NBS student to make Broadway debut

>> by Brittany Duggan
Liam Redhead of North Bay, Ontario, will soon make his Broadway debut as Billy in Billy Elliot the Musical. Sharing the lead role with Dayton Tavares, who previously played Billy in the Sydney and Melbourne productions, Redhead will be the seventh boy to make his Broadway debut as Billy since its opening in New York City at the Imperial Theatre on November 13th, 2008. Having begun studies at Canada’s National Ballet School (NBS) in 2007, Redhead departs Toronto at age fourteen with classmate Cesar Corrales, who will also debut as Billy in the soon-to-open Chicago production of the show. “I’m so pleased for Liam, this is such an exciting opportunity for him. We will of course miss him at NBS, but we wish him the best of luck. With both Cesar and Liam off performing this challenging role, those of us at NBS cannot wait for them to return and share with us all their stories of learning the role, and appearing on stages in Chicago as well as on Broadway,” said Mavis Staines, NBS artistic director, in a press release issued by the school.

Contemporary circus artists eligible for Canada Council funding

>> by Naomi Brand
Professional artists and arts organizations practicing contemporary circus arts are now eligible to apply for funding from the Canada Council for the Arts. While no new funds have been allocated to this art form, support is available through grant programs offered by the Council’s Inter-Arts Office. Grant applications will be assessed by a range of integrated arts professionals including artists working in contemporary circus art. Learn more: www.canadacouncil.ca/interarts.

CDA seeks executive director

>> by Brittany Duggan
The Canadian Dance Assembly (CDA) is currently looking for a full-time executive director. Since 2002, as a national service organization representing the professional dance sector in Canada, the CDA has advocated for a healthy, sustainable environment in which professional dance practice can grow and thrive. The position has become available following the resignation of the current executive director, Shannon Litzenberger. The application deadline is December 31, 2009. More information can be found at: www.dancecanada.net.

Dance NL founded

>> by Brittany Duggan

The creation of Dance NL, a sectoral dance association for Newfoundland and Labrador, was announced November 6th. The organization was officially formed on September 20th with the designation of a founding board after consultation with members of the province’s dance communities. The project Dance NL Road Map will be the organization’s first endeavour and, as chair and founding board member Kristin Harris Walsh describes in the organization’s press release, will aim to gather “as much information as possible from as many communities as possible in order to discover who is dancing, what they are dancing and where they are dancing.” According to Harris Walsh, who also serves on the advisory board of the Society for Canadian Dance Studies, the Dance NL mandate is to “preserve, promote and support all forms of dance and dance activities throughout the provinces.” She is joined on the board by Martin Vallée, Christina Penney, Calla Lachance, Richard Stoker, Sarah Stoker, Andrew Draskoy and Diana Leadbeater.

Ontario creates separate dance curriculum

>> by Samantha Mehra
The Ontario Ministry of Education has published a revised arts curriculum that acknowledges dance as a stand-alone subject in elementary schools. The curriculum comes into effect September 2010 after a further revision process. The Council of Ontario Drama and Dance Educators (CODE) recognized the Ministry's move at its 39th annual conference held October 23rd through 25th at the Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, Ontario; the conference keynote speakers were Karen and Allen Kaeja of Kaeja d'Dance. The revised curriculum can be found on the ministry's website. (http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/arts.html).

Concern with legacy inspires several remounts

>> by Samantha Mehra
Vancouver’s Andrea Gunnlaugson recently coordinated The Legacy Repertory Project to revive works not seen for at least ten years and perpetuate the legacy of local dance artists. It invites original choreographers to remount works and discuss the creation of the piece with a younger generation of dancers. Remounts of pieces by Harvey Meller, Olivia Thorvaldson and Cornelius Fischer-Credo will be performed February 4th through 6th at the Norman Rothstein Theatre by Josh Beamish’s MOVE: The Company. Toronto-based artist Heidi Strauss’s company, adelheid, is working with Sudbury’s earthdancers to present where we are/où nous sommes. The mixed program will be shown December 10th through 12th at Sudbury’s Le Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario, and showcases work and performances by Sudbury-born artists including Strauss, Denise Vitalis, elleQ dance factory, Brian Solomon and Company Blonde dance projects. Researcher and dance artist Julye Huggins’s online publication about Sudbury’s dance heritage will be launched in conjunction (www.issuu.com/julye/docs). The Niagara Dance Company in St. Catharines, under co-artistic director Mary Jo Mullins, presented Past Hereafter at the Sullivan Mahoney Courthouse Theatre November 6th through 8th remounting works by Patricia Beatty and David Earle. Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie presented remounts of works by James Kudelka at the Fleck Dance Theatre November 4th through 7th, and will tour Kudelka’s choreography in Ontario and Québec in the new year.

Recent awards in dance

>> by Cynthia Brett
From the Toronto Arts Foundation, Miriam Adams received the Rita Davies and Margo Bindhardt Cultural Leadership Award and Christopher House won the Muriel Sherrin Award for International Achievement in Dance ... Sara Coffin received The Dance Centre's new Santa Aloi award ... Compagnie Marie Chouinard won a Gemini for Best Performance in a Performing Arts Series or Program ... Simon Fraser University Centre for dialogue honoured American choreographer Liz Lerman with the Jack P. Blaney Award for Dialogue ... Erin Cowan won the Paula Citron Award at the Chimera Project's presentation of Fresh Blood.

Ukrainian dance companies collaborate on diverse show

>> by Brittany Duggan
The Cheremosh Ukrainian Dance Company of Edmonton, the Tryzub Ukrainian Dance Ensemble of Calgary and the Rusalka Ukrainian Dance Ensemble of Winnipeg recently collaborated to present “Razom: A Fusion of Ukrainian Dance”. The evening-length performance featured nearly 100 dancers and was the result of discussions among the companies' artistic directors to deliver a show that highlighted the different Ukrainian theatrical dance styles that are evolving across the Canadian prairies. “Western Canada is home to a number of the largest and well-established Ukrainian dance organizations in Canada – so it seemed a perfect fit to join forces to develop this fusion of dance. This is the first time ever, that three major Ukrainian dance companies have come together under one banner to present such a diverse program,” said Senior Producer Lawrence Prout in a press release. Starting in Edmonton on September 26th, the third and final show was held on November 1st in Winnipeg.

Study groups and roundtables: they're talking about dance

>> by Naomi Brand
This fall has seen a number of initiatives aimed at facilitating discussion about dance. The Toronto Dance Theatre is presenting a series of lecture discussions entitled "Contemporary Dance 101: Enrich your viewing experience". The first installment will take place on November 9th at 7pm at the Winchester Street Theatre in Toronto. The session will be hosted by Bridget Cauthery, Ph.D in Dance Studies, and will provide an overview of key concepts and dance artists from the past century (www.tdt.org). Another initiative is the Toronto Thinking Out Loud Study Group presented by The Dancemakers Centre for Creation and The Dance Current. The monthly meetings facilitated by Jacob Zimmer and Megan Andrews aim to deepen thinking about dance (www.readingwritingdancing.blogspot.com). In Montréal, the Department of Dance at the Université du Québec à Montréal is hosting Tribune 840, a series of round-table discussions looking at issues surrounding creation and interpretation in dance. The second in their series is entitled "Quelle préparation pour une danse de création?" and will be hosted on November 4th with panelists Lucie Boissinot, Sylvain Lafortune, Nina Dipla, Johanna Bienaise and Sarah Dell'Ava (www.danse.uqam.ca).

Cas Public appoints assistant to the artistic director

>> by Jaimée Horn
Pierre Lecours has been appointed assistant to Hélène Blackburn, choreographer and artistic director of the Montréal company Cas Public. He will assume several of the many responsibilities related to running the company. Lecours graduated from LADMMI in 1999 and has since distinguished himself as a dancer and choreographer. Within the last ten years, he has created fifteen pieces and has performed with several companies including La Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault, Cas Public, Whatwhatiwhat, Le Carré des Lombes and O Vertigo. Lecours’s presence will allow Blackburn to better respond to directorial demands and other projects of interest. Blackburn believes the new position also addresses the need to transfer the experience and artistic expertise required to run a company to the next generation of choreographers. This skill set is rarely part of dance trainees’ curricula; however, it is an important element of their professional reality. In Lecours’s upcoming work Les Steppes, Blackburn will take the stage again, alongside the dancers. She is pleased to be alleviated of some decision making, and to be working with the company members on a different level. Les Steppes, co-produced by Cas Public, opens in January 2010 at l’Agora de la danse in Montréal.

Peter Chin work travels to Southeast Asia

>> by Cynthia Brett

Following its successful cross-country Canadian tour, Tribal Crackling Wind took Peter Chin's Transmission of the Invisible to Phnom Pehn, Cambodia, and Singapore's Da:ns Festival in October 2009. Transmission of the Invisible, which premiered February 2008 at Toronto's Enwave Theatre, explores Cambodia's efforts to renew and preserve its dance culture after 90 percent of the country's artists were killed during the Cambodian genocide of the Khmer Rouge era. The piece was created in collaboration with both Canadian and Cambodian artists over more than three years of research and in June 2009 it appeared at the Canada Dance Festival as part of "Dancing Through Cultures".