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.

Canada's first Integrated Dance Theatre Conference

Photo Courtesy of MoMo Dance Theatre

>> by Naomi Brand 
On November 16th, 2012, the first Canadian Integrated Dance Theatre Conference took place near Calgary. The conference brought together company leaders from five performance companies from across Canada that work with people with and without disabilities. The four-day event took place in an accessible retreat centre in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and consisted of workshops, presentations and discussions facilitated by conference participants. The gathering was hosted by Calgary's MoMo Dance Theatre and attended by Propeller Dance (Ottawa), Les Productions des Pieds des Mains (Montréal), iDance (Edmonton) and Theatre Terrific (Vancouver). The conference was funded through the Canada Council for the Arts' new Deaf and Disability Arts office.

Yoné Kvietys (1924-2011)

>> by Amy Bowring
Lithuanian-born Yoné Kvietys died on July 17th in Calgary. Laban-trained, she immigrated to Canada in 1948 and began working with ballet teacher Boris Volkoff in Toronto. She soon moved to Montréal where she worked with Ruth Sorel and collaborated with fellow Lithuanian émigré Birouté Nagys; the two performed a psychological dance-drama at the 1954 Canadian Ballet Festival. Kvietys returned to Toronto in 1956 and set up a studio and company; among her dancers in the 1960s were Donald Himes, David Earle and Susan Macpherson. Kvietys was part of a team of modern dance artists who organized a series of festivals in Toronto in the early 1960s; she also presented choreographic workshops providing dancers, such as David Earle, with opportunities to stage their own works. In 1966, Kvietys moved to Calgary where she taught modern dance and developed the roots of what would become the dance program at the University of Calgary; Lisa Doolittle and Margaret Dragu were among her Calgary students. In 1972, she shifted disciplines and began a career as a visual artist eventually teaching at the Alberta College of Art.

Good Women hosts second "What's Cooking?" event

Alida Nyquist Schultz (back) and Ainsley Hillyard (front)/ Photo by Tracy Kolenchuk

>> by Cynthia Brett
To celebrate International Dance Day on April 29th, Good Women Dance Collective hosted its second annual "What's Cooking?" event at Transalta Arts Barns in Edmonton. The evening included a buffet-style dinner as well as a casual atmosphere for artists to share works-in-progress and receive feedback from the audience. Collective member Ainsley Hillyard commented in a press release that, "It seems, sometimes, that we don't want to talk about our art ... This is a barrier we wanted to break down."

Two books from Western Canadian dancers

>> by Brittany Duggan
Leap, a new novel by Jodi Lundgren, is a fictional story about a fifteen-year-old girl and her relationship with dance. Full of twists and turns, Leap captures the positive power dance can have on young girls as they wade through the social and personal pressures of growing up. A native of Victoria, BC, Lundgren herself grew up writing and dancing before moving to Seattle to pursue more training and performance opportunities, as well as a Ph.D. in English. Along with other published short works, Lundgren has written one other novel, Touched (2009). Leap was published in March by Second Story Press.

Another dance book to emerge from a Western Canadian dancer is Keltie Colleen’s Rockettes, Rockstars and Rockbottom, an autobiography about this celebrity-status dancer from Sherwood Park, Alberta. Her story starts with her move to New York City and struggle to become a dancer for The Radio City Rockettes and stumbles fast through broken hearts and career highs. Some of those highs include working with the New York Knicks, Kanye West, Taylor Swift and Panic at the Disco; dancing on the MTV Music Video Awards, 30 Rock, Saturday Night Live and Entertainment Tonight; and creating and writing for her blog: www.highkicksandhighhopes.blogspot.com. Colleen currently hosts Live Nation’s music news and her own web series “Living the Dream” on teen.com. Rockettes, Rockstars and Rockbottom was published last year by The Deadxstop Publishing Company in Chicago.

Blackfoot dance history returned to the community

>> by Naomi Brand
On June 21st, coinciding with National Aboriginal Day, a large piece of traditional Blackfoot (Kainai) knowledge was handed back to the community in a most un-traditional way. A collection of interviews about Blackfoot culture and traditional dances generated through the work of a group of researchers was handed over to the Blackfoot community in the form of CDs and DVDs. The interviews are a part of a five-year-long project by University of Lethbridge researchers Lisa Doolittle (theatre arts) and Troy Emery Twigg (Native American Studies) and University of Calgary's Anne Flynn (dance) entitled "Blackfoot Dance History: Selected Perspectives". Beginning with the criminalization of indigenous dances such as sun dances and give-away ceremonies, which were made illegal through changes to Canada's Indian Act in the late 1800s, the researchers looked at various forms of Blackfoot dance from the perspective of several elders and young people in Southern Alberta Blackfoot communities. "To us as outsiders, the resilience of this community in the face of multiple assaults on their way of life is most striking, and that resilience is powerfully expressed in the unbroken practice of dance ceremonies, and in the immense popularity of dance competitions and in contemporary artistic expression," says Doolittle. The materials will be housed in the Blackfoot Digital Library at Red Crow College and will also be made accessible to the public through the University of Lethbridge library. The research is part of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada–funded investigation into dance and multiculturalism in Canada.

Kevin O'Day creates new work as winner of Koerner Award

>> by Cynthia Brett

Kevin O'Day is The Banff Centre's first Koerner Foundation Distinguished Guest Artist in Choreography. He was collaboratively chosen by artistic directors whose companies will participate in the centre's Professional Dance Program this summer. The Koerner award, a new opportunity for established choreographers, complements the biannual Clifford E. Lee Award for emerging Canadian choreographers, whose 2010 recipient is Robert Stephen – a second soloist with The National Ballet of Canada. O'Day's new work will premiere in July at the 2010 Banff Summer Arts Festival.

Recent Awards in Dance: Édouard Lock and Helen Husak

>> by Samantha Mehra
Édouard Lock, founder of Montréal's La La La Human Steps, and Calgary-based dancer Helen Husak are recent recipients of Canadian awards in the arts. Lock was awarded one of two Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prizes, which recognize outstanding lifetime achievement and contribution to Canadian culture. The Molson prize, worth $50,000, becomes the most recent in a long list of awards for Lock who has been named an Officer of the Order of Canada, and a Chevalier de l'Ordre du Québec. In Alberta, Helen Husak received one of seven 2010 biennial emerging artist awards from the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards Foundation. The recipients of this year's awards represented a broad range of arts disciplines, including film, music, dance, theatre, visual arts, production and writing, and glass artists. The award acknowledged Husak as being one of Canada's leading contemporary dancers, and being instrumental in developing training programs for professional dancers in Calgary. In 2008, Husak was the recipient of the Enbridge Artist Award at the Mayor's Evening for Business and the Arts in Calgary.

Beverley Miller 1939 – 2010

>> by Susan Keen
Beverley Miller, long serving teacher at Canada’s National Ballet School (NBS), died February 21st, 2010 at the age of seventy-one after a courageous battle with cancer. Miller studied dance from an early age in Edmonton with Laine Mets. She taught ballet in her late teens and early twenties and her passion also included drama and theatre. Miller obtained a B.A. in Drama from the University of Alberta and a Master’s degree in Theatre Arts from the Pasadena Playhouse in California in the 1960s. Throughout this period she performed extensively in Alberta, California and Toronto. In 1966, Miller’s career path shifted to teaching when she joined the staff of NBS in Toronto. For the next forty-two years she taught Theatre Arts, Creative Drama, Theatre Orientation and History of Ballet. She also taught for a number of years at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute and briefly at George Brown College. She inspired the artistic development of generations of students with her contagious energy, passion, kindness and overall zest for life. “I would not be where I am today were it not for Bev Miller,” say NBS graduate David Nixon, currently artistic director of Northern Ballet Theatre in Leeds, UK, and a recent recipient of the Order of the British Empire. Miller is survived by her husband Dr. Richard (Rick) Miller and two sons. A tribute to Miller is planned for Sunday April 25th, 2:30pm at NBS.

Funding cuts for Alberta's artists

>> by Brittany Duggan
On February 9th, the Alberta government released its annual budget with considerable funding cuts to arts groups for the coming year. The Alberta Foundation for the Arts, which funds the province's dance companies among other cultural groups, received a sixteen percent, or $5.6 million cut.Prior to the budget release, Alberta’s Culture Minister Lindsay Blackett told CBC news that part of the cuts would be absorbed by the ministry's administration. In preparation for the 2010 budget, Blackett met with arts groups to discuss the cutbacks and his belief that Alberta’s arts sector is lacking an organized, single voice when dealing with the government – a sentiment shared by Karen Brown Fournell of Rapid Fire Theatre who, according to CBC, said, “… we just need a stronger team and a more united team to go forward to continue to encourage support and funding for the arts.”

New contemporary dance class initiative in Calgary

>> by Cynthia Brett
The Calgary Contemporary Dance Collective, initiated by Helen Husak, Naomi Brand and Kelly McCann, is now offering drop-in contemporary dance classes and a complimentary Friday fitness class until April 2010. The dance classes are held at the Free House Dance Plus every Monday and Wednesday from 9:30-11am. Guest instructors include Joanne Baker, Hannah Stillwell, Darcy McGehee, Kelly McCann, Ainsley Sudds, Natalie Poissant and Hilary Maxwell. The Friday fitness class, which features plyometric movement training, is held at the Evergreen Theatre from 10-11am. Instructors for the fitness class are Quinn McCrimmon, Sarah Irvine and Helen Husak.

DSW launches new initiatives to develop Alberta choreographers

>> by Naomi Brand

Calgary's Dancers' Studio West (DSW) is gearing its 2009/10 season towards developing choreographers with three newly envisioned programs. First, Alberta Dance Explosions, now in its thirtieth year, has accepted twelve choreographers to create new works for the festival with the mentorship of DSW Artistic Director Davida Monk. Second, with the support of the Canada Council and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, DSW is launching a six-week choreographic lab modelled after the work previously done at Le Groupe Dance Lab. Alberta choreographers Helen Husak and Jason Stroh will each have three weeks of lab time in spring 2010. Auditions are being held on November 7th for dancers for the lab. Third, DSW and New Dance Horizons in Regina have teamed up to initiate the Prairie Dance Circuit. Both organizations will present two artists from the other city thus providing prairie artists the opportunity to tour, gain exposure and get feedback from new audiences. Negotiations are underway with the Feats Festival and Brian Webb in Edmonton, Springboard Performance in Calgary, and Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers to grow the Prairie Dance Circuit into a larger network of presenters for next season. www.dswlive.ca

Husky Energy donates $1-Million to the Banff Centre

>> by Naomi Brand

Husky Energy Inc. made a $1-million donation to the Banff Centre for the Arts. The donation will be directed to continued support of the Midsummer Ball, the centre's flagship fundraiser, and to the revitalization of the centre's campus. Husky has been a supporter of the centre since 1986, and presenting sponsor of the Midsummer Ball since 1998. As part of the Banff Centre Revitalization project, the largest meeting space in the new Kinnear Centre for Creativity & Innovation, set to open in July 2010, will be named the Husky Great Hall.

Fluid Movement Arts Festival celebrates physical performance

>> by Naomi Brand

Calgary's Fluid Movement Arts Festival wrapped up its fourth year on October 25th. The week-long festival presented by Springboard Performance merges contemporary dance and physical performance from local, national and international artists. This year's festival presented Calgary artists in a small-stage cabaret; two showcases of artists whose work has been imprinted by Alberta, including Helen Husak, Tania Alvarado and Lin Snelling; as well as Montréal Danse and the international headliner The Hofesh Shechter Company from the UK. The festival was rounded out by a full schedule of classes, workshops and artist talks.

http://www.springboardperformance.com/

Aboriginal Summer Dance Events

>> by Christa Lochead
This summer saw the launch of two new contemporary Aboriginal dance events and the return of an Aboriginal arts festival. In June, the Banff Centre for the Performing Arts hosted Canada's first International Indigenous Choreographers Summit, a two-week dance residency that brought thirteen dancers from Canada and Mexico together with four international choreographers for an intensive collaborative process. The program included a three-day summit with an additional fourteen Aboriginal choreographers. Final works were presented as part of the 2009 Banff Summer Arts Festival. In August, Kaha:wi Dance Theatre held its inaugural Summer Aboriginal Dance Training Intensive in Toronto. The three-week program offered classes in ballet and contemporary dance as well as traditional Aboriginal performing arts. According to Kaha:wi Artistic Director Santee Smith, the program was created in response to an "overwhelming need for professional development of the Aboriginal dance form." Also in August, Planet IndigenUs, a multi-disciplinary festival of Aboriginal art, was co-presented by Toronto's Harbourfront Centre and Brantford's Woodland Cultural Centre. The festival featured performances, workshops, and community collaboration projects by Indigenous artists from Canada and around the world. Initially presented in 2004, this was the festival's second year.
Kaha:wi Dance Theatre dance workshop / Photo by Sarah Palmieri, courtesy of Centre for the Arts Brock University