Back Issue

Hailing from Ghana, Quarmyne describes herself as a “contemporary African artist,” although she makes sure to note that she is foremost an inquisitive person. Working in the realms of art and social justice, Quarmyne moved on to Montréal in 2002, where she became involved with Compagnie Danse Nyata Nyata, citing Zab Maboungou as a great influence on her work. From Montréal, Quarmyne moved to Antigonish, Nova Scotia, where the new distance from the vibrant arts culture of Montréal changed the kind of work she could create: living in a smaller place resulted in a stronger focus on her work as a solo artist. In June of 2017, Quarmyne choreographed a piece for the Global Water Dances Project, an initiative for which over 100 performances were created around the world to highlight local water issues. Her contribution was inspired by the Shubenacadie River in Nova Scotia, which is under threat due to plans to create natural gas storage caverns. The piece was created in collaboration with Denise John, a Mi’kmaq artist and Dorene Bernard, a grassroots grandmother and activist. 

In the early 2000s, independent of one another and within different cities, a handful of Canadian dancers, athletes and artists were struck by images of a street dance emerging in the inner cities of Los Angeles. Krump is a street dance of resistance and resilience, notorious for its aggressive characterization, exceptional speed of execution and body control, musical asymmetries and theatricality. While Krump exploded across the world, a new dance community was being born in Canada. Without direct access to teachers, Canadian dancers began decoding Krump from videos found on YouTube – following young California residents, who were crafting the form from an amalgam of “hip hop clowning,” ballet, theatre and gang culture. Krump dancing, also known as “wildin’” or “buckin’,” was transforming violence in the environment. Northern neighbours strove to catch up with this way of being and moving. Groups called fams — the groups of dancers or “families” allied together to develop a style under the leadership of a more experienced “big homie.” Krumpers across the country advocate that their dance is a tool for personal growth. 

In dance, human bodies have typically been seen as antithetical to interactive technologies. Dance works that utilize responsive or interactive media, in partnership with human performers, have been accused of disembodying or even dehumanizing dance. Nonetheless, as an art form dance has never just been about the body; it is and has always been an assemblage of various media that appeal to several senses through lighting, costumes, and music, the combination of which produces effects that enhance the performing body. What potential do new augmented reality technologies have for dance performers? What is it about dance that makes it a good pairing with immersive or composite environments? And, from the viewer’s perspective, how do virtual reality and augmented reality change the point of view for audiences? This feature article explores these questions. 

Whether it’s a matter of a maturing Canadian dance scene or because of the plethora of dancers sharing their work on accessible social media platforms, the boundaries of what’s being taught in Canadian dance schools and what’s being seen on Canadian stages are expanding. 

There are conversations ongoing within the dance community about what exactly constitutes contemporary dance, or why other forms of dance techniques or pedagogy aren’t given the same weight as ballet or modern dance. There are also questions being raised around how to evaluate students who may hail from different techniques of training backgrounds, around who is encouraged to dance and about whether dance institutions such as ballet schools encourage a diversity of bodies amongst their student population.

Still, when it comes to evaluating dance performances, whether in an academic setting or as part of a jury-process for arts grants and other funding applications, it is typically the ballet or contemporary dance yardstick against which dancers are measured. I spoke to a range of dancers and teachers to find out their thoughts on whether these traditional forms of training should still be used as the basis for instruction and for evaluating technique.

I first picked up the The Dance Current off the lobby coffee table at the School of Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers. I soon realized how little I knew about the history of my own practice and the artists creating work across the country. It’s not an overstatement to say that the magazine inspired me to continue my studies in dance. As a contributor to the magazine for over a decade, it’s a thrilling challenge to curate its pages. 

The current moment is a captivating time to engage in dance dialogue. I began in this position a week before the word appropriation was brought to the forefront of Canadian magazine publishing, adding fuel to the conversation about not only who is represented within a magazine but also who is writing in it. With my colleagues, I am working toward continuing to broaden who is writing about dance in Canada. 

Each of the features in the magazine reflects, in one way or another, changing paradigms for dancers, dance creators and viewers. Hilary Bergen’s feature explores the intersections of dance and augmented reality technologies. Challenging the commonly held fear that technologies will render embodied experiences obsolete, Bergen outlines how Canadian dance artists are discovering ways to highlight sensory experiences through technological interaction. 

Halifax-based artist Liliona Quarmyne, the subject of our feature profile, makes work that intersects activism and social justice. Michael Lake details her recent contribution to a project inspired by the Shubenacadie River environmental crisis in Nova Scotia. The work was part of the Global Water Dances project, an initiative for which over 100 performances were created around the world to highlight local water issues. 

In the photo essay writer Lucy May, with editorial advisor Vladimir “7Starr” Laurore, shares how Krump made its way to Canada from the inner city of Los Angeles, through TV and YouTube channels, and how it is being harnessed for youth advocacy across the country. The essay is a fit companion to our Influences piece by Jillian Groening, in which she interviewed dance artists who use social media to share work, exploring how this platform has allowed them to rethink how they represent and present their work. 

Finally, as more artists are looking for alternative vocabularies in their own artistic practice, we ask, in which contexts is classical training still relevant? Aparita Bhandari spoke with established dance creators, who each articulated their complicated relationships in relation to training, technique and evaluation. The article is meant as a preliminary discussion that I hope will widen to include a range of voices – including perspectives that address which bodies might be left out when strictly adhering to classical forms. 

Let’s bring these conversations to life this fall. In this vein, I encourage writers and artists to reach out, share their work and collaborate with The Dance Current.

Between dancing for companies like Daniel Léveillé Danse, Dancemakers and Ottawa Dance Directive (ODD), as well as presenting his own work, Simon Renaud has established himself as one of Québec’s up-and-coming contemporary dance artists. Honest and self-reflexive, Renaud sees dance as a powerful medium that reaches far beyond the realm of the aesthetic into everyday life, influencing our ways of doing and being together in the world. “I’m interested in meeting and working with new people, and in having difficult discussions. Dance is an excuse to do that.”

“Dancing with Shumka is definitely a unique experience!” says nineteen-year-old Arlyssa McArthur, a new full-time company member of Canada’s Ukrainian Shumka Dancers, based out of Edmonton. After auditioning for the company in June 2016, McArthur was accepted as a probationary member before becoming a fulltime member in March of this year – a hire that came shortly before the appointment of the company’s new artistic team, with former company member and artistic associate Joseph Hoffman taking the reins as artistic director.

Read an online Q & A with McArthur here.

For many dancers, getting behind or in front of the camera has allowed them to find community, independence and artistic voice. By utilizing social media platforms, or by running their own YouTube or Vimeo channels, movement artists are breaking the rules around how performance work is presented and viewed.

Video screen dance artists Francesca Chudnoff, Nita Bowerman and Jaime Robinson share their perspectives on creating and presenting DIY videos. 

For Susie Burpee, 2017 marks twenty-five years of working in contemporary dance. “I feel both the past and future asking to be considered as I look at the direction of the next chapter of my life.”

The late actor Sir Laurence Olivier once remarked that “The actor should be able to create the universe in the palm of his hand.” For Tracey, this is equally true for dancers. In his teaching practice he emphasizes three aspects of hand articulation: curiosity, receptivity and expressivity.

Read Tracy’s 5 Tips for Hand Articulation

One night, while needing a diversion, Yvonne Ng began flipping TV channels and came across a recipe from Jamie Oliver. This revised version is similar to a dessert she grew up with, made with purple rice and called Pulot Hitam (which means black pudding).

The Dance Current asked dance educators working in school boards to share advice for new educators. The advice rings true regardless of experience or where your practice takes you.

Ming Hon is an independent dancer, choreographer and performance artist based in Winnipeg – a graduate of the School of Contemporary Dancers Senior Professional Program. Born in Hong Kong and raised in Winnipeg, she found a loophole that afforded her a slim chance of winning the crown for Miss Hong Kong 2003. Thinking she could secretly undermine the pageantry and its fanfare of endorsements, the judges proved her wrong and were not interested. In her practice Hon explores themes of work, labour, leisure, luxury, capitalism and the economy and politics of the female body.

Hon is in the midst of preparing for a new solo show, Only the Dead Wear Shoes to Bed, based on the narrative of a person in a hotel who luxuriates in the parameters of a standard queen room. For the audience it is slowly revealed that the room is an idyllic imagined refuge from the world outside, pre-apocalyptic, war stricken and blazing from environmental disaster. 

What does one pack for a trip to the end of the world?

It’s been over a decade since Serge Bennathan left his position as artistic director at Dancemakers Centre for Creation in 2006. In the October 2002 issue of The Dance Current, Amy Bowring, director of collections and research at Dance Collection Danse, wrote a feature article detailing Bennathan’s creative process in the making of The Satie Project. The Dance Current talks to Bennathan about his recent work. 

There are many different kinds of obstacles when it comes to starting a career in the arts. Having a mentor – someone to discuss opportunities and career choices with – can make all the difference, but finding the right fit for a productive, fulfilling mentor-mentee relationship can be intimidating and time-consuming.

Mentorly, a website and soon to be app co-founded by dancer Ashley Werhun, of Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, and filmmaker Katherine Macnaughton, aims to streamline how professional and emerging artists connect.

Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal is welcoming Ivan Cavallari as their new artistic director commencing in their 2017/18 season. As the company bids goodbye to the departing Gradimir Pankov, who spent eighteen seasons with the company, they are readying their double bill of Edward Clug’s Stabat MATER, an interpretation of Pergolesi’s baroque music, and Uwe Scholz’s choreography of Beethoven’s Seventh. 

The Italian-born Cavallari has had an acclaimed performance career, collaborating with noteworthy choreographers including William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián and John Cranko. He has worked as artistic director for the West Australian Ballet (2007-2012) and Ballet de l’Opéra national du Rhin (2013-2017). 

The opportunity to work with Les Grands is one that Cavallari describes as posing “infinite challenges” but also “infinite chances.” With an affinity for physically versatile dancers, Cavallari views the company’s future as one without limits. “We do art, we don’t do styles.”