Back Issue

Dance and pop artist Nath Keo primarily practises Raqs Sharqi, the classical Egyptian style of belly dance. Born in the Cambodian Kav Lan refugee camp in 1980, Keo’s family moved through several camps before they landed in Khao-I-Dang in 1982. For the seven years he lived there, he watched these shows and wondered how performers became performers.

Twenty-nine years later, Keo is living in Victoria, British Columbia and is the artistic director and founder of Sacred Centre Dance, a belly dance company that produces a show biennially and offers workshops in between. Grace Smith offers us a glimpse into his life, in a out of dance – his late start into dance at age seventeen, his ordination as a Buddhist monk at twenty-six and his travels to Southeast Asia every Winter to teach and perform.

It’s not a new approach for us; since day one the magazine has been about giving voice to dance artists. But this time there was little to no direction. The ensuing writing is thrilling and humbling to read and covers everything from consent in contact improvisation, to creativity within a capitalist framework, to dance and motherhood and everything in between. The writers in this feature have been incredibly generous with their words and trusting with their stories.

Read the online column here.

The Canadian dance community likely won’t remember a time when the media was ever supporting a particularly robust critical conversation, especially when compared to the other performing arts across the country. Dance criticism is inherently niche and speaks to small, geographically specific, audiences. For this reason, it’s a difficult form of arts reporting to maintain. In the digital realities of today’s media, where eyeballs on articles equates to advertising revenue, dance criticism and even reviews – shorter pieces that tend to function as more of a cultural-product review – put simply, don’t earn their keep.

In this article Brittany Duggan surveys the current media environment where there are so few instances of dance criticism and reviewing, looking for ways the digital landscape could benefit instead of kill criticism. She also looks forward to future of dance criticism in Canada, concluding that our challenge today is how we define criticism, how we decide who can do it and how to fund this critical work.

“It’s always production week at The Dance Current and things always come together for opening night.” This observation, snatched from Megan Andrews’ editor’s note in our tenth anniversary issue, has been an earworm for me while putting together this issue, ten years later. 

Anniversaries, with their anthemic Auld Lang Syne vibe, offer opportunity for reflection and for re/considering how to move forward. In planning this issue, it was important to us to celebrate how far we’ve come, but not to dwell in nostalgia. Instead, we wanted to focus on the future of the publication by continuing to include the voices of artists. Our special feature includes provocations from eleven dance artists who weigh in on an issue of their choice and propose a call to action. In this vein, Megan’s note is also a call to action for organizations – asking us to question the structures in which we operate, by challenging why and how we do our work. 

Despite this forward-looking approach, I also want to mention the conversations happening more generally in magazine publishing around “the archive” and its continual creation. Notably, National Geographic recently came forward to apologize for the inherent racism in the publication’s history. In this country, Canadian Art has hosted some fascinating conversations about how print collections can themselves reveal and conceal white privilege (see Valérie Frappier’s “The Politics of the Archive”). What this dialogue drives home, for me, is being open to the ways we reinforce the status quo and admit to and learn from mistakes when they’re made. 

This issue brings back the voice of Brittany Duggan, former managing and online editor of TDC, who offers us a view into the future of dance criticism in Canada, amidst the shifting publishing economy. Reading the feature profile about belly dancer Nath Keo will make you want to meet him and – hot tip – search for his videos on YouTube. 

I also want to thank the other amazing folks I work with. TDC’s director Sarah Lochhead is the foundation of the magazine and my unofficial editorial advisor. Grace Smith (circulation coordinator) and Jillian Groening (editorial and production coordinator) are talented up-and-coming dance writers whom I rely on heavily for copy. Our designer Lois Kim and copy editor Cindy Brett make the magazine better looking and easier to read, as does as our long-time translator Marie Claire Forté. An additional shoutout to our board, chaired by Marilyn Biderman, who dedicate their expertise and energy, is a given. Needless to say, there are a lot of minds that keep the magazine afloat. 

Thank you for your support over the years!

Erasure is the removal or all traces of something. Inspired by a lecture series in the political science department at the University of Alberta, dance artist Mpoe Mogale discovered that this term, erasure, resonated deeply with the feeling of being a Black artist in Canada and the baggage that comes with that. For Mogale, this realization also brings with it incredible joy and empowerment.

MII-SUM-IN-ISKUM (Long Time Buffalo Rock) is an Indigenous artist from the Kanawa Blackfoot Reserve in Alberta. His Canadian name is Justin Many Fingers, and his creations explore dance, theatre, music, voice and land. Having studied both Indigenous and western performing art forms, he notes that while growing up, he was not raised in the Blackfoot culture because he comes from generations of family members who attended residential schools. The effect was a deliberate disconnect between culture and people.

Usha Gupta has been singing and dancing from the age of four in her native India. Today, she’s the ambassador of cultural diversity in Edmonton and Canada. With her company, Dance Entourage, she has toured her traditional and contemporary Indian classical dance creations across Canada and to seven major cities in India. In 2016, she hosted and performed in the critically acclaimed Romeo and Juliet created by the legendary Pandit Birju Maharaj. Gupta was recently inducted into Edmonton’s Hall of Fame.