Back Issue

Volume 14, Issue 4
November/December 2011

View Back Issues

Features

Jordan Clark

Canada's Favourite Dancer

By Kathleen Smith

Nineteen-year-old Jordan Clark from Tottenham, Ontario, was crowned Canada’s Favourite Dancer on the fourth and final season of So You Think You Can Dance Canada.

As the competition gets stiffer and stiffer each season on hugely popular television dance shows such as So You Think You Can Dance, more and more spectacular dance talent is being unleashed on the viewing public. Sadly, in Canada at least, this showcase vehicle for dance has come to an end with the September cancellation of So You Think You Can Dance Canada (SYTYCDC). That’s a shame for someone like Jordan Clark, the nineteen-year old Tottenham, Ontario native who was crowned Canada’s Favourite Dancer just 2 days before the show was cancelled.

Although the untimely announcement stole some of the redhead’s winning thunder, Clark isn’t miffed, just sad: “It’s really unfortunate that the show was cancelled. Canada is not going to forget about the great dancers that have been on this show, and great Canadian dancers in general.” SYTYCDC helped to introduce and educate new audiences about dance, Clark believes. “It takes a very long time to understand what dance is all about – I think that’s part of what’s so intriguing about it. It’s part of the reason why it’s becoming way more popular to kids.”

Alors que la concurrence devient de plus en plus féroce aux immensément populaires émissions de danse comme So You Think You Can Dance, plus en plus de talents exceptionnels se révèlent aux téléspectateurs. Au Canada, l’annulation en septembre dernier de So You Think You Can Dance Canada (SYTYCDC) entraîne la disparition d’une vitrine pour la danse – un événement malheureux pour quelqu’un comme Jordan Clark, dix-neuf ans, native de Tottenham, Ontario, couronnée danseuse préférée au Canada deux jours avant l’annulation de l’émission. Bien que la malencontreuse annonce appauvrisse la victoire de la rousse, Clark exprime la tristesse plutôt que la colère : « C’est vraiment dommage que le programme ait été annulé. Le Canada n’oubliera pas les grands danseurs présentés à l’émission, ni les grands danseurs canadiens en général. » Selon elle, SYTYCDC a aidé à sensibiliser de nouveaux publics à la danse. « Comprendre la danse est un processus très long qui, du coup, la rend très intrigante », déclare-t-elle, « Ça fait partie des raisons que la forme gagne en popularité auprès des jeunes. »

Master Plans

Charting Canadian Dance

By Megan Andrews, Brittany Duggan, Philip Szporer

Three major policy and research projects around dance are currently being rolled out across the country. The Regroupement québécois de la danse’s Master Plan, the Canadian Dance Assembly’s I Love Dance/j’aime la danse campaign and the Canada Council for the Arts Dance Office’s Mapping Dance Project all seek to achieve a better understanding of Canadian dance culture in order to describe it, protect it and promote it.

Three major policy and research projects around dance are currently being rolled out across the country. The Regroupement québécois de la danse (RQD)’s Master Plan, the Canadian Dance Assembly’s I love Dance/j’aime la danse program and the Canada Council for the Arts Dance Office’s Mapping Dance Project all seek to achieve a better understanding of Canadian dance culture in order to describe it, protect it and promote it.

Dance faces many challenges. As a discipline, it somehow manages to be both under siege – by way of funding cuts and live audience apathy – and more wildly popular and culturally meaningful than ever before. It’s a paradox and it’s nothing new.

Actuellement, au pays, trois grands projets de politiques et de recherche en danse se déploient. Le Plan directeur de la danse du Regroupement québécois de la danse, la campagne I love dance/J’aime la danse de l’Assemblée canadienne de la danse et l’Étude cartographique de la danse du Conseil des Arts du Canada visent tous à développer une meilleure compréhension de la culture de danse canadienne afin de la décrire, de la protéger et de la promouvoir. De nombreux défis se présentent à la forme d’art. En tant que discipline, elle se trouve à la fois assiégée – par des compressions de financement et l’apathie du public quant à l’expérience du spectacle – et d’une popularité et d’une pertinence culturelle jusque-là inégalée. C’est un paradoxe et ce n’est pas nouveau.

Fluency

Photo Essay

By Jeremy Mimnagh

Peter Chin’s Quest to become Nicaraguan

Ballet Gloom or Bloom?

A Meditation on the State of the Art

By Michael Crabb

Jennifer Homans’ best-selling book Apollo’s Angels mourns the demise of ballet. Many practitioners beg to differ. How is ballet doing?

There’s nothing like controversy to boost book sales and, when it comes to stirring a hornet’s nest, American dance critic Jennifer Homans has done her publisher proud with Apollo’s Angels. Subtitled A History of Ballet, Homans’ book, published last fall, might have fallen off the radar had it not been for its mournful “Epilogue” in which the author argues that classical ballet is emitting death rattles. In the absence of choreographers who can move the art forward, ballet companies wallow in “an age of retrospective,” Homans writes, endlessly repeating lavish productions of the 19th-century classics. What new work is presented is wanting in the ideals Homans stakes as ballet’s bedrock. For ballet to return to its past glory, the New Republic dance critic believes “honor and decorum, civility and taste would have to make a comeback.” Yet Homans is hardly the first to question ballet’s health. Through the ages, rumours of the demise of classical ballet have been regularly circulated. In this essay, critic and writer Michael Crabb argues that ballet is alive and well in the 21st and talks to a number of artistic directors, choreographers and writers in the field – including Karen Kain, Jean Grand-Maitre, Aszure Barton and Wendy Perron – about why.

La controverse alimente particulièrement bien la vente de livres, et quand il s’agit de semer la pagaille, la critique de danse américaine Jennifer Homans a rempli son éditeur de fierté avec Apollo’s Angels, A History of Ballet. Publié l’automne passé, le livre aurait peut-être échapper au radar si ce n’était pas pour un triste « épilogue » ou l’auteur propose que le ballet classique émette des gémissements funèbres. En l’absence de chorégraphes qui font progresser la forme, les compagnies de ballet se vautrent dans une « ère de rétrospection », écrit Homans, et reprennent éternellement les somptueux classiques du XIXe siècle. Lorsqu’il y a de nouvelles créations, elles s’éloignent des idéaux décrits comme la pierre angulaire du ballet selon Homans. « Il faudrait un retour à l’honneur et à la bienséance, à la civilité et au goût », déclare la critique de danse du New Republic. Elle est loin d’être la seule à se pencher sur la santé du ballet. Au fil du temps, les rumeurs sur déclin du ballet courent. Dans son essai, le critique et auteur Michael Crabb soutien que le ballet est en pleine forme au XXIe siècle, et il en parle à plusieurs directeurs artistiques, chorégraphes et auteurs dans le domaine, y compris Karen Kain, Jean Grand-Maitre, Aszure Barton et Wendy Perron.

The Evolution of the Pointe Shoe

From La Sylphide to Amelia

By Kaija Pepper

Marie Chouinard

In Conversation with Catherine Bush

By Catherine Bush

All dance is about being in the body but in Marie Chouinard’s extraordinary work, the corporeality of the body is front and centre.

All dance is about being in the body but in Marie Chouinard’s extraordinary work, the corporeality of the body is front and centre. She’s been creating dance now for over thirty years, first as a solo artist and then as choreographer for her Compagnie Marie Chouinard, and continues to create dance that is astonishing and vital, often breathtaking, dance that has its roots in ritual and play yet with movement that continually reinvents itself. These days, Marie Chouinard and her company are based in a studio building, Espace Marie Chouinard, on L’Esplanade in Montréal. She’s had a conference devoted to her work 24 Preludes by Chopin, and her dancers were awarded a Gemini for their performance in the film of bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS. Her most recent piece, Henri Michaux: Mouvements premiered in Vienna in August 2011. It’s perhaps no surprise that Marie Chouinard keeps a jam-packed schedule. Novelist Catherine Bush managed to fit in a phone conversation with her one morning promptly at nine a.m. as she arrived at the studio. Their discussion was wide-ranging, touching on topics such as nudity, structure, the search for beauty and how a dancer’s body changes with time.

Toute danse porte sur le corps, mais dans l’œuvre extraordinaire de Marie Chouinard, la corporéité est à l’avant-plan. Elle compose des danses depuis plus de trente ans, d’abord comme artiste solo et ensuite au sein de la Compagnie Marie Chouinard. Ses créations demeurent surprenantes et vitales, souvent étourdissantes ; sa danse est ancrée dans le rituel et le jeu, sa gestuelle en perpétuelle réinvention. Sa compagnie occupe actuellement un immeuble, l’Espace Marie Chouinard, sur la rue de l’Esplanade à Montréal. Il y a eu un colloque sur sa pièce Les 24 préludes de Chopin et ses interprètes ont mérité un prix Gémaux pour leur travail dans le film bODY_rEMIX/les_vARIATIONS_gOLDBERG. Sa dernière création, Henri Michaux : Mouvements a été présentée en première à Vienne en août 2011. Ainsi, l’horaire très chargé de Chouinard ne surprend personne. Néanmoins, la romancière Catherine Bush réussit à la joindre au téléphone, précisément à 9 h, lors de son arrivée aux studios. Leur discussion touche à bien des sujets, notamment la nudité, la structure, la quête de la beauté et le changement du corps de l’interprète au fil du temps.

Departments

Editorial

By Kathleen Smith

Ballet and Beyond

Making Waves

By Kate Stashko

Toronto’s Andrew “Pyro” Chung is putting a message behind his movement

Inspired!

Shantala Shivalingappa

Know Your Moves

Courus: a basic ballet travelling step

Emerging Views

By Kate Stashko

Jarrett Siddall, performer with Edmonton’s Ukrainian Shumka Dancers since 2006 and currently in his third year of training at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre.

Tips for Teachers

By Katharine Harris, Canada's National Ballet School

Cold Weather Comfort and Safety

Healthy Dancer

By Donna Krasnow

Hip Flexor Flexibility

Check It Out

T is for Tutu: A Ballet Alphabet by Sonia Rodriguez

Marking Time

Ballet on Tour In Canada during World War II

By Amy Bowring

Photo courtesy of Dance Collection Danse

Short Waves

By Amy Bowring, Samantha Mehra

David Y.H Lui 1944-2011; SWAP IT! event aims to satisfy community's needs; NAC Foundation announces CEO's National Fund

Everyday Moves

By MJ Thompson

Street Ballet

Moving Bodies

It is perhaps the presence of the body – and a desire to express one’s self through and from the body – that continues to define dance as an art form.

Video

Danse Lhasa Danse

PPS Danse is about to embark on tour with Danse Lhasa Danse, a creation by Pierre-Paul Savoie that pays homage to singer Lhasa De Sela.

Listing

Merce Cunningham Double Feature – March 26 (7pm) - May 21 2021

Merce Cunningham

ON
March 26-21 mai 2021

Catch on demand performances from Fall for Dance North’s 2019 event at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), celebrating the legacy of Merce Cunningham (Available until May 21)