Features
Skating on the (B)rink
By Philip SzporerWith their daring innovations and flair, and an undeniably egalitarian mode of presentation, Montréal’s Le Patin Libre is gliding its way onto the world stage, continually igniting and spurring on new support and interest for the work and the group’s ambitions.
Posted March 8, 2016
The Invisible Injury
Two dancers discuss concussions in dance and the recognition, treatment, prevention and significance of this often misunderstood brain injury By Justine ComfortTwo dancers discuss the implications of concussions and the recognition, treatment, prevention and significance of this often misunderstood brain injury.
Posted March 1, 2016
Chan Hon Goh on Change and Giving Back
The principal dancer turned teacher and her cross-Canada master class tour By Emma KersonCoaching the next generation of aspiring ballerinas as part of her role as director of the Goh Ballet Academy in Vancouver, Vancouver’s Chan Hon Goh shares her favourite ballets, what dance means to her and the her thoughts on the state of Canadian ballet.
Posted February 24, 2016
Liquid Leading
Breaking Ballroom Traditions By Lori StrausThe rules of ballroom dance have been evolving since day one. But, according to Burlington-based dancer and actor Trevor Copp, they’ve still a ways to go to before reflecting our current contemporary society.
Posted January 11, 2016
Exclusion in Inclusion
Male dancers are in high demand, but at what expense does the dance world seek to encourage their participation? By Carolyn HebertThere are many current programs and incentives aimed to encourage boys and men to dance, but how do they affect the girls and women with whom the male dancers train and perform? Carolyn Hebert examines the implications of such policies on both male and female dancers, as well as the dance world more broadly. She examines the consequences of the use of gendered language of athleticism as a way to make dance appear more masculine. Using her own research amongst adolescent dancer in a competitive studio, she highlights how costume, choreography and teaching practice often prioritize boys’ experience at the expense of the girls.
Posted January 6, 2016
Weaving the Threads of Collaboration: Ten Years of The Whole Shebang
By Molly JohnsonThrough Dreamwalker Dance Company, eight editions of The Whole Shebang have been produced in Toronto. And while Andrea Nann continues to work as a dancer, creator and teacher in a variety of contexts, this ever-evolving production has become her company’s signature event.
Posted November 24, 2015
Calm Amid the Chaos
An Interview with Lara Kramer on her new work Tame By Victoria Mohr-BlakeneyThe world premiere is in two days. Kramer listens carefully as her collaborators troubleshoot. Like her work, she is focussed, intuitive, and highly perceptive. A seasoned choreographer with five full-length works, a slew of residencies, and a company under her name, Kramer gracefully brings the discussion to a resolution. There is still more work to be done.
Posted October 17, 2015
Choreographic Residencies Across The Country
By Denise Solleza, Lee SlingerA compilation of choreographic residencies available across Canada.
Posted October 9, 2015
Is Everyone a Critic?
Changing Paradigms in Dance Criticism By Kathleen SmithThis past spring, tensions simmered in the Toronto dance community between artists and critics in the mainstream media. In this feature article from the July/August 2015 issue, Kathleen Smith has undertaken to investigate the issues that arose – exploring the history, the central issues, the problems and the questions that characterize the discourse today.
Posted September 9, 2015
Emerging with Resilience
Eking Out a Life in Dance By Kate MorrisEmerging dancers, like their peers in other arts sectors, require determination, ingenuity and discipline. Graduates today seem better equipped to deal with the realities of a career in dance, but they require a strong professional network and community in order to persist. Easing the transition has become a goal for a number of service organizations, while grassroots initiatives and collectives provide spaces of creation and exploration, as well as mentorship opportunities, that keep them dancing.
Posted August 21, 2015
SummerWorks Performance Festival Turns Twenty-Five and Formally Invites Dance Out
Interview with Amelia Ehrhardt – SummerWorks Dance Curator By Marie France ForcierSince the winter of 2014, Toronto-based dance artist Amelia Ehrhardt has been exponentially developing her curatorial profile through the umbrella of Flowchart, a self-founded, small-scale multidisciplinary performance series. Garnering recognition for the quality of her work, Ehrhardt is now SummerWorks’ first dance curator, right in time for the performance festival’s twenty-fifth anniversary.
Posted August 3, 2015
A Meeting of Minds
Merce Cunningham archivist David Vaughan and Pepper Fajans at Montréal’s Fringe Festival By Philip SzporerFringe festival-going can be a distinctly hit-or-miss experience. It was my great surprise to happen upon Co. Venture, a beauty of a show produced and developed by the fledgling Brooklyn Touring Outfit in its world premiere. The piece, performed by the duo, is about their cross-age friendship.
Posted July 7, 2015
Dance and Objecthood
By Ben PortisIn dance training, personality routinely gets tamped down. The dancer’s discipline begins with conditioned sublimation of his or her individual identity and experience, let alone spontaneity and expression. This leaves dance in a curiously anachronistic position with respect to a new generational trend in the arts – interdisciplinarity.
Posted June 10, 2015
