,d interrelationships of ideas; its answers are :- ations; and its function is to increase our =·anding of what we know. So as philosophers -, ro interpret, they illuminate and reorganize our · :- ssible to study dance in its cultural and historical _ as physical activity - there are any number of : dance and teach' texts. But the dearth of aesthetic -· osophical material is immediately apparent. As 197 3, Selma Jeanne Cohen commented in Dance _ -:ives: 'In this art (dance) most of the aesthetic are as yet not only unsolved but even ,......,ula ted.' " ome familiar with some of the literature dealing ::-.:ulosophical and aesthetic problems with regard to -:..er art forms and to gain some appreciation of _-:: ·hinking and writing related to music, art and i therefore extremely important for the dance - , er. For myself, an exciting reference book has been . Osborne's Aesthetic and Art Theory (1968). The give a concise and colourful backdrop to the ~- of Suzanne Langer (Feeling and Form), David - Expression in Movement and the Arts) and Maxine The Phenomenology of Dance) whose writings -- maj or source of philosophical thinking on dance. Osborne traces the mainstream of concepts which have governed Western art and contrasts them with Chinese and Indian aesthetic thought. He makes clear that in his view the field of art is not a tidy one: In our aesthetic activities, as in many other walks of life, concepts are seldom clear and precise. Men can happily and on the whole successfully work with assumptions which when rendered articulate are seen to be conflicting. The lack of a clear tradition (in art) either in theory or in practice along with the doctrinaire repudiation of authority, healthy enough in itself, which is characteristic of the present age have brought about an almost hysterical jangle of confusion about purposes and ends which ultimately can only foster frustration and the dissipation of talent. Would you say that applied to the current dance scene? In the last chapter Osborne comments that the radical change in twentieth-century thinking about art and aesthetics is characterized by two important facts. First, the work of art, of whatever nature, is a new creation and the criteria by which it is valued exist for that particular work of art. Secondly, Osborne points out that the enjoyment of aesthetic experience, the cultivation of aesthetic sensitivity and the training in an individual of the capacity to appreciate works of art are some of the ultimate values of human life, valuable for their own sakes, and not in need of any justification for any extrinsic benefits which may occur. If you believe either or both of these ideas, they have tremendous ramifications for dance education. They are not new concepts in the art world (Osborne traces the latter idea back to Aristotle) , but as he points out: Artists and their public being generally practical men, not always prone to analytical profundity, will sometimes profess the aesthetic doctrines that become current in the time immediately preceding their own without noticing that the assumptions implicit in their own practice are not conformable to these doctrines. It is from this perspective of twentieth-century thinking DANCE IN CANADA 10 on art and aesthetics that I want to consider the three quite different theories of Langer, Sheets and Best. All are concerned with philosophical explanations about dance, stemming, of course, from completely different schools of philosophy. Langer and Best are both competent, even brilliant philosophers, with complex and fascinating theories. Maxine Sheets, foremost a dancer, has produced a reasoned explanation for the felt dance experience and for the nature of dance as a formed and performed art. The introduction in each text immediately alerts the reader to the differences in each author's philosophical stance. Langer states that philosophy is the fabric of ideas, in which there is a stocktaking where beliefs, maxims and hypotheses are expressed and examined. Philosophy deals with the meanings, with the sense of what we say. Best (and the reader is immediately aware of the more dogmatic style) deals much more specifically and trenchantly with the purpose of philosophy. He says his book is intended to introduce those whose concern is primarily with the arts to certain aspects of contemporary philosophical thought, without which no consideration of aesthetics can be adequate. For Best, writing and discussion of the arts (read dance) still is characterized too often by: ... rapturous and soporific effusion. Work in this field is vitiated by underlying misconceived presuppositions about, for example, reasoning and the emotions. Because Sheets' concentration is on the felt dance CJ'HECJJEST GJ!{CfJA1'{9E {jIFT8 CJJAN[:E '=rODAf? 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She has not in an been influenced by what Best refers to as 'the revo _ in philosophy in recent years initiated by the later of Wittgenstein.' Best so obviously has and he tak : at some of her assumptions which are highly . .:. according to contemporary philosophical analy i: rigorous Wittgensteinian philosophy. The three writers follow a similar pattern in be r-their texts with a brief description of their pa r _ philosophical frame of reference. It is therefore p _ to gain a grasp of the theory within each philosophical framework. At the beginning of her book, Langer generalized theory of art into which she differing art forms, showing how her theo aesthetics can embrace them all. Her writings re ean enormous medieval tapestry full of contra stitches and colours in which every piece is an el of the whole. She herself is a musician and an ar ti :. this fact adds a further dimension to her writing. Conversely, David Best starts out with the sim · c basic problems of internal emotions and ex:: YM& School of D Courses Featured • Pre-dance Education • Classical Ballet • Modern (Contempora • Jazz Dancing (Modem • Tap Dancing • Character (Russian) • Folk Dancing • Israeli Dancing • Ballroom Dancing • Social Dancing • Discotheque • Square Dancing • Composition • Notation (Benesh) • Dance Appreciation • History of Dance • Dance and the Arts Student Performing Grou; 45 88 Bathurst Street Willowdale, Ontario M2R 1W6 636-1880 DANCE IN CANADA 11 ur. He attempts to convince the reader that it is le to begin to consider problems in dance until nd has been cleared of a lot of loose and chaotic 1111111,c:"""-~-,la:, He is rather like a gardener who must get rid the weeds, even if this at first necessitates ·on by fire before the soil can be ready for the . - s. · ne Sheets' book is of particular interest to because she writes as a dancer. She builds her .::e criptive analysis of dance on Langer's theory, · her own detailed superstructure translating _-· concepts to dance. The actual language she uses exciting ideas about the fabric of the dance, ems from which she considers the dance to be ..:.::red. Perhaps because the phenomenological philosophy most accurately explains her own experience, she has used this philosophy as the : her theories. t a grasp of phenomenological thinking, the o · her writings is largely lost. Dance is a -enon. According to the phenomenologist, there - :he appearance of the thing, then the conceptual :>rk which is built up in describing it. Further -=:;,._,-,- of phenomenology as articulated by Sheets are: . l . ..,f theory emerges from phenomenology because : 10/ogy is concerned not with theories about :ena, but with descriptions of their existence. """""""·=·""': ztally, man is not an objective structure to be but a unique existential being, a unity of ; .s zess body, which itself knows. - ts her work on the claim that her wntmg -: a conceptual framework for dance resulting in a ,...;-.;. ___ ... ·e analysis and not a body of definite knowledge. ·nology of her descriptive analysis, built on -· eory, is very akin to Laban's 'effort' concepts. e. in her writings Langer draws from the same ~;..:...-,~-.e Langer's thinking has been triggered by the · - e German philosopher, Ernst Cassirer. (Eleanor -~~--- work on movement theories has been built -· Cassirer and Langer.) Langer has theorized works of art are symbols or iconic signs of .....,,.,_,,___-_:,·. not that any art form expresses directly the .· erienced emotions, but rather his understand- at emotions are and the nature of emotions. She - ~onsider art to be a language with its own : communications built from separate elements words, each having its own emotional sig-~LI~-:-r. Each separate work of art is a unique symbol. _ ~al work of art symbolizes the distillation of ..llliilih,.--··- :orm s of the inner life. It imitates or reproduces :- ·he form, the rhythm or, as she calls it, the of emotional situations. The vital thing to that the art work is not the felt emotion but - rensions and understanding of emotion or of a _.,...::,~-~-::emo tion.The work of art therefore reproduces fo rm and structure the actual structure and : :eeli ng and emotion. Hence, of course, her title -,/!""1,,,,,,,._..--:-- .i•zd Form. Her writings provide a language and ,..,,•.,.....-.,,,~.,.,ard fo r a growth in concepts about what moves -ompose, how he creates, what he means by it rks of art mean to the observer. DANSE AU CANADA Certain of her theories are a beautiful target for critics . How can the inner emotional life of experienced feeling be thought to have a structure or rhythm which is reproduced in an often very elaborately structured work of art? Nevertheless, the theory is persuasive. It deals in masterly fashion with many of the problems of art: whether it is representational, how the emotions are involved in a work of art, how the work of the artist is interpreted, whether it should be valued for its associations or for itself alone. (Remember that today the art world considers that the art work is valued for itself.) She then describes exactly how each particular art form fits into her symbolic theory. The two chapters on dance are illuminating. She weaves the entire fabric of expressive movement into her theoretical tapestry. Her theory of art as symbolic language is explained in dance through the use of the term 'gesture'. (This term and its accompanying explanation I find incomplete.) In ordinary life, gesture is used as a form of language. This is not art. But, when the gesture is imagined and used by the dancer to convey ideas of emotion and combined with other imagined gestures, then the movement becomes the art form. It is the imagined feeling, translated into the gesture, that governs the dance, not real emotional conditions translated into movement. While the actual physical movement is real, the feeling thought motion (Laban's terminology developed by Langer) is illusory. The dance is actual movement but symbolic in its intention. Because this particular art form is built from the gesture, the dance elements that emerge are spacetime tensions, body tensions, in Langer's language the interplay of virtual forces. In Langer's theory the artist creates the illusion - the work of art - and the term 'virtual' suggests something self-contained and independent; for example, virtual space, existing as one of the dancer's tools. Similarly virtual time and virtual force are other tools at the command of the dancer. In order for the dancer to symbolize his movement, the virtual forces, space-time, body tensions, and in a secondary way, dance tensions created by lights, music, decor, masks, etc., are the dancer's vocabulary. The actual physical movement is the means by which the dancer creates the illusion and this he does by an interplay of all the virtual forces. Sheets describes in detail what Langer's terms, 'illusion of force', 'virtual force', 'the imaginative virtual space', mean to a dancer. Remember that from the phenomenological stance Sheets' concern is to clothe concepts with language or to provide the language which will develop the concepts to describe the lived experience of the dance. Her writing with regard to the terminology she develops I found elucidating and crystal clear. It also made me realize very forcefully how impoverished our dance language is. We are dependent on scientific and anatomical descriptions of body movement - flexion, extension, contraction, etc. - to describe the fabric of dance. The same paucity of descriptive language is obvious in dance criticism. We do not yet have the language to communicate the dancer's world to the non-dancer. Read Sheets' descriptive analysis with this is mind and think what it would do for dancers and dance performance if both dancer and viewer had clearer concepts and language with which to enjoy and appreciate it. Sheets' writing is one of the first attempts I have read to explain dance in terms which are specific to dance and which can be grasped by the non-dancer. DANCE IN CANADA 12 Osborne's text provided the perspective for viewing the philosophical school from which Best derives his theories. Osborne gives a little of the historical background which had given rise to radical changes in philosophical thinking. He regards the ideas of a nineteenth-century philosopher Dugald Stewart as the precursor of some of the Wittgensteinian writing, particularly his belief that words do not have an essence or single meaning, but instead tend to have a family of resemblances and gain their meaning from the context in which they are used. Implicit in all of Best's writing is the idea that what there is in the external environment, the world itself, is all contained in how we see it. Another way of saying this is to say that there is a fundamental sense in which everything, to be understood at all, must be interpreted, must be seen, under some description or other. Working from this premise it becomes evident that our concepts and language form reality. The ability to reduce all experience to intellectual reasoning is central to any theory or argument based on philosophical analysis. Without concepts and language we would not know that we viewed the outside world nor would we be able to interpret it. Best's text demands sustained, hard, intellectual concentration to grasp his meanings; even then some of them prove elusive. His writing follows a stylized pattern of a tightly framed argument, taking theories and definitions and, through logically structured debate, showing the weaknesses, fallacies and sometimes absurdities of the particular subject. It is a skilful means of concept presentation because the particular word game played has been set up by the writer who knows exactly the conclusion at which he wants the reader to arrive. Such a style, though making demands on the reader's intellectual capacity- especially if he or she is unschooled in logical thinking - is excellent in terms of teaching correct word usage and points up the absurdities created through slipshod thinking and speaking. It also brings home to the reader interested in dance (and in physical education too) the poor quality writing which we have accepted and made use of in our respective fields. Best says his book is primarily intended for students, teachers and lecturers concerned with dance and the arts. He gives as one of his reasons for building his theory around dance the fact that: DANSE AU CANADA explanation of a seen emotion in physical behaviour the mystical, transcendental and spiritual, all of which :1 unacceptable to reasoned thought. Any theory must provide a logical connection betw the emotional, the mental and the physical. Best use :Wittgensteinian theory of 'criteria' (logical connecti between two events.) Movement may be regarded containing two aspects: the physical, the prerogative scientific study, and the emotional, the prerogative philosophical study, each perceiving the particular type movement within its specific context. Within an adequr theory of meaning, the mind does not work as a separientity, but as a part of the whole mechanism. Also : physical movement is expressive emotionally; a parti~-lar organization or pattern of movement is perfor and recognized as the criterion of the particu ·emotional experience. Remember here that emotion movement may be compared with a conceptual theor ~· meaning and, just as Best claims that words derive the meaning from their own context and certain farn resemblances, the same is true of a dance movem . charged with emotion - the context gives the clue to :observed emotion. The dance is viewed as an entity order to be grasped, just as the sentence or parag(a:must be read in its entirety for the reader to gain the se . of the words. He builds his theory of aesthetics into a simil.: • conceptual framework. If it is important in aesthetics : consider emotional feelings and reactions to the clan.: can these be related in any way to reasoned discussior If not, the teacher and the critic are not in a position • criticize or communicate; the felt emotion remains the subjective level, part of the private and perso world of the experiencer and inaccessible to the outside· But people talk about dance and their feelings to it. Best postulates that interpretive reasoning (accepta . philosophically) brings emotional feelings into the rea of reasoned examination, either by the individu_ analyzing his own emotions or by interpretive reasonion the part of an outsider, a dance teacher, or an a·· critic, or any interested person. It is through t interpretive reasoning that an individual's way looking at a dance may be changed. Through discussi he or she sees things differently - though, for Best, rreality is in the conceptual meaning which' is capable change. One literally sees the work of art differently. • Perhaps the most important of the philosophical areas of is obvious how this theory stresses the importance enquiry about which we need to be clear in order to education in aesthetics. understand any of the arts is that of the relationship of To recapitulate: in Langer, the world of art is - _ mind and body; for example, what it means to speak of an emotion being expressed in physical behaviour. In this symbol and the apprehension of emotion is expres symbolically by the artist; in Best, it is the use of crite _ respect, dance is surely unique. and interpretive reasoning which makes possible r .• For Best, a conceptual framework in which to discuss logical explanation of the emotionally charged mo clogically all the problems in art and aesthetics is essential. ment and reasoned discourse about the world of arAt least half of the book is devoted to pointing out the Sheets' description of the dancer's felt experience offemistaken concepts of the traditional mind/ body theories different concepts completely, suggesting a descrip ti· and the damage they do to any coherent understanding of language for dance. the emotions and their meaning in expressive movement. These theories raise certain questions. Should we Inner feelings and emotions are separated from their developing concepts which would enlarge and enrich o • observable movement manifestations and it is only language of dance? Does dance need a language n · possible to make inferences about the emotionality of descriptive of the physical movements performed, bur movement. The conceptual inadequacies of be- the art form created by the choreographer ar...:: haviourism, solip ism, mysticism are quite brilliantly interpreted by the dancer? exposed, the forme r because it cannot be scientifically Does the primitive nature of dance theory explain r· explained and the others because they depend for the ignorance and lack of acceptance of dance as an a·· DANCE IN CANADA 13 DAN SE AU CANADA a large proportion of our society, even by other -.. departments in Canadian universities must · e responsibility for providing greater educapp ortunities which permit the emergence of the -ch olar, whether historian, philosopher, an·st or critic. On university campuses, we need -·-.:ulry and inter-student seminar groups, drawn -- philosophy, music, art and dance departments, - .: r and discuss aesthetic problems common to all - eed symposia and conferences where dancers, -ers and teachers, musicians, critics and philosexch ange ideas and discuss mutual problems in . - of art and aesthetics. · ~- and perhaps especially for those of us who are nmnnrn:-:,.,.-. ,~-.i t of anything to do with dance which is not 'a • e presentation of dance theories may serve to IIUD.:llif::..'.:~e to the dance world the importance of the -. :he theorist, the teacher and the critic. They are m erpret the essential nature of dance within the : our society. .::iebted to Dr. Gene Simpson of the philosophy --~.-· ...-:en t at York University who has guided my _,m,....,r.,-,- Our discussions have been absolutely invalu- iving me added perspective and knowledge. TORONTO PREMIERE of FOUR BALLETS SPECIAL CHRISTMAS OFFER! FROM NEW YORK DAVID HATCH WALKER & TAKAKO ASAKAWA by Anna Blewchamp Gloria Grant James Kudelka David Hatch Walker ALSO NEW WORKS BY Gail Benn Eve Lenzner Jennifer Van Papendorp Sonia Perusse Three Week Intensive Course MODERN DANCE at December 19th - January 7th FOR INFORMATION CALL: 364-3428 St. Paul's Centre January 16th - 28th, 1978 For Information Call: 364-3428 DANCE IN CANADA 14 DAN SE AU CANADA Maria Formolo Northern Saskatche-wan Diary ""-,ii .... There are eight full-time members in the Regina Dance Works: Pearl Louie, Patrick Hall, Allan Risdill, Connie Maker, Belinda Weitzel, David Weller and myself. On this trip to Northern Saskatchewan by plane, Susan Arnold stayed home to hold down the fort with Sharon Amyotte, our secretary and company mother. Linda Zaremba joined the company to teach in our community school while we were off gallivanting. Richard Rose came with us as our tour manager. Our trips in March and May of this year were financed by the Department of Northern Saskatchewan, the Saskatchewan Arts Board, the Indian Band at Stanley Mission, and a Canada Council Touring Office Grant, the Northern school board, and the people of each community who housed and fed us. We visited five communities, some for the second time: Stanley Mission, Sandy Bay, Pelican Narrows, Green Lake and LaLoche. Each one proved to be very different economically, socially, culturally. Also, the acceptance and receptivity to the dance group varied a great deal. We didn't always know what to expect from the various cultures of Dene, Cree, Metis, Treaty and Non-Treaty Indians. In one place the children might be disorderly and rambunctious, in another very shy. Some teachers were enthusiastic, others passive and perfunctory. With every experience, we learn and adapt. For example, most native people are non-verbal in group sessions with us, but are more inclined to open up on a one-to-one basis. Their children are not disciplined at home, so we cannot expect them to conform to our notions of order and attentiveness. Body-fitting cos.w zes offend a sense of m odesty. Adult native people :e. 011: ornent to dance unless drunk. Nor do we schedule important activities in competition with ~ bingo game or the riot of a weekend party. In our residencies, one of our aims is to leave th teachers with stimulation and ideas for incorporatin.:. creative movement into the school curriculum. In th places where we had a longer stay, special teacher': workshops were held. We would always plan ow schedule around community events and in clos consultation with what the teachers felt they wanted an::. needed. In every community we planned time for ar evaluation session, about teaching and performanc work with teachers, which was most helpful "to us. These are some of my notes taken on our tour. Stanley Mission After lunch there were classroo sessions. I went with Allan to third grade. The class wa: taught in Cree, but the kids understood English fai r! _ well. The teacher was great - joined in dance Allan mad to Billy the Kid and had a great time. No trouble to g . participation. Afterwards, I had the sixth grade children very shy and difficult. All of us who had sixn grade and up had a hard time in classrooms. Sheila, the sixth grade teacher, was no help, as she was very sh. herself. They loved the music, and during recess, four o~ the girls stayed in and we danced together. It was thethat I met Adam for the first time. Small, bony r 3-year-cild with dust-coloured hair; a kind of pixie looking person unlike the full lipped an wide boned type more common to the band. He'd hove~ outside the door while we were dancing, and when r turn my back, he'd flash in mimicry of what I was <loin . MONDAY AFTERNOON: DANCE IN CANADA 15 DAN SE AU CANADA !......_ ~ I would turn to look, he'd yell and run away. ·e someone who loved swimming and wanted :o go swimming, but the water was too cold to Sandy Bay The community exchange went well. The Band leaders took the opportunity to make speeches and thank : the people I find quite beautiful. The women the young people for bringing honour to Sandy Bay. So~e : · ·ith lots of children and much work. The of the older students did a 1 5-minute acrobatic -e hells packed with people, fragile ugly barriers presentation. They were good - fine strong bodies and fine -· e winter. Not a place to spend more time in sense of timing. Bob, the Phys. Ed. teacher, does a great ~e on would have to. Kids, even little ones, job with them. .. When we put on jig music, some of the e~?ers ]lgg_ed - ;md well into the night. I look in windows and - ~e seem to have no furniture, pictures, plants, with us. Peter's trapping partner came and Jigged with -__\ very different idea of a home than what I Belinda. What a beautiful man - thin, chiseled, wiry, dressed in spick-and-span shiny old black suit. He's about 60 and can out-hunt, out-trap, out-fish, out-hike, out-jig •lllliil!:.:>JA.Y: Peter and the Wolf performance/ workshop any man in town. He remembers before the white 1?1an :J and afternoon. We had Cree translator for settled in the area. He said that we didn't have the nght r of the kids joined in workshop and all the music for him to jig to. Evidently Sandy-style jigging is oined in. That evening we did community different. •as:l.:u· . .rGHT: Community Exchange Bus Depot . regular clothes. 2) Puppet stories from :--oup - there was a story about five trappers and ·_ Bay Store; quite a strange mixture of realism ~ ·e. Third and fourth graders already into who • whom. Allan mitigated their story by assuring ence that Wanda and Jim were married. •r"l'to.:◄ - laughed. 3)Make-a-dance - it took r 5 mi: egging and games, turning out the lights, hysically dragging to get my people on the said he'd do the dance with us and would • e mistakes. Finally all but Betsy agreed to do 1) twice. Then I asked who else wanted to learn ·ere so many who got up then that there was m. I taught it, and we had a great time. Then I · •· ere were any fiddlers around. Four men went -= d a fiddle (and take a swig, no doubt}. _ ....,-....•e we put on Jean Carignan. The kids are .::.ancers. But we were the only adults who would .:.am and one little tiny girl about four or five : n my mind - incredible energy - inventiveness, . :•,ork and stamina. They would have danced all - _: we stopped about 10 to show a movie. The • ...,. ~-,,_,lly showed up and he was pretty good. ~ TUESDAY: Teachers spent the morning in workshops with us. David and Connie spent an hour on curriculum guide, and the teachers were crawl!ng, skipping, floating and falling around the gym. I noticed that the native teachers dropped out and watched. Afterwards I asked them if what we were doing made sense. They answered, ' Oh yes,' and then started cutting up and mimicking and laughing at the movements. We went back to Home Ee. room for a break, and had an evaluation session. The native teachers did not open their mouths in the discussion. The comments and observations about our first evening performance were most encouraging. (We had been somewhat depressed, because it felt so rough and the audience was very noisy). They said the balance of program was good. Explanations of <lane~~ ve~y important, because dance is not part of tra~1t1on m North, except for jigging. They thought. 1t most important to show some of our more d1ffi~ult-tounderstand pieces, even though a lot of people might be puzzled. They thought Whales was ~ot a diffic~lt piece to understand. They said that the kids liked it, though during performance, kids were noisy. During a performance, the kids do anything they want to. We bashed around the pros and cons of not allowing kids to adult performances. To do so would really be stepping on a tradition. I think we all feel that we should learn to cope as performers. Kids go everywhere with parents. WEDNESDAY MORNING: DANCE IN CANADA 16 Pelican Narrows Real strange lost feeling that first afternoon and evening. I go with Richard to see community hall. It is gruesome filth and cold and plywood. No gym. Only a double classroom that smells like a spittoon. There are about 30 teachers and they are very close. Don't mix socially with natives, from what I can observe. My first reaction is to look down on white supremacy attitude. Yet they are one of the steadiest staffs in the North and seem dedicated to children. They seemed really excited about having us. We concentrated classroom sessions only on Kindergarten, Readiness and Division 1. Older ones got demonstration and after school sessions with puppets and make-a-dance. In a small room, did two lecture-demos with a little participation. I have got a handle on a workable format and a clearer way of explaining and talking. Also, real little ones not there and the room is smaller. Two factors to keep in mind for lecture-demos in the future. Format after introduction of names: 1 Sun salutation and short explanation of how it works with breathing (with older group, talked about people in sports warming up muscles before a game.) 2 Travelling brushes and push to Hoyt Axton Blues. 3 Travelling combination with slow turns and extensions. 4 Travelling adage. 5 Jean Carignan jig music - series of simple jump and jump turning combinations - developing into the more spectacular. This part took 15 minutes. I talked to people all through- showing and explaining what we were working at. Asked them questions about what they thought was harder, etc. Kids were fascinated. Room was hot and stinky and crowded, but there was something in the intimacy of the situation that made these lecture-demos better than any we have done. 6 Charlie McCoy - Company dance which is a mix between modern and a square dance. 7 Pearl did rhythm clapping and repeat of Charlie McCoy with younger group. 8 I did a stretch session working with internal muscles (lots of imagery), push and reach. Younger kids jumped in right away. Also worked with breath and relaxation. After five minutes, I talked about housing problems in Regina - related it to Northern housing problems - asked 'or ommen on their problems. THURSDAY: DAN SE AU CANADA 9 Company danced second section of Housing wic'ladder. IO Asked children where they had to wait - they saic the nurse and the Bay on Saturday morning. Told the about waiting in Regina Bus Depot. 11 Set up chairs and did Bus Depot. Company taught class sessions all afternoon. make-a-dance after school was crammed. One of th developments of this tour which is so good is that ir: workshops and classrooms we teach some of the dance: we do - in performance - like Charlie M cCoy and Btc Depot. These kids are quick to pick up. Faster tha::Southern city kids in general. They love dancing. Thursday night the hall was packed and beastly hot. Richard and crew had cleaned it. I think because we felt so appreciated all day, we fo unc extra energy to give our best performance so far. The kids were much better behaved here, so the sol and Whales weren't so difficult. Most of the teacher: were there and quite a few adults from the community. FRIDAY MORNING: It was hard to get it together for Peter and the Wolf at 11 :oo. Many more classes had bee" added to my original schedule, so we cancelled Peter an,:; the Wolf at 1 :oo. It is imperative to good work, to have a chance to get away from it. Especially on tour - other wi we make ourselves unseen and untouchable and untouched except by our own work. The workshop fe.-: chaotic but teachers said they were getting good ideafrom us - feedback was tremendous. That day was beautiful. It had been cloudy all week bu, on Friday it was a warm and sunny spring day. Everybody got good hikes in. Richard and I went out t an island and perched on some rocks - it was almost ho-: in the sun. At 3: 30 I had make-a-dance again. I had three teachers in the session. At 8: 3o we had comm uni . exchange evening, where we did Peter and the Wal· without the workshop for the whole community, plu puppets, make-a-dance and jigging. Mostly kids but some adults from the community - many of the teachers came. Peter and the Wolf was the best we've ever done. Th ceiling was so low, the 8-foot ladder barely fit. Allan and had to improvise our tree section. Nobody minded. It' funny - in the place with by far the worst workin conditions, we did our best work. The teachers had a party for us. Beer, wine and beer like water - fancy foods. I left about 1 :oo because I watired but I guess it went on ti! 3: 30 am . The company i pretty tired today. But I think that everyone is generally positive with of course innumerable germs, injuri e . DANCE IN CANADA 17 DANSE AU CANADA in association with University of London Goldsmith's College New Cross London SE14 6NW offers the fo llowing courses ~ DEGREE COURSES - w i ; . ;0 • ms, questions, cnt1c1sms. I am so cramped in · ox of a wart-nosed, toad-hopping plane right am ready to scream. They told us not to fly at ..,.·. vere we able to get a clear idea of what the ommunity thought of the work we did. e parents came to evening events, they o enjoy themselves, especially the com:- exchange evenings when their own children ;:_ ing a dance or a puppet story. 'i: are two comments: - a letter from a Mr. Bear, Band Overseer of ay, saying that they liked so much what we -- 2.: they would like to have a dancer come live -.em and teach their children full-time and :orm a group. _econd was a Saturday morning conversation -:e janitor of the school at Green Lake where .:: been teaching for four days. The evening n-.111111rr,r" \ -e had done a performance and community ~-~x-:ge. I'll try to recall the gist of it ... ;i. 't want to hurt your feelings, but I don't u guys are very good dancers. It's not like ~ -..-ay of dancing. You practise every day and ot as good as what the people used to do. i.: make the rain come?' wish I could.' __ are you teaching the children? It's nothing -:. How much money do you get?' .:ion' t get much money. The children love •1111..:=f· They are strong and quick to learn. If you >e us teaching them, then why don't you --: m?' Id reach them. Yes I should teach them ... .' BA(Hons) Dance (CNAA), B.Ed(Hons), BH(Hons), MA, DIPLOMA, MPhil, Ph.D. (University of London) 2 MA. and DIPLOMA COURSE offered Full and Port Time 3 LABAN CENTRE CERTIFICATE COURSES for Dancers and Choreographers Specia l School Teachers and Dance Therapists Community Dance Teachers General School Teachers etc. 4 SUMMER Schools July and August All Full Time three year Training Courses including Technique, Choreography, Dance History, Movement Analysis, Observation, Notation, and associated studies . FACULTY includes: Patty Howell-Phillips Marion North (Director) Ann Hutchinson-Guest Bonnie Bird (Head of Dance Dept) Jean Jarrell Margot Antoniadou Christine Juffs Alison Bauld Michael Kustow SVea Becker Marion Lees John Chapman Fionna McPhee Cathy Gorman Walli Meier Marion Gough Simone Michelle Angela Hardcastle Maggie White Stuart Hopps Miro Zolan and guest artists Write for information and entrance requirements, dates of auditions, etc, quoting reference H.5 For United States and Canadian students Bonnie Bird will interview BA and other Centre Course applicants by appointment in Toronto San Francisco New York City Saturday 18th March Tuesday 28th March Friday 14th April Closing dote for appointments 28th February 1978 DANCE IN CANADA 18 DANSE AU CANADA Profile Virginia Solomon Peter Randazzo The Man in his Work I'm not concerned with dance heroes, but I am concerned with dance as a means of exploring, evolving and expressing myself as a human being, and having people see who that person is. It has been said that there is only one of us in all of time and that we will never repeat ourselves. I want my dancing and dances to celebrate this. For Peter Randazzo, the act of creation is an act of discovery. When speaking of the creative process, he talks of moving from the 'personal to the universal' and of starting with 'feelings first. I don't start by saying 'I'm going to make a dance'. First , I'm a person, then I'm a dancer.' Nor is music the springboard for many of his dances. In fact, as in the solo for one of the four male dancers in Voyage, some of his choreography is done in silence. Randazzo was born in Brooklyn and commenced training at 16 with the Martha Graham School. Two years later he joined her company and remained for six years during which she created nine roles for him. He also studied with Anthony Tudor and Jose Limon. In 1968 with David Earle and Patricia Beatty, he founded the Toronto Dance Theatre and now has 25 works in the repertoire. In fact, however, these biographical details do not matter in understanding him because it is in the works themselves that his personal as well as his artistic development may be charted. If his evolving world view is reflected in thematic treatment and his artistic growth in stylistic change, it is still not possible to treat Randazzo's work so simplistically. What makes his work so interesting is the link between these two elements. Style has two facets - the first, characteristic of an individual dancer, which bears his imprint only; the second, characteristic of the choreographer, which can be translated from one dancer to another. In Randazzo's case, his personal style seems to coincide with his evolving world view. Not only are his dances philosophically grounded, but his very dancing as well. How he moves through an action is as revealing as the action itself. This manner of moving might best be called absurdist or existentialist. While it is commonly thought an artist puts his soul into his work, Randazzo seems to disassemble body and soul. There is a curious lack of connection which allows him to abstract himself. He can be spectator and participant at the same time. Arms and legs move as if pulled by strings (as in the tap dance of the assassin in L 'Assassin Menace or in Randazzo's bounceshuffle as the loner in Nighthawks), giving an element of soullessness to his dancing. Through this kind of body language, Randazzo becomes a true twentieth-century man. Randazzo's early pieces do not contain this kind of philosoph ical predilection nor does his dancing have this abstract characteristic. Untitled So lo (1 970), where, in a • symbolic act of birth, the nude dancer painfully em from a cocoon-like covering, and Starscap e (1, where as dancer/ choreographer he is so concerned a 1tering the quality of his own movement withi weighted confines of ropes, demonstrate insteac intense preoccupation with self-discovery, with expl his own body. It is only in later works su Nighthawks and Recital that he moves to a bro concern for the state of human relations and predicament of modern man. It would be unfair to consider Starscape merely trendy exercise, reflecting movement cliches of the sixties or early seventies. While the dancer has a cu-: anti-gravitational bounce resulting from the pull o:: arms and legs against the counteracting pressure o: weighted lines, the quality of the movement sl becomes secondary to the awesome effect of this cer. white figure radiating ropes like rays and glittering l. star against a stark blue background. The ech reverberating music of Syrinx communicates a trem~ ous sense of open space, the night sky of the prairi the vast reaches beyond the earth itself. Slowly the , and dance affect a gradual transformation in audience's attitude, drawing it from scientific obsen·a:to a kind of hushed reverence. There is brilliance in accomplishment. Dark of Moon, choreographed in the same year Barry Smith, reveals that Randazzo is beginning to : outside himself, moving from the individualistic pre ~ pation of Starscape and Untitled Solo to the psycho· cal effects of male-female interaction. According: Randazzo, it portrays the relation of one man to -female dancers, each of whom represents but one a ; of a single woman. Although these three women seeoverpower him at the end of the piece, there is still of the stark social commentary of later work Nighthawks and Recital. In fact, the plot seems sli DANCE IN CANADA 19 DANSE AU CANADA and secondary to Smith's exotic and powerful . ·hich conjures up a world of primitive ritual Sons (1969) also deals with human a theatrical level that bears little _........~~..,n to the circumstances of everyday life. ased on the Biblical story of Cain and Abel, it · ·ratricide. As the curtain rises, the sounds of a • ute set a primitive note which removes the fro m contemporary life. Randazzo is seen - s-legged on a rock with his arms oustretched. - · expresses the tensions and clashes intrinsic in _- , but also contains elements of style which it - rn earlier pieces and on which later pieces are :=-or instance, the slow back bends which _ ........... -.u does with a straight spine on an almost bent _. at those of the first couple in the opening · Continuum (1969). Also typical are the ta! jumps done on flat feet in an open second ·:accato-like movements of his bent arms which .: w gestures used two years later in Visions for a of the Mind. Moreover the way in which IIIIIIIU::.zo runs, with a sharp kick of the back leg &om below the knee, is seen later in the chase . .mc:,..:-:::-of L'Assassin Menace (1975). Ha d Two Sons and Dark of Moon, however, human situations in a magnified, theatrically _,,....__ i:u way. How many of us see the three faces of rder a brother? As Randazzo's work develops, __ ..,.,_,.._,-.Lm for the larger-than-life image lessens and he · the stage human situations which lie within ;:- and our own experience in the daily world. - · A mber Garden and The Letter, he focusses •. The Amber Garden (1972) deals with open ----- - two couples whose interaction leads to a re- g for two of the four people; The Letter ( 197 4) - secret betrayal - a cuckolded husband, a wife over, all of whom are caught in the conventions ~::-:-. In both Randazzo sensitively portrays the - lemma, particularly in his masterful portrait of h of the spurned woman (danced by Susan '."'S on) in The Amber Garden. Instead of leaving on the bench at stage left, he moves her to :age where she stops in an uplifted gesture of - ... fade-out. Through her placement on stage - gh her exploratory turns and bends, one senses • s feeling out life again - that this tragedy for her ome a voyage of self-discovery. (Perhaps this is i m Randazzo spoke of when he talked to me - - attitude to life.) :...etter does not contain the same soulfulness as .her Garden, since the quest for intimacy is · trated rather than thwarted. Surely the letter -ce that the liaison will continue, that the lovers t again. But there is a curious feeling of -em when Randazzo dances the lover. The of their relationship, and therefore our -:-ent, is moderated by his stylistic peculiarities. , ·rion whether he has invested as much in the 11111•~·;.:1'ip as the woman. The flippant swirl of the feet - ses his legs prior to sitting down reinforces tl (and is actually omitted in later versions). Yet •llnc!:::'):::- -· e lover is serious or not, the anonymity of the '. o must pass as strangers before the husband's • a.;· of the loneliness of modern man. We are all •II.IE,.:.:, --~'f". Randazzo and David Earle in J Had Two So ns: the theatricali zed image. trapped by conventions which are themselves superficial and yet do not allow us to fulfill the longings of the heart. This conclusion, only implied in The Letter, is much more evident in Randazzo's subsequent pieces. In L 'Assassin Menace (1975), based on a painting by Magritte, Randazzo takes his stylistic qualities as an absurdist and translates them to an entire piece. It might first appear as light-hearted burlesque, but it reveals Randazzo at his most profound. Here we see a robot-like assassin, bouncing mechanically in his early tap sequence and then moving soullessly through events which he manipulates. He is the original trickster, who murders and then returns to provoke his pursuers, to enjoy the confusion which he creates. In our interview, Randazzo calls him 'the arch-enemy' - and yet he flits in and out of the setting creating havoc in such a dispassionate way that he becomes more interesting than repulsive. His hollowness makes him less reprehensible; he performs actions without the enjoyment of the macabre. It is the manipulation of the events which attracts him rather than the actuality. And in any case, what happens? There is a certain ambiguity in the work. Was the girl not really murdered, or does she in fact return as some kind of frenzied white spirit in the last sequence, giving warning in her frantic gestures to live, to live, to live? The assassin exits with her. He alone seems to know the truth and yet with his eyes that see, he is the most hollow of all men. Randazzo is again able to convey this hollowness through his unique way of moving. His flat-flooted walk becomes a smooth glide which gives the impression of his sliding across the surface of events. And his stiff angularity combined with immense agility reinforces the impression of a puppet-like puppeteer. In Nighthawks (1976) and Recital (1977), he is finally able to harness these stylistic tendencies to give a true picture of his world view. Both treat the theme of loneliness: Nighthawks - the loneliness of a type of individual who dreams of finding himself in the small hours of the morning; and Recital-the lonely crowd . DANCE IN CANADA 20 Nighthawks: Randazzo, as the loner, alienated even from the alienated. In Nighthawks one senses that the inhabitants of the night are alienated from the rest of society. But in their alienation they find a certain satisfaction, a certain company. Not for Randazzo; as the loner, he is alienated even from the alienated. Recital opens with five persons on stage assembled around a piano. They engage in perfunctory social chatter which continues as the recital begins. It becomes apparent that no one is listening to the music; each person, caught up in his own world, slips into personal revelations both danced and spoken. But a moment of real intensity unexpectedly occurs as one of the woman has an apparent breakdown - a kind of symbolic death. And in one of those rare moments, a meeting of the spirit occurs. Almost tenderly they raise her aloft and carry her to stage right. All recognize the loneliness, the true loneliness, that exists beneath the facade. In anguish, they beat their chairs, but then the people remember where they are. Suddenly, the barriers begin to rise. They reassemble their chairs and resume their conversations. The two men bitterly stand up, turn toward the audience and with great sweeping gestures come forward to include us in the human dilemma. The shattered woman frantically joins in this recognition of a plight we all share and then stands on a chair as if orchestrating the whole party. Life is a play and the players have their parts. Not cynically, but painfully, they pick her up and seat her again. With this, Randazzo acknowledges that society must have some set of external conventions if it is to function without chaos. But the point of the work is to reveal the very nature of modern existence. We live in a world where life exists in fragments, where the focus shifts from one second to the next, where we share intense feelings only to lose touch the next moment. Randazzo's understanding of this subtlety is developed in his later choreography. The sudden shifts in mood, music and style which the Toronto Star dance critic William Littler describes as 'the way Randazzo arrests motion, turns it into sculpture, then liberates it on a new dynamic course', cannot simply be accounted for as interesting handling of movement. In this kind of world, the knowledge that real mo ments m ay be grasped, but only fleetingly , gives Ran dazzo his particular intensity as a dancer and choreographe r. DAN SE AU CANADA DANCE IN CANADA e hool fthe oronto ance eatre Faculty Peter Randazzo Patricia Beatty David Earle Danny Grossman Susan Macpherson Donald Himes Kathryn Brown Peggy Smith Baker Wendy Chiles Patricia Miner Judy Hendin Guest Teachers Kenny Pearl Merle Salsberg Helen Jones Keith Urban TORONTO DANCE THEATRE 21 DAN SE AU CANADA Principal Donald Himes Inquiry School Co-ord in ator, 957 Broadview Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M4K 2R5 423-0562 Next Beginners' Course January 2nd-March 25th Single Class $4.50 Registration Fee $5.00 Scholarship Audition Winter 1977 Sat. Jan.7 at 2pm TORONTO December 14, 15, 16 MacMillan Theatre, Queen's Park Crescent Toronto Premiere of 'A Simple Melody' WINNIPEG January 7 Playhouse Theatre SASKATOON January 9 Castle Theatre REGINA January II Darke Hall MEDICINE HAT January 14 College Theatre LETHBRIDGE January 17 G.E. Yates Memorial Centre CALGARY January 19,20 Calgary Hall EDMONTON January 27, 28 SUB Theatre v ANCOUVER February IO, II Q.E. Playhouse VICTORIA February 19 Macpherson Playhouse 957 Broadview Avenue Toronto,Ontario,M4K 2R5 416 423-7016 DANCE IN CANADA 22 DANSE AU CANADA Rhonda Ryman Training the Dancer II Today's ballet teacher is in a unique but not totally enviable position. He faces a barrage of information films, television series, magazine articles, handbooks and technique manuals. These can never replace the actual physical experience of dancing but can complement it. The more progressive technique manuals add a new dimension by attempting to pose and resolve previously unasked questions - questions relating to the how of dance technique. But how well do these major technique manuals meet present day needs? They fall into two general categories: those listing steps, exercises or enchainements through technical ballet terminology or narrative description; and those using scientific as well as traditional and lay terms to explain the components of ballet movement. The first category consists of syllabi, such as those of the Cecchetti Society or Royal Academy of Dancing, which establish graded standards for training. They are directed toward teachers who have already mastered the terminology and, presumably, the technique, and provide the teacher with an organized pedagogical structure. Their value depends largely on the teacher's intuitive application of these guidelines to the individual student's needs. In any case, while all the systems are based on the five fundamental positions of the feet as outlined by Beauchamps, they do not share the same terminology for arms, alignment and steps. So it may be confusing for a dancer trained in the Russian system to learn a Cecchetti enchainement. The solution may lie in the evergrowing use of notation which creates a symbolic and universal language based on observable physical phenomena, in effect, bypassing terminology for greater accuracy. (The Royal Academy of Dancing Children's Syllabus has recently been published in both Benesh and Labanotation.) Notation completely eliminates such questions as 'Where is the right knee on count 2?' or 'Where does the left wrist face on count 6?' The teacher can spend time on more crucial issues: how the knee or wrist is placed to give the mechanically and aesthetically correct line of the body. Most technique manuals combine the listing of steps with verbal descriptions. They acknowledge the need for a sound theoretical understanding as opposed to the rote memorization of terminology but they do not satisfy that need. The Beaumont and Idzikowski (1922) version of the Cecchetti manual, for example, includes less than 30 pages dealing with theoretical foundations and more than 200 listing exercises. The authors are still concerned mainly with how things look, rather than how things work. They still see arms and head positions in aesthetic rather than functional terms primarily as frames for the movements of the legs and torso. Margaret Craske restates this idea in The Theory and Practice of Allegro in Classical Ballet (Ce:, Method) (1968). Her description of the harm correspondence between arms and legs is remini Blasis' directive, almost 1 50 years earlier, to arms 'like the frame to a picture.' Certain manuals, like those of Bournonville Cecchetti, are intended for the use of professio nal: wish to improve their technical and artistic profi Technique for the Ballet Artiste (1967), written b_ Spessivtzeva, records a series of set daily lesson barre work to centre practice. Such books are e..,··-~~---......... only in proportion to the amount of understandi ; reader brings to them. The most recent syllabus-type manual to appear · Russian source is Asaf Messerer's Classes in Cl.:i~Ballet (1975) . He recounts the difficulties he foun beginning teacher: in trying to explain movemen analyze their execution, he and his colleagues rec contradictory responses, which were later seen t alternate ways of illustrating the same under~ principle. Different students respond to different ima_ so it is imperative for the teacher to understand the technical principle and 'translate' it into images thr _ which the student can discover the movement. nowhere in the book are these images given and n0\\ are these principles described! Instead we are prese-with six specifically constructed lessons, each stem from a central choreographic theme and progressir.g complexity. Since there are less than 20 pages discussion and almost 400 listing the class exercise . value of Messerer's text is once again derived pri m from executing each class. Through this phy experience, the artistic logic of his teaching beco apparent. But, again, the manual is aimed at the ma. professional who has already mastered ballet vocabu..: and has a high level of technical proficiency. Other manuals pay more attention to explaining : how of various movements. Vaganova's Basic Princr of Classical Ballet (1934) has long been considereclassic for its comprehensive description of movem _ from the classical repertoire. In it, she discusses hov,, rational analysis, she assimilated the French and Ita heritage into her own conception of the Russian schc Her teaching stresses a firm mastery of the trunk an~ functional as well as decorative use of the arm jumping and turning. She does not presume to o:: detailed anatomical justifications, but what she descri~ is based on logically thought-out conclusions arri ved through keen observation. Many twentieth-century manuals try to explain :· mechanics of movement. In Preparation for Ballet (19: Mme. Nicolaeva Legat advises serious dance student •; to imagine that all dancing is spontaneous and emo ti or. Her descriptions, often colourful, emotive, and as DANCE IN CANADA :. rngue, require the dancer to 'fill in the blanks' by ng on his personal experience for meaningful _ retation. In Ballet Education (1 94 7) she indiscrimi•. uses words such as 'contracting', 'tightening' and ng' - but not in their precise anatomical sense. Like - _ memporaries she realizes the need for explanations - i.: ' San effective vocabulary. --=~at's conclusions, however, are surprisingly valid. ~derstands the potential problems caused by the -ary (i.e. non-functional) involvement of large .:~ groups, criticizing 'teachers who overemphasize por tance of drawing in the buttocks, which throws y out of balance by distorting the easy alignment spine and the head.' She also suggests that arm ;:nents serve a function in conjunction with leg - to provide impetus for pirouettes and turning - : ' The arms help to swing the body round, the -- onding arm being brought forward at the same _ " the foot.' - - ara Karsavina's Classical Ballet: The Flow of •1ent (1968) and Ballet Technique (1968) provide - ~ excellent insights into body usage, but her valid .:. ions often result from weak or even incorrect _ ~ems. She describes numerous procedures for _ :ing elevation which are mechnically sound: the __ · importance of correct timing in the use of arms, - d breath, and the practice of a slow fondu (knee · followed immediately by a quick releve (spring · ne ball of the foot) in order to prepare the leg for a !"-ful push-off. The underlying principle on which "a es these practices ('the lower the crouch, the - _-: the spring'), however, is fallacious. 3lllples of acute perceptions explained with weak or 23 DAN SE AU CANADA even erroneous arguments abound in the literature. It is as if these great masters had to make excuses for instinctively understood truths. Muriel Stuart tries to present a more comprehensive and detailed approach in The Classical Ballet ( 1952) by giving a description of 'Posture and Muscular Control' for each step ('Hold shoulders down'; 'tighten buttocks, abdomen and thighs'; 'tense knees') . Current research, however, suggests it is more profitable to concentrate on the action and let the appropriate muscles come into play. Adopting arbitrary muscular stances, as she proposes, does not enhance control but restricts freedom of movement. As an accomplished dancer and teacher she has thoroughly mastered the use of her muscles, no doubt. But does her book reflect a complete enough understanding of the functioning of the human body to benefit her readers? So the paradox remains. The greatest ballet masters have stressed the need to thoroughly understand a movement. Yet they have somehow almost instinctively understood. And it is their intuitive perceptions which have advanced ballet technique. Unfortunately, most ballet teachers do not possess such insight. They need to know why and how as well as what. There is now a small nucleus of pioneers who are finally pursuing the directions set by Weaver more than 200 years ago. The initiative was taken by Celia Sparger, student of Margaret Craske and consulting physiotherapist to the Royal Ballet School. Her book, Anatomy and Ballet (1949), is the prototype for texts which have finally brought ballet technique into the twentieth century. They concentrate on movement fundamentals as opposed to particular steps and demand a new breed of dancers and teachers whose understanding of the human body is as comprehensive as their understanding of technique. Sparger observes that the great ballet masters of the past 'were content to follow the inspiration of their eye and that unerring sense of line and form which guided them and led them to the results they sought.' She suggests, however, that the artist's instincts could well be 'reinforced, but not replaced, by a more academic approach.' Her ideas are based on an accurate conception of the skeletal action involved in movement: 'If these movements are performed correctly, the correct muscle will work . . . . The teacher's real task is to go deeper, in fact to the skeleton itself, to the joints, the bones, the bony structure of the body. See the moving body as a moving skeleton and very little more is needed.' Her book remains the classic text on anatomy for the dancer. Anatomical information clarifies the ideal execution of dance movements and can also provide valuable knowledge about the body's limitations and susceptibility to damage. Beryl Dunn, formerly physiotherapist to the Royal Ballet, has written Dance! Therapy for Dancers in the hope of diminishing the risk of injury to ballet dancers by explaining the dangers of improper mechanical usage of the body, especially of the joints. Like Sparger, she suggests that the dancer attempt to look past the superficial shape of a movement or pose, and isolate each joint movement, since 'any given shape is the summation of movements in a number of joints.' Dunn notes that the perfect physique is the exception rather DANCE IN CANADA 24 DAN SE AU CANADA synchronize absolutely with the effort of leaving the and holding the position reached - still - in the air. than the rule, and that any physique can be harmed by incorrect training and improved by correct training. American-based physiotherapist/ dance teacher Raoul Gelabert has also been influenced by Sparger. His two-volume work, Anatomy for the Dancer, offers a detailed foundation - based on anato my, pathology and orthopedics - for understanding ballet skills. Gelabert discusses not only the skeletal components but also the muscles involved in specific movements and supplements regular ballet exercises with exercises he devised for dancers who had specific technical problems or injuries. Joan Lawson was Vaganova's pupil and Sparger's colleague at the Royal Ballet School and she has written several comprehensive texts discussing the fundamental principles and conventions of ballet. In Classical Ballet: Its Style and Technique (.1960) she describes the components of technique such as line, balance, use of the head and limbs, and qualities of movement. Lawson explains that ballon, 'the natural quality whereby the dancers seem continually to be moving away from the ground,' is accomplished by acquiring 'elasticity of feet, ankles and knees so that every movement is felt to pass through the entire length of the leg.' She emphasizes the need for correct timing of the push-off (weightbearing) leg and gesture (non-weightbearing) leg in prop elling the body away from the ground, and for proper breath co ntrol in creating the illusion of being suspended in mid-air at the height of the jump: The intake and momentary holding of the breath In The Teaching of Classical Ballet (1973), Lawson less with the anatomical background and more w ith practical applications of theoretical information to ba fundamentals. But Lawson's most recent book, Teac · Young Dancers Muscular Coordination in Clas::· Ballet (197 5) is overambitious. It examines the co classical stance, physical considerations such as differences and structural anomalies, and families movements such as plies, ports de bras and movements. However, in attempting to make . anatomical terms and mechanical principles meanin_ to dancers, Lawson often misuses them, making ·~ descriptions of questionable value to either dance teac~ or anatomist. In discussing the muscle action of a gra battement devant, for example, she describes the fee. or impression of the leg 'being lifted from underneat the biceps and gluteus maximus' - a physiolo ~ impossibility! The image may be helpful, but it cannotaken literally. As Stuart and Legat do, Lawson specubas to the exact nature of muscular involvement in ba movements. The mind thinks in terms of movements . muscles. A preoccupation with isolated muscle gr _ may merely complicate performance. (Not tha:knowledge of muscles involved in a given movemen· without value. It may help the dancer/teacher de·_ muscular tightness or weakness and therefore con r _ exercises to improve performance and avert injur y.) The idea of applying anatomical information potentially valuable. But its inaccurate application r:: lead to problems. Effective movement images m u t based on accurate scientific information. Frequently have been offered conflicting explanations for the corr, execution of certain steps. Admittedly there are m.1 stylistic variations possible. But the physical facto rs .1 constant. There are certain mechanical truths at the of each movement which must be identified and analy::., It must be the goal of contemporary manuals to iso·_ the critical factors necessary to the efficient, effe . performance of a given movement, to separate the vi:· end product or illusion from the mechanics or mean. creating that illusion. The next article in this series examines dance techn:._· from a different point of view, by exploring contem ary schools of body education based on anatomy .: related sciences. DANCE IN CANADA 25 DAN SE AU CANADA In Review tching the Dance Go By ·.:-a B. Siegel. - n: Houghton Mifflin Com· 19 77 Siegel is a serious dance critic. She _,,,.--""' wh at dancers do, records what .::.o. and also thinks about what they - .::ting new dance into art-historical ram::,.·"''-"·ve . Part sociologist, she dissects haviours of dancers and choreog'IICllll:--,c,.,, as though they were significant --~aJ phenomena. Part moralist, she · ers what she believes, and what she . not afraid to complain when her . shabbily rewarded. She is also a nate devotee of many forms of • a nd a fluent writer. - . - recent book, Watching the Dance -> is a rich collection of her writings - ::he past five years for daily newsin Boston and Los Angeles, for York's Soho Weekly News, several publications and a variety of -· erly journals of arts and letters. Her ...- r va ry from short, white-hot, -mg-after responses to long, analyti· cicles, from diaries of the seasons · w York companies to idea-centred - · pieces', which explore decadence, and change in the art of dance. a ks herself, relentlessly, the key .:al questions, probing for motive and ~mg. - • ·e this paragrah from a r 976 review .... e Sacre du Printemps , created by :- Tetley for American Ballet Theatre. _.: asks: 'What is choreography any~ Is it an aesthetic version of a ·erball game - a series of strategems .·eeping many moving bodies on :-·ay ?' She takes Tetley to task for g dance that merely looks impres- •His staging looks complex,' she says, .:au e a lot is going on; it looks as if it's feeling because the dancers are · ing so hard to execute their tasks ... - is element of physical stress that so -:• modern choreographers use to :e the audience's passion. Tetley's ~e is violent. . . His dance has no line, mass. It has no rhythm, only the • ding of the blood.' egel acknowledges her own 'Western • ·: and her 'lingering romantic need to --: rehend everything,' in a review of a - .:err by avant-garde choreographer -~a Dean. She is fascinated by the -= cult, by choreographic and musical .:ep ts which force her to work and - . Her discoveries are so illuminating, • early articulated, that we find our - _ :1 comprehension of the entire dance opus growing as we read. She is attentive to, and critical of, the present methods of subsidy to the dance world, which require companies to demonstrate popularity in order to generate public funds. She believes, she says, in repertoire, in preservation, in being able to renew a deeply moving experience, especially since so much dance that she sees is not moving. But, she says, 'the experimental choreographer has a right to deny us the safety of predictable enjoyment, and to demand that we look and organize and react to dance freshly every time.' I could go on quoting, but somehow snippets of Seigel violate the integrity, the enormous scope and intelligence of her work. Her careful attention to the productions of Twyla Tharp, of experimental choreographers, and her affectionate views of the classics are fascinating. She engages herself with the questions of androgyny and sexuality in dance, with the new pop audience, with the shifting emphasis in modern companies away from personal choreographic statement and toward a sleek, generalized virtuosity. Her beliefs, values and point of view, all of which have become somewhat unfashionable, are apt to interfere with the simplistic function of the critic as an applause meter, a consumer service. The fact that she is based in New York means that she has 2000 dance performances a year to choose from, and the opportunity to return again and again to study a piece of choreography which interests her. Watching the Dance Go By allows us all to share in her superb perceptions of the moving art. It may be in print, but it's certainly a more rewarding experience of dance than much of what's happening in our theatres . ELIZABETH ZIMMER On Stage, Please Veronica Tennant. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1977 There exists a certain type of storybook, written ostensibly for children, a storybook more intent on conveying information than capturing the imagination, more intent on teaching lessons than taking off on flights of fancy. As a child, I received my share of these. They dealt with every topic imaginable from horseback riding to scuba diving, vegetable gardening to figure skating. Veronica Tennant, principal ballerina of the National Ballet, has just written such a book about a little girl who wants to be a ballerina. Jennifer leaves home at r o to study at the National Ballet Schoolthinly disguised as 'The Professional School of Ballet.' The book seems to contain many elements of autobiography and is as level-headed and intelligent as the author herself. Like Tennant, Jennifer has not been gifted with the ideal dancer's body, so she must work extra hard to keep up with her lucky classmate Maureen, blessed with long legs and perfect feet. Throughout Tennant stresses that it takes a very special person to make it in the world of ballet. It is indeed an extraordinary child who would face spending Christmas away from her family in order to dance in Cinderella. But for those of us who lacked that drive, there is something marvellous and enviable about a girl with such single-minded purpose. Scarcely a page of On Stage, Please does not seek to educate the reader about some aspect of developing the ballet student's mind and body. We learn the fundamental lesson that hard work and determination are as good as, and sometimes better, than a classically perfect body. But let's not carry things too far. Fat is totally unacceptable in the ballet studio! So are flying hairpins from sloppy buns. In fact, at times like that, Tennant reveals the almost frightening underside of ballet training - the unremitting emphasis on humility, conformity and rigid discipline. There is also an attempt to correct some longstanding errors and misconceptions about ballet. For example, ballet dancers do not wear 'toe' shoes, but pointe shoeswhich do not have wooden blocks in the toes. It is the dancer's own strength that holds her up. In a relatively short book Tennant DANCE IN CANADA manages to encompass just about every classic situation and character one might find in a ballet school. Jennifer's first, and very nearly her last, teacher is the vile Mr. Vincent, who insists that 180-degree turnout must be achieved immediately and with the maximum of pain and suffering. In creating this nasty caricature, Tennant has found a more clever and effective way than the National Ballet School's current publicity drive to expose the fraudulent, unqualified dance teachers that abound. And then there is Danielle, the advanced ballet student and recent company member who always has a kind and encouraging word for a frustrated beginner, even doing Jennifer's hair and make-up on the night she makes her debut with 'The Performing Company.' Then there's the girl with a weight problem, the boy whose parents think dance is 'sissy' and others. The drawback to this didactic approach is its decidedly flat effect. One keeps waiting for the lecture to stop and the drama to begin. Jennifer's wild 'Dance of Fright' in Cinderella is the climax of the story. It could have been spellbinding. All the elements were there - excitement, tension, suspense. Instead of allowing the situation to develop freely and involve the reader in its delicious power, Tennant has smoothed over the essence of dancing in a few sentences. The story has ended before you know it. Rita Briansky's illustrations are unusual for a dance book. You won't find any exquisitely pointed feet or graceful swanlike necks - these are the obsession exclusively of dance fiends. Her curious etchings are loose and relaxed, as unaffected as children. They really grow on you. Published just in time for Christmas, Veronica Tennant's first book is informative and easy reading. Ch ildren 10-12 should enjoy it and would no doubt appreciate it as a gift for the Christmas season. Tharp Artpark Summer 1977 Since it opened in 1974, Artpark has become the dance-lover's Mecca. Situated on 60 magnificent acres of sloping land in Lewiston, New York, overlooking the Niagara River, Artpark is operated by the State Department of Parks and Recreation. It offers crafts, the fine and performing arts in a parkland setting, and at the same kind of prices one might spend camping, swimming or fishing in another park. The focal point is a striking 2400-scat theatre with a back wall that can lift to accommodate an overspill audience on a steeply raked lawn. Here, each summer, Artpark has presented a season of concert music, opera, musical theatre and dance on its large stage. Partly because of its popularity and as a result of executive director David Midland's personal taste, dance has in fact come to occupy pride of place in the performing season. This past summer, four major companies appeared, those of Martha Graham, Eliot Feld, Robert Joffrey and Twyla Tharp. It is only a courageous management that can take box-office risks with such imaginative programming. The Joffrey Ballet is a sure sell, but the others have no guaranteed appeal for regional audiences. Yet, so successful has Artpark been in building a local audience, that overall the season was sold to 6 5 % of capacity-a thoroughly respectable figure. Taken individually, all the companies who appeared this summer at Artpark are distinguished. Put together in a season, they represented an interesting crosssection of American dance from Martha Graham, 'historical modern' as it has been called, through Joffrey eclecticism and Feld off-beat classicism, to the hyperkinetic and unique movement of Twyla Tharp. Although Eliot Feld occasionally includes works by other choreographers, DlTAC~ DANCE AND THEATRE ARTS CALGARY SOCIETY • sponsors l oc al, provin ci al , national and inte rnational Perfor ming Arts Events in Calgar,' , Alberta, Canada l TAC~ DANSE AU CANADA Joffrey, Graham, Feld and HOLLY SMALL DlTAC~ 26 contact : R obert G r een wood 2205 - 700 Ninth Street S. W . Calgar y , Alberta, Canada T2P 2B 5 his, Graham's and Tharp's companies a:-e essentially one-choreographer in sti tions. Happily, they each chose prograrr..:; which ranged widely over the histori gamut of their repertoire. It is fashionable among the real moder:. dance radicals to discount Graham as dated and irrelevant. Certainly her ne work, Shadows and O Thou Wh o Ar: About To Sing, suggests the imaginati\·e well has dried up; and when one consider:c how far advanced is the dance revolutioshe helped start, works such as Diversion of Angels and Dark M eadows do loo very set in their period. However, just a;, one goes on seeing Swan Lake, it wou c: be foolish to write off a modern clas 1.:like Appalachian Spring or Seraphr Dialogue. Their directness, simplicity am: economy still hold lessons for a ne · generation of choreographers and in themselves are powerful works of dan e theatre. Graham's company has renderec them better than at Artpark, but even a mildly casual and poorly energized performance could not disguise the strengt:. of the original design. The Jaffrey Ballet, an old favourite a: Artpark, drew the biggest audiences. Blighted by injuries, the comp a ny nevertheless managed to summon up th a.: happy, giving spirit which compensates o much for their lack of discipline anc insensitivity to style. Jaffrey brought a bi repertoire to display his company's range: all the way from Saint-Leon's La Vivandiere pas de deux to Twyla Tharp's Deuce Coup e II. In between, we had a heavy and ill-judged dose of Frederi · Ashton, administered with a heavy hanc.. It is odd that Ashton can be so carelesof his ballets. At their best, Fafade anL Jazz Calendar are not masterpieces, wh ile Monotones and The Dream each make special demands in style and characterization of the performers. Monotones, a work of stunning beauty in its complete form, was the only Ashton ballet the Joffrey appear to have mastered. They misunderstood Fafade, hamming it to extinction, and did little better with Jaz;: DANCE IN CANADA 27 DAN SE AU CANADA Dance in Canada Conference Manitoba Theatre Centre Winnipeg 19-23 August 1977 .;;.endar. Kevin McKenzie and Denise _.:ic.so n, the leads in The Dream, were -_,- fine, but the corps was a ragged mess - ' utterly missed an evocation of the mantic ballet intended by Ashton. ·er despite its failings, there is some• - □ g very winning and irresistible - u t the Joffrey's exuberant vitality. -e never regrets seeing them. ;-eld and Tharp provided the real meat 0 :he Ar tpark dance season. Both, in very .:;erent ways, are difficult personalities - revolutionary choreographers. Whate: his debts to other choreographers, =- <l has given us a very individual and - itive proof that the classical vocabul--.- still has lots to say. There is no _estion of his position among the very ·rst of the younger generation of -.o reo graphers. Unfortunately, Feld has a y thing about letting his work be - ed by other companies. It's selfish -d ultimately self-destroying - unless he get a better company and keep it rking longer each year than he does - w. His ballets are so infernally good, it's -;uri ating not to see them more often. At -rpark we saw his first and best, - :irbinger, with another classic, At Midht, a new gem, Footstep of Air, and - sp ectable though less distinguished rks such as The Consort and Cortege ..; ·sien. Versatility, musicality and emo- nal intensity shine through in Feld's work. Men and women dance together as equal partners. While classicism is the point of departure, Feld enjoys throwing it off balance. He is not attracted to creating illusions of lightness and beauty. There is an earthiness in his choreography. If only somebody would bring him to Canada so we can take a longer look. Twyla Tharp's choreography is an acquired taste that soon stimulates insatiable appetite. Right now, she is all the rage in New York. Yet acceptance and popularity have not turned her head nor affected the outstanding quality of her dancers - probably the best ever seen at Artpark. Seemingly casual and unstructured, Tharpian dance is as complex and rich in texture as the most sophisticated choreography around today. It expands the music it uses and is musical even when there is no music. It covers space, makes energy into something you can almost reach out and touch, pays hommage to popular American composers, comments humourously on both dance and life, touches its audience with its surprises and seemingly impossible off-balance movements - and never takes anything for granted. Tharp brought the season to a close on the kind of up-beat Artpark's management deserves. MICHAEL CRABB One of the unique features of the annual Dance in Canada Association conference is the series of performances by dance companies and individual performers from across Canada. The last two years they have been called a 'Festival', a term whose connotations are not altogether appropriate. Someone at this year's conference suggested 'Inventory' which is very appropriate, since, much to the consternation of some and the delight of others, a wide gamut of what is being performed in the name of dance in Canada today can be seen in four nights. If one takes a longitudinal view of the three previous years of these 'Inventories', one can see that, in what is still a relatively young art form in Canada, the quality of Canadian dance has improved. Perhaps these changes are less apparent in the presentations of the large ballet companies - represented this year by the National Ballet of Canada and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet - if only because they have both been companies of international calibre for several years now. Frederick Ashton's intricate manipulation of three dancers in Monotones II (to music by Satie), danced by the National Ballet, demonstrates the new directions that company will be taking in repertoire under artistic director Alexander Grant. Ashton's La Fi/le Mal Gardee was highly successful in the National's recent New York run at the Met, and the acquisition of more Ashton masterpieces is likely. There are some, including Clive Barnes, who consider Ashton as possibly the greatest choreographer of the twentieth century, and seeing more of his work performed in Canada is a special privilege . The Royal Winnipeg performed Oscar Araiz's Le Sacre du Printemps . A tour de force, it captures the angularities and primitivism of the music; by costuming the dancers in practice clothes, letting their hair flow freely and by totally exposing the back stage areas, it suggests the timelessness of ritual. This particular selection also reflects artistic director Arnold Spohr's forte; that is, acquiring relatively unknown choreographers just before they become known in the international market. One might even say he helps to catapult them into prominence. However, the large ballet companies really make only token appearances on these programs, and perhaps are better judged in the context of their full-scale productions which tour the country at least once a year. The majority of works performed come from the small chamber ballet companies, DANCE IN CANADA Royal Winnipeg in Rite of Spring. the vast proliferation of modern dance companies and independent choreographers. Whatever is indigenous in Canadian dance is likely to emerge from these segments of the dance community, since they are less able to afford international choreographers or are philosophically committed to performing only original works. Canadian modern dance is a strange hybrid. Strongly influenced by European immigrant teachers with Wigman and Laban backgrounds and by the close proximity of the American modern dance scene, it is not surprising that most early Canadian modern dance seemed clearly derivative. Even three years ago most dances had literal meanings, if not actual plots, and seemed imitative of what was going on in the 1940s or 19 50s elsewhere. Modern dance was heavy and any evidence of humour or satire was rare indeed. There was a lyrical trend too among former ballet dancers who had recently discovered modern dance and their works often looked like ballet in bare feet. The choreography was typically naive w ith a lack of concept or depth of involvement with the movement material. Are we progressin g toward assimilating our foreign influences and developing di · a ti ·e Canadian choreograp h ers? f - ::::- ,-:e a.:-:-ar of work presented August 28 DAN SE AU CANADA 19-23 in Winnipeg, the answer seems to it utilized repetitive movement phrases for five dancers. After figuring out the astral be yes - and no. Generally, the roots of particular styles pattern, the effect was mesmerizing. The of modern dance were not clearly recog- predictability was strangely satisfying nizable - with the exception of Marie because of the ebb and flow of energy. Marchowsky's Image of Obsession and There was great promise in Judy Jar vis' Peter Randazzo's Recital. Marchowsky's Bella, a dance satire on grand opera to a Image of Obsession (music by Herbert Puccini aria. The curtain opened to reveal Haufrect), very much in the Graham a delicately painted horse (I kept thinking idiom, had a dramatic intensity that of the Trojan horse) upon which reclined bordered on melodrama. The Toronto two lovers, Jarvis and Danny Grossman. Dance Theatre, on the other hand, chose in commedia dell'arte attire. Their vacant to send up their Graham roots in Randaz- romantic gestures in contrast to the lush zo's Recital to music by Michael Baker, melodic aria created a parody of romantic played by Ricardo Abreut. Here we had love. Unfortunately, as the piece progresarchetypal Graham steps interspersed sed the humour became a bit threadbare. with pedestrian gestures and the bizarre The idea needs more development. Jar vis juxtaposition was very funny, particularly often seems to devote herself completel_to a single choreographic idea. Th i to a well-informed dance audience. The tendency of today's dancers to occurred also in the manipulation of the study several modern styles and even wide sleeves of her Oriental costume in ballet (an act of heresy in the early period The River. Unless that idea is allowed to of modern dance!) has been decried by spawn some surprises and offshoots, the some as the death blow to modern dance. work remains merely a dance study. Humour and satire were more predoOptimistically, one could argue that such merging of styles might provide the minant during this year's festival. The choreographer with a more extended most sophisticated satire came fro movement vocabulary upon which to Danny Grossman's Curious Schools o-' draw. This seemed to be the case with Theatrical Dancing to music by Couperin. several of the more interesting works. The Grossman placed his solo in wha: movement selected seemed less con- appeared to be a circus ring and displayed strained to familiar steps and more his own curious and amazing pyromotivated by choreographic structures. technics. Canada has an avant-garde in dance Pure movement and relationship to space characterized Andrea Smith's Jupiter's now that is alive and well and incurring i Moons . Performed to Steve Reich's music, fair share of skepticism and wrath fron:: DANCE IN CANADA ems of the more traditional unity. While it may be argued _ lanitoba Theatre Centre may -e ideal performing space fo r all es, their place in the spectrum • activity at the conference is •-:· important. There have been -is fr om time to time that some • ality control be imposed on the e performed at the conference. _ is to be accomplished becomes ts nest! An adjudicating team ··el around the country auditionanies and individuals, but artiship could be more harmful in - 5 run than enduring a few - wo rks. The role of the avant- to challenge the traditional -.:. bearers of the art. Examples of • ded Margaret Dragu's tactile - =- Canajun Burgers, which took --: the theatre lobby during an ion ; Balloon 2, which featured ~ arfield and her partner, a balloon - in diameter; Jennifer Mascall's ich challenged the notion of - - --•ty to an ideal body by the visual _ ,,,,,...~_• ~r"'int of one fat and one thin - and Ernst Eder's memorable exit .--e slowly walked across the stage - - e aisle while the train of his cape agest piece of material I've ever .:ouched every member of the - ·e on the main floor. dance companies from across Ull.-'ar " - " rep resented at the conference one expect to notice some regional es in style. However, most of the ies are utilizing more than one apher (unlike many of the mod- e companies in the United States), - reasingly choreographers are being - s ioned from other parts of the y . This makes regionalism and even - y style harder to pinpoint. Also, -· e conference does not pay fees for - fo r mers (token honorariums were this year) most young companies r afford to send their full comple- of dancers. Consequently, this year --ograms consisted of many solos and - _Ir is difficult to judge a company on ~J.Sis. Ballet Ys performed two quite m works and I was disappointed in them. Eve Lenzner's Up On Cloud urely meant to be a domestic farce, -::o the trap of cuteness. This young er ballet company needs choreogto challenge and make better use e capable dancers. Sonia Perusse's - Second had pretensions to profunrhat I usually associate with high modern dance classes turned loose ... creative project. The few ballet - graphers represented among the . al performances suggest that they are not being developed at ame rate as their modern dance - erparts. ~-e Regina Modern Dance Works - to have gained much in the way of DANSE AU CANADA 29 polish since last year. Maria Formolo's Hot Dog had the folksy charm one associates with the Prairies. Too bad she couldn't have chosen a song with lyrics about Saskatchewan instead of Texas. David Weller's Housing with a taped voice collage on the perils of fincling a place to live afforded the company an opportunity to display more humour as they made social comments in movement. Juxtaposing movement with narration or dialogue can be tricky as the concentration of the audience can be drawn to following the stor y or content of the dialogue rather than watching the movement. The visual images must be very striking and Weller succeeded at least in part with his clever use of a ladder to signify a high rise, the isolation of apartments, or a tenement (I was never sure). With all of the sound and fury which took place in the political arena at the conference this year, the glue which held all the delegates together was the excitement and genuine appreciation displayed by the audience of peers warmly approving each other's artistic endeavours. The performers enjoy dancing for each other and that feedback produces some very special performances. People remember when Lawrence Gradus was discovered at the conference in r 97 4 and was inspired to form a company called Entre-Six. There are other success stories in the making. JOAN SINCLAIR \ \ ( / American Ballet Theatre Metropolitan Opera New York September r 977 Among all the great classical ballets, The Nutcracker has demonstrated an enduring marketability. However grotesque the production - and there have been more than 40 major ones - audiences seem unable to resist the charm of Tchaikovsky's score, arguably his best for ballet, or the magical twists and turns of the Hoffman story. A good run of Nutcrackers can do wonders for a ballet company's coffers, even if it bores dancers and outrages snobby, highfalutin' bal letomanes. In December r 976, American Ballet Theatre, which is systematically developing its repertoire of full-length works, unveiled yet another new Nutcracker. Of more interest than most, since it was conceived, directed and choreographed by Mikhail Baryshnikov, it is the first significant choreographic undertaking by the brilliant former Kirov dancer - and one likely to reach more than 40 million viewers at Christmas when CBS broadcasts the television version made in Toronto during October. Baryshnikov's production includes elements from two important Russian versions of The Nutcracker: Vasily Vainonen's for the Kirov (1934), and Yuri Grigorovich's for the Bolshoi (1966) . The delightful 'Snowflakes Waltz' is borrowed directly from Vainonen and the mixed ensemble work in the equally attractive 'Waltz of the Flowers' is also reminiscent of his version. Like Grigorovich, Baryshnikov gives the roles of the Stahlbaum children to adults. Although given the traditional setting of a Christmas party, Baryshnikov's Nutcracker is inspired by a fashionable belief that the great classical ballets, our nineteenth-century inheritance, should be adapted to contemporary tastes in dramatic logic and psychological realism. Stories that were little more than excuses for a string of interesting dances emphasizing spectacle and virtuosity, now have to serve a deeper purpose. Baryshnikov's Nutcracker presents a study in adolescent fantasy.As Clara stands on the brink of sexual maturity, Drosselmeyer, the central figure in the drama, leads her through a dream world virtually denuded of sugary candies and tiered cakes. Instead of sitting to one side as the Prince and the Sugar Plum Fairy dance, Clara herself performs the Sugar Plum variation and the grand pas de deux with the Nutcracker-Prince. This in fact becomes a pas de trois with the reappearance of Drosselmeyer, ready to lead Clara back to the symbolic dawn of her newly gained maturity. John Neumeier's justly celebrated Nutcracker also set Clara on the brink of DANCE IN CANADA sexual maturity and gave her lots of dancing.Neumeier was clever enough to shift his ballet from Christmas to a birthday party, giving it year-round appeal. Baryshnikov's, however, is firmly set in the traditional Christmas mould with a tree that grows and grows. This has not inhibited Ballet Theatre which chose to exploit the ballet's market potential by opening its September mini-season at the Met with a whole week of Nutcrackers . Despite a ponderous beginning in which Drosselmeyer is observed adjusting a collection of dolls prior to the party, Baryshnikov soon moves us into the Stahlbaum home for some very interesting dancing, especially that for three life-size dolls mysteriously brought to life by Drosselmeyer. The guests at the party will later reappear, with masks, as the mice. Their king is the drunken reveller who at the party almost breaks Clara's Nutcracker doll. As he leaves the party he makes a gesture, as if stroking animal whiskers - a clever anticipation of his reappearance as Mouse King. The traditional battle of mice and toy soldiers ends with Clara's rescue of the Nutcracker who is revealed as the prince of her dreams. Act I concludes with the complex, marvellously executed designs of Vainonen's 'Snowflakes Waltz' with the 30 DAN SE AU CANADA girls leaving via a ramp - almost Bayaderka in reverse. In Act II Clara becomes the honoured guest of the prince and a series of divertissements is performed for her. Again, Baryshnikov has created spirited, athletic dances for the Court buffoons. There is a Spanish, Chinese and Russian Dance and another for two shepherds. The elegant 'Rose Waltz', as it is called in the program notes, includes Clara and the Prince and provides a spectacular choreographic crescendo to the second act before Drosselmeyer returns to lead Clara back to reality. Naturally enough, the b est cast (Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland) was selected by the television producers. However, on stage, Baryshnikov's Nutcracker tends to wilt when he is not dancing. Perhaps as a result of accusations that its management has been neglecting regular company members, ABT opened the September season with Fernando Bujones and Marianna Tcherkassy in the leads. It was a low-key affair. Small delights came from less obvious sources: Marcos Paredes' King of the Mice with its gentle touch of pantomime, George La Pena's mildly sinister Moor and Rebecca Wright's Doll. No doubt in preparation for the Toronto taping, the corps looked unusually well rehearsed, so far as actual dancing was A team of writers headed by Arnold Edinborough provides exciting coverage of theatre , ballet, music, dance and opera from coast to coast. Published quarterly , it's the national forum of the performing arts. Name: .. . . .. . .. .. . .. . ... . . ... ... . .... . . . . . ..... . ... . .. .. . . . concerned, but when required to simply stand around, it looked miserable and bored. Boris Aronson's sets get better as the ballet progresses and could not be fu lly appreciated under Jennifer Tipton's odd, erratic lighting, always lacking in atmosphere. (Both elements have been improved for the studio taping.) Given the right performanc e. Baryshnikov's Nutcracker has a direct, uncluttered character. The adjustments to the more familiar libretto are all acceptable and the new dancing is striking and original. It's sometimes hard to become enraptured with Nutcrack ers, but this one is certainly worthy of respect. MICHAEL CRABB Kain & Augustyn Photographs by Christopher Darling Text by John Fraser, Introduction by Rudolph Nureyev One of the most satisfying partnerships in ballet is celebrated in 150 magnificent photographs in black and white. Here is the artistry of Karen Kain and Frank Augustyn caught in all its lyrical beauty and dramatic impact in rehearsal and in performance. $10.00 paperback $25.00 cloth. Address: .. . ... . . ... . . .. .. ...... ... . . . .. . . .. . .. . ......... .. . .. . . .... . ...... . ........ Postal Code . . ... . . .. ... ... ... . 1 Year$3 □ 2 Years $5 □ New □ Renewal □ Outside Canada 1 Year $4.50 D Send to: Box 517, Station F Toronto, Ontario M4Y 1T4 POST FREE ORDERS now TIIEATREBOOKS 65911>NGE ST M4YIZ9 'IURON'IO.....,. 4169n1175 Toronto's Dance and Theatre Book Specialists Ch argex Mastercharge DANCE IN CANADA 31 DAN SE AU CANADA gum~&llets Uirufcliens Casse- noisette Nufucker Nault / Tchaikovsky Quebec Grand Theatre Decembre / December 1977 15, 16, 17 /20h30 8:30 p.m. 16, 17, 18 / 14 h 30 2:30 p.m. ..,,.:_3gietto e Royal Winnipeg Ballet What he came up with was fairly representative of the company's eclectic repertoire - the divertissements from Petipa's Paquita, the pas de deux Adagietto, choreographed by Oscar Araiz to the fourth movement of Mahler's fifth symKing Baudouin and Queen Fabiola phony and Rodeo, which Agnes de Mille lgium visited Ottawa in September, created to the Aaron Copland score. __ oyal Winnipeg Ballet was flown in to The selection gave people from around _ a special performance at the National the world a chance to see a work by Araiz, -~ Centre - a short performance, a a rising young choreographer whom de to the royal dinner- but neverthe- Arnold Spohr spotted in Argentina. The a command performance. RWB now has eight works by Araiz, and - a matter of fact about r, 700 of the only a fluke in booking dates prevented it _ : - seats of the Opera were reserved for from being the first company to show his ga tes to a Commonwealth conference work in New York; that privilege has gone in pro gress and there was great public instead to the Joffrey Ballet. Oddly, the , : :ry about the taxpayer having to foot programming contained no Canadian • ill for the performance from which he works - and this in a company which for many years presented a long procession of .::.: excluded. : w as a pity that the publicity people for Canadian works. Let's get the subject of the orchestra over i: R WB did not have a chance to ply their - ·de, for the occasion was a publicist's with. The National Arts Centre Orchestra, -earn. The RWB, which had its royal a crack team, was still on vacation, and so - nter in 19 5 3, is by far the oldest ballet the ballet had to use a pick-up orchestra, mpany in Canada, and therefore emi- drawn partly from Winnipeg and partly - _ ~ly suited for the honour of a command from Ottawa. The result was execrable ormance. playing. It would have been better if Spohr Assembling the program must have been and the Department of External Affairs it of a headache for artistic director had swallowed their pride and settled for • old Spohr. He had to keep it short, for taped performances. It is unusual for the Winnipeg company · - well as the state dinner, there was a long -:ermission, with a dreadful Ontario wine to show itself in such an extended, exposed :--.ovided free to consider. And many in the classical work as the Paquita excerpts. The -_dience were there out of courtesy, not eagle-eyed, globe-trotting Arnold Spohr cause of love of ballet. usually has so many new choreographers Montreal Place des Arts Decembre / December 1977 22, 23,26, 27, 28, 29 20 h 30 - 8:30 p.m. 23, 24, 26 14 h 30 - 2:30 p.m. DANCE IN CANADA to show us - Vesak, Neumeier, Araiz- that he has little time for the classics. Paquita, a series of solos, with some ensemble work, is not an exciting series of divertissements, and the Ottawa performance was interesting mostly because we are unused to seeing these dancers in the harsh light of pure classicism. Evelyn Hart was effective in a Sugar Plum Fairy sort of divertissement, Betty Carson was good in allegro work, and Sheri Cook elegant in arabesques. Marina Eglevsky showed lamentable lack of elevation, and travelled great distances in her fouettes, but unwound from them in graceful manner. The work of the ensemble seemed stilted in choreographic conception and only dogged in performance. The Adagietto pas de deux by Araiz is a little masterpiece in legato movement, lifts, floor work and tender gesture. It is both lyrical and passionate, but it wins one over by its seamless quality. That quality derives from Araiz's ability to think through the bar-lines of music, in the same way Ashton thinks through the bar-lines of the Satie music in Monotones. Styles in choreography are difficult to define, but they do change, and there's something very much of the I97os about both Adagietto and Monotones. (Think back to what Ashton was doing with music in Symphonic Variations, in I946, if you want a vivid contrast.) Bonnie Wyckoff and Mauricio 32 DANSE AU CANADA Wainrot (who created the role in Argentina, and is temporarily with the Winnipeg company) made a creditable showing. The company acquired Rodeo only four years ago, but it is not new to Agnes de Mille's works, for she created Bitter Weird on it some years ago. But the personnel changes, and I wonder, if many of the present company have been drilled by Miss de Mille personally (someone else taught the RWB Rodeo). This 3 5-year-old work, somewhat dated, is still a modern classic, a perfect vehicle for this company. Whether the limp performance of the score was entirely responsible is difficult to say, but the dancing made the work seem almost as faded as the shoddy reproduction of the Oliver Smith sets. Bonnie Wyckqff was tolerably convincing as the CowgiH (the role created by Miss de Mille herself), and Bill Lark was doing his best as Head Wrangler, but the ranch drama never really came to life. But help was on the way. In a typically thoughtful gesture, Arnold Spohr had invited Agnes de Mille, who is just recovering from a severe illness, to the performance. She was able to stand up to talk to the King and Queen of Belgium, on stage after the curtain went down, though she looked frail. After the royalty had departed for their late dinner, the company crowded around de Mille, the living legend. She looked at the dancers, who were also hungry, and said, 'I'll give you my corrections tomorrow.' But then, old pro that she is, she couldn't stop herself and started to give corrections, anyway. Spohr said, 'We must go to dinner', and led her gently to her wheelchair. September 20 will probably be revered by these dancers as 'the day we met Agnes de Mille' as much as 'the day we were presented to the King and Queen of Belgium.' LAURETTA THISTLE Special Master Class Course: Classical Ballet, Pointe, Repertoire, Pas de Deux Instructors: To be announced the banff centre school of fine arts Advanced, Intermediate classes: Classical Ballet, Pointe, Repertoire, Character, Jazz, Pas de Deux (by audition only) Instructors: Alan Hooper, Anita Jonns, Birl Jonns, Eart Kraul, Deird!e Tarrant, Virginia Wakelyn ballet division AUDITIONS: March 19-23, 1978 in Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver Summer Program 1978 July 3 - August 11 For details of courses, auditions, applications and scholarships, contact: The Registrar, The Banff Centre School of Fine Arts, Box 1020, Banff, Alberta, TOL OCO DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION FEBRUARY 28, 1978. DANCE IN CANADA Groupe la Place Royale ;~elude to talking about the move of oupe de la Place Royale from -=al to Ottawa, I'd like to point out publicity sheet calls it 'Canada's odern dance company.' We've had = claims, made either by publicity -:-. or by unthinking journalists, about ~ ontemporary Dancers of Winnipeg .:. ' e Toronto Dance Theatre. · _;, rrue that modern dance did not really ,: m in Canada until the 1960s but just let did not begin with Celia Franca, ~odern dance did not begin with Jeanne - aud, who founded Le Groupe de la c:e Royale. - any case, what is Le Groupe, a - any known for its far out experi(though it has abandoned the · .:hrian, no-audience-involvement aims enaud) doing in the small city of -:::awa, after moving from Montreal? ·,; can it hope to command a larger • ence in Ottawa? The artistic directors, Peter Boneham - ""Jean-Pierre Perreault, speak vaguely of ·ays feeling welcome in Ottawa. But the is that their appearances in the ~ - 0 33 DANSE AU CANADA National Arts Centre never progressed are plans for performances in high schools beyond the Studio, which seats only about and elementary schools in the area and 200 to 300, depending on how the space is choreographic workshops and performances by guest choreographers in the used. The real reasons for the move seem to lie studios. There's an all out effort, then, to get in government support and the drawing power of the company's school. Boneham involved with many levels of society, and Perreault complain that the Quebec including senior citizens and handicapped government was not really behind them, children. Nanti Malam, the work which Perreault and was particularly remiss in setting up created in the summer, and repeated at tours. As for the school, in Ottawa, the Carleton University is a continuation of spacious studios are at I 30 Sparks Street, experiments in having dancers vocalize on a popular downtown mall, and the while they dance. It brings up problems of company is building its hopes on a drop-in breathing, for the distension of the trade - for lunch-time warmup sessions of diaphragm for speaking or singing is often 40 minutes, for instance. In addition, there at odds with the contraction of the is a full schedule of late afternoon and diaphragm for certain dance movements. And it also brings up the whole question early evening classes. The company is making a strong bid for of dancers being auditioned not only for the interest of university students. During quality of movement but for pitch and the summer, there was a four-week timbre of voice. Mix is important, too residency at the University of Ottawa, obviously you have to have a good mix of sponsored by the Department of Continu- sopranos, contraltos, tenors and basses. ing Education (and Wintario) and ending The company is continuing the vocal in three performances of a new work, training which it began in Montreal under Nanti Malam , at the Ottawa Teacher's Pauline Vaillancourt and for Nanti Malam there was a new score by the young College. Le Groupe also presented Nanti Malam Montreal composer Claude Vivier. The score is modelled, perhaps, on some at Carleton University. A new work by Peter Boneham will be premiered at the Stockhausen works. It has mainly vocalizUniversity of Ottawa in November; ing but at times brings in a sort of Nouveaux Espaces will be performed at miniature gamelan (both Perreault and Algonquin College in December; and there Vivier have spent time in Bali), consisting THE ONLY WAY TO KEEP INFORMED ABOUT THEATRE ACROSS CANADA Each issue includes • a new Canadian playscript • theme-oriented essays, articles, and interviews • reviews and bibliography of new theatre books • Iively reports from theatre centres NAME STREET CITY _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ PROVINCE POSTAL CODE _ _ _ _ _ __ Please enter my subscription for: 2yearsat$19 . □ 1yearat$10. □ Add $1 .50 per year for postage from U .S.A. $2 .00 Overseas. Librar ies: $23. & $12. Cheque enclosed $ _ _ _ __ Bill me □ Canadian Theatre Review York University, Downsview, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3 DANCE IN CANADA 34 DANSE AU CANADA Small Town Theatre Ballet Company Toronto Free Theatre 22-24 September 1977 The foyer of the Toronto Free Theatre was an interesting place on September 22, the opening night of Small Town Ballet Theatre Company. The walls were hung with line drawings of the three dancers interpretations by Toronto artists of an earlier performance - and as the viewers strolled among them, a man distributed informal program notes which stressed the on-going, experimental nature of the work. The audience began slowly to enter the theatre, and focus shifted from the visual to the aural. Lubomyr Melnyk, alone at the piano in a pool of light, played from his Endless Book of Unending Songs, Hymns •• and Prayers (Book of SHYPS). The music• a continual progress of arpeggios that shimmered and then swelled, suspending time, suffusing space - built tantalizingly toward cacophony, then waned to silence, and the hovering overtones were dispersed into the air. This mesmerizing process was resumed, and a young woman - a dancing apparition in Victorian white-entered and slowly, distractedly, crossed the space. A moment later, a 'white-collar worker' • appeared, perhaps a twentieth-century equivalent - in terms of restriction and convention - of the quintessential Victorian. With the entrance of the third dance r - a nearly nude figure with the unmistakably male body of a young warrior but nonetheless an androgynous appeal - the process of releasing the free, natural beings from the restricting shells of the whitelooks like a search for unity. And once you collar man and the Victorian woman began. In the men's duet, Leslie Link, as the have postulated that, you can find all sorts of evidence for it in the preceding sections- sensual essence of Man, alternately enticed the slow progress through a sort of and observed his white-collar partner corridor (made of black cylinders with (Sam Walton) in a tentative exploration of lights in both ends ) with many hesitations, freedom. A couple of moments worked reversals, and non-productive standing in well - particularly at one point when each in turn lay in stillness and watched th e place, for instance. Or, on a simpler level, you can theorize other's movements- but for the most part. that the whole work is Eastern and that the the action was repetitive and uninspired. black sticks are an echo of the Balinese The difference between the two me n' stick dance (with fleeting references to a technical levels, although it could perhap be argued that it added to the dramatic Highland sword dance, perhaps). The easiest approach of all is to regard impact of the work, was in fact distracting. Grind! Kuchirka's slow, sinewy solo (she the dance as a study in abstraction, as Twyla Tharp does in some of her more was by now stripped down from wh ire serious works, like Fugue. There are ruffles to a lavendar leotard) was more themes and reversals (a girl is first attracted effective. Exploring the differing dyn ami by a man, then rejects him), retrograde involved in being inside oneself and bein_ motion, fugal sections. The dancers main- outside, she at times stayed close to the tain a sort of purity, almost a trance ground, legs wrapping around a spiralled quality, and in general are more successful torso, and at other times reached, extend at keeping this an abstract work than is beyond herself, turned, swayed. When the men returned (Walton no, composer Vivier, who lapses into astronomical lore at the end, to the detriment also wearing a purple leotard - purp., seems somehow to be equated wi:: of his score. f1eedom and sensuality), each dan eLAURETTA THISTLE retired to one of the palm branches linic= - Nanti Ma/am in rehearsal. of glockenspiels. With their voices, the dancers ululate, hum, whistle, chirp, shout, yelp, scream. They sing in unison, or in polyphony. Occasionally there is a minimal tune, a sort of lullaby, and for an extended period there is repeated use of themes. Pitched sounds mingle with unpitched sounds, there is a great deal of use of glissando or portamento, and effective use is also made of silence. We get accustomed to the abstractness of the sound, and it comes as a real shock when, in the closing procession, one of the dancers speaks sentences about the position of the stars, the number of light-years they are from us, and so on. The quality of movement is overall on the meditative side, though there are many excursions into animated activity. Humanity itself, rather than individual human relations, seems to be the subject of concern, and though there are temporary pairings, both heterosexual and homosexual, we are not encouraged to regard them as the main theme. One hesitates to impute a central theme to a work which is essentially plotless, but the final procession into a stream of light DANCE IN CANADA e brick walls of the stage. After a few - rt moments of circumspection, they 35 DAN SE AU CANADA Tav - de their way to the centre of the stage r 5 Dance Laboratorium then slowly out, as the sustaining Toronto - ergy of Melynk's music finally subsided. 28 -30 September r 977 lo all, the piece lasted about 4 5 minutes. at was it all for? Artistic director Kelly de says the company's aim is 'com- Kyra Lober sits, shrouded in a black veil. - unicating the subtleties of the human She opens her mouth in a mute scream, her - dy in stillness and motion' and invites chest contracted with pain, arms helpless. - ctators to read whatever they may find A cymbal fills the awful silence where the - o the relationships among the dancers scream should be. Suddenly, she begins to - d between dancers and music. The keen like some mourning widow and her - ationship among the dancers is either body seems to relax with the release. As :ro.iously trite or too vaguely drawn for suddenly, she is quiet again. She rises and ognition, and instead of working with approaches a makeshift shrine with a slow, • elynk's performing energy, they seem measured step, leaving behind her a trail of -arher to depend on it (at least that seemed chalky white footprints. She kneels and -o be all that carried the piece through). lifts the veil away from her face. She lights _ oreover, the dancers still need to grow - a candle, incense; she purifies her brow - hnically as well as artistically - if they with some holy water. As she performs -ope to communicate the body's subtleties each part of the rite, she utters a different :o r more than a few discrete moments. chant three times. Her ablutions done, she Of course Small Town Ballet Theatre sits back on her heels and removes the veil o mpany is new and the evening was only altogether. She rises, steps back. The lights come up full and the spell of Luna is .1 work in progress. I hope both the .:ompany and the work will progress broken. The orientalism of the opening cere: rther before they choose to show it mony is reflected only briefly in the dance gam. that follows. Lober's arms, tight to her .\I.ARY FRAKER sides, hands flexed at the wrists, fingers wriggling like serpents, remind one for an instant of the Indian dancing god, Shiva; but then she flies off on a tangent that If you want to know who's who and who's doing what in the world of Canadian dance, become a member of Canada's national organization devoted to the dance. J oin the more than 42 dance companies and institutions, and over 500 individual members, including dancers, educators, administrators, echnicians and members of the dance audience ... become a member of Dance in Canada Association! As a member of Dance in Canada Association, you receive: A subscription to Dance in Canada Magazine. Monthly newsletter. Access to our mailing lists, dance films and reference materials. Advance notice and reduced registration fee for the annual Dance In Canada Conference. (The 1978 Dance in Canada Conference will be held in Vancouver this August). As a voting member you are eligible to elect Regional Officers and the Board of Directors of Dance in Canada. How to join? Simply fill in the form and return to Dance in Canada Assoc . 3 Church Street, Suite 401, Toronto M5E 1M2. (Please add $2 for postage if mailing from outside Canada). consumes all but the last few minutes of the dance. A battery of modern steps is here and there punctuated with an Indian pose, or the angularity of modern arms is rounded, softened into something vaguely oriental. Lober can't regain the hypnotic hold she had on us at the beginning. Her use of the modern technique has an unstructured look that stands in sharp contrast to the deliberate theatricalism of the ritual; it seems bland, faceless. Out of this facelessness do emerge a few distinctive features. One sequence in particular had Lober on her knees, her uplifted arms and torso ebbing and flowing like moonteased surf; but it was effective in isolation from the whole. Luna is the latest manifestation of the 'new music and dance' which Lober and her collaborator, ethnomusicologist Bob Becker, call Tav. Tav, they explain, is t_he twenty-first key of the Tarot and the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. 'It repre-' sents the Eternal Dancer, the Shiva or Creator, in each of us.' It is a symbol of 'universal consciousness'. I don't know exactly what is new about Tav. It's not its oriental ritualism or its use of modern dance forms, or even the pairing of the two: the combination is at least as old as Michio Ito and Ruth St. Denis and David Earle wove the two seamlessly in Boat, River, Moon. With Lober, however, one can almost see the line that separates -------- . ., ■ I I I I I I I I $25 $15 $10 $50 $25 $50 $75 s100 Name ......... . ... . .. . ... . . ... . .. . Address .. . .. . . . .......... . . ... ... . .. ______ _ I I I Dance in Canada is registered as a non•profit organization. Membership fees are tax deductible. Schedule of fees (yearly): Individual member (voting) Individual member (non -voting) Student (non-voting) Group member (non -voting) Voting groups: under 6 members 6- 10 members 1 1-20 members 21 and over Group Name ......... . ..... .. .. .. . Bill me D I 1 I I I I I I J No. in Group ... . ... . ...... . ....... . Payment enclosed D I I DANCE IN CANADA the one from the other; and the effect, at least in Luna, is patchwork. Astral Light, an unstructured improvisational dance, is perhaps a more flattering demonstration of Tav because in it the spiritual element (that heightening of consciousness that leads one closer to the creative source of being) is realized through the clusters of free-form movement rather than pasted on. There was something spiritual in Lober's intensity, in her openness to the music and in some of the movement motifs with which she seemed to be wrestling. She would toss out her limbs from her body and then quickly snatch them back in the defensive way certain animals have when cornered; but, there was also an exploratory quality to the movement, a grappling towards understanding, towards calm, that reinforced the confessional aspect of improvisation. The relationship between Lober and Becker was more interesting in Astral Light than in other works because of the palpable sense of give-and-take between them, a sense that they were charting unknown territory together. When Lober ran out of inspiration on opening night and couldn't continue, even with Becker coaxing her on cymbals and drums, she sat down cross-legged on the floor and watched him until he, too, stopped. At that moment of surrender, Lober challenged 36 DANSE AU CANADA the old performer-accompanist relationship, all but daring it to re-establish itself without awkward transition on another footing. Watching it happen, one was aware of an intimacy between Lober and Becker that was almost sexual. One had the feeling, too, that one would never witness anything like it again. Surrounded by his menagerie of eastern percussion instruments including bells, cymbals, kulintang (an instrument from the Phillipines that looks like a brass casserole dish) , and a variety of drums (among them, four beautiful, redlacquered Chinese drums), Becker offered two musical divertissements, one Bell Pairings (played on kulintang), serving as a preface to Luna. The other, a demonstration of the tabla, a high-pitched thinsounding drum from India, preceded the final dance of the evening, called Mbira. The title refers to a thumb piano which Becker held in a calabash (vegetable gourd) on his lap; the calabash served to amplify the delicate burring quality of the mbira. The dance itself was easily the prettiest and most accessible of Lober's works. Lober entered wearing a long sleeved blue gown with a silky, semi-transparent overskirt. She stood very still and then began walking in a large, slow circle. As the music, a kind ofperpetuum mobile, picked up speed, so did she. The circle became tighter, smaller until, all of a sudden, she was spinning circles in a circle. As she spun, the overskirt billowed up making her seem weightless and wind-blown, but there was none of the dizziness or giddiness of waltzing or riding a carousel in the spinning; it projected instead a profound sense of calm. The simplicity of the movement also suggested calm and Lober's face, transfixed, radiant, together with the euphoric rise and fall of her arms, bespoke its freedom. After five minutes or more, the dance began to reverse itself, winding down to a standstill once more. In Mbira, Lober achieved the perfect synthesis of spirit and dance that she strove so hard and so consciously for in other pieces on the programme. It proved, too, that her physical strength and discipline are formidable. Despite its calm, despite its airiness, Mbira demanded the discipline of a whirling dervish and the stamina of a saint. GRAHAM JACKSON Choreographic Seminar June 3 -July 1, 1978 Co-Sponsored: Dance and Music Departments of York University Directors: Robert Cohan, London Adam Gatehouse, London John Herbert McDowell, New York %rontoCVancew€arCentte 1922 Avenue Road,Toronto,Ontario MSM 4Al (416) 782-2292 [lj Footwear, Legwear, Bodywear for Dance, Theatre and Recreation by Capezio's been dancing since 1887. ® Capez1•0® Participants: 6 Choreographers 6 Composers 24 Dancers (Professional and Student) 8 Musicians (Student) All applicants are eligible to apply for financial assistance. For information contact: Grant Strate, Dance Department, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Downsview, Ontario. Phone: (416) 667-3445 DANCE IN CANADA 37 DAN SE AU CANADA Noticeboard Toronto Dance Theatre in Simple Melody. e recipient of the 1977 Chalmers ard for choreography is Paula Ross. --e recognition that comes with winning aw ard is gratifying to the Vancouver eographer who says she intends to ·nue exploring the avenues of expresn in her field. Miss Ross says, 'I have en Vancouver as a place to work .:ause it is my home. My family has here for a very long time. I have - en to work where I was born in order reflect in my work the political and rural changes that have occurred in the quare blocks that is my home ro r y. My work reflects all the positive ~ces of my life in the last year and the tions it has raised.' summer Terminal City Dance para red in a month-long intensive .aratheatrical workshop with Jurik agawiz, a former member of Jerzy • mwski's Polish Theatre Laboratory. -: r their August break they are working _ he r again and will be giving an ~ ., ive Christmas workshop in Van·er, followed by a series of rehearsal-:--ogress performances at various Van·er neighbourhood houses. Spring -, include a mini-tour of BC, culminata three-day stint at the Vancouver : Cu ltural Centre in April. -c Ballet Theatre with guest stars Taverner, formerly of the Royal 1 eg Ballet and Les Grands Ballets iens, and Vincent Warren of Les Grand Ballets, performed with the Vancouver Opera Association in the production Le Roi de Lahore by Massenet. The ballet for this opera is by New York choreographer Martin Scheepers. While in Vancouver, Sonia Taverner taught company classes and Vincent Warren choreographed a new ballet for the coming season's repertoire . Vancouver choreographer and '76 Chalmers winner Judith Marcuse has been busy setting a rrew piece for Mountain Dance Theatre. She also composed the sound collage that accompanies it. In December Marcuse will start on a new choreography for the Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers to a score by Vancouver composer Peter Bjerring. Prism Dance Theatre performed at Pacific Contact '77 on November 11. Upcoming plans include engagements at the Surrey Arts Centre and at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre and school touring with workshops and performance/ demonstrations. SASKATCHEWAN With generous financial aid from the Secretary of State, the Saskatchewan provincial government and the Canada Council, Regina Modern Dance Works are renovating their new home, the Labour Temple, and adjacent housing. The complex contains not only new theatre and studio space but also comfortable accommodation for visiting companies. Dance Works' Christmas show, Goose, is a dance/ theatre extravaganza based on Mother Goose nursery rhymes with music by the Dumptrucks. A family entertainment, it will be performed throughout the Regina region in December and at the Labour Temple December 27-31. MANITOBA Combine the spirit of Rusalka, the Ukrainian dance ensemble from Manitoba with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and you have the novel and exciting performing concept for the RWB's first program of the 1977/ 78 season. Rusalka performed Hopak, a cossack-style dance, and with RWB members Sheri Cook, Margaret Slota, Salvatore Aiello and Rodney Andreychuk danced Legin, a Ukrainian ballet by Dimitri Chutro. Winnipeg also witnessed the North American premiere of Oscar Araiz' The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore, a madrigal fable. The madrigals were sung by an 18-voice choir. The RWB will tour to Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Saskatoon and Regina with the Nutcracker; then they touch home base to perform Nutcracker irt Winnipeg in late December. Contemporary Dancers appeared in three major US dance festivals this summer beginning with Jacob's Pillow, the oldest and most prestigious, followed by the International Children's Festival at Wolf Trap in Washington, and concluding with the New York City Dance Festival. The DANCE IN CANADA 38 DAN SE AU CANADA company returned to Winnipeg Sep- for Canadian publicists specializing in tember 11 to prepare for the fall season dance. The all-day session, held at the which premiered two works, Lunaris by National Ballet offices on October 1 5, Fred Mathews and Rachael Browne's Just covered a wide range of topics, including about Us, featuring the live music of booking, series subscriptions, marketing Winnipeg folk artist Jim Donahue who methods and media coverage. Representapreviously collaborated with Browne on tives from, among others, the Royal Interiors. Also on the program were Winnipeg, Les Grands, The National Fragments from a Distant Past by the new . Ballet, Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers, artistic director of the Royal Ballet, the Toronto Dance Theatre, Alberta Norman Morrice, and Baggage by To- Ballet Company, Entre-Six, the Marie ronto choreographer Anna Blewchamp. Marchowsky Company, Ballet Ys and In January, singer Judith Lander, now Groupe Nouvell'Aire attended as well as based in New York but hailing from observers from the Canada Council, the Winnipeg, will make her debut with the CBC and Dance in Canada Association company as guest vocalist in Lynne and several independents, including Helga Taylor's recent New York success Spy. Stephenson and David Y.H. Lui. The Anna Blewchamp's Homage will make its pioneer meeting proved so fruitful that the Winnipeg debut as well. In March, participants are arranging another for the Contemporary Dancers plans a special next Contact in Montreal during Febprogram with Annabell Gamson who ruary 1978. recreates the dances of Isadora Duncan. By the way, Kenneth Lipitz, who joined Among the guests expected at York CDW in 1975 as a dancer, has been University's dance department this year are the Royal Danish Ballet's Dinna Bjorn, appointed associate director. accomplished performer and teacher of Bournonville, Marion North, director of ONTARIO the Laban Centre for Movement and Looking at Dance - Live, On Film, As Dance in London, England, dance Video. From October 19 through filmmaker Margaret Dale, Nancy GoldNovember 24, the Art Gallery of Ontario ner, author and dance critic, performers was inundated with dance and dancers in Sara Rudner and Trisha Brown and the form of 27 film programs, five live historian Selma Jeanne Cohen. dance performances and four video presentations. The films, spanning a range Following a series of video/theatre/ dance of styles from rare archival records of performances this summer, from Vanhistoric dance through Hollywood musi- couver to Halifax, choreographer Marcals to experimental film choreography, garet Dragu and Enrico Campana have were selected and annotated by Selma dissolved their partnership. This winter Odom, dance historian at York Universi- she will spend four weeks in Calgary as ty. Performers included David Earle and artist-in-residence at Arton's. Danny Grossman, Sara Rudner, Trisha The Marijan Bayer Dance Company will Brown, Charlotte Hildebrand, Missing be touring Ontario and Quebec with their Associates and Le Groupe de la Place own version of the Nutcracker from Royale. Videotapes were selected by November 21, 1977 to January 8, 1978. Peggy Gale, Toronto video critic. Arranged by Sundance Promotions of Contact is an annual event, organized by Toronto, the tour will take in such places the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada as Rouyn, Sault Ste. Marie, Kincardine, Council, which educates sponsors and Cornwall, Hawkesbury and Thunder Bay. brings them into 'contact' with touring artists. The first Contact was held in Toronto seven years ago and the concept has caught on, in the Atlantic and Pacific regions, in Alberta and in Quebec. This year's Ontario Contact was held in Toronto October 13-16. Artists in various disciplines were showcased in a series of performances, and workshops were given to aid sponsors, many of whom are volunteers with limited experience in booking and selling cultural attractions in their communities. Among the dance artists represented on two evenings of showcases were soloists, ethnic dancers, experimental groups as well as established performing companies. Realizing how man y publicists would be in Toronto for the event, John Burgess, English-language publi city di rector for Les Grands Ballets Canadien , initiated the first- ever seminar Rina Singha, historian, teacher and choreographer, presented a solo classical recital in the Kathak style (ancient temple and Muslim court dances of North India) at 1 5 Dance Laboratorium November 25 -27. Included were a series of recently composed dances based on the imagery of the poetry and paintings of the Mogul era. After, Singha's new company the Canadian Multicultural Dance Theatre, supported by Mariposa-in-the-Schools, will be conducting a children's workshop on the theme, Christmas around the world. The workshop will take place at Harbourfront, the waterfront arts/ entertainment complex in Toronto. After an arduous tour of Western Canada, Ballet Ys has returned to Toronto to prepare for a special Christmas run of the children's show Clown of Hearts December 19-30 at St. Paul's Centre. During this time, New York dancer/ choreographer David Hatch Walker, who was trained at the National Ballet School and danced with Martha Graham, will be in residence to set his work Visions on the company. Walker and his wife, Graham company star Takako Asakawa, will be holding a three-week course in modern dance at the Ballet Ys studios. Visions and a new ballet by National Ballet dancer James Kudelka will be premiered during the company's Toronto season at St. Paul's Centre January 16-28. Dancemakers started their season with a four-week tour for Prologue for the Performing Arts, which they will repeat in January. Dancers this season are codirectors Peggy Baker and Pat Miner, Pat Fraser, Allan Douglas and Stephen Karcher. Scheduled for November, February and April are performances at the David Mirvish Gallery as well as a choreographic workshop December 7-10. Two young choreographers, Maxine Heppner and Ann Wootten have found a receptive and challenging environment to work in at the Koffler Cultural Centre. They are the first two artists-in-residence of the YMHA'S program in dance and will be teaching classes, conducting workshops and choreogtaphing new works for students in the program. Both dancers are graduates of York University with dance/ theatre experience in Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver. The artists-in-residence program is designed to give the serious student working towards a career in dance the opportunity of learning with choreographers and performing their work. The Marchowsky Company like most modern dance troupes is relatively small, but has big ambitions, opening their first Toronto season of non-verbal theatre on November 9 at the Leah Posluns Theatre of the YMHA for two weeks. Three new works by artistic director Marie Marchowsky were premiered, Ancient Voices of Children, Essay on Pigs and Age of Unreason. Members of the Toronto Dance Theatre courted a new audience at the Cabbagetown Cultural Festival on September 17 by bringing their art out of the theatre and into the street. TDT co-director Peter Randazzo's new work, A Simple Melody, premiered in October at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Toronto audiences will have an opportunity to see it in December at the MacMillan Theatre. The Toronto Dance Theatre won't be moving in October as originally planned but will remain in their familiar home on Broadview Avenue until April 1. Over the winter renovations will be made on their much larger new studios on Winchester DANCE IN CANADA 39 DANSE AU CANADA .-m preparation for the spring move. chaufuss has joined the roster of ::ipal dancers of the National Ballet of - da. Schaufuss has been a principal er with the Royal Danish Ballet, the - .: n Festival Ballet and the New York Ballet. He has danced with both the - ·· and the Bolshoi Theatres and __ ·ed the highest solo award in the International Ballet Competi_-e:ev and Baryshnikov are not the ballet dancers on the silver screen , ·ear. Canada's own Ann Ditchburn of " ·. ·ational Ballet was chosen from :: hopefuls who auditioned in the - -ed States by director John Avildsen : , ocky fame) to co-star in his new film. en said he was struck by Ann's .1ury, her grace, and her face.' The film, d Slow Dancing in the City, is a love - - y about a journalist and a dancer in \" York. Ditchburn, as a modern - er, will perform a work which she choreographed herself. She will return ~oronto and ballet in November for the - onal Ballet's O'Keefe Centre Season. ders, Boundaries and Thresholds, a trical presentation written, produced - .: cli rected by Eileen Thalenberg, was - ormed at the Benson Building, Uni• iry of Toronto, November 19 and 20, 3 5 dancers, actors, musicians and three majorettes. Assisting in the producwere choreographer Linda Rabin, - .i Casey Sokol, musical director. on gave a series of lecture/demos - °' performances for the Eastern Ontario -ary system in late October and in tern Ontario, beginning at the Univer. of Waterloo in early November. garet Atkinson is presenting a series er own works in conjunction with -.mon in early December. 'ia Franca, founder and first artistic -ecror of the National Ballet, has been ·red to teach in the People's Republic of a next spring. fi rst International Dance Therapy nference was held in Toronto in -ober. For the conference, researchers, .: ers, therapists and students from ada, the United States and Europe - mbled to explore and discuss The .:ipeutic Values of Dance/ Movement .,ughout the World. Work in dance -apy was started in Canada in the early by Julianna Lau, one of two .,.. - ered dance therapists in this country. airman of the conference, Lau hopes 11! enhance communication among therapists the world over and - aseCanadian public awareness of this rant professional field. The research presented at the conference will be -~tied in book form. Groupe Nouvell'Aire in Lianes. The National Tap Dancing Company of Canada makes its debut at Seneca College's Minkler Auditorium December 1-3. The first half of the show will be a presentation on the histor y of tap dancing. The second half will explore the range and diversity of tap: The Young People's Theatre Centre for the Performing Arts will welcome the public to its new home in December with a month-long festival of art activities. The historic old TTC building at the corner of Front and Frederick Streets has been renovated and restored to house a theatre, a studio hall and a small restaurant as well as workshops for film making, carpentry, costumes, painting and photography. Youth-oriented theatre will now be presented with proper equipment and in a congenial atmosphere. Susan Rubes, the force behind the construction of the new centre conceived it as a place where children and young people will be treated as fi rs t-class citizens, a place where they feel they belong. Entre-Six Dance Company will participate· in the opening performing a show created especially for young people. Entre-Six also performed at the opening festival of the new Oakville Centre for The Performing Arts on October 20. QUEBEC Entre-Six's exhaustive tour of Eastern Canada began on September 1 5 at Place des Arts and will end with a Christmas program in Montreal's Centaur Theatre December 26-30. The company's repertoire consists of a work choreographed by Judith Marcuse (Apart), and nine pieces by artistic director Lawrence Gradus, including some of his popular children's pieces . The summer of '77 almost saw the demise of Le Groupe Nouvell'Aire, which would have meant the end of the last modern dance company in Quebec. But their vibrant 76/ 77 season at the Centaur Theatre and Chorechanges had captivated many dance lovers. So a rescue campaign was launched and finally at the end of August, the Quebec Ministry of Cultural Affairs offered the company substantial financial aid for the next two years. Le Groupe now has eight dancers. Martine Epoque is artistic director, Richard Berneche is administrator and publicity director and Paul-Andre Fortier is director of Chorechanges. Montrealers can see this vital company December 8-10 at the Centaur Theatre 2 where they will show works by Martine Epoque, Edouard Lock and Paul Lapointe. PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND Charlottetown residents had the opportunity to taste a bit of Elizabethan England this fall when the Island Dance Ensemble presented A Royal Progress, a program of dance, narration and music with a 60-voice madrigal choir. Jesters and jugglers and historical scenarios added variety to this performance evoking sixteenth-century England and the modes of entertainment devised for the amusement of Queen Elizabeth r. DANCE IN CANADA 40 DAN SE AU CANADA Dance at a Glance Classified Experienced Ballet Teacher Dance-at-a-Glance is a new advertising feature in Dance in Canada Magazine. Its aim is to provide our national and international readership with a quick gu ide to resources in dance which are available throughout Canada. To arrange your listing in the Dance-at-a-Glance section, just write or phone: Nikki Abraham, Business Manager, Dance in Canada Magazine, 3 Church Street, Toronto, Ontario M5E lM2 (416) 368-4793 On Recherche un Professeur de Ballet The Marijan Bayer Studios 1875 Leslie St., Don Mills and 163A Manning Ave., Toronto Tel. 449-4361 Paul Gaulin Mime Company Classes in Mime Puppetry Clowning Contact: Ron Arnold, 89 Pleasant Blvd., Toronto, Ont. M4T 1K2 Tel. (416) 924-1373 Bayview School of Ballet Ballet Pointe Character Cecchetti Syllabus 5330 Yonge St., Willowdale, Ont. M2N 5R2 M . Sorrell, D irector, 222-51 1 1 Humber College School of Ballet & Related Arts 1669 Eglinton Ave. (at Oakwood) Toronto Director: Sarah Lockett ARAD Beginners-Advanced; Adults & Children Ballet & Jazz Tel. 675-3 I II ext. 506 Buday Dance Studio Jazz Yoga Dancercises (Dancers' Therapy) Director: Aletta 100 Richmond St. E.#409Toronto M5c 2M2, 863 -9735 Classical Jazz Dance Company Hal Mischka, Director Blending Ba ll et with Contemporary Jazz Movements 9 Phoebe Street, Toronto (416) 364-9876 Creative Movement Center Ballet Jazz & Tap Srage Fencing 7 1 King St. East, 3rd floor, Toronto Tel. 868-0064 Marchowsky Dance Theatre School The Marchowsky Dance Theatre School offers Graham Technique at all levels including children's and teen's classes. 95 Tr inity Street, Toronto M5A 3c7 (416) 862-7008 Andrew Oxenham, Photographer Specialist in Dance, Theatre and Portrait 54 East Lynn Avenue, Toronto, Ont. M4C 3x2 Tel. (416) 698-0092 John Stammers - Lighting for Dance Lighting Designer for Ballet & Modern Dance Twelve years professional experience 476 Willard Ave. Toronto M6S 3R6 (416) 766-88 53 Dancenergy Studio Offers Ballet Jazz Belly Dance Ball room and Dancenergy (energy-centred modern dance). Classes are kept small. David Dressler, Director I 3 22-A Government Street, Victoria (604) 384-3841 Christopher Darling Photography Photographic Illustration/ Slide Presentations Studio: 1 44 Front Street West, Toronto, Ontario M5J 1G2 (416) 862-9060 York University: Dance Department Grant Strate, Acting Chairman; offering B.A. (Hnrs), B.F.A. (Hnrs), M.F.A. ; studies in ballet, modern dance, composition, dance therapy, history and criticism, notation, repertory, teaching. Faculty : Sandra Caverly, Yves Cousineau, Julianna Lau, Terrill Maguire, Mary-Elizabeth Manley, Sandra Neels, Selma Odom, Richard Silver, Dianne Woodruff; also Karen Bowes, Michael Byron, Norrey Drummond, Earl Kraul Fall/Winter and·Summer Sessions. 4700 Keele Street, Toronto M3J 1P3 (416) 667 -3243 Dance Institute director MIKHAIL BERKUT CLASSICAL BALLET Required immediately a mature teacher for ballet, national, modern and jazz. Children's grades and senior students. Excellent studio available. Applicant must be able to take responsibility. An opportunity for a capable person. Salary is excellent. Please apply in writing with resume. (Russian method) ballet - pointe - pas de deux boys' technique -workshop JAZZ - TAP - MODERN (Limon) -FLAMENCOCHARACTER - RUSSIAN & UKRAINIAN Adults & Children -All levels Les candidats doivent avoir eu de l'expefience avec !es enfants, les debutants et !es ftudiants plus avances et pouvoir enseigner la danse classique, nationale, moderne et jazz. Un excellent studio et un excellent salaire. Une occasion pour une personne prete assumer des responsabilitfs. Pour plus de renseignements ecrire a a P.E.I. Ballet Association, c/o Sydney Sparling, 19 Villa Avenue, Charlottetown, P.E.I. (1-902-892-7636) Letters from the Field To the Editor: I am a native Torontonian who left 16 years ago for New York City to expand my horizons in the dance. In the late 19 50s until I left for the U.S,, I was one of the few modern dancers, choreographers and teachers struggling to present dance when and wherever possible, in schools, churches, auditoriums, etc. At that time, there were no magazines or publications to tell me as a professional, or anyone else, what was happening in the dance locally and in the rest of the country. We had nothing really- only local papers writing criticism of the odd concert or performance. Then, this past summer (July, 1977), I discovered your magazine. I was thrilled to see a publication that finally brings it all together- criticism, articles, conventions, teaching, places to study, you name it. BRAVO TO DANCE IN CANADA. Merle Lister New York City olbereo OFFICIAL DONATIONS FORM corrempororu dance ereoere P.O. Box 834, Edmonton, Alberta T5J 2L4 I wish to make the following donation to the Alberta Contemporary Dance Theatre: 0 0 0 0 Individual Donor ............... Supporting Donor ............ Benevolent Donor .......... Patroi:i . . ......... $500.00 $ 5.00 $ 25.00 $ 100.00 or more D Contributing Donor .. ...... $ 10.00 $ 50.00 0 Sponsoring Donor .... 0 Sustaining Donor $200.00 - $499.99 A charitable receipt for income tax purposes will be issued upon our rece iving your cheque, money order, or cash donation. Thank you very much for your support of the ALBERTA CONTEMPORARY DANCE THEATRE! Name: rns1 Ste. Catherine St. W,, Montreal, PQ. TEL: (514) 288-1677 Address: Telephone .... Signature . ....... (Office) (Residence) DANSKINS ARE FOR DANCINC Professional dancers depend on Danskin for quality, fit, style and color. From Milliskin tank leotards to chiffon skirts, Danskin styles fit your changing needs. Available at fine stores and dance shops everywhere, or write for brochure DC, Dan.skin, Inc ., 1114 Ave . of Americas, New York, N.Y. 10036. DANSKIN ®

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