Jeanne Holmes appointed artistic producer of CDF

Jeanne Holmes / Photo by David Hou

>> by Cynthia Brett
On December 1st, Jeanne Holmes will take her post as the new artistic producer of the Canada Dance Festival (CDF). With a background in performance, production, programming and arts management, Holmes brings over twenty years of diverse experience to the position. She is currently the producing director of Dancemakers and the Centre for Creation in Toronto as well as the chair of Dusk Dances Toronto. Recalling her personal experiences at the festival, Holmes told The Dance Current: "It is close to my heart and where some of my best Canadian dance memories have been created. I have been inspired in the past by the hard work and dedication of Brian Webb and Cathy Levy and am honoured by this opportunity to build on their incredible legacies." In 2012, the CDF will celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary. Board Chair Pamela Fralick commented in a press release that "Jeanne's extensive experience in the world of the performing arts, her reputation as a collaborator and community builder, coupled with her enthusiasm for the future of dance in Canada is exactly the right combination to lead us onward into the next quarter century."

Celebrating touring, birthdays and legacies

>> by Jacqueline Hansen
Ballet Jörgen Canada has been awarded the 2011 National Arts Centre Award for Distinguished Contribution to Touring, making it the first Ontario performing arts organization to win. In its nearly twenty-five-year history, Ballet Jörgen has connected with 250 North American communities and continues to bring ballet to 40,000 people annually across Canada and the United States…. Compagnie Marie Chouinard is celebrating its twentieth birthday by giving the dance community a gift. The company is teaming up with artists and organizations in the Montréal area to launch Les prix de la danse de Montréal, an award to recognize talent in the community. The inaugural winner will be announced on November 29th, 2011, and will receive a $5,000 prize…. Acclaimed Vancouver artist and choreographer Lola MacLaughlin died in March 2009, but she knew she wanted to leave a legacy behind. The Lola Legacy Fund, initiated by MacLaughlin's husband, Tony Giacinti, and the Lola MacLaughlin Dance Society, raised the funds to seed the award. Administered by The Dance Centre, the Lola Award will provide $10,000 to a mid-career or senior-level choreographer whose work exemplifies a spirit similar to MacLaughlin’s, described in the award's call for nominations as "thoughtful, inventive, experimental, collaborative and interdisciplinary". The nomination deadline for the first biennial Lola Award is January 16th, 2012.
www.thedancecentre.ca

Candace Loubert (1947-2011)

Candace Loubert / Photo courtesy of LADMMI

>> by Samantha Mehra

Candace Loubert, co-founder of Les Ateliers de danse moderne de Montréal Inc. (LADMMI), died on October 28th, 2011. Loubert co-founded LADMMI with Linda Rabin, initially under the name of the Linda Rabin Danse Moderne School, where she was the artistic director until 1996. Prior to this, Loubert enjoyed a career as a performer in Europe, as well as dancing for Montréal's Les Grands Ballets Canadiens for five years, putting to use her extensive training in ballet. She also danced in Linda Rabin's groundbreaking work The White Goddess (1977) alongside a group of other young dancers including Margie Gillis and Stephanie Ballard. While artistic director of and teacher at LADMMI, Loubert found time to pursue creative research specifically on body work, while also tackling her interest in masks and other diverse visual arts practices. Rabin said of Loubert: [translated] "Candace's exceptional gift was her extraordinary capacity to nurture and support creativity in an original and profound manner. Through body work and a range of artistic media – painting, drawing, clay sculpting and mask making – she created space for the imagination to flourish. Those who were fortunate enough to experience her teaching knew the depth of her supportive nature, understanding and compassion."

New book on contemporary Indian dance

>> by Samantha Mehra

Palgrave Macmillan recently published Contemporary Indian Dance: New Creative Choreography in India and the Diaspora, written by scholar Ketu H. Katrak, a professor in the Department of Drama at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). The book, which includes over thirty images, explores both the historical and contemporary practices of Indian classical dance, and the ways in which concepts of globalization and diaspora have influenced artists in India and in other locations such as Toronto, London, Chennai and Los Angeles. The book also unravels the "multilayered language" of dance that emerges when forms such as martial arts, yoga, modern and postmodern dance intersect, employing the themes of ethnicity, sexuality and gender to further the analysis. Katrak is the founding chair of UCI's Department of Asian American studies, and is also author of Politics and the Female Body: Postcolonial Women Writers, Wole Soyinka and Modern Tragedy.

DCD launches new exhibit

>> by Cynthia Brett

On November 14th, Dance Collection Danse (DCD) unveiled its latest exhibit: Renegade Bodies: Canadian Dance in the 1970s. For this exhibit, artifacts from Canada's 1970s dance boom, such as programs, posters, photographs and video, are on display in Theatre Museum Canada's Macdonald Heaslip Walkway of Theatre History at Toronto's Hart House Theatre until September 14th, 2012. In 2012, Dance Collection Danse Press/Presse will also release the anthology Renegade Bodies: Canadian Dance in the 1970s, edited by Allana C. Lindgren and Kaija Pepper.

DTRC turns 25

>> by Jacqueline Hansen
Canada’s Dancer Transition Resource Centre (DTRC) is turning twenty-five years old, and the occasion is being commemorated with a night of performances titled Choreographing Change, at the Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre in Vancouver on December 1, 2011. In a quarter century, the DTRC claims it has acted as a "springboard for more than 10,000 dancers to make inspired, educated, and productive new beginnings." More information and tickets for Choreographing Change are available at www.dtrc.ca.

Beyoncé video accused of plagiarism

>> by Naomi Brand
Pop star Beyoncé Knowles' new video Countdown has raised some controversy over its striking similarity to the work of Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and has been accused of plagiarism. The video allegedly borrows from two of De Keersmaeker's videos: Achterland (1990) and Rosas danst Rosas (1983). Beyoncé's video shares not only some very similar dance movement with Rosas danst Rosas, but also bears similarities in the set, costumes and even some specific shots, which are almost direct copies of the film made by Thierry De Mey. In an interview with a Belgian radio station, De Keersmaeker said, "I'm not mad, but this is plagiarism. This is stealing." In response to these comments, Beyoncé released a statement saying: "Clearly, the ballet Rosas danst Rosas was one of many references for my video Countdown. It was one of the inspirations used to bring the feel and look of the song to life." De Keersmaeker's work has made a major mark on contemporary dance over her thirty-year career and has received critical acclaim and international success.

Canadian wins Dance Your PhD

>> by Naomi Brand
Emma Ware, a biologist at Queen's University, is one of four winners of Dance Your PhD, an annual contest that asks researchers to convert their doctoral dissertation into a dance video. Ware's dissertation, entitled "A Study of Social Interactivity Using Pigeon Courtship", was a moody, black-and-white, contemporary dance video that won in the social science category. The contest attempts to bridge the gap between the arts and sciences and challenges researchers to explain their research to the public in an accessible and creative way. This year's competition had fifty-five entries from Canada, the United States, Europe, India and Australia. The competition is now sponsored by TEDx Brussels, part of a global network of events and speakers based on innovative ideas. The winner of the competition receives $1,000 and a trip to Brussels for the awards ceremony.

Alexander Grant (1925-2011)

Alexander Grant with ballet master David Scott / Photo by David Street

>> by Jaimée Horn
Alexander Grant, beloved dancer and former artistic director of The National Ballet of Canada, died in London on Friday, September 30th at the age of 86. Grant had been ill for eight months following a hip surgery that resulted in infections and pneumonia. The dynamic performer will be fondly remembered for his roles in ballets such as Frederick Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée, as well as his influential presence in the international ballet scene. His classical technique and interpretation of demi-character roles distinguished him as an outstanding performer, “one of the few great, as opposed to merely magnificent, dancers of our time” according to New York Times dance critic Clive Barnes. Born in New Zealand in 1925, Grant began his dance training at the age of seven. He was quickly offered a ballet scholarship in London where he went on to perform with the Royal Ballet for thirty years. He was artistic director of The National Ballet of Canada from 1976 through 1983 and brought several Ashton ballets into the repertoire including La Fille, Monotones, Les Patineurs, The Dream and Two Pigeons. He was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award from the Royal Academy of Dance in London, as well as the 2009 De Valois award for outstanding achievement in dance.