Dance in Canada Magazine Number 18, Winter 1978/1979

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Dance in Canada Magazine No 18 Winter 1978-79 compressed.pdf
Dance in Canada Magazine No 18 Winter 1978-79 compressed.pdf
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Dance in Canada Magazine Number 18, Winter 1978/1979

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One copy of Dance in Canada Magazine Number 18, Winter 1978/1979

Contains the following articles:
- Martha's Web: Ten Years with Toronto Dance Theatre by Graham Jackson
- A Whirler's Tale: Tournesol Among the Dervishes by Ernst and Carole Eder
- Ashton and the Canadians by David Vaughan
- Norman Campbell and La Fille
- Lost Dreams: Donald MacSween and Dance at the National Arts Centre by Hilary McLaughlin
- Training the Dancer VI: Understanding Arm Placement A Skeletal Approach by Rhonda Ryman
- Conference '78: A Sense of Direction by Kevin Singen
- In Review
- Noticeboard
- Letters to the Editor
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Ballet Dance in Canada Association David Earle Peter Randazzo Toronto Dance Theatre Funding Schools Michael Crabb National Ballet of Canada Conferences Carole Eder Ernst Eder Patricia Beatty Veronica Tennant Camerata Pacific Ballet Theatre Karen Kain Timothy Porteous Vincent Warren Grants Against Sleep Study for a Song in the Distance Dance History Frank Augustyn Merce Cunningham Royal Ballet Interpretation Hot and Cold Heroes Nighthawks Alexander Grant Lauretta Thistle Menaka Thakkar Susan Macpherson Diana Brown Elizabeth Chitty Graham Jackson Continuum Rhonda Ryman Costume Technique Holly Small Amber Garden Kinesiology Kevin Singen Leland Windreich David Vaughan The Dream Television Posture Mauryne Allan Frederick Ashton Lyn Roewade Ricardo Abreut Metamorphosis Choreographers The Last Act Nancy Ferguson Rhapsody in the Late Afternoon Spinning Repetition Norman Campbell Hilary MacLaughlin Donald MacSween National Arts Centre Arm Placement Demo Model Charles Flanders Sitaswayamvaram Indian Dance Rosemary Jeanes Javanese Dance Sal Murgiyanto Dance in Asia The Children of Theatre Street Steve Diamond Bill Orlowski Colin McIntyre Bryan Gilbert C.M. Torey Beatrix Legras Martha Movell Martha Lovell Evolutions James Austin Amelia Itcush Barry Smith Monotones II Les Patineurs Les Rendez-vous The Two Pigeons First Music The Reprieve Rebus Squaregame Summerspace Dark of Moon The Act Three-Sided Room A Walk in Time Dance in Canada Association Service Award Dervish Tapes Subscription Series Tap Dancing
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01/11/1978
Magazine
Dance in Canada Magazine Number 18, Winter 1978/1979
Dance Collection Danse
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107.2009-55-2093
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$2. Winter 1978-79 Hiver {C) Dance in Canada ISSUE NUMBER 18 WINTER 1978-79 HIVER Martha's Web TEN YEARS WITH TORONTO DANCE THEATRE Graham Jackson A Whirler's Tale TOURNESOL AMONG THE DERVISHES Ernst and Carole Eder Ashton and the Canadians DAVID VAUGHAN NORMAN CAMPBELL AND LA FILLE Lost Dreams DONALD MACSWEEN AND DANCE AT THE NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE Hilary McLaughlin TRAINING THE DANCER: VI Understanding Arm Placement A SKELETAL APPROACH Rhonda Ryman Conference '78 A SENSE OF DIRECTION Kevin Singen IN REVIEW NOTICEBOARD LETTERS T O THE EDITOR EDITOR: Michael Crabb EDITORIA L ASSISTANT: H olly Small BUSINESS MANAGER: Nikki Abraham ADMIN ISTRATIVE ASSISTANT: Joanne Mcleish DESIGN: Dreadnaught SPECIAL THANKS TO : Ministry of Culture and Recreati on, Ontario The Canada Council BC Cultural Fund Cove r: Nancy Ferguson of Toronto Dance Theatre in Peter Ra nda zzo's L'Assassin Menace. Photograph by Frank Richard s. PHOTO CRED ITS Ela ine Bowman , p. 3; Andrew Okenham, p. 4; Art Gallery of Ontario, p. 5; Lynda Middleton, p. 8; Barry Gr":y, p. 12, 13, 14; Michael C rabb, p. 21, 23; Robert Barnett, p. 24 ; Yarman, p. 26; Charles Kennard, 28. Diag rams, p. 18 & 19 David Antscherl ,; Sketch, p. 33: Mary Kerr. Announcing the First United States Sponsored International Ballet Competition June t t -23, t 979, Jackson, Mississippi $50,000 in prize money and scholarships Applications and additional information available from International Ballet Competition, Inc. 1300 Arch Street Philadelphia, PA 19107 Dance in Canada is published quarterly in Danse au Canada est publiCe trimestrielle· Toronto, Canada by Dan ce in Canada As· ment a Toronto, Canada par l'Association de ·/a Danse au Canada. sociation. The publication Dance in Canada is incl uded L'Association de la Dause au Canada est with mem bership in Dance in Canada Associ· enregistrCe com me organ isme bCnC ficiaire. Le numCro d 'enregistrement est 00441- 22. ·1 3. ation. Dance in Canada Association is registered as Les dons fairs a !'association seron t admis en charitable o rgan ization number 00441 · deduction. Les mem bres de /' Association de la Danse au 2.2·1 3. Donations are tax deducti ble. The views expresse d in the articles in this Canada recev r onr d'office le revue Danse o.u pub li cation are not necessarily those of Dance Canada. in Canada. The publication is not responsible Les opinions exprimCes clans les articles de fo r the return of unsolicited material unless cette publication ne sont pas obligatoirement accompanied by a sta mped se lf•addressed celles de Danse au Canada. Le red action n'assume auc une responsab ilitC envelope. · Dance in Canada publishes in th e language of quant au renvoi de materiel non sol icitC, a origin, English or French. We will be returning moins que cel ui •ci ne soit accompagne d ' un e to our comp lete bilingual format whenever enveloppe•rCponse affranchie et adressCe. Danse au Canada pub lie Jes articles clans le ur funds become avai lab le. Subscrip tio n: $7.50 per yea r. Single copy · langue d'origine, angla is ou fran~ais. Nous retournerons a notre formule bilingue dCs que $2.00. All rights reserved. No part of this publica• nous disposerons des fonds nfressa ires. tion may be reproduced without prior written Abonnement: $7.50 par an. Prix du numCro: permission of the individual contributor and $2 .00. Tous drois reserves. II est dCfendu de repro· the Dance in Ca nada magazine. Back iss ues of Dance in Ca nad a a re available duire route partie de cette publication sans avoi r prCalablement obtenu le consentement in microfilm from Micromedia Limited, fr rit de tout auteur et de la revue Danse au Box 5 0 2 , Station's' , Toronto, O ntario M5M 4L8. ISSN 0317-9737 Second class mai l registr ation number 03874. Return postage guara nteed. Please send notification of change of address, su bsc ription o rd ers an d undeliverable copies to: Open to students and professionals ages 13-25 100 Canada. Pour recev oi r !es vieux nu metos de Danse au Canada en microfilm, adressez.vous a Mic· ro medi a Limited, Box 502 , Station's', To ro nto, Ontario M5M 4L8 . ISSN 03 I 7-973 7 Le numCro recommandC de la poste deux iCme: · classe 03874 . ·Le frais d 'envois payC. ~S'i l vous plait fa ites parvenir votre change-· ment d'ad resse, les abonnements et !es: numC ros non livrCs a: Dance in Canada/Danse au Canada Richmond Street East, Suite 325, Toronto, M5C 2P9 Founder, Celia Franca Artistic Director, Alexander Grant Administrator, Gerry Eldred Musical Director, George Crum ~ enc an mg ·stmas a for the entire family. ae December 19-30, O'Keefe Centre Matinee and Evening Performances Watch out for The National Ballet's major spring season at The O'Keefe Centre, February 8 to March 10, 1979! For further information: The National Ballet of Canada; 157 King Street, East, Toronto, Ontario. MSC 1G9 (416) 362-1041. DANCE IN CANADA 3 DANSE AU CANADA Graham Jackson Martha's Web Ten Years with Toronto Dance Theatre Pete r Ra ndazzo in The Last Act Prologue In 1970, Toronto Dance Theatre was just a name to me. That summer I got a job as a clerk in the Yorkville Library, the one at the corner of Yonge and Yorkville Avenue. Yorkville was then not the homogenized neighbourhood it is today and being suburban-raised, I was seduced by its kaleidoscopic charms. Two boys who sold framed prints and antique clothes further down Yonge lived on the corner; and a man named Lyle who had a heavy black moustache - long before such were de rigueur- ran his own design firm in the block of shops across from the library; and long-necked girls attended a studio opposite the fireball non-demonstratively called Boris Volkoff's. Although I didn't know it then, there was another studio just around the corner on Cumberland over an autobody shop (which is now the Pilot Tavern) where they gave a different kind of dance lesson, where the girls didn't wear blocked shoes or neat buns. Some time after I started to work, I encountered Patricia Beatty flying about the library, picking books off the shelf, with the kind of flamboyance that makes dour little library souls cringe, and counselling a very tall young man (Barry Smith) in a voice that managed even to wake the bums sprawled over the ancient wooden reading tables. A few minutes later, I knew her name and her vocation. As she swept out, I think I realized that I had recently seen one of her dances, First Music. Whether or not I made all the connections then - memory does play tricks - that visit was the start of my association with TDT. Henceforth the company would be a point of reference to me, its dancers and directors figures in a personal landscape that would take in love affairs, growing political awareness, and the incredible physical, social and cultural changes of the city itself: Toronto. 1968 -69 Che Guevara is playing at TWP ... I discover the poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay ... David Earle's A Thread of Sand offends Toronto the Christian ... Hair begins previews at the Alex ... is born. Officially, that is. In 1967, Patricia Beatty's New Dance Group of Canada had given a premiere concert at the Ryerson Theatre. Amelia Itcush, Barry Smith, and Donald Himes performed as company members. David Earle and Peter Randazzo took part as guests. That was the real beginning- or was it? Earle and Himes and Susan Macpherson had all danced with Yone Kvietys' Laban-based dance company in the early sixties. And then, a few years later while Earle and Macpherson were studying Graham in New York, Honest Ed considered sponsoring a modern dance company that would be co-directed by Beatty, just returned from five years with Pearl Lang, Nadia Pavlychenko (in her prede-stressed Graham days), and National Ballet escapee, Lilian Jarvis. Its failure to materialize led to the forming of the New Dance Group. The first performance was not a happy collaboration. Randazzo and Beatty didn't get along. Randazzo returned to the Graham company and Earle went to England to help Robert Cohan organize the fledgling London Contemporary Dance Theatre. In the spring of '68, however, Earle and Randazzo gave a concert of their works at Toronto Workshop Productions. TDT DANCE IN CANADA 4 DANSE AU CANADA A highly successful concert, ravingly misunderstood by the critics and devoured by a dance-starved public. But there was still another, or maybe two more transatlantic crossings before TOT existed officially. According to legend, commitment to a Toronto-based dance group moulded in the Graham tradition was made in a bus between Liverpool and London, when Earle asked Randazzo, 'What will we call it?', and Randazzo replied elementarily: 'Toronto Dance Theatre.' They caught the legendary plane for the timid frontier. Patricia Beatty whose New Dance Group had been inactive since its first concert was there to greet them. In December '68, three Monday night dance concerts were presented at TWP. Beatty, Randazzo, and Earle were listed in the programme as artistic directors and principal choreographers. Amelia Itcush, Barry Smith, Keith Urban, and Susan Macpherson were among the dancers. Then the following spring, another concert was given at the MacMillan Theatre. That clinched it. TOT was born. Officially. 1970 Renovations begin on Yorkville ... The Stones' Let It Bleed is the hot album ... Just retired prima, Lois Smith opens a ballet school on Front Street ... 1970 ... I see Peter Randazzo in black leather on the corner of Cumberland and Yonge; he has a transistor radio glued to his ear . .. I'm going to see my first TOT concert, (First Music, Operetta, I Had Two Sons, and A Thread of Sand). It's summer and although skin isn't yet fashionable in a city nicknamed The Good, there seems to be a lot of it in the lobby at the St. Lawrence Centre. I notice, too, several people who come regularly to the library I'm working in, the university types - intellectual, Jewish- and the exotics, girls with high cheek bones and tropical flowers in their hair, men with capes and elaborate drawls. This is the audience I'll see at every TOT concert for the next three or · four years. My friend Monique points out a young man she thinks handsome. He wears a blue bandanna around his neck and his teeth are very white in his tanned face. He seems to be on intimate terms with everyone; I wonder whether he's a dancer, too, or one of the dancer's boyfriends, or - what? Two years later I discover his name is Joel and he has spent time in New York imbibing the atmosphere of Frank O'Hara and that coterie of poets I hate. At first I can't connect O'Hara with TOT and then I realize it's TOT's New York origins that appeal to Joel. And to the others, a provocativeness they - hell, I - call 'New York' because T .o. has never seen its like before. 1971 ... TDT moves to Lombard Street; there's no bathroom but lots of light ... I'm reading Fram;oise Sagan, and judging from her Rhapsody in the Late Afternoon, I'd say Patricia Beatty has been too ... Rhapsody is definitely the work of an enfant terrible. Its melon-coloured skirts, its lacy white lawn furniture, its sentimental string score, its filigree arms, are at once self-indulgent and satirical. But does Beatty realize this? In her mind, which has the edge-the soap opera or the satire? Nancy Fe rguso n a nd Ri ca rdo Ab re ur in Rhapsody in the Late Afternoon Last year I wasn't sure what she wanted to say with H ~ and Cold Heroes either, probably because her deliberate: attempts at humour-the picnic, the man with the broom seemed so much less joyful than the actual exchange-between the <lance's laid-back protagonists. Nei theRhapsody nor Heroes seems fully realized to me - at lea : the elements of balance and contrast are awkward - b ·: their awkwardness is part of their considerable charm. The works of the three artistic directors are prim ari: responsible for TOT's 'image' with the public, an ima'° usually described as intellectual, serious, probing - we·· anway, hardly light entertainment. Beatty's contriburi to that image includes First Music, Study for a Song in:-·. Distance, and Against Sleep (and later Th e Reprieve) . Sleep is going to be a classic TOT work, I think, reveal::-,. as it does Bea tty's gut feelings about male-female relati :-ships. These are interesting feelings; she sees an eter.: battle going on (even in the cat-like frisking of Heroes, , b_ it's not your usual battle of the sexes. For one thing -< woman is on equal (or better) footing with the man: -::can be as aggressive or violent as he and she can be ge Those deep squats in second I see in Sleep are commanding and vulnerable, the arms both weapon .:ishield. To her credit, Beatty's men can be delica te atender, too; they're not just wooden soldiers. In Sleep :;.Heroes, she reveals men's potential androgyny, defi:-- exactly the strength it lends them. What Rhapsody offers is a wry commentary on all ::.. . Its twin heroines, mirroring one another's movements. point up how important Bea tty's body is in the mak:i "" her dances. (Is this true of all choreographers?). You DANCE IN CANADA Patricia Beatty and David Earle notice the Grahamisms in her work the way you do in Earle and Randazzo's because her own body doesn't suit them as well; rather her body's expressive needs create the more rounded, fleshy movements that I've come to identify with her. Even when you see someone else dancing the heroines of Rhapsody or First Music, even a dancer as individual as Susan Macpherson, you see Beatty first. Hers may not always be an easy presence to accommodate because it's so egocentric (as Beatty herself shows she knows in Rhapsody), but like her dances, it's rich with latent possibilities. 1972 .. . An acquaintance tells me he once had tea at David Earle and Peter Randazzo's. Earle appeared to be highly enamoured of a new clear glass tea set and Randazzo spent the whole time reading from a Braun appliances catalogue ... The Last Act . . . is about the death of a king. Maybe an historical king like Richard II or a literary king like Shakespeare's Richard II. Or maybe the king is a great tragedian who sees himself as the result of all the kingly roles he has ever played. Despite its melodramatic and violent subject, this dance of death contains the stillness of perpetual night, a stillness that strikes me as oriental. There is certainly something about Randazzo's face as he dances that resembles a series of Noh masks: the emotions appear and freeze on it without the subtle Western psychological shifts between them. The oriental stillness of The Last Act - or Starscape or next year's A Walk in Time-is, of course, only one side of 5 DANSE AU CANADA Randazzo's personality.The Randazzo we usually see is quick, resilient, possibly a bit threatening. This persona often reveals itself in contracted jumps, incorporating a saucy kick or slide; such combinations contain a streetfighter's cocky defensiveness and a Kung Fu artist's mordant wit. It's Randazzo's personality permeating his dances (even when he's not dancing in them) that people respond to. About the subjects of his dances, they're less sure. Some works such as Continuum and Starscape, which use a deliberately small range of movement, have become popular as hypnotic space-age rites. Figure in the Pit will likewise prove popular, even though it has a literary source: Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum. Generally speaking, those of his dances which possess a 'narrative line' are slighted; people don't recognize the strong ritual element they also possess. Perhaps it's just that they're both too specific and not specific enough; they're murky, treading the line precariously between good drama and cosmic protundity. Still, these dances intrigue me. I like tracing patterns in the 'narratives' (just as I like watching for repeated movement motifs). Like the choric way Randazzo deploys his women; or the way he uses a quartet of dancers in which one is invariably The Outsider or The Intruder. Dark of Moon features this balance; Amber Garden, too. Sometimes The Other is an object, like the room in Three-Sided Room. It's a strangely satisfying balance structurally, one which gives Randazzo's dances some of their mystery. · Unfortunately Randazzo will be scared off doing any more symbolic dance-dramas (Nighthawks, or 'Peter's Revenge' as it's affectionately called aside) by an uncomprehending Press which levels inane epithets like 'psychological heavy' against his work; he'll retreat behind the frivolity of L'Assassin Menace and A Simple Melody. Neither of these though will ever erase from my memory the horror-movie terror of a Figure in the Pit or the silent desperation of The Last Act. 1973 ... Bejart comes ... Kainanaugustyn wins a medal in Moscow . . . I'm back at the Yorkville Library with a diploma in library science ... Renovations on Yorkville are complete ... I wonder if the message the women are trying to relay to one another in Three-Sided Room is erotic ... Three-Sided Room is among the top five pieces in TDT's rep. It has a lovely score by Milton Barnes and gorgeous moody costumes by Astrid Janson. Best of all, it's a great vehicle for the company's women. Funny, but when I think of TDT as dancers, I think immediately of the women: Trish, Susan, Amelia, Helen, Kathryn, Merle. Some see Barry Smith as the archetypal TDT dancer, but he's all wrong for it, I think. Granted, he has a kind of magnetism, a cold, almost feline way of organizing his body in space that has attracted a devoted female following. Still, what he dances isn't Graham. In fact, he makes the Graham vocabulary seem excessively mannered. I sense an emotional short circuit there, too; I see a blankness not unlike what you get on many a baby ballerina's face. TDT's women are on another current entirely. And their DANCE IN CANADA high voltage intensity certainly contributes to the company's 'heavy' image. (Five years later, former Graham dancer, Bertram Ross, on seeing TDT perform for the first time, will describe a new crop of TDT women as 'possessed'.) Helen Jones is the most popular right now, probably because people can see she's had ballet training; she helps to bridge an uncomfortable distance for an audience not quite sure it likes 'modern dance' yet. Merle Salsberg is more unusual, a prickly presence, and Kathryn Brown has a defiant, angry way of moving. But it's Susan and Amelia who really say TDT to me. Facially similar, their spare, planed figures reveal deco lines without the constraint deco suggests. Dancing, they remind me of photos of early Graham dancers come to life - with that special difference, the unnameable difference that makes TDT more than the heir of a rich tradition. 1974 . . . IDT moves again - to the Finnish Community Centre on Broadview - with Marie Marchowsky, a Graham alumna, as co-director of the school ... Out of the blue, my friend RK tells me he used to take classes from Patricia Beatty at IDT ... The National Ballet with Nureyev's hambone assistance disfigures Jose Limon's The Moor's Pavane ... l finally see the Cretan-inspired Atlantis ... Of Atlantis' many beauties, Bob Daigneault's eerie sound collage is particularly effective. After listening to years of Ann Southam's abstract electronic scores, I find Daigneault more sentimental, less cerebral somehow. Still, I won't forget Southam's score for Against Sleep - what a blood-chilling score that was, - or for Randazzo's own blood-chilling Figure in the Pit - she has always seemed especially sensitive to Randazzo's kinetic language, his wit, his violence ... . . . No matter how many beauties Atlantis possesses, it and everything else TDT dances is razed by London's dance critics during a summer season at the hallowed Sadler's Wells Theatre. London ballet aficionados (there's no such thing as an all-round dance lover in London) feel the Wells is defiled by TDT's presence and one man upbraids Peter Randazzo for daring to appropriate Margot Fonteyn's old dressing room ... ... Back home the company's name is mud. The Press sneers, but that's not really unusual; the Press has seldom made an effort to accept TDT on its own terms. More disheartening is the betrayal by TDT's old faithfuls: 'They're not doing anything new. It's just the same old stuff', they complain, as though a dance technique were something like a hat or an automobile that you could exchange for a new model every year. Maybe what they want is someone like this Twyla Tharp who has been working with the Joffrey Ballet: she uses dance vocabularies willy-nilly without committing herself to any. 1975 ... Peter Randazzo's L'Assassin Menace, based on a painting of Magritte's, wins the approval of John Fraser, the Globe and Mail's dance reporter ... It's David Earle's turn for abuse now ... I'm startled to find Edna St. Vincent Millay's poems being used in Field of Dreams ... 6 DANSE AU CANADA There's a flat in the neighbourhood of the University o; Toronto that bears the marks of David Earle's habitation. A wall painted cerulean blue is scudded with whi e clouds. From the chair opposite you have the feeling you're staring up at the dome of some rococo church. The effec: is decorative, lyrical, and almost religiously sentimemai.. The same could be said of many of Earle's choreographie . Of the movement especially - the lush reach of the arm . the sweep of skirts into attitudes, the slow, sensuous fa ll: to the shoulder, the Mannerist groupings, all tremble wi feeling and a plea for reciprocal feeling from those wh watch. Earle has confessed a love of things past. He consumes French history and the minutiae of French court life, i~ poisons and scandals and love affairs - Portrait was hi frankest billetdoux to baroque France. He is drawn t other eras, other lands, too: the unprepossessing, ari Holy Land, as recalled in the tormented mind's eye of a:: aged and nearly blind Mary Magdalene; or America in the throes of Civil War, seen through the vivid dreams of the women left tending the homefires. Earle never tries to paint a realistic picture howeve ; instead he filters his chosen settings through the intensel, personal perspectives of the people who inhabit his dance . In Field of Dreams, the filtering leaves us .with a canvas simultaneously evocative of its American setting, chiefly· the dance language and the Millay poems; and European. in the decors and mood of the movement. We accept • nevertheless because it registers very strongly on our 0\\ dream consciousness. Some accept it, I should say. After praising Earle·: light-headed dances for years (Operetta, Bugs, Ra: Charles Suite), John Fraser has damned Field roundl_ . insisting that only Earle's psychiatrist could tell for sure what it's all about. What it's about, of course, is women· sexual fantasies. Sexuality has played an important role(:most of Earle's dances - usually, and not surprisingly, i:historic costume. History has allowed some to distan~ • themselves from the sexual implications in Earle's wor ' · as Fraser obviously did last year when he raved abo : Atlantis without tut-tutting the blatant eroticism of 1hetero- and homosexual love duets; and it has also sedu e_ others by the exoticism of its landscapes into accepting aexploration of sexuality they might otherwise not ha ·c: Possibly these 'others' contain the seeds of Earle's perso::- faith already or they couldn't be so easily seduced : · Earle's dances are uncompromising, as uncompromis;-:as Bernini's St. Theresa, in the journey of sexual-cu-spiritual self-discovery. People haven't been so polarized about Earle's wo:since the newspapers wore lurid headlines like 'D Depicts Christ's Sex Life' in 1969 when A Thread ofS,; -first appeared. With its images of necrophilia, masoc ·-and homosexual orgy, Field proves if nothing else ::: 1976 ... Marchowsky has left, claiming IDT teaches travesty of Graham, and that she will teach The Real Thing ... Peter Randazzo spends nights walking the str in search of evidence for Nighthawks ... Dancemaken.. Judy Jarvis join with TDT and their guests, DamnGrossman and Kathryn Brown, for the first Toro Dance Festival ... DA high voltage intensity certainly con pany's 'heavy' image. (Five years 1, dancer, Bertram Ross, on seeing TD'I time, will describe a new crop 'possessed'.) Helen Jones is the most popular because people can see she's had ball to bridge an uncomfortable distance quite sure it likes 'modern dance' y more unusual, a prickly presence, am a defiant, angry way of moving. But i who really say TDT to me. Facially planed figures reveal deco lines wi deco suggests. Dancing, they remi1 early Graham dancers come to life ference, the unnameable difference t than the heir of a rich tradition. 197 4 . . . IDT moves again - to the Centre on Broadview - with M~ Graham alumna, as co-director oft.. ~ .,~.. vv• • • • ~ . . . v• the blue, my friend RK tells me he used to take classes from Patricia Beatty at IDT ... The National Ballet with Nureyev's hambone assistance disfigures Jose Limon's The Moor's Pavane ... I· finally see the Cretan-inspired Atlantis . . . Of Atlantis' many beauties, Bob Daigneault' s eerie sound collage is particularly effective. After listening to years of Ann Southam's abstract electronic scores, I find Daigneault more sentimental, less cerebral somehow. Still, I won't forget Southam's score for Against Sleep - what a blood-chilling score that was, - or for Randazzo's own blood-chilling Figure in the Pit - she has always seemed especially sensitive to Randazzo's kinetic language, his wit, his violence ... . .. No matter how many beauties Atlantis possesses, it and everything else TDT dances is razed by London's dance critics during a summer season at the hallowed Sadler's Wells Theatre. London ballet aficionados (there's no such thing as an all-round dance lover in London) feel the Wells is defiled by TDT's presence and one man upbraids Peter Randazzo for daring to appropriate Margot Fonteyn's old dressing room ... ... Back home the company's name is mud. The Press sneers, but that's not really unusual; the Press has seldom made an effort to accept TDT on its own terms. More disheartening is the betrayal by TDT's old faithfuls: 'They're not doing anything new. It's just the same old stuff', they complain, as though a dance technique were something like a hat or an automobile that you could exchange for a new model every year. Maybe what they want is someone like this Twyla Tharp who has been working with the Joffrey Ballet: she uses dance vocabularies willy-nilly without committing herself to any. 197 5 . .. Peter Randazzo's L'Assassin Menace, based on a painting of Magritte's, wins the approval of John Fraser, the Globe and Mail's dance reporter ... It's David Earle's turn for abuse now ... I'm startled to find Edna St. Vincent Millay's poems being used in Field of Dreams ... > p. p. ~ "' "' '---.. > p. ... (1) "'"' z II> 3 (1) '---.. z 0 3 = (1) Earle never tries to paint a realistic picture howeve::-. instead he filters his chosen settings through the inten e:_ personal perspectives of the people who inhabit his <lane In Field of Dreams, the filtering leaves us with a cam·~ simultaneously evocative of its American setting, chiefly 1the dance language and the Millay poems; and Europea:. in the decors and mood of the movement. We accep .: nevertheless because it registers very strongly on our ow:dream consciousness. Some accept it, I should say. After praising Earle·_ light-headed dances for years (Operetta, Bugs, R ... Charles Suite ), John Fraser has damned Field roundl_ insisting that only Earle's psychiatrist could tell fo r su.:-. what it's all about. What it's about, of course, is wome · sexual fantasies. Sexuality has played an important role.most of Earle's dances - usually, and not surprisingly, . historic costume. History has allowed some to distan · themselves from the sexual implications in Earle's w o: · as Fraser obviously did last year when he raved abo-Atlantis without tut-tutting the blatant eroticism of :. hetero- and homosexual love duets; and it has also sedu -others by the exoticism of its landscapes into accepting -exploration of sexuality they might otherwise not ha, Possibly these 'others' contain the seeds of Earle' s persor faith already or they couldn't be so easily seduced, : Earle's dances are uncompromising, as uncomprorni as Bernini's St. Theresa, in the journey of sexualspiritual self-discovery. People haven't been so polarized about Earle's w since the newspapers wore lurid headlines like 'DaDepicts Christ's Sex Life' in 1969 when A Thread of .:: .. first appeared. With its images of necrophilia, masoch ·and homosexual orgy, Field proves if nothing else -· 1976 ... Marchowsky has left, claiming IDT teach travesty of Graham, and that she will teach The R Thing ... Peter Randazzo spends nights walking the str in search of evidence for Nighthawks ... Dancemaken.. Judy Jarvis join with IDT and their guests, D Grossman and Kathryn Brown, for the first T oro Dance Festival ... A i.kers and the Eders of Alberta's gift of money come new studios: the mity Centre (once a church), in the chi Cabbagetown. The restorationood is anxious lest TDT remove the <lows during remodelling. Well, if in scarlet,blue, and gold light, it can · ts days above the autobody shop on ,lation. Dance in Canada 100 Richmond Street East, Suite 325 Toronto Canada MSC 9Z9 dances a maniacal von Rothbart n of Swan Lake, Act II ••• Yorkville 1 midway for Latin chic .. . Former tic Norrey Drummond, asks Peter in the Pit as a rep piece for her k University ... The second Toronto , le Salsberg is back ... !S time in a month I've seen Patricia -u-c:aucy-,=~,n=::rrwith Amelia Itcush at that little cafe 1 _ ~ you : they look in. It may be his Cree in the Charles Street Promenade. I used to see Earle and - _ ,·es his dancing this almost mystic quality. Randazzo breakfasting here, too. Beatty isn't preparing for •rl!ll:.'llltn:;a:. a:_so gives me the opportunity to see a lot of the season at the Royal Alex everybody's making such a ::"'lal1 s work. (I like the humaner pieces, such fuss about. (Mirvish's gesture is perfectly timed, they all :t. He has been working with TDT on and off coo; I say it's an afterthought.) Will she ever dance again?·~ now. Although the association has been a that's the question. She still teaches occasionally of course, : ·_;ng one, they have never really influenced but most of her time now is devoted to poetry- reading ,aDCC::l!e7. ·s work. Grossman has consciously sought a and writing. ement vocabulary honouring no one, while Her friend, Amelia, is a mother. Although she doesn't ~ -nnued to honour the Graham sensibility. I perform anymore, Graham is also a part of her life: she's ~ Festival is the beginning of the end of on the staff of the National Ballet School where she lliii-ililllCl;;ci's .r ociation with TDT. demonstrates the essentials of Graham technique to aspiring-and blinkered-Veronica Tennants. """'!!'_ _ _.....,,...,..:,o--;ru':ru==,,......=---..--,-=,,,=r,::-c:rcn;rr,, _ __ •s Th Jean-Harlowish Sara Pettit, the original Lady _ 'ighthawks, leaves for New York; I won't see ••mgcoffee anymore in the Lothian Mews ... The Centre opens ... Charles Flanders does an amazing •.a_ eisha preparing to commit hara kiri at TDT's first .-wir"..1:.1 eographic workshop ... The National Ballet another Ashton ballet to its colonial repertoire ... premieres ... Patricia Beatty hasn't danced for a : n the Graham company live for the first time. ~·ms of Martha doing Appalachian Spring and - ·-on and Bertram Ross in Seraphic Dialogue are -~.;:;.-..... - · ut, in the flesh, the dances are a revelation. • werful language it is - the ecstatic contracted -½.e -ensuous rolls to the ground, the exotic, shellilently echoing the body's message! I'm very a:lll]S..:lO~.::..:; of the joyous sexuality in the movement; I don't y soul dichotomies. And I come away with a ierstanding of where TDT came from. -"l-""' .1A........ 1, of origins, the school of TDT has just received a - ;... :n the Canada Council; it's the first modern dance ::o e so blessed. With Donald Himes, ther{as now, ;-a.... the school started life as an adjunct of . · e - Dance Group. For 12 years, it has continued to · - .:ou.rses at all levels of Graham technique and has ,- trained dancers for TDT's use (some like Dennis -~_. from scratch), but has also trained most of ~ 1979 ... IDT is 10 and a bit ... I'm reading Proust ... A gala season is held at the St. Lawrence Centre in April: Patricia Beatty takes part; Merle triggers a flood of · memories doing her old role in L'Assassin Menace; and the new apprentices, Grace Miyagawa, Karen Duplisea, and Jeannie Teillet dance like fallen angels ... With its birthday celebrations behind it, TOT heads for Europe again ... I'm only part way through the Proust ... There will be more to say. No doubt. DANCE I N CAN AD A -le is at least the company's bravest choreographer. And .::on't mean that facetiously. ·nistered by TDT, the five-week Festival draws good .=o ;,;·ds especially considering all the brouhaha being ::-ea-ed over the National Ballet's twenty-fifth anniversary. TDT is on stage for the last three weeks and, predictably, ::.. ere are some surprises. h's good to see how well Continuum, First Music, and ... , River, Moon have stood up. It's good to see Kath-.-:::. Brown dancing with the company again - she never :-ould have left. And it's good-no, great-to notice the :: ergence of a couple of new dancers from the _3.;::kground. Claudia M oore, long of limb- gangling, almost-shows -e ballet training everywhere, but she's no ballerina: she oo much passion for that. She's on her way to ~ oming a Graham heroine, a St. Joan maybe. In Angelic ·:si.ation #1 and Nighthawks, she reveals the two ;:: plementary sides of her nature: the fragile and the ;:emoruc. Dennis Highway dances in another world. He has a way : :ocusing that unnerves you because the eyes, the body, ::o t really see you: they look in. It may be his Cree .e ·rage that gives his dancing this almost mystic quality. -r:.e Festival also gives me the opportunity to see a lot of Danny Grossman's work. (I like the humaner pieces, such ,- Fratelli, best.) He has been working with TDT on and off •or three years now. Although the association has been a ~.~.:ually satisfying one, they have never really influenced e another's work. Grossman has consciously sought a -·gue movement vocabulary honouring no one, while ::::>T has continued to honour the Graham sensibility. I _- ect the Festival is the beginning of the end of G:-o man's association with TDT. The Jean-Harlowish Sara Pettit, the original Lady Green in Nighthawks, leaves for New York; I won't see drinking coffee anymore in the Lothian Mews .. . The Eaton Centre opens ... Charles Flanders does an amazing rum as a geisha preparing to commit hara kiri at TOT's first en choreographic workshop ... The National Ballet a yet another Ashton ballet to its colonial repertoire ... . < .. os premieres ... Patricia Beatty hasn't danced for a ·ear .. . 7 DANSE AU CANADA the current Dancemakers and the Eders of Alberta's Tournesol. To complement this gift of money come new studios: the old Don Vale Community Centre (once a church), in the heart of Toronto's chichi Cabbagetown. The restorationconscious neighbourhood is anxious lest TDT remove the old stained glass windows during remodelling. Well, if TDT, is forced to work in scarlet, blue, and gold light, it can · always think back to its days above the autobody shop on Cumberland for consolation. 1978 ... Donald Himes dances a maniacal von Rothbart in Lois Smith's version of Swan Lake, Act II ••• Yorkville Avenue has become a midway for Latin chic ... Former TOT dancer, the athletic Norrey Drummond, asks Peter Randazzo for Figure in the Pit as a rep piece for her Graham course at York University ... The second Toronto , Dance Festival ... Merle Salsberg is back ... July. It's the second time in a month I've seen Patricia Beatty eating lunch with Amelia Itcush at that little cafe in the Charles Street Promenade. I used to see Earle and Randazzo breakfasting here, too. Beatty isn't preparing for the season at the Royal Alex everybody's making such a fuss about. (Mirvish's gesture is perfectly timed, they all coo; I say it's an afterthought.) Will she ever dance again?that's the question. She still teaches occasionally of course, but most of her time now is devoted to poetry - reading and writing. Her friend, Amelia, is a mother. Although she doesn't perform anymore, Graham is also a part of her life: she's on the staff of the National Ballet School where she demonstrates the essentials of Graham technique to aspiring-and blinkered- Veronica Tennants. ::: 7 - - •• • ·~ e just seen the Graham company live for the first time. -.,.,e old films of Martha doing Appalachian Spring and . .;....:· Hinkson and Bertram Ross in Seraphic Dialogue are zing, but, in the flesh, the dances are a revelation. a a powerful language it is - the ecstatic contracted _ , the sensuous rolls to the ground, the exotic, shellalms silently echoing the body's message! I'm very · -- ·ous of the joyous sexuality in the movement; I don't --e ody/soul dichotomies. And I come away with a ::er understanding of where TDT came from . - a.king of origins, the school of TDT has just received a _3-1:t om the Canada Council; it's the first modern dance - ·-ool to be so blessed. With Donald Himes, then as now, :-. - ~ al, the school started life as an adjunct of •-; _ ·ew Dance Group. For 12 years, it has continued to ~e- ourses at all levels of Graham technique and has - : o y trained dancers for TDT's use (some like Dennis fro m scratch), but has also trained most of 1979 ... IDT is 10 and a bit .. . I'm reading Proust ... A gala season is held at the St. Lawrence Centre in April: Patricia Beatty takes part; Merle triggers a flood of memories doing her old roleinL'Assassin Menace; and the new apprentices, Grace Miyagawa, Karen Duplisea, and Jeannie Teillet dance like fallen angels ... With its birthday celebrations behind it, TOT heads for Europe again . .. I'm only part way through the Proust .. . There will be more to say. No doubt. DANCE IN CANADA 8 DAN SE AU CANADA Susan Macph erson She's rehearsing a new solo created for her by Christopher Bannerman. As I watch, I feel that I have been watching her dance for years - and, of course, I have. My earliest memories of TDT involve images of her; at my first TDT concert, in fact, she danced the ingenue in Patricia Beatty's breathlessFirst Music. I remember being struck then by her height, the severe lines of her body, her inscrutability, and as she dances the Bannerman solo, I am struck all over again by them. Nothing has changed; everything has changed. She is at the peak of her powers. Toronto born and raised, she began her dance training at the age of four with ballet teacher Mildred Wickson. Years later at the University of Toronto, she studied 'movement' with Yone Kvietys at that monument to fifties functionalism, the Benson Building. Not long after she joined K vietys' classes at the Hebrew Y, where she first met David Earle. Soon she was dancing in Kvietys' company. The company, one of Canada's pioneer modern dance groups, folded the fo llowing year, but by then she was exploring Graham technique in summer visits to New York. 1965 found her living there in a fifth floor walkup belonging to Danny Grossman; she was a scholarship student at the Graham school and costume mistress for Mary Anthony. Throughout this period her friendship continued with David Earle who was also studying Graham in New York, and when he went to England to co-direct LCDT, she went, too. In fact, she danced in one of Earle's first works there, a eulogy for Lady Jane Grey called Witness to Innocence. In 1968, she returned to Canada to nurse self-doubts, but Fate didn't allow her much time for introspection. Earle had come back, too, and he and Peter Randazzo were putting together .:: programme of their works; they invited her to join them. In 1968, she returned to Canada to nurse self-doubts, but Fa ~e didn't allow her much time for introspection. Earle had come back, too, and he and Peter Randazzo were putting together J. programme of their works; they invited her to join them. Aftethe concert, she headed to New York to take up Graham agair_ But once more Fate intervened: a second invitation came fr o Earle and Randazzo, this one to join the newly formed Torom Dance Theatre, as performer, teacher, and costume designer. Looking back over the roles she has danced, it's easy to pick 011: the ones she has really made her own: in Amber Garden, M yth1: Journ ey, Mythos . Each of these roles demands an imposin~sculptural presence rather than a lacy, lyrical one. Of all the rol e-created for her though, the solo Chant for a Beggar Queen bTDT's resident accompanist Ricardo Abreut is perhaps ideal. Iemphasizes her sculptural qualities and brings out that scent o: secret she wears so conspicuously about her. In a stylize.: Egyptian costume (of her own design), she physically resembles the great Nefertiti. Like her, too, she is only part woman; the other part is myth. These days she's preparing a programme of solos she wants perform next year. (Besides the Bannerman, she has commi sioned works from Peter Sparling and Robert Cohan.) In order keep growing with TDT, she needs this sort of challenge. She nee to stretch; she deserves to stretch. Ten years - a TDT withou: Randazzo, Earle, or Beatty would be as likely as a TDT withou: Susan Macpherson. DANCE IN CANADA 9 DAN SE AU CANADA Ernst and Carole Eder A wbir[er'd Ta[e Tour11et1ol Among tbe Dervit1bet1 fascination with the motions of spinning and ·rion came about three years ago when Ernst, one ::ting in the studio, began whirling non-stop. The :- - .• 1 al and mental awareness he experienced led to .: · _ er involvement and further experimentation, resulting - :rn choreographies: Phaedra - a 20-minute whirling - -- e and Ricochet- a 4 5-minute study on the prolonged of ancestral movements, repetition and spinning. F om audience feedback, we learned of the existence of · rli ng Dervishes' or Mevlevis, a thirteenth-century - - -· h religious order who used dance and music as a of prayer. We followed their work through books photographs. Their philosophy, 'the turn is the - _ rnon of the dervish with the cosmic order' intrigued us. _:1ce the key to universal consciousness? Attempting to _ ,. rience this 'reunion' through dervish literature left us - a ired . • 3 t or allusion? On December 7 1977, we arrived in n_·a, Turkey, the city where, 700 years before, the poet ys ric Mevlana Jalalu'ddin Rumi, founded the order irling Dervishes. Geographically we had travelled east some 14,000 -:--eters; man-made definitions put us nine hours ahead - ..: western counterparts - but we arrived into another - . rY. We felt the same numbing cold of winter but saw - ..: eard a zillion things that made us realize we had, - :· enou gh, transcended time. E -onomically and politically, a poor, confused country, - - ·e · is nevertheless laden with tradition and a rich _ , -~- Religious and political fervour border on the ; violence is the rule not the exception; death and dying so much a part of living. We were shocked to be confronted with the immediacy of a sometimes painful struggle to survive on just a day-to-day basis. Present time is the only time; past and future just illusions. In contrast, the modern western world lives in suspended time, living and planning everything in future perspective. In 1925, Ataturk, the founder of 'modern day' Turkey, abolished all dervish practices, accusing the order of magic, myth and sorcery. Today, there is no recognized M evlevi order of dervishes. The tomb of Mevlana has been transformed into a museum and since become a place of pilgrimage for his devotees, though prayer and whirling are forbidden. Severe verbal chastisement by guards was witnessed whenever even silent prayers were attempted. Fortunately the sema, or whirling dance, has been reborn in Konya and takes place each December. Unfortunately, the doings of lesser men have wrought unavoidable change. The dervishes whirl barefoot no longer; praying while whirling is forbidden; the place of celebration and worship is now a high school gymnasium. At the entrance hawkers charm you with their wares : books, records, gold pins and small table lamps on top of which plastic dervishes actually turn! But the essence of the ceremony remains, as it has for centuries, unchanged, evoking in the dervish spiritual ecstasy and awareness on a most high plane. For the observers, a subtler transformation took place. All notions of time disappeared. Through watching this constant motion of turning and turning and turning, one became visually and rhythmically mesmerized by the infinite spiral of energy from both earth and sky. One's DANCE IN CANADA 10 whole spiritual and physical being felt washed, cleansed, purified. Despite being witness to this incredible demonstration of man's oneness with the universe, contradictions prevailed. Camera crews sent in from Belgium, Austria and Japan succeeded in disturbing almost everyone. Tourism officials seemed delighted by this disrespect. However, a great many locals.prayed throughout the entire ceremony. Women donned scarves and wept. Our curiousity increased. What did this ceremony and the Mevlevi way of life really mean to the people of Kanya, of Turkey, and to the dervishes themselves? Communication became a problem. Armed with language books and a pocket dictionary, we traversed the country twice, seeking out anyone who might be willing to share his or her ideas, beliefs and disbeliefs concerning Mevlana and his teachings. In two months we mastered basic Turkish. What we learned and finally became aware of through our travels left us with many more questions and a lingering sadness. Physically situated at the crossroads between east and west, Asia and Europe, Turkey and its people are now living through an incredibly difficult and trying time of adaptation and adjustment, from centuries-old customs to the inevitable modern influences the western world h.as wrought upon them. Its people are drastically divided. Many completely negate their strong heritage; others stubbornly and at times blindly follow traditional paths with an almost maniacal intensity. The final outcome? We can only sense that, thanks in part to the efforts of the Turkish Ministry of Tourism, the annual Mevlevi ceremony will become an increasingly commercial one or disappear altogether from public view. As for the dervishes themselves, those lofty mortals diligently searching for balance and spiritual strength, they DANSE AU CANADA will remain always, perhaps hidden from us, but continually striving to achieve reunion with all creation. This experience pushed us in so many ways to reexamine our approach to dance and life as dance artists. At long last came moments of quiet meditation. For those who · committed themselves to long-term involvement, dan e can be, at times, a most painful thing. Initially spurred o by creative challenge and physical satisfaction, the realiti and pressures of management, grant-giving agencies. public relations and dance politics can be disillusioning. Ours was all of these, but the biggest culprit was the inevitable planning: tours, performances, workshop plotted so far in advance that our dance became a marathon with time, a serious and rigidly choreograph dance, the very contradiction, the very negation of ou philosophy and reason for being. Man never ceases to box himself in, like one of those caged hamsters madly racin_ along an empty plastic reel, going nowhere. Serious thoughts of leaving it all behind recurred: going on means going far going far means returning (tao te ching) Going on, we couldn't negate our dervish experience, the essence of the 'turn', its very energy and influence, an similar though rare moments in dance which we'd alread_· experienced. Our meeting with the old world was a valuable lesson and a much needed respite. It's been eight months now; and we are back Edmonton dancing. There are many fresh ideas and a new-found affirmation, growing involvement. Just as the dervish whirls to affirm his place in the order of things, so too, our dance is that search for a seemingly unreachable perfection. join us for our 10th anniversary season Founded in Toronto in 1969 artmagazine is the most lively well-informed publication in the visual arts in Canada today. RATES 1 year (5 issues) $ 12 2 years (10 issues) $22 C. C. " gl" (/) a. >, .0 C: 0 Yesi I'll subscribe today I j Yes , I'll give artmagazine as a gift! artmagazine artmagazine, Suite 408, 234 Eg linton Ave. E., Toronto, Ontario M4P 1K5 DANCE IN C AN ADA 11 DAN SE AU CA NA DA David Vaughan ASHTON and the Canadians - -e 193 5, when he was engaged by Ninette de Valois as - _- em choreographer of the then Vic-Wells Ballet, all but ~andful of Frederick Ashton's ballets have been created • • :hat company and its successor, the Royal Ballet of a:·- For a long time, Ashton was reluctant to allow other anies to produce these ballets, chiefly because he was ;:>reoccupied with his work for the Royal Ballet itself, - ~cularly in the years when he was both resident reographer and director. In recent years, things have ged : not that Ashton himself, in his retirement, is any .- ·e eager to move about the world, but, with the ~ ?rion by the Royal Ballet of the Benesh system of rion, or choreology, it has become an easier matter to -_:, rnduce ballets. As a result, Ashton's works are now • ,·- ed by companies in both Western and Eastern Europe, · rth America, Australia, and Africa-there is even said to - a ossibility that La Pille ma! gardee may be done by the :.- 0 01. ne might have expected that the National Ballet of ada would have included Ashton ballets in its - _- rtory even before these became more generally 3.ilable. But it seems that Celia Franca, the company's ~ .. n er, did not wish to take too much advantage of what - _ r have been considered a special relationship with the ·al Ballet. From the outset, she followed an eclectic - ·.cy in her repertory-building, perhaps to avoid making ·ompany in the Royal Ballet's image. In the first years of · _ . -ational Ballet's existence, the only Ashton work -e ,.-ed was Les Rendezvous, in a production by Peggy van -aagh. . exander Grant, the present director, as a favourite -·e-preter and close friend of Ashton, is naturally in a _ position to acquire more of his ballets for the -e-:e rory, and has made a start with La Pille ma! gardee, -:·-e Dream, Monotones II and Les Patineurs, to be - ·owed, next February, by The Two Pigeons and 11otones I. Parenthetically, one may remark that these ·-e among the most frequently revived Ashton ballets. It is · cant that Ashton is still very particular about what - ' e he lets other companies do. Apart from these he has -•. eas ed only Fa~ade, Cinderella, Jazz Calendar, and now edding Bouquet - never Symphonic Variations, .;,_ .nis and Chloe, Enigma Variations, for instance, and - :· once Scenes de ballet. These ballets, he perhaps feels, e· ong' to the Royal Ballet, and would be robbed of their - .a... •ailar quality if widely disseminated. , rrue that the general acquisition and use of the tool of notation, or rather, the easier availability of ballets that it allows, has its disadvantages. Nowadays there are many ballet companies, but as few really first-rate choreographers as ever - certainly not enough to allow one for every company. But it is, of course, a resident choreographer who gives a company its individual style. More and more, ballet companies all over the Wes tern world are beginning to look alike, because they all dance the same ballets. Not only the classics, but ballets such as Van Manen's Four Schumann Pieces, Tetley's Voluntaries and MacMillan's Concerto show up everywhere, and it doesn' t help that they don' t have much character of their own, whether because they are in the post-Balanchine international style of Concerto, or in the homogenized blend of ballet and modern of van Manen and Tetley. The ballets by Ashton and Balanchine that have found their way into the international repertory tend to counteract this tendency to sameness because they make such varied and particular demands on the dancers. There is more than one way to perform a masterpiece, but only one way to dance what is second- or third-rate. In Ashton and Balanchine, there is, to begin with, an irreducible level of technical accomplishment that must be met. It is · not necessary to dance Ashton absolutely the way they do at the Royal Ballet, or Balanchine as they do at New York City Ballet, but you have to do the steps. In most of Ashton's ballets there is a further necessity: in La Pille, The Dream and Two Pigeons, he has created characters who have to be real to us if the ballets are to work. (Monotones is another case entirely, of course; the purest distillation of Ashton's personal classicism.) One of the problems of reproduction by notation is that if you are not careful you come up with a kind of carbon copy of the original - the (choreographic) text is all there but the outlines are a little smudgy. Ashton has entrusted the reproduction of his ballets to very few people: principally the notators, or choreologists, Faith Worth and Christopher Newton, usually working together with ballet masters such as John Hart and that vigilant guardian of the Ashton repertory, Michael Somes. On rare occasions, Sir Frederick himself will take a few of the final rehearsals, as he did with the National's production of Pille, and amazes the dancers with how much of the style and spirit of the original he can convey with a few words and gestures. For these are the things - style and spirit - that prove most elusive when ballets are reproduced by notation. However detailed the score may be, certain nuances of DANCEINCANADA 12 interpretation and feeling cannot be reduced to symbols and signs. The original interpreters of any Ashton ballet have the inestimable advantage of having been present ateven assisted in - the creative process, for it is well known that with Ashton this is a matter of give and take, of his 'drawing the movement out of them' (the phrase so many of them use in describing his rehearsals). Dancers who inherit the roles have to try to make them their own, which perhaps they can best do by living with them for a long time. You have to get to know Lise and Colas, Titania and Oberon, the young lovers of Two Pigeons, as you get to know real people. Celia Franca, in choosing Les Rendezvous, may well have had in mind the important role it had, during the Vic-Wells days, in developing the young company by its demands on their technique and personality. For Ashton's ballets have a value, over and above their obvious audience appeal, as 'teaching' ballets: they set a technical standard to which young dancers may aspire, and they also call forth a sense of character, of what C.W. Beaumont used to call 'style-atmosphere.' To put it simply, dancers learn about being on stage by dancing these ballets. One must be honest and say that the Canadian dancers are still learning their lesson. The ensemble, in Fille, does well enough - the men manage their series of double tours en l'air most creditably - but the corps de ballet of fairies in The Dream still leaves a lot to be desired. The Royal Ballet corps is the best in the world, the product of years of dancing the classics, but one sees from the Canadian production of Bayaderka that no such tradition yet exists there. It's too bad, incidentally, that Les Rendezvous is no longer in the repertory, since the corps work in that ballet would doubtless be helpful in this respect. The National's company style is perhaps closer to that of the Royal Ballet than of, say, New York City Ballet: there is, to be sure, a strong element of North American athleticism, tempered by a certain British influence. Thus, port de bras tends to be more academically correct than we see at New York City Balle_t, yet there is at times a rather disturbing choppiness of phrasing, a lack of legato, that DANSEAUCANADA one finds at all levels of the company. One feels the la · equally in the ballabili of The Dream, the Monotones pas de trois, and in solo variations in Fille. Such qualities a_ legato phrasing and precision in both solo and ensemb e work are very important to Ashton's ballets - and it ma_ 1 be that dancing the ballets is one way to develop th qualities. It is sound company policy to distribute the leading role among two or three sets of principals. In New York w~ have seen most of these. I am bound to say that most o~ them have not yet got beyond repeating, perfect] acceptably, the steps and 'business' they have been taugh~. to the point of really making the roles their own, with tha appearance of spontaneity in performance that makes a ballet come alive. I certainly noticed a distinct imprm·ement, a greater freedom, this past summer in Karen Kain·: and Frank Augustyn's assumptions of the leading roles i~ Fille, in which I had found them a little dull a year ago, clearly the process is taking place. I was sorry not to see Vanessa Harwood as Lise this year, since she gave such a sparkling account of it with Fernando Bujones in r9r Peter Schaufuss, as a virtuoso, is almost hors concours ir. the National Ballet, and obviously finds Colas a ve _congenial role, with its references to Bournonville in some of the solos, and the sunny nature of the character itself (ic tragic roles like Siegfried he tends to look more puzzlec: than anything else, though in Erik Bruhn's version one car. hardly blame him). The role of Widow Simone presents a particular problem for artists who don't have the music-hall. pantomime dame traditions in their blood the way the British do. But there is another, equally important aspec: of the character - like all of Ashton's people, she's very DANCE IN CANADA 13 DAN SE AU CANADA Dowell has over the years. Oberon is a role for a first dancer, or perhaps one should say to make a first dancer into a star. Augustyn is at the point where he can make that transformation, perhaps, but neither James Kudelka nor Thomas Schramek is yet, though Kudelka makes a very intelligent shot at the acting side of the role. Both Pille and The Dream are ensemble ballets too, in the sense that they need to be danced, and played, by people who have worked together over a long period. This has been the Royal Ballet's strength- an ensemble worthy to be ranked with the world's great acting companies. But it is important to remember that it is Ashton's ballets as much as any that have brought the company to that level. The National Ballet of Canada is lucky to stand in such a close relationship with him. As another New York critic wrote, I look forward to seeing them dance these ballets in five, ten, twenty years, and watching them grow in them. DAVID VAUGHAN is the author of Frederick .., I can't help thinking that the part works best · e dancer thinks about who this woman is, and ~er essentially loving relationship with her way.:'..mghter. Then the comedy will come of itself. Both ·-~--···"'- Gorrissen and Constantin Patsalas make very "."-e at the role, yet both, I think, could pursue • .1 e I suggest with advantage. Not surprisingly, '""-"'"'-''·--·'·· er Grant's own role of Alain comes off very - the hands of both David Roxander and David - - ·ith the latter having the slight edge in my opinion, ....,, __....,.,_~-. I prefer Roxander as Puck - since they have pre,..__-",-,.. :· ha d the benefit of his expert coaching, without in r:e copying his characterization. I do think, though, rant could do more in this respect with the company ole - after all, his expertise in Ashton's work is • ::- ned to his own roles. _ :Jream in general does not work so well yet. The .:·· is a little too broad and again not sufficiently :-:ed by a real exploration of character. But the ballet r falls by the successful interpretation of Titania eron, as we saw at the Joffrey Ballet last season • ~ chony Dowell made his guest appearances and .......__,__·,"L-rned the whole production by his presence. Both JL!IC"• ....-:,eu-~ and Harwood were disappointing as Titania; ::· nas mastered its technical difficulties to the point e can convincingly portray this wild, only - _;_ an creature. Unfortunately we did not see Kain in · rk because her partner, Luc Amyot was injured. I 7-i ed to find that neither Augustyn nor Schaufuss • -· a Oberon. Schaufuss is perhaps a little extravert • e ::-ole but it would be a pleasure to see him negotiate ·en skeins of pirouettes. And Augustyn surely y gain in authority through dancing the part, as 20th Anniversary of The National Ballet School Come and celebrate with us ... at our three day anniversary party EXPECTATIONS, a two day conference will feature internationally renowned figures from the world of dance. Vincent Tovell will chair this outstanding international dance event. CELEBRATIO February 19, 20, 21, 1979 Special celebration performance by graduates of the school from Canada and around the world will highlight the third day. For further information and a conference brochure contact: Judith Meech The National Ballet School 11 Maitland Street, Toronto, Ontario (416) 964-3780 Ashton and his Ballets . DANCE IN CANADA 14 Norman Campbell and La Fille Norman Campbell has been televising ballet for close to a quarter of a century - not bad for someone still in his early fifties. Although Campbell's career as a television producer and director has embraced a wide range of programming, both in Canada and abroad, his first love, the thing that will undoubtedly earn him a place in the history of broadcasting, is classical music and ballet. Since 19 5 6, when Campbell produced his first Swan Lake, he has given us 14 major ballets. Two of these won Emmy awards, Cinderella (1970) and The Sleeping Beauty (1973), and the unforgettable Romeo and Juliet of 1965 with Earl Kraul and Veronica Tennant, then a teenager, won the prestigious Prix Rene Barthelmy in Monte Carlo. On January 3, 1979, Canadian audiences will be able to watch the latest production by Norman Campbell, the National Ballet of Canada in Frederick Ashton's La Fi/le mal gardee - the most popular ballet in the National's repertoire and with its stereo sound, more than likely to become the most successful of Campbell's television ballet presentations to date. The photographs accompanying David Vaughan's article, all taken by Barry, Gray, show moments of preparation and performance from the taping which went on for six days last spring in the CBc's notoriously cramped Toronto Studio Seven. Sacrificing camera mobility for the sake of the dancers' legs and knees, Campbell provided a wooden stage above the concrete studio floor on which the designer, Robert Lawson, painted suitable patterns suggesting the paved courtyard of Act I, the cornfield, and the interior of the farmhouse from Act II. Lawson has worked with Norman Campbell on several productions and his sets for La Pille, inspired by the original designs of Osbert Lancaster, are a happy compromise between what live theatre audiences have grown used to and what the special limitations and techniques of television require. Norman Campbell's television productions of ballet are, in the fullest sense, labours of love. Although the choreography is not his own, in a way Campbell becomes an adjunct choreographer as he moves his cameras and their lenses around the dancers. 'I do it for the personal charge I get from it, an important part of which is conveying my love for something to a vast audience'. Les BALLETS RUSSES Dance Institute de lUontreal Director: Mikhail Berkut PermitNo:749641 Adults&Children AllLevels ~lassical Ballet Russian method New Pre-Professional Programme Scholarships by Audition Jlode•·n Jazz Tap Flamenco International Folkdance rns1 St Catherine St W Suite 120 Montreal H3G-1P5 Tel: 514 288-1677 DANSE AU CANADA DANCE IN CANADA 15 DANSE AU CANADA Hilary McLaughlin Lost Dreams Donald MacSween and Dance at the National Arts Centre e-.:.:- ago the dance community was mildly stirred by the - from Ottawa that the National Arts Centre was .:: to embark upon a full-blooded 'dance programme' lude not only a subscription series of dance ::--.1~ ·ons, domestic and foreign, with an administrator to f.a..:aize it, but also the possibility of a resident company . ::- _ dle lines of the British 'Ballet for All', operated with ,.......,, ::e'p of the National Ballet. - e recent budgetary cutbacks announced by Robert - .:::-as leave the National Ballet in no position to help - -one but themselves, and the NAC is another victim of - go ·ernment's austerity drive. Financial woes dominate e:.- conversation of Donald MacSween, Director--eral of the Centre, who, somewhat regretfully, has let ~ - own that dance is going to suffer; not so much in ,_ ~ -e uction of programming, (although it would not do · " roo optimistic here), as in the scaling down of the - fe~- erm projects. _ 1acSween denies that there was actually a plan for a • ~ cent company, although he had been reported as g that as a goal, and is still prepared to say, in dreamy underlining his own pessimism, that it would be a ::-e:r thing. 'But a dance company, unlike an orchestra, -- ~our to grow, and we could not undertake the length - .:-o tra ct, given a dance company's annual earning level, • :..! port one' . ..-en the NAC's last effort at founding a resident dance - any (the 'Festival Company', headed by Brian .:.:-donald, in the summer of 1973), it is hardly surprising 1: anyone there would hesitate before rushing into - : er such venture. The short season, offered in -_·..;nction with the deservedly controversial summer ·al programme, was an almost total disaster, bringing - a endance percentages, beloved of bureaucrats, and e fo r dance down from respectable season figures to ~= -· an half during the summer. NAC spokesmen still ain that 'artistically it wasn't bad at all', but the ~ _::-:..;;re presentation, Brian Macdonald's Starcrossed, was e an evilly appropriate rubric and epitaph for the whole -ie aking. \\i at we would want to do' MacSween says, emphasiz- _ • e conditional tense, 'is augment our whole presenta- - of dance'. He holds that, despite the budget cuts, the c ,ill present dance more effectively than in the past. season, for the first time, there will be a subscription 1the three major Canadian ballet companies and, _--:o sly but ambitiously in this grouping, the Eliot Feld Ballet). Other modern, ethnic and ballet productions will take place before Christmas, restoring some balance to the NAC offerings, given that no one danced on an NAC stage between May and mid-September. 'The National Arts Centre spends the summer concentrating on music', was the arch response of box-office personnel to any inquiries about dance during those months. MacSween, who has held his job only since April, 1977, knows his NAC historyand his arithmetic-too well to implement a dance element to the summer festival now. A much more shattering loss than the curtailing (or denial) of plans for a company is the probability that dance will not yet have its own co-ordinator. At the moment, dance is lumped in with variety programming under the aegis of an (admittedly capable) 'administrator'; unlike the Music, Theatre and Festival departments, each of which has its own 'Director'. The difference may seem to be a bureaucratic nicety, but let there be no doubt that the NAC, with a staff of 700, is a bureaucracy whose field of endeavour happens to be the presentation of the performing arts. Granted, there are artistic reasons for 'directors'. The NAC has a resident orchestra and two theatre companies, one English, one French. As for the, Festival, with its productions of operas and as much Mozart as the music moguls think Ottawans and tourists will take (less than they predicted, judging by attendance), it occupies a large cadre of the 700 for the best part of the year. MacSween defends the decisions of his predecessors to get a music programme rolling first, (the availability of Mario Bernardi was decisive) , and theatre companies next. There is nothing unreasonable in this, and the orchestra at least has earned recognition and shown steady development. Dance, MacSween implies, was next in line for attention; this would, initially at least, have taken the form of separating dance and variety and creating a job - 'the title is not important', MacSween notes-which might, for clarity's sake, be called Dance Officer; someone who, as MacSween sees it, would have organized a 'Friends of the Dance' society, initiated the subscription series and, most importantly, coordinated and planned for future seasons. The dance officer's two principal roles would be, according to MacSween, to highlight and augment dance presentation and to introduce a dance element to the summer festival. The first of those objectives would essentially cost only a salary, but the cost of the second would be 'prohibitive'. The NAC is attentive to quotients of Canadian content DANCE IN CANADA during ten months of the year, but in July, when the music festival takes over, the chief consideration is international standards of production, although MacSween rightly points out that there are plenty of Canadians involved. To place a dance programme of the calibre to which the festival aspires into the July season would be a pricey business indeed, although 'it might be possible to have a Canadian group of dancers of the first order who are in their off-season.:. a choreographer might present a dance gala at some level of international excellence . . . ' MacSween also muses on the once and future dance officer as an animator of new ideas and approaches, such as using the Studio for a Canadian choreographers' workshop, or mounting diverse productions in some of the less familiar NAC spaces, such as the Salon or one of the terraces. 'But it is not possible at the moment to do these things'. There will be, MacSween says sadly, no dance officer in the predictable future. He denies that any offers were made to potential candidates, and emphatically denies a rumour that Grant Strate had been approached about the job. Reflecting upon the Toronto and Montreal dance festivals 'this fall, MacSween notes that such a venture at the NAC would be very risky. 'We are not known as a dance location', he says. Too damned right 'they' aren't. In a centre which can stage dance productions on any scale in one of its theatres, dance has been last on the list of priorities. But MacSween is intrigued by the possibility of a dance festival, admitting that, for one thing, such an event would be the fastest and 16 DANSE AU CANADA easiest, albeit the most expensive, way to earn a reputatio as a 'dance location'. He says he would welcome the idea o · renting any dark space of the complex to any organizatio wishing to mount dance in June or July and, if possible.. would assist with funding. But the NAC alone cannot afford to do it. Money makes programming an either/ or proposition: a diverse selection of productions throughou the year, or two weeks in summer. With the finest theatre complex in the country, and with a good and growin dance audience, Canada's capital sees less dance in a year than New York offers in a week. It is a bleak and desperate situation. Ironically and sadly, the only positive element of dance immediate future at the NAC is the disappointment of Donald MacSween. 'I seriously regret not being able to do at the NAC what I had hoped we would over the five years o my tenure. It will be done someday, but I'd hoped to go forward a bit more. Dance will always be part of the Centre, and I hope it won't be too long until a company is formed- something with excellence in choreography and all the other standards. I had hoped it would happen . .. ' He sounds wistful, whether from diplomacy or genuine commitment to dance or from a sense of fair play to each audience is hard to determine. But the bottom line is one of grim realism. 'We have commitments to certain groups (the existing programmes and their personnel). Once you get radical cuts - the NAC loses about two million dollars from its forecast budget for 1979/ 80 - something has to give. Dance will be cut back'. OflHE TORONTO ■NCE THEATRE DANCE I N CANADA 17 DAN SE AU C AN ADA Rhonda Ryman Training th e D ancer VI Understanding Arm Placement A Sl(eletal Approach e ro le of the arms has had an evolution of its own in the ory of Western theatrical dance. From the days of the :::asse d ance and ballo through the Romantic and Classical ea.s, the repertoire of arm positions and movements has e. anded steadily. Today, dancers must master the full -,- e of possibilities. Aesthetically, the arms must per·~.:: :, complement the body position adding polish and - - ement to the dancer's line. Dramatically, they must be : - ·ave enough to reflect the most subtle pang of despair -;- ·' e most frenetic fit of passion. And functionally, they - t be used to maximize the body's physical capacity, to - e_rare the greatest impulse possible for bravura turns eaps. ..\esthetic conceptions regarding 'good arm placement' - - ,-e varied with the times. The bulky sleeves of Renais- - ....e and Baroque court attire limited the range of arm - "ements to turnings of the wrist and elbow with less - , oh-ement of the upper arm. Few dance notation systems - . - to the nineteenth century even recorded arm ·ements, other than partners' hands making and losing - ~ct! With the lighter sleeves and exposed necklines of - e Romantic costume, arms were lifted in the easy soft - ...,.es characterized by Taglioni in La Sylphide. Although • - extremely long arms may have necessitated this artful -~ aufla ge, the rounded line became a hallmark of the era - • .is de Quatre and Giselle. The arms were used mainly ~a.m es for the head or embellishments to leg action, and .: earire upper torso floated delicately without betraying -= e ort of movement. By the end of the nineteenth . ry the Classical costume exposed even more of the - -s. reflecting an aesthetic preference for longer curves. ositions were elongated to extend the line of torso ..:: egs. An increase in bravura feats, such as multiple -- and soaring leaps, also necessitated a larger, more e:-ful use of the arms. rent training techniques are to develop the full - ~ onal potential of the arms, in addition to their -- ·c and dramatic capacities, the teacher must un-0 d the musculoskeletal structure of the shoulder ~ an d arm, and appreciate how these parts function as d in cooperation with other parts of the body. Too r oor arm placement and usage is merely a reflection - -orrect alignment in the head, shoulder girdle and spine, and of related muscular problems. It is futile to treat the symptoms - stiffness in the elbows, wrists and fingers, tension in the neck and chest - without confronting the cause. Weakness in the torso and legs often causes the student to grab at the air for stability, tensing arbitrary muscles which impede breathing and easy flow of movement. No amount of exhortation to 'Relax the shoulders' or 'Breath freely' will help without an improvement in basic posture. Above and beyond postural corrections, however, understanding arm and shoulder girdle structure will lead to an improved usage of the arms. This article concentrates on explaining that structure. In the next issue we will look at the arms in motion. The Arm-Shoulder Girdle Unit The shoulder girdle is a bony, yoke-like structure which hangs across the top of the ribcage, (see Diagram r ). It consists of two clavicles (collarbones) in front and two scapulae (shoulder blades) behind. From each 'outer edge hangs the humerus or upper arm bone. The shoulder girdle indirectly links the arms to the spine as follows. r The head of each humerus articulates below the acromion 'process' (the anatomist's word for a bony projection) of each respective scapula at the glenohumeral or shoulder joint. You can locate this joint by following the bony rim, called the spine, that runs outward across the top of the shoulder blade. Palpate the outermost projection of that rim, the acromion. Slightly move the upper arm and notice how that movement takes place under the acromion, without disturbing it at all. This is the site of the shoulder joint. This articulation is a ball-andsocket arrangement similar to the hip joint, but less deep so that a much greater range of motion is possible at the shoulder joint. The joint is protected by its capsule and stabilized by ligaments and surrounding muscle tendons. Unlike the hip joint which is designed primarily for the stability required during weightbearing, the shoulder joint is built for mobility. 2 Each triangular scapula hangs, with the apex pointing downward, at the side of the back. The medial or vertebral border of each rests lightly against the rib-cage parallel to the points where the ribs begin to curve around the chest DANCE IN CANADA 18 Diagram r : The Arm-Shoulder Girdle Unit cavity, that is, along the dorsal angles of the ribs. The shoulder blades have no bony attachments to the spine in back, and are free to glide along the rib-cage. In front they articulate with the clavicle at the acromioclavicular joint, a freely movable joint which permits gliding movements. This articulation can be located by following the collarbone outward as far as the acromion. Just below this site you will feel a small knob of bone, the corocoid process of the scapula, which gives rise to two strong bands of ligaments. These join the corocoid process to the under surface of the clavicle and help stabilize and protect the acromioclavicular joint. To sense the joint in action, keep one finger on this knobby process and another slightly outward and above it on the clavicle. With the free arm, trace a large figure eight in the air, trying to keep the clavicle stationary. Notice how the knobby corocoid process glides beneath it, betraying unavoidable scapular involvement. Mobilization of this joint is critical to the dancer. By isolating the movements of the clavicle and scapula, the dancer is able to create the illusion that the shoulder girdle remains quiet during great ranges of arm movement. This allows the neck to stay long and relaxed. 3 Each clavicle extends from the acromion towards the breastbone, or sternum, and joins the top portion, or manubrium, at each respective sternoclavicular joint. Try DANSE AU CANADA to locate this joint by placing a finger on the breastbone below the knobby inner end of either clavicle. Slight a . movements do not disturb this joint. In order to sense it i.;:; action, circle the shoulder forward, up, back and dowr::. This involves movement in the entire shoulder girdle anc requires the clavicle to transcribe a sort of cone shape. gliding at its sternal end. The joint also permits the clavic e to rotate along its long axis. To sense this action place nvo fingers along the collarbone about two to three inches ou: from the breastbone, and swing the arm freely for warci and back, passing close to the body, without lifting the shoulder. The sternoclavicular joint is freely movable, wi shallow articulating surfaces reinforced by connecti,tissue to prevent upward dislocation of the clavicle. 4 The sternum is joined to the upper seven ribs b_cartilage which permits 'l hingelike movement of the rib-cage during breathing. The ribs surround the chest cavity and articulate with the thoracic portion of the vertebral column. To recapitulate, the arms are indirectly linked to the spine in the following order: arm, shoulder-blade, collarbone, breastbone, ribs, spine. Since the shoulder girdle i incomplete in the back, (that is, the shoulder-blades do no~ articulate with the spine or rib-cage), each side can operate independently of the other. Ideally, each arm-shoulder blade-collarbone unit moves freely without disturbing i counterpart or the spine. An analogy may be drawn with the strut suspension system of an automobile, which permits each wheel to move independently. And just as a car's suspension is designed to protect passengers from the shock of pits in the road, so the complex arrangement o · the arm-shoulder girdle unit absorbs the shock (kineti energy) of rapid direction changes in the arms, withou disturbing the central balance of the body. This is quite unlike the leg-hip unit where right and left hipbones are joined at the sacrum, causing lower limb movement greatly to affect the spine. Efficient Alignment When the shoulder girdle is efficiently aligned atop the rib-cage, the shoulder tips (acromion processes) point sideways and the · line of gravity passes through the shoulder joint. The shoulder girdle and arms hang freely. falling neither forward nor backward. If, however, the body weight is shifted forward over the balls of the feet, a Centre of Movement 171 Hampton Ave., Toronto. M4K 2Z3 466-9549 ACCESSOIRES BALLET & DE BALLET ET DE THtATRE. THEATRICAL SUPPLIES ROSSETTI INC. 1481 , RUE MANSFIELD ST. MONTRtAL, QUt. H3A 1Y4 TtL: (514)288-5978 ROSSETTI INC. 370, AV. DANFORTH AVE. TORONTO, ONT. M4K 1N8 TEL: (416)461-0437 Dance, mime, and composition, with Til Thiele. Former master teacher and principal of the Mary Wigman School in Berlin. DANCE IN CANADA 19 DANSE AU CANADA worsen or accentuate the disturbance and muscles will be called upon to counteract this offsetting pull. The shoulder blades are level with the ground and lie close to the ribs with their inner borders resting along the points at which the ribs curve outward around the chest cavity. Pinching the shoulder blades towards each other is to be avoided. This throws the weight of the shoulder girdle and arms back behind the line of gravity and causes tension and overarching in the back. Furthermore, rigidly setting the shoulder blades in position severly impedes the easy flow of arm movement and limits range of motion. The positioning and movements of the upper limbs depend greatly on the alignment of head, spine and ribcage. The following images can be effective only if good basic posture is established. To widen the shoulder tips (see Diagram 3) Imagine two arrows superimposed atop each side of the shoulder girdle. One extends along the front, from the top of the breastbone, outward toward each shoulder tip. Another extends along the back from the spine level with the top of the shoulder blade, outward to each shoulder tip. The arrows converge at the shoulder tip into a larger arrow which points diagonally forward and outwards. Watch the shoulder tips move outward, so that this large arrow opens outward pointing more sideward than forward. As you visualize this, notice that the shoulder blade flattens along the outer back, and the hollow area in front of each shoulder likewise flattens. To free the arms in their sockets From the well aligned position described above, 'imagine the arms sagging out of their sockets at the shoulders to dangle in space as the arms of a doll would when the rubber holding them in place has lost its elasticity'; (see Lulu Sweigard, Human Movement Potential, page 256). Dancers and teachers are often reluctant to unravel the puzzle of the human anatomy-understandably when one considers the intimidating nomenclature. However, as we shall see in the next article, function is determined by cer's stance, the hands fall slightly in front of the structure and effective use of the body is enhanced by an although still directly below the shoulder joint. understanding of both. . Elsworth Todd compares this balanced position to ,; a yoke (see Diagram 2) in which the prongs are Those interested in a broader range of problems than can be - ::-ed directly out over each shoulder and the buckets covered in this series may subscribe to a quarterly newsletter, -: · eely below. This alignment requires minimal Kinesiology for Dance. Information is available from Martin -· e involvement. If the balance is disturbe<;l, and the Tracy, Dance Department, WG 205, UCLA., Los Angeles, ..'..er girdle falls forward or backward, gravity will California, 90024, USA. THERQYAL WINNIPEGBALLET The First FortyYears byMaxWyman COMING DECEMBER 1st! $17 .95; illustrated el DOUBLEDAY Canada Limited DANCE IN CANADA 20 DANSE AU CANADA Kevin Singen Conference '78 A Sense of Direction When the Dance in Canada Association held its fifth annual general meeting (1977) in the midst of a very turbulent conference, one member rose to suggest that the association should suspend operations for a year to allow time for people to consider whether or not they really needed it. At the same Winnipeg meeting, there were dramatic resignations, lots of name-calling, many frayed nerves and a general sense of disintegration and imminent catastrophe. Had it not been for the extraordinarily capable management of Iris Garland in the chair, the whole event might have ended in a brawl. In the intervening year, the Association has not fallen apart. The highly publicized resignations of certain individuals or groups has not had the cosmic significance those involved may have wished for. Membership has continued to expand; the magazine's subscription list has grown steadily, despite a-Shortage of cash, many services to the dance community have been maintained and at the end of a difficult but eventful year, the Association held by far its biggest and most successful conference to date. The contrasts between the Winnipeg and Vancouver conferences were dramatic. The 1 977 conference was notable for a series of negative reasons: bad organization, disharmony and conflict, little sense of being in the home-town of Canada's oldest dance companies, (both ballet and modern) . The 1978 conference will be remembered for the excellence of its organization, the positive attitude of participants, the willingness to talk calmly and logically about contentious issues, the strong sense of being in a thriving dance capital. Even the usual marathon evenings of performance, this year supplemented by noon-hour presentations in downtown Vancouver, took on a semblance of order and were produced with a remarkable degree of technical professionalism. Rapid sequences of events, complicated lighting plots, three different locations, temperamental artists - all were handled magnificently. The most obvious explanation for these achievements points directly to the organizing committee whose members must have worked long hours, with little immediate reward, to assemble a conference that actually came out as it was planned to do. Of course, it helps to have Canada's most seductively beautiful city and a fine university campus (UBC) as the location- and even the rain stopped at the right moments - yet, it was the human labour that made the conference work. Regular delegates to successive conferences have alway complained about the complexity of scheduling. Session overlap, important items are missed. Unless the conference were to be spread out over a month these problems will remain. But this year a carefully planned structure at leas added logic to the proceedings and, to a considerable extent, allowed every participant to get some sense of the conference as a whole. All the traditional bases were covered: practical workshops and classes, the high-powered stuff on finance anci management, lots of discussion, lectures, papers ... But thi time the events were streamed so that a particular area o · concern could be pursued right through the conference. J.: the end of it all, reports were presented at the cl osin session, which everybody was free to attend, where the:, got a capsule summary of what everyone else had been u~ to. It was not a perfect arrangement, it's unlikely one cou.;:: be devised, but it went a long way to remedy earli . problems with conference scheduling. Within each strea.r:::. Administrators', Educators' and Dancers', there wa ..1. greater sense of direction and purpose than on previm.:.: occasions when dancers have sat down to talk. To be s e there was an infuriatingly tiresome preoccupation .i."1" the process of holding meetings, no doubt inspired misplaced and excessive concern to ensure fair-play out of it all came some solid conclusions. The clearest thing to emerge from the annual genemeeting, which ended the conference, was a new sen direction and confidence in the association's futu re. contrast to Winnipeg, the Vancouver AGM almost ra • risk of becoming a bore: no heckling, no in-fighting; po· civilized debate, orderly reports and a superabundan good, positive vibes. By the application of a freshly ra by-law, two familiar faces on the Board of Direct vanished. No longer eligible for election, Grant Strate - Lawrence Adams, both of whom have been impor.: -· and controversial figures in the association's developme:i:. must watch from the sidelines as a new board steers Da::: in Canada through the difficult days ahead. While :."' conference and AGM were certainly notable for the tive directions taken and the new harmony establi . . , between warring factions, external problems of a DANCE IN CANADA 21 DANSE AU CANADA the end of the line will be a plump salmon or a stinking, rotten boot. One thing cannot be denied. Canadian dance is vital, progressive and almost infinitely varied. There is an increasing number of very fine dancers and they come in all shapes and sizes. Even the sight of a woman five months pregnant cavorting about a stage in daring fashion did not ruffle an audience used to seeing strident assertions of individuality in dance. That is not to pretend that everything in the festival was excellent. There was tedium and rampant mediocrity contrasting with moments of exquisite beauty and purity. The best thing about these affairs is the tolerance it slowly induces among members of the dance community who have tended to become isolated in their own esthetic corners, assuming foolhardily that they have a monopoly on 'art'. At the end of a long evening which had included the bombshell direct hit of the uproariously funny Co-Motion from Alberta, we saw a wonderful 'performance' of contact improvisation by the Vancouver group, Fulcrum. Afterwards Menaka Thakkar whose own esthetic is light-years removed from that of Helen Clarke, Peter Bingham and Andrew Harwood declared, simply, 'it was beautiful'. Who says, scrap the festival? __ loomed menacingly at the very moment of the •..,.· ence's success. ... before the official announcement, rumours from ·a w arned . of the massive cuts in government .::.. g which have now placed the future of all the arts in ·ca in immediate jeopardy. It does little good to tell a ent bent on ensuring its re-election by a few cheap ceceptively ineffective spending cuts that arts institutake decades to build but only a few moments to y. Taking shots at the arts is, one must suppose, an · ·ay for government to boost its popularity and to - o be confronting seriously the immediate prospect .,onal bankruptcy. of the clearest proofs that Dance in Canada really ..:.:iction as a voice for its membership was provided by - response to this gloomy news by the as~ociation's :-;:;:ian who sent a strongly worded telegram to Ottawa ation of the announced cuts. Just how far dance, _ -ith all the other arts in this country, is going to be .......,.... cu remains to be seen. If the full force of the propqsed _...,....~-es is applied there will be many casualties - several ~ permanent. · .:es these matters of highest politics, there were .:fomestic issues to attend to. Voting by proxy was a plea for proper dance floors was shot off to ~ s ndry, the matter of import taxes on ballet shoes - secl. Everybody seemed to have lots to say - and ; J was constructive. • , the ' festival' of evening performances, three at the ,.,iimx::.. Elizabeth Playhouse and two more (on the same J.: the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, what can , ? It is now fashionable to call these things ,-•=···u- ·es', an annual stock-taking of dance in Canada. arirably still they have been compared to a fishing ere there is no assurance of whether the weight at The National Ballet School AUDITIONS ◊ The National Ballet School is a boarding and day school offering complete ballet and academic training. ◊ The academic programme (grade 5-12) meets all the requirements of the Ontario Ministry of Education . ◊ Special courses are offered to the Francophone students and all English speaking students study the French language. ◊ Small classes, highly gifted teachers and an enriched curriculum enable each boy and girl to develop his or her abilities to the fullest. ◊ Only children seriously interested in training for professional ballet should apply . ◊ Preference is given to younger children ten to twelve years of age, but a limited number of older students may be accepted. Previous ballet training is not a requirement for students entering grade 5. Financial assistance is available if required. Auditions are held in 27 cities across Canada. For information on audition centres and application forms write to the Registrar, 111 Maitland St., Toronto, Ont. M4Y 1E4. YM&YWHA School of Dance Courses Featured The George.Brown College 10th Annual Summer School of Dance Lois Smith Artistic Director July 3-August 10, 1979 To ce lebrate the 10th anniversary, the Summer School will conclude with a full length performance of "Coppelia" For further information, contact the School of Dance, George Brown College, P.O. Box 1015 , Station B, Toronto M5T 2T9 Telephone (416) 363-9945 ~ • Pre-dance Education • Classical Ballet • Modern (Contemporary • Jazz Dancing (Modern • 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 Groups 4588 Bathurst Street Willowdale, Ontario M2R 1W6 636-1880 January 29 - February 3, 1979 Box Office opens Thursday, January rr, 1979 AMERICAN DANCE THEATER AILEY Prices per seat Monday-Saturday evenings 8.30 pm $12.50, 10.00, 7.50, 5.00 Wednesday & Saturday matinees 2.00 pm $10.00, 8.00, 6.00, 4.00 Half price tickets for students, children, and persons over 60 are available for matinee performances ' . .. One of the world's greatest dance companies.' Daily Telegraph, London ' ... a brilliant mixture of inspired dance and raw theatricality.' Clive Barnes, New York Times Front and Yonge Sts., Toronto, Ont. M5E 182 416 363-6633 DANCEINCANADA 23 DANSEAUCANADA In Review · ·:-.ne Allan - :: Harvie Theatre - ::: August 1978 • ;'e i snow on some of the highest ..:- ai n peaks but warm sunshine pours • on the Banff Centre, its odd coneration of buildings nestling under the :: em slope of Tunnel Mountain. "" , ilSt the constant background of rum- . buzzing tourist traffic down in the and the rush of the Bow River as it into a spectacular cascade of falls, an . - aordinary cacophony at once both dis_. and fascinates the ear. On one side a quartet rehearses, every now and then -- arinet breaking loose, its melancholy · e piercing the senses. Further up the hill · -: another building an orchestral ensemble , pra ctising, not far from where a student , :-egaling a small but interested audience : fellow students with a freshly composed - m . Somewhere a lone tenor voice is -onotously struggling to clarify the tone ; a high note. At almost every time of .::..;:,·. the interrupted sounds of a ballet class ·air across the grounds. This is the Banff Centre Summer School ; Fine Arts where students in virtually • ery arts discipline, from across Canada the United States, gather to learn from rst-rate faculty of professionals. The osphere is casual despite the hectic - edule everyone is running to keep up . When a brief gap between classes : -esents itself the students steal a quick nap .. e sun or go and see what everyone else _ up to. The mixture of disciplines and the easy - ormality which allows a fledgling vioaist to sit down and chat with an interna-onal orchestra conductor, or a student .:.ancer to pick the brains of a seasoned : -o essional choreographer or performer ·- the great distinguishing mark of the rentre. Close to the end of each summer school, - e Centre produces a festival of perfor-ance in which dance, naturally enough, ;: avs an important part. This year besides 2 rousing student performance of Brian . iacdonald's Tam Ti De/am, we had a very ;: · omising and well-crafted first jazz ballet :· om Peter George and, most interestingly, : e first fruits of the Clifford E. Lee ~- oreography Award. Clifford E. Lee was a devoted Albertan ·· ose socialist beliefs were ironically con-asted by his unerring gift for making - oney. The solution was a life of philan:· opy and hard work, now happily -emorialized in the foundation that bears ~ name. Spring Started this year, the Lee Choreography Award is run in conjunction with the Banff Centre. The recipient is required to produce a new ballet for the students of the summer school. A cash award of $2,500 (next year to be $3,000) is supplemented by costs of attendance at the Banff Centre, up to another $2,500. Theoretically, the plan allows students to benefit from the experience of working in a new ballet, the choreographer to benefit through association with the resident dance staff and audiences to be guaranteed a special attraction at the end of it all. As the first winner of the Lee Award, Mauryne Allan, director of Mountain Dance Theatre, appears to have fulfilled all the aspirations of the award's designers. Her work Spring eponymously named after and set to the music from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, stretched the dancers in a healthy way, developing their craft and professionalism. By her own testimony, Mauryne Allan was helped along the way by Earl Kraul whose vast experience as a performer, working with many different choreographers, enabled him to offer very practical suggestions. Judging by the response to its first performance in the festival, the audience seemed well pleased with Spring. Spring is made for six women and four men whose relationships in the dance are at times overtly sexual and at other times abstracted into a surreal realm of movement. Although the music implies moods and events, for example the brief storm, Mauryne Allan appears to have approached it with .a degree of independence creating a series of contrasting moods, enhanced by subtle lighting changes, linked together by a simple but effective vocabulary of movement, especially for the arms. The dancers wear tights or unitards which show off admirably the querky variations on classical line which Mauryne Allan has introduced throughout the work. The contrast between earth bound 'modern' idioms and lighter balletic forms provides a dynamic interest to Spring . Not all the dancers were students in the strict sense, only in so far as they had registered for the summer school. Two of the more impressive male dancers, Michael Fritzke and Joseph Teague (who recently joined Les Ballets Jazz) were from the Minnesota Dance Theatre. What Spring reveals is the choreographer's capacity to frame her own artistic impulse within the limits of a company of dancers whose technique and experience ranges widely. It would be interesting to see how Mauryne Allan might adapt Spring if, for example, she were to be invited to restage it for a professional company such as the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Certainly, as it stands, Spring is an unfinished work. It cries out for the full cycle of seasons. MICHAEL CRABB CONTEMPORARY DANCE puts into perspective the genius of modern American dance. This sumptuous volume features incisive essays on modern dance and dancers - interviews and profiles of distinguished performers and choreographers - superbly illustrated with over 300 photographs plus a monumental chronology of modern dance since 1902. 310 pages $29.50 he Methuen Publications DANCE IN CANADA 24 DANSE AU CANADA Elizabeth Chitty Ricardo Ahrent 15 Dance Lab Toronto 4 - 15 July 1978 Elizabeth Chitty is a moralizer. A reluctant or embarassed one, perhaps, but still a moralizer. Her recent works, with the exception of the regimental Extreme Skin, have all been lessons of one sort or another, in which the moral is either flatly stated, as in True Bond Stories, or implicit, as in Lap and her newest work, Demo Model. Lap's mating ritual is self-denouncing. The few wisely-chosen components of the ritual themselves allude to primitive images: the toy whistles to jungle birds, the jitterbug steps to African tribal dancing, and the boxing ring stances to those cartoons of caveman attempting to weild his masculinity as a club over cave-woman. Its moral then: Avoid the Pitfalls of Masculine-Feminine Role-Playing. Demo Model is also self-denouncing and its moral is also of the Avoid or Beware kind although much more ambivalent. Usi ng an array of sophisticated products manufactured by our supremely arrogant technological society - TV camera, video, flash camera, Xerox copier - Chitty takes o n all the parts in a TV-inspired crime drama -detective, gun-moll, stoolie, reporter - which becomes, even as she's turning up clues galore, increasingly fragmented and impenetrable instead of less so. Technological rhetoric is aggravated by bursts of semaphore and sign language, poses from the pages of Modern Dance and Vogue, unadorned, unconnecting statements delivered by Chitty in a tense voice and a Big Brains type (played by Hugh Poole) spouting similar statements (platitudes, non-sequiturs, and plain nonsense) on a TV screen in a voice heavy with selfimportance; there is no elucidation in any of these vocabularies either. What it all adds up to is chaos, the kind of Orwellian chaos that breeds paranoia because we can sense there's somebody up above the chaos - technocrats and computer scientists - manipulating it to keep us humble, dependent. Still, we laugh. We laugh at the selfserious way Chitty grapples with the 'hardware' (as Lawrence Adams would call it), only to defeat rather than resolve investigation. She is Barbara Bain and Martin Landau so caught up in their Mission Impossible gadgetry that she loses track of the case. It's a slapstick assault on technological sophistication, that is, at the same time, very cerebral (we've seen that combination before in both Lap and True Bond Stories); the 'hardware' comes off looking no more advanced than the fashion model's slouch or a semaphore signal. The title Demo Model suggests a couple of things: that Chitty's relationship to the Charles Flanders in Ricardo Abreut's Metamorphosis 'hardware' is like that of some lunatic salesperson to a product whose operations she has been hired to demonstrate (or, more likely, render totally mysterious); and that the 'hardware' itself, as product, is a dud, and ultimately unsaleable. Well, we know the real 'hardware' - cameras, copiers, TVs, videos - are not unsaleable and have, in fact, made their inventors fortunes, but Chitty feels bound to warn us: the 'Demo' is as much Demolition as Demonstration. Demo Model moralizes: Don't trust in Technology. It's homely moral, rendered very poignant at both performances of Demo Model when Ms. Chitty experienced some technical difficulty, shortly overcome. Once or twice I felt that Chitty hadn't taken full advantage of theatrical effects available to her, as in her neglect to use the light from the copier to evoke other kinds of flashing light- neons, headlights, searchlights, police interrogation lamps that would enrich the detective story atmosphere. Demo Model is, however, Chitty's first real extravaganza in a line of works that used minimal props and lighting effects, and she's probably wary still of theatricality; the next extravaganza is bound to be more relaxed and resourceful. Right now, Demo Model is perceptive enough in its sizing up of its target, rich enough in the associations it provokes, and brainy enough in the elaborate network of appearances and deceptions it creates to be quite enough. It's certainly too much for just one viewing. Sharing the bill with Chitty was Ricardo Abreut, resident accompanist at Toronto Dance Theatre and sometime choreographer. Abreut's choreographies are not as intellectual as Chitty's by any means, but they often seem to be edging towards statement. The statement would be a criticism of self-dramatization, if it didn't get waylaid by the choreographer's own need to indulge in self-dramatics. Possessing a distinctly Spanish Catholic base, these personal dramatics combine self-disgust with sensuality; they find release in nightmarish rococo images of pig-headed angels, gold paste crowns, torn roses and black Madonnas (or Beggar Queens). Abreut borrows iconic gestures and poses from other contexts - mostly from movie actresses and pop chanteuses - that have entered the vernacular consciousness, but he doesn't probe their nature for a richer understanding of them as kinetic symbols; he simply reproduces them. As a result, these gestures never move us. What moves us are the stage personalities of the performers involved. At their most enjoyable, Abreut's roles are excuses for star turns. Susan Macpherson and Margaret Dragu remain aloof from what they are given to do and so are able to blaze forth on their own meteoric paths undimmed and also invest the tired image of the tragic (i.e., boozy, pillpopping) star with some of its old glamour and fascination . Charles Flanders, however, fails to make something significant of his virtuoso turn as the drag queen in Metamorphosis (potentially the most complex of the roles Abreut has made) because he, like the choreographer, gets lost in personal theatrics, confusing his emotions with those of the character he's portraying. Nevertheless, I wouldn't have missed Abreut's show for anything. Being there was rather like attending a very decadent party hosted by a genial, talented, irresponsible, and, yes, eccentric dilettante. And where these days - outside old Carl van Vechten novels - do you get to go to such parties? GRAHAM JACKSON DANCE IN CANADA ceAs Dance: ected Reviews d Essays -:.:1m Jackson - orough: Catalyst - grown up on Beaumont, Denby, :her such mighty names of dance - :. my initial reaction to this book ·ne·s got some nerve!' I must, how- .. int out its worth as a record by a .1lly) informed observer. .. · on disarmingly reveals his lack of ence in, or with, dance in his preface: ;:i.tings cover less than three years. . . of this kind show us most interesting .:.1rd and attitudes, of former times or particular country. They provide, at ;:-.rt, eyewitness reports of dancers no _e; to be seen, or ballets which have - .ed from most repertories. - ;:_'· on covers most of the range of av- e dance in Canada, with an occa~ da ring side-trip to New York. Deis almost endearing pretensions, he ;··e many Canadian writers - much e a t ease when discussing modern .:c: than with the ballet. He reviews ci Earle's choreography at the 1977 r mo Dance Festival intelligently, but is s certain when writing about La Fi/le 25 DANSE AU CANADA mal gardee or Firebird. When it comes to personalities, he is generally sounder on women. His plea for proper recognition of Vanessa Harwood and Mary Jago is as elequent as it is sincere. He writes very directly, but sometimes makes exactly the same mistakes he complains of in others. Real technical terms are essential in any profession, but overmuch jargon is simply unnecessary; (see page ro8). As a stylist, his limitations seem to bother him, so he makes strenuous efforts to appear knowledgeable, as with the carefully casual references to this or that writer, painter, composer. His enthusiasm is often infectious, and one can excuse much for its sake, even his amazingly short list of 'Ballets Focussing on the Dynamics of Male-Male Interaction'. There's no mention of the glorious male Pas de Trois in Ashton's Romeo and Juliet; French choreographers are mo~tly ignored, and the entire range of Scandinavian ballet is totally ignored! Often Jackson is bold enough to state truths openly, and commands respect for his perception. Unfortunately, these good ideas are not followed through. At the end of his preface, he correctly points out that many critics praise a dancer for something in his work, when in fact they find him sexually attractive. He also takes up a stand, later, in defence of the homosexual dance·r. All very well, but he resolutely turns his face away from the corollary. Many critics (and not only of dance) also comment unfavourably on an artist's work for sexual reasons. And Jackson himself loathes, rather transparently, very virile dancers such as Villella, D'Amboise or Holm, and somehow manages to mention only once each the names of such stars as Bonnefous, Bortoluzzi and Schaufuss. Perhaps Jackson needs to come to terms with himself. He does delve beneath surfaces and is keen to analyze. The reviews are straightforward, and it is mainly in the essays that we can observe Jackson, apparently sorting out his thoughts as much for his own enlightenment as for ours. In fact, that crystallizes his present problems. This volume is somewhat presumptuous and premature, although, hea ven knows, it should not be compulsory to have grey hairs before one's opinions and ideas are considered valid. Once again, it is mainly the author's limitations rather than those of the book itself - illustrated with ambiguous line drawings by Albert Forister - which make this volume of limited interest. In time, Graham Jackson could well overcome these obstacles. LYNROEWADE DANCEINCANADA 26 DANSEAUCANADA Menaka Thakkar Sitaswayamvaram Indian Dance-Drama St. Lawrence Centre Toronto 2.9 July 1978 The task of forging a place for Indian dance in Canada is being energetically undertaken by Menaka Thakkar. She has attempted a mixed-media production in her rendition of the poem, Geet-Govinda, by interspersing dance selections· with slides of paintings which illustrate the same theme. Last year she b'rought her musicians and teachers from India to provide live accompaniment for a cross-country tour. Recently she created a dance-drama, Sitaswayamvaram, drawing as much on the ancient precepts of Sanskrit drama as on rife developing skills of her western students. Dedication to tradition coupled with an innovative outlook distinguish Menaka Thakkar's work both as dancer and choreographer. Sitaswayamvaram, an episode from the Indian epic the Ramayana, is concerned with the selection of the heroine Sita's husband by competition. Whoever can bend the mighty bow of Shiva will win her hand. In conceiving the dance-drama Menaka paid particular attention to searching out a rare version of the story which emphasizes the woman's point of view in an epic which is primarily about the exploits of .the godhero, Rama. She then commissioned original music and delved into the framework code of Sanskrit drama for the framework in which to set the usual solo performance of the Bharata Natyam dance style. The opening dance, the Poorva Ranga, precedes the action proper and begins the drama on an auspicious note with the offering of flowers and the bowing to the deities of the four directions. For this Menaka, stunning in a yellow sari bordered with brilliant green, executed various circling patterns around the stage while holding flower petals in her cupped hands and concluded by scattering the petals and by performing the traditional triple bow to the gods, teachers and audience. The next section might have seemed incongrous - the entrance of the Sootradhar or stage manager, yet he plays the vital role of intermediary between performers and audience by speaking in the local tongue, in this case in English. His words are as vital to the greater part of an Indian ·audience as to us; for they can follow the scholarly Sanskrit little better than we can. A comic repartee with his wife serves both to introduce the actors and to familiarize the spectators with the plot. His suggestively complimentary references to the audience as 'connoisseurs' stems from the Indian conception that a knowledgeable and sympathetic audience governs the success of a presentation as much as the skill of the sible task. So the hero's victory climaxes the emotion of the drama which culmiperformer. The third convention integrated into the nates in the marriage preparations and a preliminary action was the use of a .bright dance of celebration. It seemed necessary to trace the dered curtain behind which one catches the first glimpses of the main character. The velopment of the plot, yet this is the means patterns of the feet visible beneath the cur- rather than the end of Indian drama. The tain and the appearance of the hands emotions evoked in the characters and above, in specific gestures reminiscent of thereby transmitted to the spectators conpuppets above a screen, are part of the stitute the real essence. The pure dance ritual for the gods and yet build the sus- interludes serve as the counterpoint to the pense towards the unveiling of Sita. Thus mimetic sections. I was fortunate to be very with dance, dialogue and curtain, the tra- close to the stage and able to observe many ditional conventions set the scene and of the subtleties of expression: hands as atmosphere for the action itself. they assume deftly the gestures specific to Menaka's students proved themselves the words of the song; eyes, eyebrows, and the skill of their teacher by performing mouth in constant motion. There is as with an assurance in and empathy with much to watch in Menaka's face alone as it the eastern idiom that seemed utterly na- is transformed with each response: gleeful tural. Costume, gesture and expression to the irreverently comic caricatures, fearcontributed to the overall unity of style ful of Ravana, full of yearning and love for and effect, as well as the tasteful choreog- Rama. It is this skill of conveying the emoraphy which showed each individual to tional make-up of the character that gives the human dimension and deeper meaning good advantage. The selection of Sita's husband by the to Indian dance, and marks Menaka as an test of strength is seen through the eyes of accomplished exponent of her art. Menaka is a remarkable dancer. Her her friends. The dancers were each given the scope to display their.dramatic expres- precision in rhythmic patterns and comsiveness. Through a series of descriptive mand of the technical and expressive comimitations Sita sees her suitors, fat, old, plexities of Bharata Natyam are a pleasure bent, and the most terrifying of all, the to watch. But perhaps more significant is demon king, Ravana. The last, monstrous .the contribution she is making to the dewith his 10 heads and renowned for his velopment of her art form and its audience. might, was convincingly portrayed by While dedicated to a 2000-year-old dance Dianne Ngui-Yen. Her attempts to lift the tradition she continues to explore different imaginary great bow - one could even see ways of approaching her material to bring her face flush with the exertion - brought to light an Indian woman's point of view great anguish to the apprehensive Sita. If and to cross cultural barriers successfully. the terrible Ravana was unsuccessful, how could the young Rama whose handsome ROSEMARY JEANES figure she had caught sight of while picking a flower, accomplish the seemingly impos- DANCE IN CANADA Merce Cunningham and Dance Company oyal Alexander Theatre Toronto 15 -19 August 1978 _ [uch has already been written and said about Merce Cunningham's 'innovations' :.n da nce, yet one can't see a Cunningham ;,erformance without being made intensely aware of them-probably because he's still ing them to shock. A person seeing Cunningham for the st time finds himself deprived of all - or most- of the frames of reference on which he usually depends to comprehend what he sees. There are no literary toeholds for him ;:o get, no logical relationships between the da ncing and the music to give him the sa·sfaction Balanchine's abstract ballets at east provide. In fact, the music, not to mention the decors, often seems not to · ave anything at all to do with what's danced. What's danced is finally all he has to go on. The steps are everything- or almost everything. If he survives his first - and second, and third - encounter with Cunningham, our da nce-goer will become either a Cunningham champion or a sworn enemy. A significant coterie of New York critics have elevated Cunningham to the status of genius and Titan of Modern Dance; others, omewhat less influential, have summarily dis missed him as a charlatan, a purveyor of 'phoney-baloney' to use the words of one. From my first encounter with him this Augu st, I think I fall somewhere between two chairs. I'm both champion and enemy; I think he's both charlatan and genius. Cunningham is charlatanesque in the way he takes his idea of self-sufficient dancing and dehumanizes it, just as the Imperial Russians did ballet steps. If 'decorative' didn't immediately mean 'pretty' to most pe ople, that's the word one would use to describe Cunningham's steps. More clumsily put, Cunningham shows us steps that exist only to be looked at, not felt, steps which have relationship only to other steps. Parts of all the works I saw - Rebus, Squaregames and especially Summerspace - contained sections of this self-sufficient dancing. Rebus, however, also gave us Cunningham, the genius. Steps, most of them fa miliar ballet class stuff, suddenly revealed a depth of meaning I didn't expect they possessed. Of course the framework of the dance-Cunningham, the old dancer, relating to his company of young dancers provides a narrative of sorts that makes the steps immediately more meaningful, in the traditional sense, than the steps in Summerspace. But I'm not speaking of just that ki nd of meaning. Even in the extended sequences of classroom exercises and variations, the steps became hypnotic, bigger 27 DANSE AU CANADA than themselves; they become a ritual. We don't understand this ritual perfectly, yet we can sense its force by the sympathetic chords it strikes in our own bodies. Summerspace, however, is probably more accessible than Rebus on several counts. The score (Ixion by Morton Feldman) is rippling, soft, easy to listen to, ~nd Robert Rauschenberg's pointilist decors and lighting are eye-seducing - and a crucial part of the dance. What's more, the steps are balletic. Generally speaking, Cunningham's movement is balletic- notably in the way the torso is kept still, with the arms framing it- but in Summerspace, the similarities are greater than the differences. There's a lot of showy jumping and turning and some difficult balances for the dancers. The movement is also rather stiff and, the title notwithstanding, chill. Only once or twice do the steps strike any chord in us and then only to suggest that these aren't dancers we're seeing but some chamelon-like forest creatures come out to take the sun; as such, there is a frolicsome pleasure in watching their antics. Unfortunately, this illusion doesn't hold; the steps don't probe any more curiously into the dancers' animal heritage, into that realm of innocence and primitive joy we all can, if vaguely, understand. Finally, they're just steps; and for the watcher, they begin to blur. Steps blur in Squaregame, too. Long sections of self-infatuated movement, including a peculiar pas de deux for Cunningham and one of his female dancers, seem simply to ignore the effects created by Takehisa Kosugi's menacing and other-worldly sound collage and Mark Lancaster's setting, the naked stage and backstage areas of the Alex, and costumes, a moody hotchpotch of dark blues, greens and black. Only when Cunningham acknowledges the hostile environment his collaborators are building does the dance become really powerful. 'Acknowledge' here doesn't mean 'give in'. Squaregame doesn't ever try to achieve a mood that complements the music and decors. What it does mean is that Cunningham feels the pressure of the menace and hostility and, deliberately resisting it, creates movement that's witty (the dancers playing with the tackle bags like so many athletes on benzedrine) and intimate (the dancers simply watching one another, caressing with their eyes), movement that expresses a buoyant optimism. Of course, Squaregame benefits immensely from the presence of Cunningham himself, as does Rebus in a much more obvious way. Rebus could well be called Cunningham's Confession. Just as the steps Cunningham makes are the dance, so the dancer he dances is Cunningham; there is no intervening persona. The dance opens and closes on Cunningham standing upstage right in profile, one arm outstretched towards a metal coat-rack hung with (his?) clothes. There is humility in this stance, perhaps a little foolishness, and, yes, a conscious awareness of his own survival. He reminds one a bit of a late silent screen comedian or a displaced harlequin who knows the most awful sadness. As Cunningham the guru, the master, the mentor, the guardian angel, attempts to slip his students some of his secrets, one realizes that this sadness is the result of Cunningham's knowing that it's going to end. None of Cunningham's movements for himself attempt to disguise his age, his experience, his despair. In fact, the rotating of a shoulder, the curling and uncurling of the fingers from the palm, the shaking of the · wrists or the dainty, ginger stepping, one foot carefully in front of the other (where, incidentally, he looks a lot likeMartha Graham at a similar period in her performing career) expose his finiteness. The man, Cunningham, is finite . Is his work? The great innovator has fired others who, in turn, etc., so that he will, at the very least, go down in dance history as An Influence. But what of his works? What of his company? It's almost as hard to imagine the Merce Cunningham Dance Company without Merce as it is to imagine Rebus without him; in the same way that his dance innovations were born of personal necessity, Rebus seems to stem from Cunningham's need to remember - in a Proustian manner - what that was all about. What justifies that coterie of critics in calling Cunningham a genius and a Titan is, in the end, Cunningham himself. With his large hands, he can make flourishes of feet, he bestrides worlds like Cleopatra's Antony. With his sphinx-like expressions, he is still generous and open to his audience. And he can touch us more quickly, more surely than all his young dancers, conscientious as they are, combined. If they touch us at all, it's with their good bodies, their technical prowess, but he touches us - ineffably. GRAHAM JACKSON DANCE IN CANADA j af.Janes e dan ce: Sal Murgi yanto American Dance Guild Committee on Research in Dance Conference Hawaii r - 7 August 1978 How can the dance of Asia and the Pacific strike a resonant chord in the western spectator? Where is the meeting point of those who dance and those who study dance as a cultural, historical, aesthetic phenomena? What can be shared, not only in the entertainment value of a performance event but also in concepts of training, choreography, the preserving of a tradition or the developing of a new one? These fundamental questions and more were the substance of a remarkable gathering of dancers and scholars who recently brought their art and knowledge to an exciting week of learning and exchange at the University of Hawaii. Imagine an early morning workshop with Japanese modern dancer Kei Takei, exploring the energies of images- tree and vine, the support and the clinging - on bedewed grass, to a background of ridged volcanic hills. Then came a choice in each of the four daily sessions. Papers and lecture demonstrations, workshops and film showings took place simultaneously in three different locations. One session treated the expression of myth in dance images: an examination of how the Japanese tale of a woman and a bell changed with its expression in the various dance styles; a look at the ancient Chinese concept of the warrior-woman which has perpetuated itself in modern Chinese ballet; a discussion of myth and legend, particularly the Oedipus story, in the works of Martha Graham. Participation in a workshop changed the focus from the mental to the physical. The opportunity to learn a little of the basic training methods and dramatic form of Indian Kathakali dance-drama from the highly skilled dancer and teacher Sankaran Nambudiri, a taste of Balinese dance technique, or an introduction to Hawaiian Hula - these were some of the styles represented. It is amazing how even a 90minute foray into a totally foreign form 28 DANSE AU CANADA gives one a sense of what to watch for in a performance, thus increasing appreciation. Then perhaps a panel discussion on academic methodology - how dance history and anthropology supplement each other. Later, the particular experiences and observations of westerners who had studied a traditional dance in Asia contra~ted with those of Javanese dance in Indonesia. Towards the end of the afternoon we could see a short performance: Javanese dance one day, Japanese No theatre another. Each evening performance was devoted to a specific area-Hawaii, Asia, the Pacific Islands and America. (The modern repertoire of the Hawaii Dance Theatre featured the choreography of Canadian David Hatch Walker). The daily schedule generated a multitude of impressions and moments snatched for conversation over coffee or a quick meal added to the intensity and stimulation of the conference. One of the more penetrating dialogues between two eminent scholars, Selma Jeanne Cohen of America and Masakatsu Gunji of Japan, concerned the Aesthetic Ideal and reflected the potential of the conference. The groundwork had been laid in a statement sent by Dr. Cohen to Professor Gunji which raised certain questions about the role of virtuosity in western classical dance. They then exchanged papers, making comments on each other's concepts. So by the time we were exposed to the ideas, they had been considerably developed through the earlier correspondence. Strikingly different to that of ballet is the Japanese ideal, 'to dance without moving', accompanied by the concept that a smaller dancing area creates a higher degree of abstraction. In a dance world where atmosphere and nuance take precedence over technique, the particular quality of virtuosity 'can be displayed up to the moment of death' . Dr. Cohen drew certain parallels, both East and West are concerned with the process of becoming and with beauty; yet fundamentally different visions of the body in space remain. While ballet aspires to heaven, Japanese dance is rooted in the earth. An interesting question was raised in the visual aesthetic, _that of symmetry. Indicating a photograph of Nureyev, Dr. Cohen responded that the great western dancer's sense of asymmetry in a seemingly geometrically balanced technique is as vital to his artistry as the more choreographic asymmetry of the Japanese form . A sense of the meeting of East and West in dance itself was revealed in two sessions entitled 'Choreographic Syncretism' . The first consisted of western choreographers whose work was clearly marked by eastern influences. Chinese Tai Chi woven into a beautiful solo, an American Indian legend done in Japanese Kabuki style were two of the offerings. They were complemented by the choreographic work of Japanese, Ko- rean and Chinese dancers evolving from the Asian background or traditional form into a more personal and contemporary expression. The fascinating reality of the dance field is the way in which a concern may be the object of theoretical discussion, yet the point of reference can never be other than what the dancers themselves manifest in movement. The panel discussion, 'Forces Affecting Change in 20th Century Asian-Pacific Dance', introduced a number of critical issues. Although it is the earnest wish of many American scholars to preserve the so-called 'traditional' dance in its original form, ironically, it is the very exposure to foreigners that opens the door to westernization and modernization. Yet a country such as India now looks back to its cultural heritage because of past European initiatives. Furthermore, there are instances where an Asian country has only recognized the value of one of its dance or theatrical troupes after it has returned from a successful tour of North America. The discussion stimulated comments from a wide range of view points. The terrain supporting a culture must be safeguarded; for if a species of bird is threatened by extinction then dance drawing on bird imagery is in danger of loosing its meaning, of becoming an empty gesture. In teaching western dance in Asia it is important to recognize that it too is the product of a culture and not the 'creative' dance of the world. Establishing contact between nations is not intended to lead to the assimilation of different dance styles but simply to open the channels of communication. Summing up the problems of bringing Asian dance to the West were the words of Dr. Vatsyayan of India. Asians and Westerners have a partnership of grave responsibility in facing 'how to sustain something wh ich may be vulnerable', and in accepting that 'the moment of education is the moment of deculturalization'. As the conference came to its last day, a possible solution was offered for questions of preservation. Margaret Dale spoke on the potential of film with her far reaching statement, 'if we in dance are to move forward, dance scholars must become as literate in film as on paper'. She looked forward to the day when dance scholars will be able to publish in visual form, and to the formation of a 'videopedia' as a resource for looking up movement and for t racing movement roots. A month later as the mass of information, impressions and questions assume a certain order, one still feels the resonance of the event, the people. Dance and ideas as a shared experience - perhaps that is the true function of such a conference. In the words of Selma Jeanne Cohen: 'I see my own view getting bigger and bigger just in these past few days.' ROSEMARY JEANES DANCE IN CANADA The Children of Theatre Street Produced and Directed by Earl Mack From all over Mother Russia the parents come with hangdog faces and shabby coats. Of the 2000 prepubescent offspring they bring for the auditions each year at Leningrad's Vaganova Choreographic Institute, 20 will be chosen as pupils for an 8-year education at the state's expense. The kids are stripped and lined up before a panel of judges, each an expert in the appraisal of kinetic potential and the projection of physical development. Stringy limbs are stretched, insteps are tested, heads tilted, backs arched. We're told that data on each child will be fed into a computer which will spew out the names of the chosen. 1,980 others are thus denied the privilege of studying at the world's most venerated ballet school. If you did your homework and read Hedrick Smith, consider what else they will ultimately be missing: that private apartment with selfcontained plumbing, occasional foreign travel, and the possibility of hard currency earned abroad. But we're told from the start to believe that the motivation of all personages depicted is strictly selfless. So the film becomes a fascinating display of the ambivalence that occurs when factions representing contrasting ideologies collaborate. The viewpoints of script-writer, director, and 29 DANSE AU CANADA cameraman rarely merge, and above them Princess Grace (nee Kelly) of Monaco lends her incongrous presence as narrator, representing a European family that privately supported Russian ballet in exile after the Revolution. Wouldn't Jane Fonda have made a better spokesperson for a film about state-sponsored art? Or does Grace provide the reminder of a glamour no longer apparent in the Russian school, nor on the Kirov stage, nor anywhere but in the frequently interpolated shots of the eternally gorgeous city of Leningrad? But the kids are adorable and soon we're absorbed in their arduous training, privy to their aspirations and awed by their acceptance of discipline . Until the camera lingers too long on the tackiness of their milieu, the mould spots on studio walls, the thriftshop furnishings of the cells they sleep in, the dour adult faces and gross bodies of the school's personnel. Doubts become confirmed when we are shown clips of their teachers, Dudinskaya and Surgeyev, in a 15-year old film of Raymonda: two green-hued penguins disporting in a borscht-toned setting, straight off the cereal box. The motivation to defect becomes clear. The climax of the film is the Kirov graduation recital, where the reward for all the sweat is the privilege of dancing circuslike numbers from Satanella and Paquita, ballets which have survived in the Soviet repertory because, since Fokine's departure in 1909, no one with taste has stayed in Russia long enough to challenge them. As contrast we're shown clips from the M aly ballets and are advised to believe that they are something other than the reverse side of the classical coin. They reveal a n exposure to Bejart, who is also oldfashioned but easier to emulate than Balanchine, Graham or Ashton in a land where the rudiments of movement reside still in one traditional base. But two Czech dancers in the current crop of graduates are fascinating. Sassy Michaela Cerna exudes a confidence tha t enables her to transcend the garbage she's required to dance. We're told she goes next to a scholarship at an unspecified school in the United States. Lubomir Kafka has the panther-cub grace of the young Eglevsky. In the film he's allowed the indulgence of his emotions when in tears he refuses to do the two strenuous showpieces assigned him - a classical pas and a political piece requiring extravagant but aimless energies. Ultimately he does them and wins acclaim. But how much of his outburst reflected awareness of the triviality in these vehicles? Plisetskaya today gets physically sick on hearing the first bars of Swan Lake after 20 years of dancing this ballet. Perhaps the young auslander from Czechoslovakia has begun to react much earlier. The West would love his style and temperament. It's speculations such as these that make the film worth seeing. LELAND WINDREICH DANCE IN CANADA The Dancer Leland Cooley Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson It is gratifying that dance is fashionable, but when it becomes marketable enough to produce a novel such as The Dancer, written by Leland Cooley, then one might consider a modest revival of elitism. A self-pronounced 'big, bold, gutsy novel', the book has all the usual ingredients of its genre - love, crime and passion, spiced with sex, glamour and grief. Its 500 pages span the years from 1919 to the present focusing on Leya Marks to whom the world of American show-business opens its inner sanctum. Our heroine is the daughter of a humble jewish immigrant, Harry Marks. Leya's mother dies in childbirth and her father's single indiscretion condemns her to a childhood confined in the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphanage. She learns ballet at the institution, shows immediate aptitude and manages to reach her teens as a semitrained dancer. In her search for funds to continue lessons her 'remarkable figure' lands her a job for an underwear catalogue. This catapults her into professional modelling and from there she bounds on to advanced ballet classes, experimental modern dance, broadway shows, motion pictures and super stardom. As only a creature of fiction can be, Leya Marks is quite maddeningly perfect. She is breathtakingly beautiful, generously curved, and extraordinarily talented. She also manages to be modest, determined and quite staunchly virtuous. No man, it seems, can resist her allure, however innocent she is of it; there is the trendy fashion-photographer, the good-looking millionaire businessman, the good-looking wealthy playboy, the homosexual choreographer, the power-hungry mobster, the trustworthy manager and the inf!uen- 30 DANSE AU CANADA tial promoter, not to mention the lesbian older model. All of them become Leya's adoring collaborators negotiating her from one stunning triumph to the next. Yet the reader remains uninvolved with Leya Marks because as a character she does not succeed. She never ceases being the author's feminine dream sufficiently to make a meaningful impression. The inhabitants of her world, in their inferiority, are merely paler than she. The words they speak have a self-conscious ring, reminiscent of an unconvincing screenplay. In fact the whole book suspiciously reads as if it had aspirations for television adaptation. That might explain the lack of literary style and imprisoning conformity to cliche. I found The Dancer naively dated - it is the kind of book that one has read too many times before and can only describe as 'inconsequential'. VERONICA TENNANT The Dance Encyclopedia Compiled and Edited by Anatole Chu joy and P.W. Manchester New York: Touchstone 1978 How can a book be a fraud and still be welcome? When it's a paperback edition of The Dance Encyclopedia, which had been out of print in hardcover for too long. Don't believe the ~over of the paperback edition which says 'revised and enlarged'. This is the same book, complete with errors (from which no encyclopedia is free) as that published in 1967 by Simon and Schuster. Senior editor Anatole Chu joy has been dead for several years, and junior editor P.W. Manchester, though still alive and writing about dance, knew nothing of this paperback until it was on the market. It is embarrassing to Miss Manchester, who teaches dance history at the University of Cincinnati, to have her name on a 1978 encyclopedia which makes no mention of Baryshnikov! That was all right in 1967, when he was just joining the Kirov company, but he has been on this continent since 1974, and we're all waiting to see what Balanchine will create for him in the New York City Ballet. It's embarrassing to have a youngish photo of dancer Charles Weidman captioned as 'still dancing and teaching', when we all know he died, an old man, in 1975. Don't look for mention of Karen Kain, or Frank Augustyn. Be prepared to find Arnold Spohr's name misspelled ('Sporh', page 174) - just as it was in the 1967 edition. But this paperback, with all its flaws, deserves a place in your library, for it is rich in little essays you won't find elsewhere. You'll value Edwin Denby's essay on criticism ('It's not the critic's historic function to have the right opinions, but to have interesting ones'). And the longish essay on Swan Lake is interesting, though it does not touch on the bizarre version Erik Bruhn gave our Toronto company. A substantial essay on modern dance in America, by John Martin, who both watched and helped it grow, is among the nuggets. Others are shorter essays on Kabuki, and the Tivole Theatre in Copenhagen. You can tut-tut about the morals of the publishing industry, but if you have a feeling for dance history you'll enjoy this unauthorized reprint. Incidentally, Simon and Schuster did give a sizable lump of money to editor Manchester, in response to her protests. LAURETTA THISTLE Royal Winnipeg Ballet Arnold Spohr - Artistic Director in Win Januar Weste Unite for booking information contact: Edward A. Reger, General Manager 289 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg R3B 2B4 (204) 956-0183, cable "Candance" "... one of the finest young dancers in the world today ... " BLE, New York Daily News "... exceptional dancers ... " CLIVE BARNES, New York Post DANCE IN CANADA aren Kain: Lady of Dance :)avid Street :-ext by David Mason Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson 1978 ne of the more telling pictures in this .:ollection by photographer David Street is no t a photograph at all, but a drawing caken from one of Karen Kain's elementary hool scribblers. It depicts a comical little ' allerina in a red and yellow tutu (?) and '"me green pointe shoes, poised in a truly remarkable sort of arabesque. One lone .ree floats overhead - a child's abstracted memory of the set for Giselle, perhaps. The caption reads: 'When I grow up I am going co be a Ballerina. I could go out every night and dace (sic.). I will be in Giselle. It will be so much fun being a Ballerina.' She could not, then, have understood the dedication, self-discipline and hard work th at would be required of her, but Karen did have, at a very early age, a goal, and the single-mindedness to pursue it to the exclusion of everything else. In any endeavour, particularly that of an artist, this is the key to success. It is also David Mason's explanation for the paucity of biographical info rmation in his brief text. He suggests that Kain has spent the greater part of her 27 years as a nun, cloistered in the studios of (J;n 7Jancf...-) 79 June 27-July 2 1979 31 DANSE AU CANADA the National Ballet of Canada. 'Her mind, like her life, is free of frills.' Mason describes two major problems facing Karen Kain as she pursues her career to stardom. First, he suggests that her very excellence creates the danger that she will run out of challenges and lose enthusiasm for her art! Yet, it is not very flattering to Miss Kain to suppose that when inspiration is no longer forthcoming from either the National or numerous other leading companies that would gladly have her, a ballerina as gifted and acutely self-aware would not find her own challenges. The second problem Mason points out is a characteristically Canadian one: ' ... she has a fundamentally pleasant disposition.' By this he means Karen Kain is not given to the hype and publicity that lubricates the rise to international stardom. She is a very nice Canadian girl. But while this condition may condemn Canada to decades of bland and boring passivity, it does not seem to be hindering Kain's career at all. David Street's photographs, which are, after all, the raison d'etre of this book, reveal to us the many, varied facets of his subject's art and character. In one black and white photograph he captures the extreme tension and stress even Karen Kain experiences before a performance. On the very next page we find her smiling and composed as the audience showers her with flowers. These two pictures tell us more of the suffering and gratification of the theatre than anything you could read about 'screaming pain ... perpetually blistered feet ... and searing torment in the lungs and throat.' I never tire of looking at pictures of Karen Kain, but in some of David Street's colour work I feel as though I've been forced to wear rose-coloured glasses. The soft-toned multiple exposures are lovely enough, but where, among the 13 legs, 12 arms, six eyes and five mouths, can we find the ballerina? My response was, inevitably, to turn the page. On the other hand, the first photograph in the chapter entitled 'Lady of Dance' is very satisfying in its simplicity, clarity and classic lighting. By far the most interesting photographs are the black and white rehearsal shots. They are grainy and at times ill-framed, but the spontaneity and passion portrayed renders these problems insignificant. Finally, the text raises the unanswerable question - what does the future hold for Karen Kain? Betty Oliphant thinks she would make a terrific teacher. Perhaps one of the little girls who receive this book for Christmas will someday find herself in one of Kain's classes. But such speculation necessitates imagining her as an over-thehill-ballerina and I'd prefer not to do that; not yet. HOLLY SMALL Seventh Dance in Canada Conference 1979 University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Programme and Theme of CanDance79 It has been decided to adopt a unifying and forward-looking basic theme for the conference - under the general heading "The Future of Dance". This theme is not intended to be restrictive and all ideas will be considered for inclusion in the final conference programme. The idea is rather, to provide a coherent and integrated focus for debate and discussion to ensure that the conference as a whole - as well as in its separate and specific parts - makes a full and use/ul contribution to the development of Dance in Canada at the onset of the 1980's. Dance is poised to make vigorous and far-reaching contributions to the culture of the Western. World and the CanDance79 Conference Committee is cognisant of its responsibility to meet this challenge. CanDance79 would like to address a range of questions and looks forward to the participation of the dance community in suggesting and exploring them. For example: - What are the new responsibilities in Dance Education - the public, audiences, schools, universities? - How can we contribute towards the establishment of a National Dance Archives? - The need for a coherent and rationalized Dance Literature (books, journals)? - What are the uses for Visual Literature in dance? - Are Dance Companies artistically too far ahead of the touring sponsors that can employ them? DANCE IN CANADA On Tap Dancing Paul Draper Edited and Compiled by Fran Avallone New York: Marcel Dekker 1978 Even a cursory glance at the shelves of our public and reference libraries reveals the serious lack of material of any kind about dance. Tap dance is particularly badly served; without extensive material on tap and other dance forms, it is impossible for either the dancers or the audience to educate themselves. On Tap Dancing by Paul Draper, edited and compiled by Fran Avallone, is therefore very welcome. Fundamentally, it is a series of articles written for Dance Magazine during the years 1954 to 1963 . Paul Draper is a tap professional. He is perhaps best known as the innovator of the concert balletic style of tap dancing to classical music. In response to Draper's efforts, Morton Gould wrote the Tap Dance Concerto, the first composition to make use of the dancer's feet as a solo instrument in a concerto with orchestra. On Tap Dancing is a general and systematic account of the role of tap dance within society and the performing arts. As a performing art, tap dance becomes confined to live performances. Maintaining this place within the boundaries of the performing arts, tap must depend upon the professional companies or institutions by which it reaches the public and becomes live. Draper stresses the professional levels necessary for tap dancing as a creative process. Certainly tap, like all dance forms, requires craft, technique and an increasing professionalism. Tap is the most misunderstood dance form. Generally, people have little knowledge of what is required in the training of a tap dancer. Parents do not know when a child should begin to study tap, and they often lack the knowledge to decide upon a good school. Good teachers are scarce. This problem of educating the public is serious and there is no question of the importance of educating the parents if they are to have the knowledge to help their children. Through a series of articles we are made aware that On Tap Dancing is written for the serious student and tap instructor. It is a valuable teacher's guide offering useful hints on the development of tap technique. Notes on turn-out and rhythm, on tap barre and tap adagio are systematically categorized into a neat catalogue or tap directory. This perhaps accounts for the absence of an index. However, this does not present a serious problem since the articles follow logically and are presente~ in chronological order. Questions are often answered before they arise. The table of contents becomes the bibliography. The 32 DAN SE AU CANADA articles speak of enduring issues common to all dance. 'On How To Be Bad Dancer' proves to be entertaining and informative. The reader enjoys Draper's sense of humour while sharing his insight and experiences performing and on the road. It is obvious that the analysis presented in On Tap Dancing is not exhaustive. However, there is an attempt to develop a systematic theory for tap dancing which will stimulate both crucial discussion and further investigation. Of one thing we are confident. A redefinition of the problems and tasks of tap dancing was long overdue. On Tap Dancing indicates the direction further work might take. However, we are also confronted with some general implications for the dance enterprise at large and are compelled to rethink our perspectives on a number of specific dance interests. STEVE DIAMOND BILL ORLOWSKI Dancing and Ballet Olive Ordish Don Mills: General 1978 Dancing and Ballet by Olive Ordish is the newest addition to an excellent series of educational books produced in Britain for school children. The object of the series is to encourage young people to look inquiringly and critically at various aspects of the world about them. Each volume directs its readers down avenues of personal research that will enable them to augment the lucid, but rudimentary information provided. Olive Ordish, like the late Kay Ambrose, has distinguished herself both as a writer and theatrical designer. In Dancing and Ballet, she has successfully condensed a wealth of material into 70 pages. There are many imaginatively selected illustrations. Most valuably, the book presents a view of dance both as an art and as a human activity which invites the reader to formulate a concept of dance esthetics. The treatment of folk dancing is particularly well managed. There are some points of confusion or error. The illustration of classical lnllet foot positions is surely numbered incorrectly (page 41). The Sadler's Wells Ballet did not become 'Royal' in 1949 (page 59). The New London Ballet had disbanded quite soon enough for it to be omitted from a list of British ballet companies (page 59), and Hans van Manen's name has been misspelt (page 60). Despite these minor flaws and the book's orientation towards children in the British Isles, Dancing and Ballet is a splendid elementary introduction for the literate young. MICHAEL CRABB Letters to the Editor Montreal Dear Sir, It is not our policy to respond to criticism, however erroneous or negative it may be. Vincent Warren's letter in your summer issue (Number 16) expressed his own opinions. Although we are grateful that it was published, I do not feel that Vincent is in the best position to comment on the amount of our Canada Council funding or on its proportion in relation to the amounts other companies receive. It should be clearly stated that Les Grands Ballets Canadiens gratefully acknowledges the assistance it receives from the Canada Council and it is highly doubtful that any creation - Canadian or not - could take place without it. I must also take issue with Lauretta Thistle over a comment she made in reply to Vincent's letter. To say that because of a change in the political climate in Quebec, 'Les GBC has trimmed its sails accordingly', is so far from the truth, it is imperative that the record be put straight. Les GBC is a ballet company, not a political organization. Our repertoire certainly includes works of Quebecois choreographers to music by Quebecois composers with decors and costumes by Quebecois designers. We take pride in the works that reflect Quebec, its heritage and its cultural development. That's reality - not provinciality. And we don't just perform these works in Quebec. We perform them throughout Canada, the United States and on our foreign tours. A Chicago critic wrote recently of Tam Ti De/am: 'The grand finale, Macdonald's Tam Ti Delam, a rousing folk ballet, tumbled together lumberjack leaps and classical point work as if it were all part of the joy of movement. As performed by these charming Canadians, it was. What delightful Northern neighbours we have'. (Chicago Sun Times, 19 May 1978). Tam Ti De/am entered the repertoire in 1974, two years before the change in the political climate to which Mrs. Thistle refers. But then, the company was already performing works like La Corriveau, Hommage a Pierre Mercure, Cantique des cantiques, Romeo and Juliette (in French), Pointes s_u r glace, and Rigodon, amongst many others. But it was also performing Bejart, Kuch, Buder, etc. The sails were set by Madame Chiriaeff 20 years ago, and one is not aware of any DANCEINCANADA ·~mming' that has taken place since. If .rnything has been trimmed since 1 5 _'ovember 1976, it would appear to be the rception of others. · M rs. Thistle may be interested to know -hat we will be performing The Seven Deadly Sins this season. It will be choreographed by Fernand Nault. The decor will · e by Guy Neveu, and the costumes by Frarn;:ois Barbeau. Berthold Brecht's text has been adapted by Rejean Ducharme. The soloist will be Pauline Julien. In the course of the season we will also be performing works by Brian Macdonald, Brydon Paige, George Balanchine, Lynne Taylor, Paul Taylor, Lar Lubovich and John Butler. The repertoire is, and always has been, eclectic. Yo urs sincerely, Colin McIntyre General Manager Les Grands Ballets Canadiens Vancouver Dear Editor, In the group of articles about Vancouver dance which appeared in the summer issue of this magazine, the impression was given t hat there is no classical ballet company in Vancouver. One of the writers said there 33 DANSEAUCANADA was no such company and another vaguely referred to it in her article without any further detail. What was missing was a separate article that had been written specifically for the summer issue on the history of Ballet Horizons and the development of Pacific Ballet Theatre. The latter is Vancouver's ballet company and has been in operation for seven years. I understand that due to immediate financial cutbacks it was necessary to delete this article but an explanatory footnote should have been included. This would have been a better solution than publishing an incomplete story of dauce in Vancouver. Sincerely, Bryan Gilbert Administrator Pacific Ballet Theatre Society The Editor comments: Mr. Gilbert's point is well taken. We very much regret the omission of an article prepared by Elizabeth Zimmer concerning ballet in Vancouver. Unfortunately, the cut had to be made at a stage in production when to amend existing copy would have set our schedule back intolerably. We hope to remedy the omission as soon as possible. Ottawa Dear Sir, Vincent Warren's letter about Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in your summer 1978 issue perpetuates a myth which has been created by those who are unaware of the facts or have chosen to ignore them. He writes that Ludmilla Chiriaeff 'has built this company with proportionately less help from the Canada Council than the other ballet companies have received.' If we take 'proportionately' to mean the proportion of a company's operating expenses which has been covered by its Canada Council grants, the proportions received by the three companies have been practically equal over the years. In the last five years for which final figures are available, 1972 to 1977, the following table shows that a slightly higher proportion of the expenses of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens was covered by Ca_nada Council grants. Total Total Operating Council Expenses Grants % GrandsBalletsCanadiens $8,293,000 $2,313,000 27.9 N ational Ballet 1 6,068,000 4,363,000 27.2 Royal Winnipeg Ballet 8,236,000 2,217,000 26.9 If we take 'proportionately' to mean the ratio of Council grants to total attendance, the fo llowing table shows that, during the same period, the Council paid $2.98 for each spectator at Les Grands Ballet Canadiens and somewhat smaller amounts for each spectator at the other two companies. Total Total Grant per Attendance Council Grant Spectator 772,263 $2,313,000 $2.98 Grands Ballet Canadiens ational Ballet 1,969,643 4,363,000 2.21 Royal Winnipeg Ballet r ,007 ,226 2,217,000 2.20 These figures are cited, not to diminish Mme. Chiriaeff's remarkable achievement in creating and maintaining a major dance company in circumstances of great difficulty, but to set straight a record which has often been distorted. Yours sincerely, Timothy Porteous _.\ssociate Director The Canada Council. Vancom-er Dear Editor, In your summer issue of Dance in Canada, I read with interest the articles on dance in Vancouver. As a resume of past events and a list of personalities mentioned, it was well put together, but whatever occurred when, in writing a series like this, the writer missed mentioning Lydia Karpova? Shear" rived in Vancouver in the fifties and taught hundreds of pupils in the BC School of Ballet, among them Anna Marie, and David Holmes. Madame Karpova came from St. Petersburg to France and thence to Vancouver. She brought us the real thing Russian Classical Ballet! There was no mention of Nikolai Svetlanov who came from Kiev and also brought real ballet training to Vancouver. He trained Lynn Seymour. As a matter of fact, there was no mention of Lynn Seymour's triumphs. She has just been awarded the CBE by the Queen of England for her great contribution to ballet. She is now considered the greatest dancer in England. How could she have been omitted? These are grave omissions ~hen writing about ballet in Vancouver. Without them the dance scene is not complete. Sincerely, (Mme) C.M. Torey Head of the Dance Department, YWCA Vancouver Victoria Dear Editor, I would like to compliment you on your magazine. Dance in Canada is very interesting and a pleasure to read. Good luck for the future! Sincerely yours, Beatrix Legras DANCE IN CANADA 34 DANSE AU CANADA Noticeboard BRITISH COLUMBIA David H. Lui's Dance Spectacular series for 1978/79 promises as before to bring a wide and varied range of dance companies to Vancouver this year. The series, which began in October with Eurythmeum Stuttgart, will include The Parthenon Dancers of Greece, The Dance Theatre of Harlem, The Pacific North West Ballet's production of The Nutcracker, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, The Pennsylvania Ballet, Ballet Classique de Paris and The Joyce Trisler Danscompany. The Anna Wyman Dance Theatre began its fall season with a free concert series, September 11-15, at Vancouver's new Robson Square. At the end of September the company embarked on a seven-week tour of Ontario and Quebec which included appearances at the Toronto Dance Festival and Octobre en Danse. Pacific Ballet Theatre is now in its eighth season with plans for a tour this November. A new ballet by Bill Thompson, entitled In Concert to music by Benjamin Britten, was added to the repertoire this summer. As well, the company now has twelve dancers. The new members are Sylvie Beaudoin, Pierre LaPointe, Gaetan Masse, Robbie Waldman, Sarah Ferguson, and Muriel Gordon. Renald Rabu is Resident Choreographer this season. His latest work, Occurence at Owl Creek, was premiered at Simon Fraser University early in October. A dance conference was held in Abbotsford, British Columbia, this October. The conference offered lectures and workshops for dancers, theatre technicians and administrators. Among the 'resource people' who gave classes were David Adams, Rosemary Deveson, Judith Marcuse, Brydon Paige and Cameron Porteous. The Alberta Ballet Company highlighted the conference with an afternoon performance of Alice in Wonderland and an evening performance of their fall programme: Othello, O']our d'Oui and Raymonda (Act III). ALBERTA The Alberta Ballet Company is having a busy fall season. It began with performances in various shopping centres to commemorate Calgary Ballet Week. In October the company visited British Columbia to give performances in Abbotsford, Burnaby and North Vancouver. Peter Schaufuss and Veronica Tennant made guest appearances in their performances at the Jubilee Auditoriums of Edmonton and Calgary. The company also gave two performances in Red Deer at the Memorial Theatre. Christmas performances are planned for both Edmonton and Calgary. MANITOBA The Royal Winnipeg Ballet opened its 40th Anniversary Season October 4th, with the company premier of Les Sylphides, produced by associate artistic director, Hilary Cartwright. Also on the programme was Rondo by John Neumeier and Agnes de Mille's dramatic story ballet The Bitter Weird. The RWB is the only company in North America to present this work which was originally performed by the Agnes de Mille Dance Theatre under the title Ballad. The company has a new company manager - Mark Porteous, who studied Arts Administration at Ryerson, and worked in publicity and theatre management with the Shaw Festival, Theatre London, Centaur Theatre and the National Ballet. The Academy of Dance in Winnipeg has recently formed the Children's Creative Dance Theatre under the artistic directorship of Daphne Korol. The fledgling company will make its performing debut November 29 and 30 at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. ONTARIO The Toronto Dance Theatre plans to move into the enormous studios of their new Cabbagetown home by December 3 1. If all goes as scheduled the official opening of their new home will be a smashing New Year's Eve party - not to be missed! The company's fall season got off to a good start in Albany, New York, where they played to sold-out houses for three nights, marking the grand opening of the Empire State Plaza Performing Arts Centre. Toronto's first Accompanists' Workshop was sponsored by the School of the Toronto Dance Theatre in September. Intensive sessions on accompaniment for dance were given by Ricardo Abreut, resident accompanist at TDT and Gwendolyn Watson, cellist and composer of works for Paul Taylor, Rod Rodgers and other choreographers. Composers Robert Daigneault and Ann Southam lectured on music for dance. Susan Macpherson, David Earle and Donald Himes gave dance technique classes. The workshop finished September 16 with an informal performance of improvised music. The National Ballet of Canada, which has just completed a brief season in Toronto that included the company premier of Ashton's Les Patineurs and Macmillan's Elite Syncopations is now in rehearsal for its annual stint of profitable Nutcrackers. In September and October the company made one of its extensive swings through eastern Canada. For the first time Constantin Patsalas' version of The Rite of Spring was presented in the repertory. It was originally shown in two parts at successive company workshops in 197 5 and 1976. Karen Kain is tentatively scheduled to start work next spring on a film The Falcon and The Ballerina in which she will star. Ann Ditchburn will make her public screen debut as an actress when Slow Dancing in the Big City is released this month. James Austin replaced Hamish Robertson as Company Manager last August. Nadia Potts is expecting a baby. Dancemakers describe their 1978-79 season as the most challenging to date. Following October performances at the Toronto Dance Festival, the group embarked on an ambitious, nine-week tour of the Wes tern Provinces. Beginning in Winnipeg and finishing in the interior of British Columbia, Dancemakers will be performing in schools and community centres as well as theatres. They will give workshops and lecture/ demonstrations in most of the universities and colleges en route. The company begins the new year with their third Prologue to the Performing Arts tour of Ontario schools, as well as performances at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Ontario Science Centre and The Toronto Spring Festival. In March they will begin preparations for a Toronto spring season at Hart House which will include new work from Anna Blewchamp. Dancing this season are Peggy Baker, Pat Miner, Allan James, Pat Fraser and Keith Urban. This fall the Mime Company Unlimited Theatre Foundation opened its first fulltime winter training programme, The Mime School Unlimited, a full-time professional course for aspiring mimes as well as interested actors, directors and writers. Artistic Director, Ron East will be the principal instructor, assisted by Carolyn DANCE IN CANADA 35 DANSE AU CANADA tober 25. On N ovember 11 - e C, gary-based mime troupe Arete appeare<:. followed on November 21 by t he Ropl Winnipeg Ballet. Carousel Performing Group, the university based dance ensemble, will present a programme for children on December 3. Karen Kain and Frank Augustyn will appear early in the new year, performing with Entre-Six Dance Company January 12. Theatre Beyond Words will present an evening of 'mime plus', February 2 and a children's programme - The Potatoe People - on February 3. The final dance concert of the series is Danny Grossman and Company on February 10. Terrill Maguire and Martha Lovell in Evolutions Shaffer (Movement), David Langloys (Aerobatics) as well as guest instructors. Choreographer and dancer, Terrill Maguire will present a collection of her past and current works in early December. The concert, entitled Array, will be at the uc Playhouse, University of Toronto. She also plans a spring performance in collaboration with Martha Lovell of their new work, Evolution. Dance Sphere is presenting an 'International Cinema Series' at 5 r 9 Church Street, Toronto. Dance films will be shown once a month beginning September 27 and continuing through until May. Scheduled for the fall and winter are Spectre de la Danse and Homage to Rodin (Nov. 22), Paul Taylor and Company and Karen Kain (Dec. 19), Ballerina, Olga Korbut and Soviet Schools (Jan 24), Body and Soul, Alvin Ailey and Africa Dances (Feb. 22), The Triadic Ballet and Choreography (March 21). QUEBEC Les Grands Ballet Canadiens' 21st season included the premier of The Seven Deadly Sins choreographed by Fernand Nault. The ballet score, composed by Kurt Weill, with text by Bertold Brecht is presented by the Quebec singer Pauline Julien. Lynne Taylor's Sonata for Cocktail Piano, set to music by David Shire, was also premiered. In December Ottawa audiences will see the company's Nutcracker for the first time at the National Arts Centre and as usual, there will be performances in Montreal before and during Christmas week. In February and March the company will make its biennial tour of Western Canada. The ballets to be performed include Fernand Nault's Carmina Burana, Brian Macdonalds' Double Quartet, George Balanchine's Four Temperaments, Aureole by Paul Taylor, Les Noces by Lar Lubovitch and Mendelssohn by Brydon Paige.· In August Le Groupe Nouvelle Aire made their first trip to New York City to give four performances at the American Theatre Laboratory. Works presented were Pour conjurer la montagne by Martine Epoque, Derriere la porte un mur, by Paul Andre Fortier and Tempsvole by Edouard Lock. Nouvelle Aire shared the programme with an American dancer, Gay Delanghe, ex-member of the Lucas Hoving Company. The University of Western Ontario Arts Centre will feature many dance performances in this season. In September the dance faculty gave three lecture/ demonstrations. Les Grands Ballets Canadiens started off the entertainment series Oc- Le Groupe de la Place Royale has been awarded $5,400 by Metropolitan Life Insurance company to commission a new piece. The dance, entitled What Happened, is choreographed by Le Groupe's coartistic director, Peter Boneham, to a score by Montreal composer John Plant. The new piece was premiered in the Studio of the National Arts Centre, Ottawa and was also performed at the Toronto Dance Festival and Octobre en Danse. November 1979 will be the centenary of the death of Auguste Bournonville and the event will be commemorated in a weeklong festival of his ballets including, La Sylphide, Napoli, Far from Denmark, The Guards of Amager, Kermesse in Bruges, Conservatoriet, Et Folksagn, La Ventana (what remains of it) and the pas de deux from Flower Festival in Genzano. A charter flight to the festival (24-30 November) is being arranged. Those interested should contact Romanie Kramoris, CORD , Dance Department, Education Building, Room 6750, New York University, 35 West 4th Street, New York, NY 10003. Plans are already well advanced for the 1979 Dance in Canada Conference. The Programme Committee is however still open to proposals for lectures, papers, seminar workshops, 'events', in fact almost anything you might have in mind that falls under the general topic headings: administration, training, education, research. Submissions should be sent as soon as possible and by 1 February at the latest to: Programme Committee, Dance in Canada Conference, Administrative Services, Room 1002, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3Gr. 2205-700 9th Street, S. W., Calgary, Alberta T2P 2B5 a company ol theatre and dance SUN·ERGOS DANCE IN CANADA 36 DANSE AU CANADA Dance at a Glance Dance-at-a-Glance is a new advertising feature in Dance in Canada Magazine. Its aim is to provide our nation al and internati onal readership with a qui ck guide to resources in dan ce which are available throughout Canada. To arrange your li sting in the Dance-at-a-Glance section, just write or phone: N ikki Abraham, Business Manager, Dance in Canada , roo Richmond Street East, Suite 3 25, Toronto,Ontario M5 C 2P9 (416) 368 -479 3. New "Academy of Dance" on Uni versity of Windsor Campus. Ballet, (Cecchetti), Creative Movement Dance Fitness. Teachers: Madelyn Weingarden and Florence King Proulx. 404 Huron Church Road , Windsor, Ontario (519) 252-7882 Bayview School of Ballet Bayview Dancers 130 Willowdale Ave., Willowdale, Ont. M2N 4Y2 M. Sorrell , Director, 222-5 II 1 Ecole N ouvelle Aire Cours de danse moderne: placement au sol et technique Limon. Taus nivea ux. Tel: (514 ) 286-9690 1276 Saint-Andre, Montreal, Quebec H2L 3s9 Andrew Oxenham, Photographer Specialist in Dance, Theatre and Portrait 54 East Lynn Avenue, Toronto, Ont. M4C 3x2 Tel. (4 16) 698-0092 L'ecole Superieure des Ballets Jazz du Quebec 1231 0. Ste. Catherine 514-8 49-6071. Jazz Cla ssi<jue Danse Moderne Claquettes Debutants Intermediaires Avances Pre-professionel Co urs d'enseignement Russian Academy of Classical Ballet Mary Aslamazova, Director 93 5A Bloor Street West (at Ossington) Toronto, Ontario M6H 1L5 (416) 532-2993 Humber College Schoo l of Ballet & Related Arts 1669 Eglinton Ave. (at Oakwood) Toronto Director: Sarah Lockett ARAD Beginners-Advanced; Adults & Child ren Ballet & Jazz Tel. 67 5-31 II ext. 506 T he Bonnie Sandison Dance Studio Jazz, Tap, Ballet, Modern & Dance Mechanics Beg, to Adv. fo r amateur or professional dancers r8Adelaide St. West, F d fl oor, Toronto M5H 1L6 (416) 362-678 4 Elaine Bowman Toronto Dance Co-op. Classes in Graham technique roo Ri chmond St. E. Suite 309 Toronto, Ont., M5 C 2P9 Info. tel. 466-8 95 4 Centre of Movement Dance, Mime, Composition with Til Thiele Workshops, Tai Chi, Children's Dance 171 Hampton Ave., Toronto Tel. 466-9549 Chissamba Chiyuka Classes in interpretive dance of West Indian & African origin. Exercise to musi c; children's classes. Telephone Toronto 447-9590 or 633 -7466 The City Ballet 23 Brentcliffe Road, Unit 352, Toronto, Ontario M4G 4B 7 Tel. 421-822 3 M. Bay er, Director Classical Jazz Dance Company Hal Mischka, Director Blending Ballet with Contemporary Jazz Movements 9 Phoebe Street, Toronto (41 6) 364-9876 Creative Movement Center Ballet Jazz & Tap Stage Fencing 71 King St. East, 3rd floor, Toronto Tel. 868-0064 Jacqueline lvings Studio (Formerly Principal Dancer, Nation al Ballet Co.) Ball et, Yoga, Dance-Yoga, Breathing practice for more energy, relaxation. 68 1 Markham St. Toronto 534 -2998 Le Groupe de la Place Royale Classes in modern dance, ballet, mu sic & movement, voice & movement. Beg. to prof. 130 Sparks St., Ottawa (613) 235-1492 Kyra Lober Modern Dance Studio Technique a nd Improvisati on 6 Church Street, Toronto Telephone 368-6327 Contemporary Dancers, Winnipeg For information rega rding fees & bookings, contact: David Tu cker, Box 1764 Winnipeg, Manitoba R3c 2z9.(204) 943-4597 Heather Menzies Studio of Dance Arts 702 Burnhamthorpe Rd. East , Mississa uga Jazz, Classical Ballet, Tap, Modern Tel. (416) 277-8346 Dance Orientale School Director, Di ane Calenti Classical Egypti an Dance & Music roo Richmond St. East, Suite 309 Toronto, Ont . M5 C 2P9 (4 16) 368-8412 Roberta Mohler Advanced Modern Technique Classes Monday, Wednesday, Friday ro :00-11:30, St. Paul's Centre, 121 Avenue Road, Toronto Tel. 923-2908 Classified SPECIAL OFFER READING DANCE: The Birth o f Choreology by Rudolph and Joan Benesh. The only comp lete and authorized record of the Benesh Movement Notation available . Originally published at $14 .7 5-now only $8 .95 (+$ .50 postage and handling). Exclusively from Methuen Publications, 2330 Midland Avenue, Agincourt, Ontario, Canada Mrs 1P7. Our apologies The fine photograph of Lindsay Kemp featured on the cover of our last issue was taken by Tom Taylor who was also. responsible for the photograph which accompanied Graham Jackson's feature article. We apologize to Mr. Taylor for forgetting to include a credit for the cover photo. Joseph Shulman, Publicist II7 9A Bloor St. West, To ronto, Ont. M6H 1M9 Telephone (416) 532-6519 SPILL- Canada's dance newspaper subscription: $10/ yr (12 issues) $20/ yr institution 15 5A George St. Toronto M5A 2M8 Sun•Ergos, a Company of Theatre a nd Dance Dana Luebke & Robert Greenwood , Directors 2205-700 9th St. SW, Ca lgary T2P 2B5 Tel. (403 ) 264-4621 Performances-Cla sses York University: Dance Department Yves L-Ph. Cousineau, Chairman; offering B.A. (Hnrs), B.F.A. (Hnrs), M.F.A.; studie s in ballet, contemporary dance, composition, dance therapy, history, criti cism, notation, repertory teaching. Facul ty: Karen Bowes, Sandra Cave rl y, Norrey Drummond, Julianna Lau, Terrill Maguire, Mary-Elizabeth Manley, Sandra Nee ls, Selma Odom, Betty Stedman, Grant Strate, Diann e Woodruff; also Ma rgaret Gibbs, Elaine Turner, Fall /Winter and Summer Session. 4700 Keele St., Toronto M3J IP3. (416) 667-3243 ~flexatard ) A WHOLE NEW WORLD OF DANCE WEAR from California Whether your world is ballet, jazz or modern, spanish, latin or disco - Flexatards are flexable. The look is glamorous, the fit is great for exercising, swimming or dance. The fabric is an exclusive four way stretch Antron® nylon / Lycra® spandex that is woven to breath and support so the body stays cool and com fortable. Included in the wide style range are gathered and flounced skirts for easy cover. MALABAR a_!!Jeafre clag CALGARY ALBERTA 511 Centre St.S. 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