Merce Cunningham Studio faces possible closure

>> by Cynthia Brett
Almost 4,000 people signed a petition opposing the closure of New York's Merce Cunningham Studio and requesting a new and expanded Merce Cunningham Center. Students grew concerned over the Studio's fate when The Cunningham Dance Foundation announced its Legacy Plan following Cunningham's death in July 2009. According to the petition, 25% of technique classes have been cut in the past year and students have been told they may not be able to finish their certificate programs. The Foundation has responded to the petition and outlined the goals of the trust as set up by Cunningham.

Sign the petition: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-the-merce-cunningham-studio.html

Read a response from the Merce Cunningham Trust: http://studentsforcunningham.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/response-to-the-petition/

Denys Drozdyuk: Canada’s new favourite dancer

Denys Drozdyuk, Season 3 winner, So You Think You Can Dance Canada / Photo courtesy of CTV Inc.

>> by Jacqueline Hansen
Denys Drozdyuk was voted Canada’s favourite dancer for the third season of So You Think You Can Dance Canada (SYTYCDC). Drozdyuk, $100,000 richer and owner of a new Mazda 2, wasn’t confident his dancing was what Canada wanted: “I just tried to be myself and dance. I wasn’t sure if people would like that, but I guess they did.” His win was the result of 1.5 million votes cast for the final show. Born in the Ukraine and raised in Toronto, Drozdyuk brought an extensive background in ballroom to the stage, but also postsecondary dance education: he is a graduate of Julliard, and a master’s student in Dance Education at NYU. “I want them to know I’m serious about dance,” says Drozdyuk. He wasn’t always sure that SYTYCDC should be his focus; Drozdyuk was skeptical whether TV shows could cultivate “real dance”. “It’s really hard to combine entertainment and art together, but that was my goal,” Drozdyuk explained, “to still be artistic and not let the show get a hold of me.”

The top four dancers, including runner up Amanda Cleghorn, left the finale with cheques for at least $5,000. Top 12 dancer Claudia Primeau, back for the finale favourite performances, went home with a ring on her finger and a fiancé by her side: Top 12 dancer Francis Lafrenière, from Season Two, proposed on stage during the live show.

Cirque du Soleil reaches 8,000th performance with Mystère

>> by Brittany Duggan
On October 18th, Cirque du Soleil celebrated the 8,000th performance of what has become one of the company’s hallmark shows, Mystère. Housed in the 1,629-seat Mystère Theatre at the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino (where the production has been in permanent residency since its premiere in 1993), Mystère was the first Cirque du Soleil show to have a custom-built theatre to exact show specifications, and has since been seen by over twelve million people. Mystère “defines what Cirque du Soleil is all about: creativity, audacity and keeping the dream alive,” commented Cirque du Soleil President and CEO Daniel Lamarre in the company’s press release. To mark this long-running achievement, the company debuted new music by composer Benoît Jutras for the aerial highbar act. Other productions by the Québec-based organization in Las Vegas include “O” at the Bellagio, Zumanity at New York-New York Hotel & Casino, Kà at the MGM Grand, The Beatles’ Love at the Mirage, Criss Angel Believe at Luxor and Viva Elvis at the Aria Resort and Casino.

Ontario announces $27 million Arts Investment Fund

>> by Cynthia Brett

Not-for-profit arts organizations receiving operating grants from the Ontario Arts Council (OAC) will soon also benefit from a new $27 million Arts Investment Fund announced by the Government of Ontario. The fund will be paid out over three years: $11 million in 2010/11, $10 million in 2011/12 and $6 million in 2012/13. The OAC will complement this with $1.1 million over three years for English and French language book and magazine publishers, which are not eligible for the new fund.

Peggy Baker wins Walter Carsen Prize

Photo by Michael Slobodian
>> by Brittany Duggan
The Canada Council for the Arts recently announced Peggy Baker as the recipient of the 2010 Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts. The $50,000 award recognizes artistic excellence and career achievement for Canadian artists who have spent the majority of their careers in Canada. Baker, originally from Edmonton, Alberta, was a founding member of Toronto's Dancemakers in 1974. She has danced internationally with Lar Lubovitch, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Mark Morris, Paul-André Fortier and Doug Varone and in 1990 began Peggy Baker Dance Projects to support her own work and collaborations. Artist-in-Residence at Canada’s National Ballet School since 1992, Baker frequently teaches abroad at Universities and professional training programs. Throughout her career she has been honoured with the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, the Order of Canada, the Order of Ontario, an honorary doctorate from the University of Calgary, and five Dora Mavor Moore Awards. Most recently, Baker presented Aleatoria, a series of duets from her solo works, at Toronto’s Nuit Blanche.

New book on the life and work of Lola MacLaughlin

Lola Dance – Lola MacLaughlin: A Life in Dance. Photo: Susan Elliott in Lap Dogs and Other Restrictions by Lola MacLaughlin / Photo by David Cooper / Design and layout by Vancouver Desktop Publishing Centre Ltd.
>> by Brittany Duggan
Lola Dance – Lola MacLaughlin: A Life in Dance was launched at the Scotiabank Dance Centre in Vancouver on September 30th, 2010. The book, celebrating the life and work of the late choreographer Lola MacLaughlin is a collection of artifacts from her creative life, with essays from a group of artists close to her. Edited by Carol Anderson and Dorothy Woodend, the book includes contributions from Max Wyman, Susan Elliott, Brian Webb, Kaija Pepper, Mary Theresa Kelly and Stephen White. It was announced in April 2009 that proceeds from the book’s sales will go to the Lola Legacy Fund, a cash prize awarded to a deserving BC dance artist; all contributions received by October 31st, 2010 will be matched by The Department of Canadian Heritage.

TUDS: Toronto Urban Dance Symposium

ShoTyme and Dancers / Photo by Anige Choi
>> by Jacqueline Hansen
Apolonia Velasquez and Ofilio Sinbadinho Portillo, directors of urban dance company Gadfly, presented the first “TUDS: Toronto Urban Dance Symposium” on September 12th in Toronto. Velasquez described its purpose: “We wanted to raise the standards for urban dancers. It’s a community that’s not very aware of all the resources available; we wanted to share how we can improve the quality of our life and of our career.” Representatives from several dance service organizations as well as the DaCosta Talent Agency and professional dancers and choreographers were invited to join discussions, panels and workshops. Velasquez said many of the participants, nearly 100 dancers aged sixteen to thirty, had never before considered seeking help from arts organizations. Also discussed was how to further the professional image of street dancing. When addressing the stereotypes of street dance, Velasquez insisted that “there is art [in street dance], there is technique, there is history; people should respect it as much as any other dance, it has the same value.” But she thinks the lack of recognition is half the fault of street dancers: “Street dancers aren’t taking the next step, they aren’t applying, they aren’t trying to get that support … they have to be active, and work for it.”

Launch of DanceNL and Road Map Project

>> by Naomi Brand
On September 20th, Newfoundland and Labrador's newest dance sectoral organization hosted a wine and cheese event to celebrate the launch of DanceNL as an association and to share the results of the DanceNL Road Map. The Road Map has been collecting information from communities across the province in order to discover who is dancing, what they are dancing and where they are dancing. So far, they have heard from 104 dancers and dance groups from nineteen different communities in the province representing a wide range of dance forms from ballet to bellydance to social dance to drum dance. The project aims to network dancers, practitioners and dance enthusiasts and give a stronger presence to dancers from Newfoundland and Labrador provincially, nationally and internationally. DanceNL was established in 2009 with a mandate to "preserve, promote and support all forms of dance and dance activity throughout Newfoundland and Labrador." This November the organization will elect its first official board of directors.

To become a member or to participate in The Road Map project see the DanceNL website www.dancenl.ca or emailing info@dancenl.ca.

Jackie Burroughs 1939 - 2010

>> by Brittany Duggan
Jackie Burroughs in Dance Collection Danse's "There's Always Been Dance" (1986) / Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann

Jackie Burroughs, the stage and screen actress and member of the Toronto dance community, died on September 22nd at age seventy-one in her Toronto home. Best known for her role as school teacher Hetty King on Road to Avonlea, the British-born Canadian actress was a dance lover and supporter of the art of dance. "I will forever remember her in dance class at Toronto Dance Theatre (TDT); only a leotard, no leggings, and a lit cigarette in the hallway; sometimes she'd take a puff just before she went across the floor and smoke would come out her mouth as she walked across the floor in her very own distinctive and courageous way," commented Michael Menegon, former dancer and long-time percussionist at TDT.

When asked to comment on Burroughs’ involvement in dance, Susan Macpherson, artistic associate of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre, responded, “Jackie Burroughs was a dancer at heart. She performed with Toronto Dance Theatre several times in its early days, appearing in featured roles in complex and beautiful works such as A Thread of Sand and The Recitation, both by David Earle. She took dance classes avidly from those early days in the 1970s through until a few months before her death. Alongside her stellar acting career, she worked with many dance companies and independent dancers over the years including, more recently, Bill Coleman, Jennifer Dick, Claudia Moore and Michelle Silagy. In the 1980s, she performed in Toronto and at the National Arts Centre with the Susan Macpherson Dance Collection, and also worked with Dance Collection Danse for their ENCORE! ENCORE! performances at Expo ’86 in Vancouver. In the 1990s, she performed with Peggy Baker in a moving duet by Doug Varone, The Volpe Sisters. Much as she was a great actress, she also gave her heart to dance. Dancers, dance students, and dance audiences will long remember her with deep admiration, affection and gratitude.”

During her career, Burroughs won three Genie Awards, two Canadian Film Awards, five Geminis, and in 2005 she received the Governor General’s Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award for the Performing Arts. Burroughs’ final project was a cameo in the movie Small Town Murder Song, which premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival in September.