Eva von Gencsy (1924-2013)

>> by Lys Stevens

Eva von Gencsy / Photo courtesy of BJM 

Canada lost one of its great dames of dance on April 11th. Eva von Gencsy is the ballet dancer who fell in love with jazz dance, pioneering the hybrid dance technique of ballet-jazz and co-founding Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal in the early 1970s.

Hungarian by birth, von Gencsy immigrated to Canada in 1948 from Austria, where she had enjoyed an early career as a principal dancer in the Salzburg Landes Theatre. In Winnipeg she joined what was then the Winnipeg Ballet (later renamed the Royal Winnipeg Ballet) and obtained a teaching diploma from the Royal Academy of Dance. Von Gencsy later moved east to join Les Ballets Chiriaeff (later Les Grands Ballets Canadiens) in Montréal, performing on stage and in frequent television appearances.

Beginning in the late 1950s, von Gencsy’s naturally exuberant personality led her to fall in love with jazz dance and she studied with Luigi and other New York City jazz masters. In 1962 she founded her own school in Montréal and, at the invitation of choreographer Brian Macdonald, she taught jazz at the Banff School of Fine Arts until 1975. She founded Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal with former student Eddy Toussaint and dancer Geneviève Salbaing. She served as its artistic director and choreographer until 1979, before moving on to freelance teaching and choreography. Von Gencsy drew worldwide recognition for ballet-jazz through her teaching at universities and schools across Canada, across the US and Europe. She continued to teach movement classes up until her death, including a series of therapeutic movement classes for cancer patients, and a special class hosted by BJM (Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, rebranded several years ago) on March 2nd, 2013, during the all-night festivities of the Nuit Blanche citywide event.

On April 3rd she gave a speech at the Cinémathèque introducing a film on Les Ballets Jazz celebrating its fortieth anniversary and is reported to have experienced heart failure at that moment. She was admitted into Montréal’s Hotel-Dieu Hospital, but died one week later, in the early hours of April 11th. Eva von Gencsy leaves no surviving family members.

A memorial celebration open to all will be held at L’Ecole supérieure de ballet du Québec, 4816 Rivard St., Montréal on May 10th at 5pm. Donations in Eva von Gencsy’s memory may be made either to L’Ecole supérieure or to Hôtel Dieu’s Cardiology Department.

Toronto's arts and culture scene to get $6 million boost

>> by Jacqueline Hansen 

Toronto’s City Council has voted unanimously in favour of increasing funding for the arts by $6 million. The money comes from a billboard tax, unique to Toronto, that the city approved in 2009; however, outdoor advertisers launched a legal challenge to protest paying it, which delayed its implementation until the city won an appeal in the case. City Council had previously discussed directing proceeds of the billboard tax to arts initiatives, but hadn’t made the decision final until now. Four million dollars of the new funding will go to the Toronto Arts Council’s (TAC) grants program, which will reach $14.3 million in 2013. A TAC-issued press release states that the increase will allow the funder to "begin to address funding inequities amongst currently funded organizations while also providing new support for culturally diverse arts organizations, youth, artists working in the inner suburbs and community engaged arts projects." The remaining $2 million will go toward other cultural programs. The municipal financial target for arts support is $25 per capita by 2016. Mayor Rob Ford has referred to the arts funding in the city’s latest budget as a tool “to make Toronto an even more attractive place to live and to invest and create jobs.” 

Christine Moynihan named new GM of STDT

>> By Samantha Mehra

The School of Toronto Dance Theatre (STDT) recently announced Christine Moynihan as its new general manager as of April 8th. Moynihan, in addition to her time as an actor and producer, enters her new role with a long history of experience in arts administration. From 1988 to 2002, she served as artistic producer of Equity Showcase Theatre, followed by a ten-year term as executive director of the Dance Umbrella of Ontario; she also acted as an arts consultant for Toronto-based dance companies. Moynihan is the recipient of both The Harold Award and the Brenda Donoghue Award, both of which recognized her outstanding service to the theatre community.

Meagan O'Shea receives K.M. Hunter Award

>> by Cynthia Brett
The K.M. Hunter Artist Award recipients were announced last week and Meagan O'Shea is this year's dance division honouree. The award, bestowed annually to six artists of different disciplines (dance, film/video, literature, music, theatre and visual arts), was created in 1995 to support and encourage mid-career artists in Ontario who have made an impact and shown originality in their chosen artistic field. O'Shea and five other recipients each receive $8,000 and will be honoured at Toronto's Gladstone Hotel in May.

FTA wins Grand Prix du Conseil des arts de Montréal

>> by Naomi Brand
The Festival TransAmériques (FTA) has won the twenty-eighth Grand Prix du Conseil des arts de Montréal for its work in increasing the visibility of contemporary theatre arts and dance worldwide. The jury recognized Marie-Hélène Falcon, the Festival’s executive and artistic director, for her achievements over the past thirty years. As winner of the Grand Prix, FTA will receive a bursary of $25,000. Among the finalists was BJM - Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, which received $5,000. The prize recognizes the excellence and achievements of Montréal's artistic organizations within nine arts disciplines: circus arts, visual arts, digital arts, film and video, dance, literature, music, theatre, and new artistic practices.

Dance for Good

>> by Samantha Mehra
From March 12th through 28th, 2013, participants in hospitals, shelters and hospices in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia benefited from seeing and learning Bollywood jazz dance as part of the new initiative Dance for Good. Organized by contemporary Indian dance choreographer Shiamak Davar's Victory Arts Foundation (a not-for-profit Canadian organization), the project brought together teachers, students and the Shiamak Dance Team in an effort to demonstrate the "transformative effect of dance." Dance for Good gave participants a chance to view Bollywood jazz dance performances, as well as the opportunity to learn choreography and interact with performers. Participating organizations included St. Michael's Centre Hospice, the Downtown Eastside Women's Shelter and the BC Children's Hospital's Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children. A public demonstration of the Dance for Good program was held on March 23rd at the Capilano Mall, featuring a free showcase of the Dance Team. In a press release, Davar outlined the significance of the initiative: "As the name suggests, Dance for Good is a program where an individual or a group can dance for a good cause ... our aim is to share the joy of dance, to empower the performers, to encourage the spirit of volunteerism, and to bring communities together through music and the performing arts."
More: shiamak.com

VIDF presents new Choreographic Award

>> by Samantha Mehra

The Vancouver International Dance Festival (VIDF) recently announced its inaugural Choreographic Award, which recognizes (biennially) outstanding artistic achievement in choreography. On March 5th, 2013, Michelle Olson, artistic director of the Vancouver-based Raven Spirit Dance, was presented with the first award in recognition of her choreographies, which were influenced by the culture of the Yukon Territory’s Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in peoples. The VIDF, a festival that features local, national and international contemporary dance artists, ran from March 2nd through 23rd, 2013.

More: vidf.ca

Phase one of mapping study released

>> by Jaimée Horn
The dance section of the Canada Council for the Arts has released findings for Phase One of the Canada Dance Mapping Study. The Literature Review confirms that information is still missing, and that many gaps have yet to be filled before the full spectrum of dance in Canada has been outlined. The findings have, however, provided data about professional dance practices and infrastructure, dance that is of European origin, and the professional landscape in specific parts of the country. As research continues throughout the coming months, dance communities already connected to the study as well as those that have yet to be mapped will help to fill in more of the missing pieces. Read more about the study here.

Historic costume to be conserved

 Postcard of Maud Allan in her work Vision of Salomé, c. 1908 / Photo courtesy of Dance Collection Danse

 Brassiere portion of Maud Allan’s Vision of Salomé (1906) costume / 

Photo by Andreah Barker, courtesy of Dance Collection Danse

>> by Catherine Singen

Dance Collection Danse (DCD) recently announced that Maud Allan’s historic Salomé costume will receive treatment from the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI). Once conserved, the costume will provide the focal point for future exhibitions that could include other Maud Allan artifacts in the DCD archives including a bisque nodder, Salomé cigarettes, Salomé corn plasters, postcards, photographs, Allan’s diaries and papers, and other pieces of her Edwardian-era clothing. Amy Bowring, DCD’s Director of Collections and Research, comments, “This restoration project not only highlights an important Canadian cultural artifact but also signifies the importance of dance history within the shared heritage of Canadians.” Maud Allan, a native of Toronto, first wore the costume in 1906 when she debuted her choreographic work The Vision of Salomé in Vienna. Allan’s performance was later seen by King Edward VII who recommended her to the management of the Palace Theatre in London. Allan took London by storm giving over 200 performances in the city beginning in March 1908. Her sensational Vision of Salomé with its risqué costume spawned a Salomania craze that led to dance imitators and a variety of unique merchandise. A pianist by training and highly musical, Allan’s dances were moving interpretations of music by such composers as Chopin, Mendelssohn and Brahms.

Update in the story of Bolshoi director acid attack

>> by Andrew Guilbert
The person responsible for last January’s acid attack on Bolshoi Director Sergei Filin has apparently been revealed. In a taped confession released by Moscow police, one of the Bolshoi’s star dancers, Pavel Dmitrichenko, admits he was responsible for the attack that left the forty-two-year-old Filin with severe burns to his eyes and face. “I organized that attack but not to the extent that it occurred,” said Dmitrichenko in the police footage. Two alleged accomplices are believed to have aided the dancer: Yuri Zarutsky, who allegedly threw the acid in Filin’s face, and Andrei Lipatov, who allegedly drove the get away vehicle. Moscow police believe that Dmitrichenko told Zarutsky about what time the director would leave the theatre on the night of the attack. Police say they became suspicious of Dmitrichenko when they discovered he had been in close contact with an unemployed convict, had purchased SIM cards for mobile phones under an alias and had inquired about Filin’s schedule. Bolshoi spokeswoman Katerina Novikova said that Filin had been informed of the situation but that the theatre would not comment until after the trial. Dmitrichenko, who joined the Bolshoi in 2002, had danced in the company’s production of Swan Lake as well as performing the titular role in Ivan the Terrible. He was scheduled to perform in the Bolshoi’s Sleeping Beauty on March 16th. The New Yorker’s David Remnick has written a detailed account of the scandal at the Bolshoi called "Danse Macabre". It is available for reading online here. Read Andrew Guilbert’s earlier news item here.

BC Arts Council receives record-high budget

>> by Cynthia Brett
The BC government surprised the arts community last month when it announced a $24 million budget for the British Columbia Arts Council (BCAC) in 2013/14, a record high. $5.25 million of this funding will flow from the recently announced BC Creative Futures strategy, a government initiative developed to stimulate growth in the creative sector. Geared toward younger generations, the plan invests in many of the BCAC's youth and education programs. Other funding comes from the ongoing Arts and Sports Legacy fund, a three-year initiative rolled out in 2010 that gives $10 million annually to arts and culture. Mirna Zagar, executive director of The Dance Centre in Vancouver, commented to The Dance Current, "Of course any funding increase is always welcome. However, this is not so much an increase as what seems to be an effort to restore funding and most likely can be viewed as a pre-election booster ... This does not appear to really be new money – it's more about how the existing funds are now being allocated. A good move is the fact that most of it now appears to be flowing back to the community through the BC Arts Council." With funding not yet fully restored, and another $2 million still unallocated, the BC arts community will just have to wait and see what happens next.

Canadian awarded Prix de Lausanne 2013

Caroline Gravel and Danny Desjardins in Catherine Gaudet's Je suis un autre / Photo by Louise Leblanc

>> by Jaimée Horn
This year, event coordinators welcomed nearly 1400 people to the twenty-sixth Prix RIDEAU, held in Québec from February 17th through 21st. Among those recognized was Jacques Poulin Denis, choreographer, dancer, actor and composer, who received the PRIX RADARTS/RIDEAU, an invitation to present his work at the next FrancoFête in Acadia. Also celebrating were Cas Public's Director of Development Marc-Antoine Arrieta, recipient of the PRIX BIS-LA SCÈNE; and choreographer Catherine Gaudet. Gaudet received the PRIX LOJIQ MONDE, a $2000 award for her piece Je suis un autre. Every year Les Prix RIDEAU honour professionals from the performing arts, recognizing those who work tirelessly to make creative work accessible in our communities.

Canadian awarded Prix de Lausanne 2013

 

Cesar Corrales / Photo by Gregory Batardon, courtesy of Prix de Lausanne 

>> by Naomi Brand

Canadian Cesar Corrales has been awarded the Prix de Lausanne 2013, an international ballet competition for dancers ages fifteen through eighteen. The forty-first edition of the competition, which takes place annually in Switzerland, had seventy-five candidates and eight finalists who won scholarships to one of the twenty-eight Prix de Lausanne partner schools around the world. Corrales began dancing at age four and has performed with The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and played the title role in the stage show Billy Elliot. He is sixteen years old and currently lives in Montréal.

André Gingras, 1966-2013

André Gingras / Photo by Jochem Jurgens

>> by Jaimée Horn
After having battled colon cancer for several years, dance artist André Gingras died on February 17th at age forty-six, in Breda, The Netherlands. Born in Canada, he studied theatre, English literature and contemporary dance in Toronto, Montréal and New York City. Gingras began his work as a choreographer in The Netherlands in 1999. His desire to explore a highly physical and visual language, drew inspiration from martial arts, free running, and the physical symptoms related to specific medical conditions. His work has been commissioned by several prestigious artists and companies worldwide, and has toured internationally to great acclaim. In March 2010, he became artistic director of Dance Works Rotterdam, bringing new life to the company through his international network. A public memorial service will be held on March 22nd in The Netherlands, to celebrate his life and honour his numerous artistic contributions. According to Dance Works Rotterdam, Gingras' friends in New York and Canada will be sharing in the celebrations from a distance.

Nancy Lima Dent, 1919-2013

Nancy Lima Dent, 1957 / Photo by Jim Griffin, courtesy of Dance Collection Danse

>> by Amy Bowring
Pioneering modern dance choreographer Nancy Lima Dent died on February 15th, age 93, at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. Born in Toronto to Italian immigrant parents, Lima Dent was not allowed to study dance as a child but did study piano at the Toronto Conservatory of Music. Her father was interned during World War II and during this time Lima Dent began ballet lessons with Boris Volkoff. At Volkoff's studio, she was introduced to modern dance through Elizabeth Leese and discovered an immediate affinity for this form of movement. She left home to pursue dance when her father was released from the internment camp. Living a hand-to-mouth existence, she put every cent she could into her training and staged her first work in 1946, Set Your Clock at U235. With its anti-atomic weapon theme, this was the first of many works Lima Dent created that included social or political commentary. She worked for a decade with the New Dance Theatre under the umbrella of the United Jewish People's Order and was its director from 1950 through 1955. She ran a dance program for the Canadian Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers' Union in Sudbury, Ontario, from 1955 to 1957 and then returned to Toronto and set up the Nancy Lima Dent Dance Theatre. Her works were performed at the Canadian Ballet Festivals in the 1950s and at several modern dance festivals in Toronto in the early 1960s. Working with choreographers such as Yoné Kvietys, Ruth Lau, Birouté Nagys and Bianca Rogge, Lima Dent was part of a group that laid the groundwork in the mid-1960s for the boom period modern dance would experience in the 1970s.
More: dcd.ca/exhibitions/limadent/index.html

Carol Anderson receives Jubilee Medal

>> by Cynthia Brett
Carol Anderson has been awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for her outstanding contributions to the Canadian dance community in a career spanning over thirty-eight years. A founding member of Dancemakers (and artistic director from 1985 to 1988), Anderson is also a choreographer with three Dora Mavor Moore nominations under her belt, a respected teacher and a busy writer. She has written and edited several books on Canadian dance and history as well as numerous other essays and articles, including many for The Dance Current.

Cirque du Soleil lays off 400 employees

Artists of Cirque du Soleil in Amaluna / Photo by Laurence Labat

>> by Andrew Guilbert
Cirque du Soleil recently announced it would lay off 400 employees due to a variety of economic factors putting pressure on the usually robust entertainment giant. Most of those jobs will be cut at company headquarters in Montréal, home to roughly forty percent of Cirque’s 5,000-employee worldwide workforce. In a statement, Cirque spokesperson Renée-Claude Menard acknowledged that the company was dealing with rising production costs, but denied that the Cirque was in any deep financial trouble. “The Cirque is not in crisis, let’s get that straight,” said Menard. “We had a record year in terms of tickets sold. We sold more than 14 million tickets this year. We had a record year for total revenue, with more than $1 billion.” In spite of the record sales, Menard agreed that times were hard. “The organization at the moment is not profitable.” She said that for each cent the Loonie gains over the U.S. dollar the company’s profits are negatively affected by nearly $3 million. Cirque du Soleil currently has nineteen shows touring worldwide and is working on a new show set to open in Las Vegas in May.

Quanz Awarded State Medal in Literature and the Arts

Peter Quanz / Photo by Natalia Ulanova

>> by Samantha Mehra
On February 11th, Canadian choreographer Peter Quanz will receive the State Medal in Literature and the Arts from President Vyacheslav Nagovitsyn of the Republic of Buryatia, Russia. The award, which lauds significant creations of artistic and literary work for the Republic, recognizes Quanz's collaboration with the Buryatia National Ballet for the Republic's 350-year membership in the Russian Federation. In addition to the creation of a new work, titled Dzambuling, Quanz also remounted his In Tandem, while he was in residence in Ulan-Ude, the Buryatian capital, in 2011. Anton Lubchenko, a composer who created the score to Quanz's In Colour (a 2009 work for The National Ballet of Canada), commissioned Quanz to create the award-winning work for the forty-five members of the Republic's National Ballet. The choreographer, who hails from Baden, Ontario, and is now based in Winnipeg, has international prominence as a choreographer, and is the first North American to be awarded the medal.

 

Bolshoi Director Filin attacked

Sergei Filin / Photo by Yuri Kadobnov/AFP/Getty Images

>> by Andrew Guilbert
The dance world reacted in shock when a masked assailant attacked Sergei Filin, artistic director of Russia’s revered Bolshoi Ballet, near his home last month. The assailant threw sulphuric acid at Filin resulting in third-degree burns to his face. Filin, a former dancer who became artistic director in 2011 following the six-year renovation of the company’s famous home theatre in Moscow, had experienced a number of incidents prior to this attack. These included slashed tires, the disabling of two personal cellphones and the hacking and dissemination of his personal e-mail. Filin expressed his feelings of unease on the day of the attack to Bolshoi General Director Anatoly Iksanov. “Sergei told me that he had the feeling that he was on the front line,” Iksanov said in a press conference the day of the attack, and continued, “I told him, ‘Sergei, I’ve already been on the front line for the last two years, it is part of our profession, the profession of the leadership, so it’s normal.’”

‘Normal’ in that the Bolshoi has a history of infighting and petty sabotage. In 2003 former Bolshoi prima ballerina Anastasia Volochkova received death threats after she sued the theatre for unfair dismissal. She is quoted in The Independent saying, “People came to me with threats, even with knives, telling me to drop the case.”

A week after Filin’s appointment in 2011, the theatre’s deputy director, Gennady Yanin, left his position after personal photographs were leaked onto the Internet.

And this week, Bolshoi ballerina Svetlana Lunkina refused to return to Russia after threats to her life over her producer husband Vladislav Moskalyev’s film about the great Russian imperial ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya. Lunkina has been living in Canada for the past six months and is currently teaching in Toronto.

Though no clear motive has been found for the assault, Filin’s colleagues suspect this to be a case of professional envy, in particular over Filin’s casting choices for top roles. Fillin has been released from hospital with a prognosis of complete recovery in spite of worries that he would lose sight in one or both eyes. Principal dancer Galina Stepanenko will act as interim artistic director until Filin can resume his duties. 

Round dances used in Idle No More

Idle No More on Parliament Hill / Photo by Nadya Kwandibens/Red Works

>> by Naomi Brand 
The ongoing Idle No More (INM) protest movement has brought flash mob round dances to streets, shopping malls and public spaces across Canada over the past couple of months. The protest movement led by First Nations in response to the Harper government’s Bill C-45 has garnered the support of many artists including Santee Smith, artistic director of Kaha:wi Dance Theatre. "The flash mob round dances we are seeing as a part of INM comes from Powwow Intertribal, meaning all Nations are welcomed and encouraged to dance," says Smith who is actively involved in the INM movement. “For me the round dance represents a kinetic and spiritual commitment to unity and harmony. To dance you must commit to the energy of the circle, make contact by holding hands, witness others around the circle, unify to the heartbeat pulse of the drum and power of the song. It makes sense at this time of Indigenous awakening and resurgence that the round dances have become a significance part of the movement.” Hundreds of musicians, writers, theatre artists and dancers have signed the Canadian Artists Statement of Solidarity written by Winnipeg musician John K Samson calling for "healthy, just, equitable, and sustainable communities."

More: www.idlenomore.ca

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Canadian-Artists-Statement-of-Solidarity-with-Idle-No-More/317069378411312

Nancy Kilgour receives Order of Canada

>> by Samantha Mehra
Nancy Kilgour, senior pedagogue at the School of Alberta Ballet, was invested into the Order of Canada in 2012 to recognize her contributions to dance in Canada as a teacher of the Cecchetti method of ballet and her fifty-year career in dance. After her early training with Betty Oliphant and Celia Franca, Kilgour taught for both the National Ballet School and the National Ballet, while also performing with the latter. In addition to being the first Canadian awarded a Canada Council grant to study educational techniques at the Bolshoi Ballet in 1967, she was one of the first Canadians to obtain the highest Cecchetti examination levels in England. Kilgour's investiture also recognizes a vast career of international teaching and professional development. In addition to teaching in China, England, Sweden and Belgium, Kilgour studied ballet education techniques at the School of American Ballet, the Kirov School in St. Petersburg, and the School of the Paris Opera. Some of her pupils include Karen Kain, Darcey Bussel and Veronica Tennant.

The Healing Power of Art

Kathleen Rea

>> by Jaimée Horn
Dancer, teacher, choreographer and expressive arts therapist Kathleen Rea has just published her first book, The Healing Dance: The Life and Practice of an Expressive Arts Therapist. Currently on faculty at George Brown College, Rea is also artistic director of REAson d’etre dance productions and a Dora Award winner for her choreography. In her new book, she openly shares the story of her struggle with body image throughout her career as a dancer with The National Ballet of Canada. After years of hurt and hunger, she found healing through what she calls "honest creative expression". The book outlines her approach to healing through the arts and provides intimate examples from her practice as an expressive arts therapist. She also addresses the art of grief by sharing the story of the loss of her father. When talking about this chapter, she says, “writing that provided so much relief of my grief." The book is available for purchase from Charles C Thomas Publisher and Amazon. For more information: www.reasondetre.com / www.flowintolife.com / www.the-healing-dance.com.