Felix Cherniavsky - Correspondence with Dance Collection Danse 2

Added 19th Mar 2022 by Beth Dobson (Archives and Programming Assistant, DCD) / Last update 19th Mar 2022

Maud Allan 1226b 51 2008-2-71.jpg
Maud Allan 1226b 51 2008-2-71.jpg
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Felix Cherniavsky - Correspondence with Dance Collection Danse 2

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Maud Allan Research Collection
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51.2008-2-71
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DANCE COLLECTION DANSE The News No. 39 , 1994 SAIDA GERRARD -- A MODERN DANCER Saida Gerrard opened her Studio of Modern Dance in July 1935 on the top floor of a sixteen story building on Dundas Square in Toronto . The penthouse studio had recently been vacated by the Russian ballet teacher , Dimitri Vladimiroff . Saida had studied with ballet teachers Amy Sternberg , Miss McCann and Nora Griffiths in Toronto and had gone to New York in 1931 to the newly opened Mary Wigman School , the same year Wigman made her first North American tour . Intensely committed to modern dance and equally passionate about social justice , Saida created work and performed in Toronto over the next year and a half . She appeared at the Promenade Symphony Concerts and in numerous self - produced performances . As well , she choreographed a piece with an original musical score for the Toronto Skating Club's 1938 ice show titled Machine Ballet She returned to New York and poverty to work on multiple dance projects before joining Charles Weidman and his company . She returned home on several occasions , once to choreograph and dance with the Neo Dance Theatre . An interesting turn of events in 1956 could have seen Saida reside permanently in Toronto . That year Ettore Mazzoleni invited her to form a modern dance department at the Royal Conservatory of Music . Her Toronto born husband , pianist Aube Tzerko , was also offered a position at the Conservatory , but not to begin until 1957. They went to Los Angeles to holiday-- and stayed . Saida opened a school and formed the Saida Gerrard Dance Theatre Company which , to quote the press , " pioneered " modern dance on the U.S. west coast . Following is a portion ( the balance not found ) of Ray W. Harris's article which she wrote circa 1935 , in an unidentifiable periodical . SAIDA GERRARD -- GENIUS TERPSICHOREAN " I cannot conceive of a man who does not dance . " Friederich Nietzsche contest between the forces of progress and inertia , between the unfettered will of the Twentieth Century and the nostalgic grip of tradition , between the stimulating dance of the vigorous moderns and the efforts of their decadent contemporaries . The superior intellectual and biological elements of the modern creative dance cannot be adequately discussed , just as , according to Jacob Epstein , a great work of art cannot be explained . One must witness this vitality , furthermore , one must participate in it to understand . At once a mystery and a revelation it attracted in the beginning a small circle of talented votaries , daring propagandists , whose creed insinuated itself into the more progressive educational and art centres of Europe , and later America . Within a short time the experiment assumed the proportions of a movement , gaining a foothold in leading schools and theatres and establishing beyond doubt its rights to a place in the artistic and creative demesne . It may well be a source of pride to Toronto Jewry that the Canadian dancer , Saida Gerrard , who returned last year to her native Toronto , was the first to plant the seeds of a modern dance movement in this country . Slender and graceful , young and soft - spoken , with compelling unwavering eyes like stars of flashing blue , her brow clear and broad , her beautiful pale face electrifying in its cameo - like transparency , this girl with the body of a young goddess looks in every respect the genius whose unique endeavor places her among the leaders in her art . It is when she talks of her beloved dance in her own cultured manner that one meets the philosopher , the idealist , and submits willingly to her claims . In the world of the dance a controversy is being waged , a controversy of such significance that its outcome will decisively affect whatever developments living and education are to undergo in the future . It is a

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