Celia Franca in Canada - Dance Collection Danse

Transcription

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Celia Franca in Canada:
The Early Years
Rina Singha: Seventy
Years and Still Dancing
Banff Centre’s
Clifford E. Lee
Choreography Award
DanceWorks at Thirty
plus
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New in the Archives:
Conchita Triana
Excerpt from
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The Man Next Door Dances:
The Art of Peter Bingham
Dear Friends,
Dance Collection Danse is once again launching its annual fundraising campaign.
In 2006, The George Cedric Metcalf Foundation committed a three-year grant to DCD for designing and implementing
a new fundraising campaign. We have been able to employ part-time personnel to help carry out these plans … so we
encourage you to join in and support the organization and its important programs by increasing your annual donation
or becoming a new donor. Your contribution assures that collection, preservation and research into Canada’s theatrical
dance past can continue, and that our national dance stories can be brought back to life through DCD’s Magazine and
book publishing.
DCD is partially supported by public funds and we must balance those dollars with cash donations, which demonstrate
that individuals from across the country support and value
our ongoing work.
We know that you understand the importance of maintaining the histories of those
who have and continue to dedicate their
lives to the artform. We invite you to travel
with us through the many adventures of
Canada’s theatrical dance legacy.
Make your contribution today.
Miriam Adams
Co-founder/Director
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under the corporate name:
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DANSE BOARD OF
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DANCE COLLECTION DANSE
145 George Street
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5A 2M6
Wendy Reid,
Development Advisor*
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Development Associate*
* with the support of the
Metcalf Foundation
Go to:
www.canadahelps.org
Patricia Meyers dancing as Alexandra Denisova with Col. de Basil’s Ballets Russes, c. 1937. Meyers had been a student of Vancouver teacher June
Roper and auditioned successfully for the Ballets Russes in 1936 then toured the United States, Europe and Australia with the company.
Dance Collection Danse Magazine
NUMBER 64, FALL 2007
New in the Archives: Conchita Triana
Amy Bowring.................................................................... 4
Rina Singha: Seventy Years & Still Dancing
Uma Parameswaran ...................................................... 16
DanceWorks at Thirty
Katherine Cornell ............................................................ 6
Celia Franca in Canada: The Early Years
Cheryl Smith .................................................................. 23
Peter Bingham at Synergy
Excerpt from The Man Next Door Dances: The Art of
Peter Bingham
Kaija Pepper .................................................................... 14
Banff Centre’s Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award
Kaija Pepper .................................................................... 30
Margaret Piasecki 1927-2007
Emma Doran ....................................................................35
Opening Remarks
BY
M IRIAM A DAMS
A very generous invitation from Annette av Paul permitted
me to attend the celebrations for the 60th Anniversary of
Dance at the Banff Centre this past summer. Annette,
Dance Program Director, has more recently taken over this
position from Brian Macdonald now the Choreographer/
Artistic Associate at The Banff Centre. This remarkable program can be proud of its huge contribution to dance
through its focussed and effective mentoring of dance
artists. By holding strong to its original vision of providing
the opportunity to work with a variety of exceptional
teachers, choreographers and other artists who have
offered their own unique talents, the participants have
enjoyed an all-encompassing dance experience. In fact,
Banff alumni have infiltrated the world dance scene. In the
Fall 2006 issue (#62) of the DCD Magazine, we published
an article by Amy Bowring on the beginnings of dance at
The Banff Centre. In this issue, Kaija Pepper writes about
the history of Banff’s Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award.
We also bring you Uma Parameswaran’s overview on
the varied career of Kathak dance artist Rina Singha who
has contributed not only to the art of dance as a performer
and choreographer, but also as a long-time teacher and
advocate for multiculturalism and its integration into the
Canadian experience. Lawrence Adams and I met Rina
when she presented her work in the 1970s at our studio/
theatre 15 Dance Lab. Rina’s humility, tolerance and
extraordinary sense of humour have pulled her through
some challenging times.
Cheryl Smith has written a piece about the early years
of Celia Franca’s reign as Artistic Director of The National
Ballet of Canada. A woman who came to this country from
England expecting to build an oasis in the desert, Celia
found that a network of dance training, creation and performance already existed, though she did not necessarily
approve of what was happening here in the ballet world at
the time. Feisty and resolute, she persevered in her desire
to build a “national” ballet company in Canada and, toughing it out for twenty-three years, created a vital and
dynamic organization that has matched any other on the
world stage.
Kate Cornell has provided an article about DanceWorks
on its 30th birthday … reaching the big “3-0” most likely
because of its Dance Curator, Mimi Beck. She became
involved close to DW’s beginnings, and has cleverly
designed a path for the organization that has nimbly flexed
with the times. She has encouraged and sponsored the
growth of many emerging and professional independent
artists and would probably admit to occasionally finding
herself right smack dab in the centre of the storm. But like
the others mentioned above, resilience and determination
have carried the day.
On the home front … Amy Bowring, DCD’s Director of
Research, is back after a three-month maternity leave. Her
son Luke is at the office a few days each week and although
he would rather sleep than help to organize the archival
collections, he is absorbing the “preservation” vibes that
surround him. Seika Boye, DCD’s Research and Marketing
Manager and our Metcalf Foundation Intern, begins her
one-year maternity leave this fall … it seems that DCD rests
on fertile ground.
The Magazine is published by Dance Collection Danse
and is freely distributed.
ISSN 0 849-0708
Dance Collection Danse
145 George Street Toronto, ON M5A 2M6
Tel. 416-365-3233 Fax 416-365-3169
E-mail talk @ dcd.ca Web site www.dcd.ca
Design by Michael Caplan,
Radiance Publications 416-323-9270
Cover Photo: Celia Franca at the London Airport,
April 23, 1952
B.O.A.C. Photograph
Courtesy of the National Ballet of Canada Archives
No. 64, Fall 2007
3
NEW
In
the
A rchives
Conchita Triana
BY
A MY B OWRING
Likened to famed Spanish dancers La Argentina and
Carmen Amaya, the Toronto beauty Conchita Triana is typical of so many figures in Canadian history – that is, she suffers the fate of being completely unknown.
Born in 1912 as Barbara Mary Beck, Triana grew up in
the posh Toronto neighbourhood of Rosedale. Described by
her cousin Erie Tudhope as a “rebel at heart”, Triana began
her Spanish dance studies in the early 1930s in Toronto with
Elisa Lopez. Throughout the 1930s, Triana also made a point
Conchita Triana, c. 1939
4
of studying her art by watching the who’s who of the
Spanish dance scene as artists made stops in Toronto during
North American tours. House programs from the Royal
Alexandra Theatre and Eaton Auditorium reveal that Triana
attended performances
by Carola Goya, La
Argentina and Teresina,
among others. It is also
likely that Triana attended performances at New
York’s Town Hall during the 1934/35 season
as her collection contains house programs
for performances by
Spanish dancers Lola
Bravo, Clarita Martin
and Carola Goya.
By the late 1930s,
with moral and financial
support from her parents, she was making
regular trips to New
Lowney’s Caravan program
York City to study with
Juan de Beaucaire Montalvo. Her collection provides a fascinating series of letters from Montalvo in which he provides updates about other dancers in his studio. But even
more interesting are his comments on World War II before
and after U.S. involvement in the war. He is a staunch patriot and it is fascinating to read an average citizen’s perspective on these world events, as opposed to the more common
military view provided by history books.
During World War II, Triana performed in a considerable number of benefit concerts to aid organizations such as
the Red Cross; she also danced for the troops as part of the
Lowney’s Caravan. A variety show, the Lowney’s Caravan
was sponsored by the candy maker (Glossettes, Oh Henry,
etc.) and toured to various military bases to entertain the
troops; the Caravan that included Triana toured southern
Ontario. Triana’s cast featured Clair Rouse, a former
vaudevillian and popular one-man band who played seventeen instruments; Rex Slocombe, a witty magician who,
according to the Aylmer Airmen newsletter, was “not responsible for making the drill at the RCAF No. 6 Repair Depot
disappear”; a sketch group called The Cracker Jacks; and
singer June Barrett, among others. During the war years
and after, Triana appeared on several bills with Rouse in
other variety shows.
In the post-war years and right into the 1960s, Triana
was in high demand as a variety act in public performances
at the Eaton Auditorium and Massey Hall; she also garnered considerable work at private functions including
after-dinner floor shows for groups such as the Lever
Brothers Limited Ex-Service Men’s Association, the Bakelite
Old Timers, and the General Steel Wares Limited Toronto
Employees Quarter Century Club. The many house programs in her collection reveal how very busy she was –
sometimes performing several times a week.
Letter to the Editor
Conchita Triana on tour with the Lowney’s Caravan, c. 1941
Her charitable work continued after the war with
events including the 1951 and 1952 Fiesta en Espana at the
Eaton Auditorium, which was held in aid of the Canadian
Save the Children Fund. Among more professional productions, she danced as a soloist in the Rosselino Opera
Company production of La Traviata, which toured cities in
southern Ontario in 1947.
By 1953, Triana had opened a studio in Toronto; an ad
for her school can be found in a house program for a José
Greco performance at the Royal Alexandra Theatre along
with an ad for Elisa Lopez’ studio. The number of years
that Triana had a studio is unclear; however, the discovery
that there were at least two Spanish dance schools in
Toronto by the early 1950s is remarkable. Triana’s collection
also reveals the names of others who were practicing this
art form in the 1940s and 1950s such as Tito Fandos – not
known is whether these artists were of Spanish descent or,
like Triana, had changed their names to Spanish-sounding
ones.
Conchita Triana passed away in October 2006. Last
spring, DCD was contacted by her cousin, Erie Tudhope,
who is responsible for donating Triana’s archives to DCD.
This is an exciting collection for dance historians as it provides new evidence about the existence of a nascent
Spanish dance scene in Toronto in the early twentieth century – and for all the questions it answers, more continue to
crop up. However, the leads that the collection provides
could reveal even more discoveries about the presence of
this passionate dance form in what was then “Toronto the
good”.
I have just received the latest issue of the Dance
Collection Danse Magazine and want to say a big
thank you to the staff at DCD. This issue really brings
me back to my roots, especially the article about Les
Grands Ballets Canadiens. And what beautiful pictures of those wonderful dancers.
I like to tell everyone that there were five guys
who came to Canada from New York about the same
time – in the late 1950s and early 1960s. We never
made enough money to get back to New York, so we
are still here … Vincent Warren, Peter Boneham,
Daniel Jackson, Larry Gradus and me. Larry was in
the Royal Winnipeg Ballet [RWB] the year before I
was, but he went back to New York and joined
American Ballet Theatre, then came to Montreal to
join Les Grands. I arrived in Winnipeg on September
7, 1957 and the others travelled to Montreal about
1960. Reading your article about Les Grands made
me realize that we were all on the ground floor of
dance in Canada – and what a wonderful time it was.
At about the same time, David and Lawrence Adams
and Lois Smith and all of that gang would have been
with the National Ballet in Toronto.
I am planning to go to Winnipeg in October just
for old time’s sake and to see the company in their
new season. September 7th will mark 50 years since
my arrival here and 37 years since I retired from the
stage. In a couple of years the RWB will be 70 years
old, this year is the 50th anniversary of the Canada
Council for the Arts and this past summer Banff celebrated the 60th anniversary of its Dance Program …
and it all seems just like yesterday. We all have so
many magnificent memories and have made such
great friends. I am so proud to have been part of this
world and we owe DCD a great deal for keeping our
history alive. Thank you and keep up the wonderful
work.
– Richard Rutherford
ERRATUM
Last issue, #63 “Alberta Ballet: 40 Years On”
by Michael Crabb
Pages 14-15: The photograph is of the work I Want,
I Want choreographed by Don Gillies for the Janet
Baldwin Ballet and performed at the last Canadian
Ballet Festival, 1954, in Toronto. Dancers: Ruth Carse
and Don Gillies.
Thanks to Cliff Collier and Barbara Cook for sending
in the correct information.
No. 64, Fall 2007
5
AT
THIRTY
BY
K ATHERINE C ORNELL
I remember DanceWorks at a time when it was almost acceptable not to leap around, or flex in angst, or display extension, or contract
before releasing ... when Margaret Dragu and Johanna Householder and Louise Garfield and Conrad Alexandrowicz and others created and
performed works that made the question “Is This Dance?” squirm around inside audience member’s brains and sometimes tick them off. I
remember making works using actor and bodybuilder and writer and gymnast and fiddle player and painter as performers – further chafing the bums-in-seats. I can vaguely recall performers of the famously daring Unknown Dance Company who wore paper bags over their
heads thereby challenging the audience to put a face on the pirouette. DanceWorks boldly hosted these performances without agonizing
over offending the paying public, the arts councils, the art police, the politically correct. I remember when DanceWorks’ performances took
place in community centres, church basements, art galleries and offices; when Performance Art and Dance and Video Art all mixed together
triggering some very strange and wonderful results. For a while DanceWorks seemed obliged to clean-up its act, but times and politics
have shifted again, and now it has come full circle.
– Miriam Adams, contributing dancer/choreographer
In action for a remarkable thirty years,
DanceWorks has remained a small
organization of dedicated staff since
its inception. Surviving three decades
of sporadic cutbacks that threatened
the lives of much larger, more mainstream arts organizations, DanceWorks has continued to reflect the
changing shape of dance in Toronto
and across Canada over the span of its
existence.
In the 1970s, many independent
dance artists got their start at Toronto’s
15 Dance Lab, an atelier for experimentation in post-modern and conceptual dance, where often one or two
artists’ work appeared on a program.
6
At the same time, other small rental
venues where independent artists
could self-present their choreography
included Café Soho (at the Rivoli) and
the Poor Alex. As the independent
community began looking for more
opportunities to perform, DanceWorks
in Toronto and Tangente in Montreal
began operations. They offered independent dance artists greater visibility
and stability than the artist could
attain by self-presenting. Generally, a
presenter would produce a season of
dance that balanced the demands of
its venue, its audience, its budget and
its specific aesthetic or style. DanceWorks did not begin with a single
curatorial vision; its co-operative roots
remain at the essence of the organization.
In 1977, a collective of dance
artists including Johanna Householder,
Martha Lovell, Irene Grainger, Janice
Hladki and Joan Phillips started what
was to become DanceWorks. The first
performance occurred on March 27,
1977 at the Music Gallery in Toronto.
Most of the early participants had
studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts at
York University (which began graduating its first dance majors in 1974).
Teacher/choreographer/dancer Joan
Phillips commented that the idea of
DanceWorks came out of the former
students’ desire to move in different
directions in terms of style and technique. In particular, she noted that
DanceWorks collaborators were interested in exploring “different ways of
sourcing movement.” The first performance was simply called Dance
Improvization I, the second performance occurred less than six weeks
later. In those early years, the collective evolved and changed depending
on who was available. DanceWorks’
programs generally included at least
four artists, performing self-composed
solos or duets. There was no curator –
a DanceWorks event was an opportunity for artists to share their work
several times a year. Householder
remarked, “When we started DanceWorks in 1977, I don’t think we ever
envisioned it would go on for thirty
years.”
The Music Gallery, Toronto’s
Centre for Creative Music founded in
1976, provided a welcome setting for
DanceWorks as its artists and audiences were interested in similar postmodern investigations. Their programming offered several independent artists and groups the opportunity to perform on a varied program.
Cross-pollination of ideas happened
between different artistic disciplines.
For example, in the first season Roger
Guerta, an actor, presented a work
where a performer slithered across the
floor, his body coated in peanut butter.
Occasionally in the early days,
Johanna Householder and Martha
Lovell improvised while the Canadian
Creative Music Collective (CCMC),
which included Nobuo Kubota, Allan
Mattes, Larry Dubin, Casey Sokol, Bill
Smith and Michael Snow, performed;
they worked in parallel play – less
as collaborators. The Music Gallery
was not only a venue, but a kind of
organizational model, along with 15
Dance Lab, that influenced the way
DanceWorks operated as a centre for
creation.
Although DanceWorks did not
have an administrator, or a formal
mandate as funders require today,
Johanna Householder articulated their
original vision as, “raising the visibility of post-modern dance practices and
performance.” Householder accentuates that, based on the nature of the
work, they saw themselves more as
dance artists than choreographers. For
example, they used text, voice and
film to expand the potential of dance.
As described by Householder, the title
of the organization also reflected the
importance of the work of “exposing
the guts of dancing.” In reference to
the name, Joan Phillips added that,
“We had our own voices, but one
name, DanceWorks.” The co-ordination of the first year or two of performances fell primarily to Irene Grainger
and Kyra Lober (though others assisted and maintained the records). The
Ontario Arts Council (OAC), specifically dance officer Susan Cohen,
awarded DanceWorks its first small
grant in 1978. In 1980, 15 Dance Lab
closed and DanceWorks was left as
one of the only organizations in
Toronto that encouraged explorations
in contemporary dance. Thanks to
recognition from the OAC, other public agencies began supporting
DanceWorks as well. Funding from
the Canada Council came in the early
1980s from an unlikely area, the Visual
Arts Section, which supported performance artists.
In 1982, Toronto Star critic William
Littler described performance art as
the intersection of dance, drama and
visual art; it was an integral part of
DanceWorks from the beginning
because several of the co-founders,
namely Johanna Householder, used
performance art as the foundation for
their work. In the early 1980s, Margaret
Dragu – dancer, performance artist
and writer – became the first Performance Art curator for DanceWorks.
Dragu developed a provocative series
that often included site-specific works
in non-traditional dance settings such
as the Art Gallery of Ontario. Dragu
was known for her unpredictable
work and at times the performance art
series gained attention through controversy. For example, in the middle
of her 1981 work, Her Majesty, she
dipped eels in melted chocolate, then
chopped them up with a cleaver on a
wagon with swastikas as the wheels.
Police security was ordered in
advance of one of these performances
because of a threat and pending lawsuit between her and another performance artist regarding a previous
altercation on stage. (Thankfully, nothing happened that night.) On another
occasion, the Harbourfront Centre
demanded that DanceWorks remove
one of Lisa Steele and Kim Tomczak’s
sexually explicit videotapes, which
had not been approved by the censor
board. Although performance art was
presented at other venues in Toronto,
DanceWorks provided an opportunity
for performance artists particularly
interested in using the kinetic body as
their medium.
Thanks in part to her experiences
with DanceWorks, Johanna Householder,
Margaret Dragu in Her Majesty by Dragu
and Tom Dean, Art Gallery of Ontario,
Toronto, March 1981
Photo: Richard Banks
No. 64, Fall 2007
7
Poster for DanceWorks 23, August 6-8, 1981
Department’s summer intensive,
which included a course on Laban’s
Modern Educational Dance. Beck
loved the summer program and got
permission to stay at York as a special
student taking several classes in
preparation for a Master’s degree.
During her time there, she attended
performances at 15 Dance Lab and
then DanceWorks. Although she was
accepted into the Master’s program,
she decided to leave school and perform and teach instead. Together with
her husband at the time, Don MacMillan, she opened MacBeck Studios
as a venue for dance and music education. MacBeck Studios offered workshops and classes, rented out space
and provided production services.
Beck, like many dance artists of the
time, was a jack-of-all-trades – she
taught classes around the city, danced
and choreographed, and helped manage administration. She credits her
father-in-law, Keith MacMillan, as an
important mentor to her in the area of
arts administration. In 1979, Beck
began co-ordinating DanceWorks’
programs (as well as performing –
notably while pregnant in the piece
Carbon Coffee). Naturally, MacBeck
Studios provided the growing
DanceWorks with office space, but
ceased operations as an educational
enterprise in 1983. In a few years,
MacMillan officially became DanceWorks’ Executive Director and Beck
its Dance Curator.
together with Louise Garfield and
Janice Hladki, formed the performance art group The Clichettes in
1978. The Clichettes were a fictionalized singing and dancing trio that lipsynced to popular music; feminism
informed all of their works. As opportunities for the Clichettes increased,
Householder moved away from
DanceWorks (returning in April of
1982 to perform). By then, a young
teacher and dancer from the U.S.,
Pamphlet for MacBeck Studios, Fall 1980
Mimi Beck, had become involved with
running the organization … and has
As DanceWorks transremained the driving force
formed from a collective of
behind DanceWorks since
local performers to a presenthe early 1980s.
ter of Canadian dance artists,
Beck was a teacher who
funders also began to recogbecame interested in dance
nize the necessity for presenas an adult. She took classes
ters in a changing dance
throughout the northeastern
community that was cultivatUnited States (including the
ing more independents than
Cunningham Studios) and
companies. In 1981/82, the
was particularly drawn to
Dance Section of the Canada
dance and music education
Council created a new grant
when she started studying at
specifically for dance presena studio in Morgantown,
ters and DanceWorks was
West Virginia. There, Beck
one of its first recipients. The
met Johanna Householder
cheque was more rewarding
and spoke of her desire to
than expected; a Toronto
train further during the sumSusan McKenzie and Lorraine Segato of the Parachute Club in Janice
newspaper reported that
mer of 1976. Householder
Hladki’s They Walk by Night, DanceWorks 30, 1982
Beck
and MacMillan received
suggested she attend the
Photo: Irene Grainger
a cheque for the staggering
York University Dance
8
Mimi Beck in Carbon Coffee by Beck, Sallie
Lyons, John Oughton, Allan Risdill, Carolyn
Shaffer, John Tench and Margaret Rose Webb,
DW17, 1980
when Premiere Dance Theatre (and
the other stages) at the Harbourfront
Centre opened in 1983 and began presenting modern dance and renting
space for performances. Harbourfront
would eventually become the home of
DanceWorks Mainstage productions.
Although Beck’s initial job title,
coordinator, was non-descript, by 1983
curating had become her primary
responsibility. Beck was keenly interested in the responsibilities of a curator,
but had little experience. She began
making connections with others in the
same field in Canada and the U.S. to
build strategies to “meet the needs of
local and touring artists.” Networking
with individuals who held similar
positions led to what would become
the first meeting of CanDance (The
Canadian Network of Dance Presenters) in 1985. At that time, Beck was
chosen as their National Spokesperson
and continues today as the service
organization’s Executive Director.
In 1986, she received funding to
travel and talk to visual arts and
dance curators in Canada and the U.S.
These connections led to further discussions taking the form of the U.S./
Canada Performance Initiative.
Ultimately, this networking clarified
the job for Beck and put her in touch
with contemporary dance artists outside of Toronto; she recalls negotiating
the shift from dancer/teacher to curator.
amount of $45,000 for a project whose
costs were not budgeted to exceed
$5,000. The humorous documentation
of this clerical error (the Council grant
allotted was actually $4,500) marked
the beginning of the DanceWorks’
shift to formal presenting.
As DanceWorks
grew, so did the number
of dance artists applying
to be presented. Some of
the early productions,
which occurred at various theatres across
Toronto, included performances by local artists
such as Judy Jarvis and
visiting artists such as
Karen (Jamieson) Rimmer
from Vancouver, Contraband from San Francisco,
and Silvy Panet-Raymond
from Montreal. DanceWorks had built a small
but dedicated following
in the dance community
and the general public.
As a result, DanceWorks
Kim Frank and Allen Norris (Kaeja) in Paula Ravitz’s Dorothy, 1988
was relatively established
The Clichettes: Johanna Householder, Louise
Garfield and Janice Hladki in She Devils of
Niagara by Marni Jackson and The Clichettes,
1986
Photo: David Hlynsky
No longer taking class regularly she
had to develop other ways to stay in
touch with artists … she attended a lot
of performances and frequently met
artists for coffee. Joan Phillips, as a
strong supporter of DanceWorks,
attests that Beck works consciously to
see a tremendous number of performances in Toronto and abroad. These
efforts led to Beck being recognized as
an accessible curator that dancer/
choreographer Denise Fujiwara
describes as “attentive to the [entire]
community ... supporting
artists at different points
in their careers.”
Over time, each of the
DanceWorks productions
has been given an “opus”
number. Spring 2007
marked number 165 in the
history of the organization. When it reached
number 50 after a decade
of productions, a celebration was in order. This
four-night run, June 16 to
19, 1987 included a variety
of local and touring artists
from across Canada. One,
Marie Chouinard, was the
enfant terrible of Montreal
No. 64, Fall 2007
9
Joan Phillips in her work Joan of Willowdale, 1980.
dance who performed her controversial solo, S.T.A.B. (Space, Time and
Beyond). This surreal work had gained
Chouinard notoriety because she
painted her body red, wore just a gstring and headgear with a large tail,
and amplified her breath and vocalizations while she danced. DanceWorks 50 established the organization
as a champion of cutting-edge
independent Canadian dance.
Of course, the history of DanceWorks includes tough times as well as
celebrations. Beck recalls writing
“naïve” grant applications, during the
Mulroney era, that argued DanceWorks could eventually cut its dependency on public funding and be
completely supported by box office
revenue, private foundations, sponsors and donors. This optimism was
short-lived; drastic cutbacks at the
Ontario Arts Council in the early
1990s hit DanceWorks hard. The
OAC’s new policies meant that DanceWorks, along with numerous other
arts organizations, had to contain and
address financial deficits immediately.
Furthermore, cutbacks at the Canada
Council in the mid-1990s led to some
very lean years. As a result, Beck
shortened the length of the season
accordingly and minimized risk when
10
Photo: Ron Levine
necessary. DanceWorks continued to
fundraise through organizing various
galas and at annual special events
such as 3 Storey Cabaret (which was a
performance/fundraising event that
involved three arts organizations
working in the same facility). There
were a couple of years when Beck and
General Manager Rosslyn JacobEdwards, who joined the organization
in 1989, each took a one-month
unpaid leave in order to balance the
books. This cautious budgeting meant
that DanceWorks survived an era that
several arts organizations did not.
Despite financial woes, Beck continued to receive proposals from
artists across Canada, and soon from
around the world. Most of DanceWorks’ five annual Mainstage presentations were small in size especially if
the production was touring from
outside of Toronto. By the late 1990s,
“there was a lot more work than we
could ever present,” so Beck cultivated
Marie Chouinard in her work S.T.A.B. (Space, Time and Beyond), DanceWorks 50, 1987
Photo: Louise Oligny
Denise Fujiwara in her work Great Wall
Courtesy of T.I.D.E. (Toronto Independent
Dance Enterprise) Archives
Photo: Cylla Von Tiedemann
a specific niche for DanceWorks. It
incorporated a balance of local,
Canadian and international artists,
with particular attention paid to multicultural artists that appeal to Toronto
audiences. Local artists represented
the modern dance community, but
also clearly reflected the diversity of
Metro Toronto. For example, Firedance
with Kathak dancer Joanna De Souza
and Flamenco dancer Esmeralda
Enrique was an incredibly popular
production, first performed in 1996
with a follow-up performance in 1998.
Repeat touring artists included some
of Canada’s most renowned modern
dancers and choreographers such as
Rachel Browne, Paul-André Fortier,
Peggy Baker, Denise Fujiwara and
Tedd Robinson. Beck also programmed
international works for audiences
interested in dynamic contemporary
dance, such as Dance Noise from New
York and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker
from Brussels. Other international
artists reflect the multicultural
composition of Toronto’s audiences
such as South African solo artist
Vincente Sekwati Mantsoe and IndoAmerican choreographer Ananya
Chatterjea.
In addition to presenting Mainstage
performances, DanceWorks has offered
a range of smaller scale programming
particularly for emerging local artists.
This ongoing connection to the community is one of DanceWorks’ greatest
strengths, says Denise Fujiwara. For a
time, DanceWorks offered free outdoor
performances at Toronto City Hall
called Festival in the Square. But it
was the Dance Talks series that really
interested the dance community. These
evenings would give a few young
artists the opportunity to present works
to an audience encouraged to offer
feedback. Allan Risdill, a dancer with
T.I.D.E. (Toronto Independent Dance
Enterprise), joined DanceWorks’
administration part-time in 1980 and
suggested the Dance Talks idea. After
Risdill passed away, Tama Soble, Lisa
Sandlos and Vivine Scarlett each
organized Dance Talks until it stopped
in 1995 when Series 8:08, which also
included audience feedback, began.
Another effective smaller scale
prgramming series for emerging
artists offered by DanceWorks is called
CoWorks. CoWorks artists self-present
under the banner of DanceWorks; for a
small fee, DanceWorks advertises the
performances in its season and provides
valuable advice and some production
services. The CoWorks series began in
the early 1990s (preceded by First Works,
a similar program). CoWorks is often
the beginning of a relationship for an
artist with DanceWorks. Several artists
and companies, such as Heidi Strauss
and C.O.B.A. (Collective of Black Artists)
got their start this way and have since
performed on the Mainstage and
beyond. Festivals such as Kala Nidhi
Fine Arts of Canada, danceImmersion
and Dusk Dances were CoWorks productions for many years. As Denise
Fujiwara put it, DanceWorks “helps
people get traction.” Beck does not
consciously look for artists with whom
she can establish a long-term relationship, but many of DanceWorks’ artists
return again and again. Today, DanceWorks presents Canadian artists,
emerging and established, as well as
visiting international artists on a season with six Mainstage productions,
as well as several smaller CoWorks
presentations. Mainstage artists are
paid a fee and the production is fully
marketed and publicized.
Bill Coleman in his work Zorro,
DanceWorks 59, 1989
Photo: Carl Saytor
The history of DanceWorks’ success as a presenter is tied to Mimi Beck
and her personal aesthetic as a curator.
Johanna Householder believes that
“Mimi has done an extraordinary job”
especially in drawing attention to the
diversity of the dance landscape in
Toronto. Joan Phillips describes Beck’s
approach to programming as “sensitive to nurturing.” Beck remains true
to the collaborative spirit of DanceWorks, maintaining the high standard
of quality that audiences have come to
Esmeralda Enrique
Photo: Diana Laanemots
No. 64, Fall 2007
11
Heidi Strauss in her work Das Martyrium
expect. After twenty-eight years with
DanceWorks, Beck is this year’s recipient of the Dance Ontario Award, which
she will receive at Dance Ontario’s
DanceWeekend in January 2008.
By all accounts, DanceWorks is an
essential and valued organization, not
only within the Toronto dance community where it lives, but also for the
Canadian dance milieu at large. DanceWorks has survived for thirty years
Vivine Scarlett
12
Photo: Jeremy Mimnagh
because of its strong management, its
connection to the art of dance and its
ability to adapt. Mimi Beck’s unfaltering commitment to Canadian
dance and DanceWorks is inspiring.
Thanks to Johanna Householder, Joan
Phillips, Denise Fujiwara and Mimi Beck
for the wonderful interviews. Many of the
resources used in this article came from
DanceWorks’ archives, housed at Dance
Collection Danse.
Katherine Cornell is a writer, teacher and
historian. She enjoyed working for
DanceWorks in education and archives
from 2000 to 2004. She currently teaches
several courses at Ryerson University’s
Theatre School. She is also a PhD candidate (ABD) in Communications and
Culture at Ryerson University.
Photo: Ren Images
In memory of
Jean-Pierre Perreault
on the fifth anniversary
of his passing …
Coleman Lemieux
& Compagnie
present an evening
of dance and film
Proceeds to benefit
Please join us at The Citadel – the new home
of Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie
304 Parliament Street, Toronto
Tuesday, December 4, 2007, 8:00 pm
Tickets $20
Seating is limited
Featuring
A reconstruction of the compelling
25-minute duet, E.M.F., commissioned from
Jean-Pierre in 1999 by dancer Mark Shaub.
Performed by Laurence Lemieux and Mark.
Music: Felix Mendelssohn.
and
A special screening of Tim Southam’s moving
film portrait of Jean-Pierre, Perreault Dancer.
Please join us.
L’Exil-l’oubli, 1999
Dancers: Laurence Lemieux, Mark Shaub
Photo: Robert Etcheverry
Avec l'autorisation de la Fondation Jean-Pierre
Perreault – With the permission of the Fondation
Jean-Pierre Perreault
NEW RELEASE
Betty Oliphant, one of the world’s great teachers,
trained some of today’s finest artists: Karen Kain,
Veronica Tennant, James Kudelka and Rex Harrington,
among many others.
For this book, Oliphant spent five years recording her
approach to training in collaboration with Nadia Potts.
Descriptions of the classes are accompanied by Rhonda
Ryman’s DanceForms figures, which serve to clearly
illustrate the exercises. Also included are Oliphant’s
unique views, observations and insights about teaching.
Nadia Potts studied with Oliphant, joining The National Ballet
of Canada, where she was a principal dancer for seventeen
years. Appearing throughout the world as a guest artist, Potts
was partnered by many renowned dancers to include Mikhail
Baryshnikov and Rudolph Nureyev. She is currently a
professor and director of the Dance program at Ryerson
University’s Theatre School.
Dance Collection
Danse Press/Presse
268 pages
including
illustrations and
photographs
$60.00 retail
ISBN
978-0-929003-62-7
talk @dcd.ca
No. 64, Fall 2007
13
This fall, Dance Collection Danse is releasing its latest book, The Man Next Door Dances: The Art of Peter
Bingham by Kaija Pepper. Below is an excerpt about the early years of Bingham’s dance career.
PETER
BINGHAM
AT
SYNERGY
It was in 1975 with Linda Rubin at her Vancouver studio,
Synergy, that Peter Bingham took his first dance class.
Comfortably dressed in drawstring pants and an East
Indian-styled cotton shirt, the twenty-four-year-old felt very
much at home: “I got turned onto it completely and immediately signed up for classes four nights a week.” Here was
the physical excitement he craved, and a dance space where
there was room to move. As well, unlike the clubs where he
normally danced, there was a strong health-conscious atmosphere and he managed to cut back his cigarette habit,
which had reached between one and two packs a day. Soon,
he was not smoking at all.
Bingham’s attraction to Rubin’s classes went deeper
than the physical, and he also connected to her affinity with
the era’s intense social conscience, which made for a radically different kind of dance studio. At Synergy, dance was
about cooperation, not competition, and the way an individual dancer felt about what they were doing was crucial.
The deep relationship between body, mind and spirit
appealed to Bingham; here, dance expressed the individual
as a whole human being, in an atmosphere that was calm,
stressing inner serenity and strength. Synergy brought
together the various strands of Bingham’s life in a way he
had never before experienced: his religious upbringing and
his love of athletics were transformed into a dance practice
that reflected the holistic social and spiritual philosophies
of his generation.
After studying with Rubin for about five months,
Bingham began helping with administrative chores, as well
as assisting during classes. He absorbed the more abstract
concepts that were part of Rubin’s teaching, such as awareness of shape and line, and fostering a central focus during
group improvisations.
Soon, Bingham joined the Synergy Performing
Association. In addition to Daniel Collins, other members
14
Peter Bingham and Jane Ellison improvising during a Synergy
workshop, 1975
were Bingham’s friend Bruce Fraser, and English teacher
and tutor Peter Ryan. Also in the group was dancer Mary
Craig; Michael Seamus Linehan, who had been “into” yoga
before discovering dance; Andrew Harwood, who came to
Vancouver from Montreal to work for his brother at
Lifestream, a popular natural foods store; and Helen
Clarke, an Australian who travelled west after taking a
workshop with Rubin in Halifax.
Another SPA member, Jane Ellison, had studied modern dance with Paula Ross while in high school. “The bodywork was significant for me,” she says of Synergy. “It really
changed my idea of working in dance. It was so experiential – you breathed, you felt, you used your senses, your
own experience.” Later, Ellison coordinated the dance program and managed the studio rentals for the artist run centre, the Western Front, until a dance company called EDAM
took over.
When Rubin left the Western Front to move into her
own space on the upper floor of the Arcadian Hall, a simple
wooden building built in 1905 by the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, Bingham joined the eager work crew. Situated
on Main Street next to an auto wrecking operation and just
a few blocks northwest of the Western Front, the large studio had lots of windows, a high ceiling and a sprung wood
floor. The crew painted the walls and ceiling white, added
some plants and mirrors, and installed a good sound system.
It was in this warm and welcoming space, where he felt
very much at home, that Bingham presented his first dance
work. He and Clarke, with whom he was romantically
involved, created a structured improvisation sporting the
confounding title, if two and two still = two all the rest is easy.
During his solo section, he sat cross-legged on the floor and
performed a dance with one arm and hand to a gentle song,
Hand-dancing, by Canadian singer/songwriter Bruce
Cockburn.
Also on the bill was an open improvisation called
Emerging Images directed by Rubin, who performed with
Bingham, Clarke, Harwood and Ryan. In a group work by
Harwood, the performers first impersonated a washing
machine and then the clothes hanging out to dry. It might
have been goofy, but it was also a lot of fun, and the audience of about one hundred enjoyed the evening.
Today, Bingham recognizes Linda Rubin’s importance
to his artistic growth, and to the Vancouver scene in general:
black leotards and
tights with stirrup
feet, but sweat pants
or light cotton
trousers were common, particularly
for the men.
Dancing at
Synergy was, for
many, spiritually
and emotionally
healing. In the
improvisations,
through emphasis
on individual
expression and in
the demand for
openness to others,
there was a healthy
mix of personal
freedom and social Synergy founder Linda Rubin, c. 1977
interaction. The
paradox was that you had to be yourself in order to participate effectively as part of the team. This was the bedrock on
which Bingham would build his understanding of what it
was to be an artist.
Synergy opened people up to the notion of being
creative together in an improvisational way. And it
was with knowledge, it wasn’t just getting together
and playing….
I would never have had anything to do with ballet.
Neither would most of the other guys there. Linda
made it possible for us to dance.
For athletic men like Bingham, who had attended only one
formal dance performance in his life – a modern company
at his high school, the details of which he cannot recall –
Rubin made dance approachable. More than that, at
Synergy athleticism was not out of place. This was dance
for real people. A number of the women wore traditional
No. 64, Fall 2007
15
Rina
Singha
Seventy
Years
&
Still
Dancing
If I can’t dance, I don’t want
to be part of your revolution.
Emma Goldman
B Y U MA PARAMESWARAN
A true artist explores and extends the
frontiers of her art form without
sacrificing its basic authenticity. Rina
Singha is one who has, since she came
to Canada in 1965, extended the frontiers
of both Kathak and the Canadian dance
stage through her choreography, performances, teaching and research. Ideally,
multiculturalism consists of a tolerance
and recognition of diversity that expands
Canadian culture with each new wave of
immigration. Rina has been one of the
pioneers of the multicultural revolution
in Canada.
16
Rina Singha, England,
1965
A brief overview of Kathak’s roots in
India combined with Rina’s achievements as a Kathak dancer/choreographer
in Canada helps to set the stage …
Kathak, like other dance traditions of India, has a large narrative
component (natya) in addition to
abstract movements (nritta). “Katha”
or “story” is an ancient form of storytelling where the kathak (storyteller)
combines text, music and movement.
In a culture where the illiterate masses
get their knowledge and entertainment through storytellers, “katha” has
long narrated the song divine
(HariKatha) in the local languages.
Here, the storyteller moves in a seamless sequence from the recitation of
scriptural verses, to songs, to giving a
commentary on the text in light of
current events.
When the Moghuls invaded and
took over north India, from the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries, this
Hindu dance form moved away from
Hindu narratives and gestures and
became a secularized dance at the
Muslim court. When the British started their major conquest of India in the
eighteenth century, due to the accompanying Christian missionary influence, all dance traditions, including
Kathak, were driven underground.
Then, in the early twentieth century,
they re-emerged under great masters
and gained acceptance on the public
stages. With Independence in 1947,
the Indian government made a concerted effort to promote ancient arts
and started centres of music and dance.
Among the great masters appointed to the Bharatiya Kala Kendra
(Academy of Dance, Music and other
Performing Arts) in Delhi was
Shambhu Maharaj. In a culture where
knowledge is traditionally transmitted
from guru to disciple (known as
“guru-shishya parampara”), the
“house”(gharana) or artistic lineage of
the guru is important, almost hallowed. Shambhu Maharaj was in
direct line of genealogical and artistic
descent from Kalka Prasad and
Bindadin, who were dance masters at
the court of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of
the region of Awadh (Oudh) in the
mid-nineteenth century.
Early Days
In 1937, Rina Singha was born in
Kolkata (Calcutta) into an Anglican
family. She was the third of five
daughters, one of whom died in infancy. Her father was an engineer
involved in the construction of flour
mills, moving from one place to
another depending on his work contracts. Her mother taught at various
colleges, having majored in history
and economics, and she too lived in
different cities. Thus, each parent
often ran a separate household and
the girls were sent to boarding schools
run by Christian missions. During
school vacations, three times a year,
they went to their mother’s home and
then to their father’s. “As a child, I
thought this was the standard pattern
for all families,” Rina laughs, “but this
peripatetic existence did teach us to be
self-reliant.”
Rina Singha, London, England, 1964
Photo: Shaun Gordon
Her mother was a woman with
strong views. She participated in the
Independence movement and, at
Gandhi’s urging, wore only homespun fabrics to support indigenious
workers. As a college student she had
wanted to specialize in English literature, but when told by a university
counsellor that she was well-advised
not to study economics, “a subject that
only men can cope with,” in sheer
defiance, she enrolled in that subject.
Later in life, at seventy, she went back
Singha and Massey’s book Indian Dances:
Their History and Growth, 1967
to her first aspiration and completed
her Master’s degree in English. The
strength and determination that arose
out of this upbringing stood Rina in
good stead.
Rina entered Osmania University
in Hyderabad at age fourteen, working towards her Master’s degree in
geography. While there, she also studied Kathak, training four hours per
day at the Government School of
Music and Dance. In 1957, she was
awarded a government scholarship to
train in Kathak with Shambhu
Maharaj at Delhi’s Bharatiya Kala
Kendra. Of those three years she says,
“We worked day and night, long
hours of hard physical labour.
Looking back now, they were the
‘God’s Gift’ years of my life. The
teachers at the Centre – Shambhu
Maharaj Ji, Dagar Brothers, Hafiz Ali
Khan – were all really great people.”
Not only did they set high standards,
they inspired students to do their very
best to reach those standards.
In 1960, Rina went to England to
do her Ph.D. in geography at the
London School of Economics. Ram
Gopal, one of India’s renowned
dancers, was in England at the time
and having seen her perform, invited
Rina to join his company. So, parallel
to her Ph.D work, she performed with
No. 64, Fall 2007
17
consultant for non-Western dance, and
at the Ontario Arts Council where she
headed a multicultural program.
Teacher
Rina Singha, Royal Ontario Museum, 1966
Gopal, dancing as his partner as well
as performing as a soloist. Later, carrying her one suitcase, Rina transported herself to Switzerland, Germany
and Wales to perform solo concerts.
Her dancing was also showcased on
the B.B.C.
During her time in England, Rina
met dance critic Fernau Hall who
introduced her to the world of ballet.
He had attended her concerts in
London and was extremely impressed
with her performances. About that
time, she met and married a fellow
student from India, deciding to stop
her university studies when she gave
birth to their first daughter, Vinita.
Maya Rao, who Rina met at the
Academy in Delhi, spoke of their close
artistic association over the last forty
years and how helpful Rina was during her visit to London in the early
1960s. “Rina helped me in meeting
many luminaries of the Royal Ballet
School and local ballet companies”.
The family immigrated to Canada
in 1965 and settled in Toronto. Rina
started producing dance shows the
next year, renting the Colonade
Theatre in downtown Toronto. Her
concerts featured classical dance, folk
dances and music of India. In 1967,
Indian Dances: Their History and
Growth, the book she co-authored with
writer and critic Reginald Massey in
England, was published. Her achievements and authority were welcomed
by the National Ballet School where
she taught Kathak and geography, at
the Canada Council where she was a
18
A second daughter, Sunita, was born
in 1969. Meanwhile, her older daughter Vinita had been diagnosed as
incurably deaf. Rina had given up her
Ph.D. goals and was teaching geography in high schools. She started using
her dance and teaching skills to help
Vinita and other children with disabilities to enjoy music and dance. Deaf
children’s bare feet could pick up the
beats through vibrations from the
wooden floor, much to their delight.
Rina also made her daughter understand “that there was nothing wrong
in being a different colour just as there
was nothing wrong in being disabled.
She had to accept herself as both these
things.” As a volunteer, she designed
a dance-based language development
and cultural understanding program
for deaf children and soon gave up
her teaching job to work in the provincial artist-in-the-school program. More
importantly, she also helped immigrant children to understand “why
they looked different, and why their
parents dressed and lived differently
from the images portrayed as the
norm in the classroom.” Thus, from
her early years in Canada, Rina has
been an articulate advocate for children and for the multicultural vision.
Around the same time that Rina completed her Master’s degree in education at the Ontario Institute of
Secondary Education through the
University of Toronto, Lawrence and
Miriam Adams had opened 15 Dance
Lab, an experimental dance space;
there was no rental charge and the
artists were also provided with an
honorarium. Rina is deeply appreciative of them for “allowing me to test
my wings, as it were.” She presented a
concert integrating voice over and
slides of Moghul miniature paintings
into the dance, along with a set that
made her appear as though she were
walking out of a painting.
Drawing in thanks from Palmerston School to
Rina Singha
Rina continued the work she started at the Colonade Theatre and
formed the Canadian Multicultural
Dance Theatre to create school and
community projects for the purpose of
fostering intercultural understanding.
She developed an educational program called A Cultural Approach to
Learning, and used it in her school
visits. She learned dances of other
countries to incorporate into her program. She taught children to respect
each other, to work as a team and to
appreciate all the arts, encouraging
them to always do their best.
Rina Singha at 15 Dance Lab, March 1979
Photo: Syed Hassan Ali
Performer
Rina Singha and daughter Vinita, OISE,
University of Toronto, 1985
When Grant Strate created
Canada’s first degree program in
dance at York University in 1970, Rina
joined the department and taught
dance and a theory course until 1976.
Strate, now Professor Emeritus at
Simon Fraser University, reflected, “I
was impressed by her dance background and her academic credentials,
but more importantly I was deeply
touched by her humanity … through
her artistry Rina contributed a great
deal to the beginnings of York’s Dance
Department. She ranks high in my
roster of fond memories.”
In 1982, Rina founded the Kathak
Institute in Toronto. Of her school, she
says, “I am not interested in large
classes of fifty students. I am interested in the handful who have discovered themselves; because in teaching
them I know I will leave my guru’s
stamp.”
Shanta Chikarmane is one of these
select students. She had learned
Kathak as a child in India; when she
saw Rina’s company, she saw Kathak
“as it should be performed”. After
two years of watching each of Rina’s
productions, she found the courage to
ask if she could be her student. Shanta
has been with Rina since 1986, dancing with her on numerous occasions
and in several major productions.
Research is one of Rina’s fortes. She
investigates all forms of related arts to
find inspiration for her choreography.
As mentioned earlier, her first dance
concert in Canada used slides of
Moghul miniatures which she had
spent several years studying along
with India’s folk dances, Christian Art
and Byzantine architecture. The
results appear in cameos that connoisseurs would appreciate.
Helen Acharya, now Deputy
Secretary of Sangeet Natak Akademi
(National Academy of the Arts) in
Delhi, talked about Rina’s eye for
detail. In the early 1980s, Rina went to
Delhi every year, usually at the end of
January, in time to attend the Republic
Day celebrations when there were
dance performances daily. Folk
dancers from all over the country
were invited to participate. Rina and
Helen would go to the Stadium
grounds and spend each day with a
different group. Rina was totally and
genuinely interested in the dancers,
their life stories and their art. Helen
commented on how Rina differed
from other visiting dancers who often
were on the lookout for whatever they
could appropriate from the folk genre
in order to enhance their own dance
repertoire. “There was always a sensitivity and humility in Rina’s interaction with these folks, who were folk in
the essence of the word – illiterate and
wed to a deep tradition and faith in
the sanctity of their art form. Though
Rina kept her own Kathak pristine,
the softness of the folk dance traditions seeped through into her Kathak
work.” Rina’s second book, Folk and
Tribal Dances of India, appeared in
1984. She has been a member of various folk dance organizations since she
settled in Canada.
In the early 1990s, Rina participated in the annual Avignon Festival in
France. She enthusiastically recalls
that the whole town lived the festival
for a month – every possible space, be
it marketplace, school or park, became
theatre space. After the festival, she
toured parts of Europe, studying the
iconography and architecture of
cathedrals. She noticed the similarity
in the architectural and philosophical
approaches of Indian temples and
Byzantine cathedrals and wanted to
use her observations to achieve the
stage effect of moving from the external materialistic world inwards to
Godhead.
Choreographer
The same lotus of our clime blooms here
in the alien water with the same sweetness, under another name.
Rabindranath Tagore
Robert Frost has said of poetry-making, “First master the rules, then break
them.” Rina has mastered the rules of
Kathak, and her subsequent breaking
of them is not iconoclastic but innovatively worshipful of both the dance
form and her religion. She broke new
Miniature Mogul painting by Lalit Kala
ground with her bold move to narrate
Biblical stories through Kathak. Rina’s
daring is not in the origination of a
form, but in the adaptation of that
form in order to delineate immigrant
experiences in Canada and to tell
Biblical, rather than Hindu, stories.
Munna Shukla, who lives in India,
and is a fellow dance student, friend
and associate of Rina’s, commented
that had Rina stayed in India she
No. 64, Fall 2007
19
would have become a nationally recognized leader of innovation because
she initiated the Christian theme well
before anyone else. Today, there are
several choreographers in India who
have introduced Biblical and Islamic
themes into various Hindu dance
forms, but Rina started her work in
the late 1970s, here in Canada.
Rina’s productions put women in
the foreground. Indian classical dances
lend themselves to this premise. Nayika
bhed, or woman’s emotional heartscape,
is an established aspect of Kathak.
Moreover, all Indian classical dance
traditions are permeated with bridal
metaphor, where a woman yearning
for her lover is a metaphor for the
human soul’s yearning for God. Male
and female dancers take on the role of
Radha, and in the interplay between
Radha and Krishna, we see that
Krishna is as lost without Radha as
she is without Him. This element is
seen in her work The Seekers (1997),
which echoes Gerard Manley Hopkins’
The Hound of Heaven where Hopkins
speaks of the love of God ever pursuing even the most unworthy.
Poster for Rina Singha & Company, Christmas
Windows: A Kathak Perspective, 1991
20
Eddie Kastrau and Jahanara Akhlaq in Rina Singha’s The Seekers
Photo: Cylla von Tiedemann
The cast of The Seekers was drawn
from artists who came from various
backgrounds – Indian, Caribbean,
Pakistani, Creole. Susan Walker, previewing it in The Toronto Star, June 5,
1997, wrote: “Each brings a new ingredient to the masala that Singha is
cooking up.”
In Yeshu Katha (1988), Rina re-tells
the story of four women from the
Bible – Eve, Mary the mother of Jesus,
the Woman at the Well, and Mary
Magdalene. Many contemporary
feminists have retold these stories, but
Rina’s retelling moves in a different
direction by staying true to her twin
objectives of grassroots realism and
epiphanous affirmation. Her version
positively states that feminism and
faith can, indeed, dance a revolution
into existence.
Yeshu Katha was the first of a long
list of productions where Rina choreographed stories from the Bible. Her
biblical productions have extended
Kathak’s frontiers. But she has choreographed and performed regular
Kathak recitals, as well as other
works. Jhalak (1994) for example, was
a forty-minute concert that gave
glimpses of various aspects of Kathak.
Lullaby and Lament (1999 and 2006)
was a tribute to the women and other
victims of war.
Rina has collaborated with modern
dance choreographer Danny Grossman
Danny Grossman in Rina Singha’s And it Shall
Come to Pass, 1995
Photo: Cheryl Dorsey
the change in the
tempo of music and
steps helps mediate
the change when a
soloist alternately
takes the role of
two different characters; where modern themes and
western movements
can be introduced
without impinging
on the essence of
Kathak.
Rina has experimented with various techniques
using, for example, a
rear screen projector
for various representations of Jesus
in Yeshu Katha; photography by Cylla
von Tiedemann in
Becoming; in situ
exchanges as in The
Seekers where two
dancers interact –
one using an Indian
style and the other
a western style.
When creating
Eddie Kastrau and Sudharshan Durayappa in Rina Singha’s The Seekers Yeshu Katha, Rina
realized the practical
applications of a
in several productions since the midmodular format, where each segment
1990s, including: And it Shall Come to
can be made free standing for a shortPass (1995), Fourteen Stations of the
er recital. This approach lent itself to
Cross (1996) and Agony and Ecstasy
her later works. As she moved towards
(1999). Agony and Ecstasy is a choreodeveloping herself as a soloist and
graphic exploration with Grossman,
away from longer dance dramas and
set to Gregorian chants. He says of
teaching responsibilities, she focussed
her, “Her dances are subtle, joyful,
her energies on modules. Thus, The
agonizingly sad, often radiant and
River (2002) is a ten-minute composideeply moving…. [Her] desire to pass
tion around a thumri, a short song, of
her knowledge and legacy on to the
which a line or even just a word is
emerging generation of Kathak
interpreted with a long string of assodancers is an exceptional gift to
ciative images and evocative actions.
Canada’s cultural history.”
A very articulate speaker, Rina is
totally in control of both the English
language and Kathak. That quality is
what Laura Otis, one of her first students and current associates, has highIn 1957, when Rina Singha went to
lighted. She saw in Rina one who could
Delhi to train under Shambhu Maharaj,
explain the whys and hows of the proshe had a Master’s degree in geography
cess, why a particular movement is
already in hand. Shambhu Maharaj
appropriate for a particular part; how
was a perfectionist, a hard taskmaster.
A Blessing and
Prophecy
Rina Singha, The Beaches, Toronto
In an interview with journalist Meena
Dhar in 1985 for Asianadian, Rina said,
“Shambhu Maharaj used to say to us:
‘Why do I insist that you must practice and learn well? Because, tomorrow
if anything happens at least you will
be able to earn your livelihood with
your dance.’” Ever since she came to
Canada, the dance that had been
Rina’s life has become her livelihood
as well. Of course, like many artists,
Rina has lived a frugal existence. But
she laughs that off. God will provide,
she says and narrates anecdotes of
how, on so many occasions, money
came through at the last minute
enabling her to pay collaborators and
dance project expenses.
As a person, Rina is unpretentious
and rather too selfless for her own
good in a world where self-promotion
has become a necessary evil. Anyone
who knows her will first dwell on her
propensity to laugh off all problems.
Laura Otis recalls that they have
danced in places where the bathroom
was the only change room (one of
them flooded!); on open air stages that
were blisteringly hot on bare feet;
events where only a handful turned
up; venues where the music could not
be heard; in short, under every awkward condition. But Rina always
laughingly shrugged it off and went
on to dance superbly.
Just as the temple Kathak of
Hindu India was transformed into the
court dance of Muslim India, it has
No. 64, Fall 2007
21
Rina’s dance life shows the richness of the Kathak tradition that also
allows for its evolution, and of
Canadian diversity that recognizes the
value of experimentation within the
authentic representations of dance
forms.
been transformed in Canada by Rina
into a medium to celebrate the story
of Jesus. Raschid Osman, a reporter
for the Guyana Chronicle, who covered
her visit to Guyana in 2004, had this
to say about Rina’s rendition of the
Woman at the Well:
vances. She plans to meet students of
Shambhu Maharaj, such as Maya Rao,
collect items that they have received
from the master, prepare a database
and use digital and other technological aids to record them for posterity.
Uma Parameswaran has done extensive
research on Rina’s work: her essay on
Yeshu Katha was published in Quilting a
New Canon: Stitching Women’s Words;
other pieces were published in Kala:
Magazine of the Arts and Canadian
Theatre Review. She is the author of ten
volumes of fiction, poetry and drama,
including Mangoes on the Maple Tree,
What was Always Hers and The Forever
Banyan Tree, in addition to books and
essays on post-colonial literatures.
Each crook of her fingers and
flick of her wrists told their
own story, and these subtle
nuances were complemented
by darting eyes and startling
facial expressions…. she executed flashing pirouettes, the
bells on her feet jingling, her
hair swirling and her arms
and fingers fashioning filigreed patterns. All in all, the
picture was one of oriental
splendour that strangely, in a
Guyana context that is, told
the Christian story of divine
forgiveness and the joy of having the burden of sin lifted
from one’s shoulders.
Rina has received a fair measure of
recognition, including: Hindu Federation of Canada Award for Dance
(1989); DuMaurier Arts Award (1994);
William Kilbourn Award, Toronto Arts
Council Foundation (2000); Galilean
International Juried Award for
Excellence in Performing Arts (2006).
Rina was shortlisted for the Toronto
Arts Council Foundation’s Muriel
Sherrin Award in 2006.
Today, Rina is coming full circle,
back to the legacy left to her by her
guru. Her current work reflects upon
how she can collect and pass on the
legacy to succeeding generations
through available technological ad22
Rina Singha, 1990s
Celia
Franca
in
Canada:
The Early Years
BY
Celia Franca with
the Royal Ballet
Photo: Gordon
Anthony
C HERYL S MITH
T
he death of Celia Franca earlier this year brought
There was nothing “half-way” about Franca, and there
a well-deserved flood of tributes for her enormous
was nothing “half-way” in what people felt about her:
contribution to dance in Canada. The company
though she was revered by her supporters, she was reviled
she founded is thriving, and rightly counts itself among
by others in the dance community, largely because she
the leading arts organizations in the country. It hardly
could be so intimidating. She had absolute confidence in her
seems possible that there was a time when the polished,
vision of the new company and she alternately charmed
professional company that we see today was tottering,
and bullied those around her to make it happen. Some peo-
but over The National Ballet of Canada’s first decade,
ple could never forgive her dismissive attitude toward the
there were indeed many occasions when the company’s
dance pioneers who had preceded her in Canada; the com-
hardships nearly brought down the entire ambitious
pany’s publicity materials and correspondence often stated
enterprise. Dancers, board members, local dance teach-
that Franca had started the National Ballet from “nothing”
ers, and the company’s strong artistic team all came
when in reality many dance teachers had laid the ground-
through at critical moments, but at the absolute centre
work for the new company. Her friends knew her tough-
of it all was this petite, fiery woman, Celia Franca, who
ness, but also saw a great warmth and sense of humour. As
had the artistic talent, the contacts, the energy and the
controversial as she was, no one denied her steely resolve
ego to pull the company through to better days.
and the superb company that exists today because of it.
No. 64, Fall 2007
23
Gweneth Lloyd, Mildred Wickson, Joseph Whitmore, unknown, Janet
Baldwin and Kay Ransom, Canadian Ballet Festival, Toronto, 1949
Celia Franca was born in 1921 in London, England. She
was enrolled in her first dance classes at the age of four,
and also showed a ready aptitude for music. She won
scholarships to study both music and dance at leading
schools; she had been given a marvellous training, despite
her family’s modest income and their scepticism about the
performing arts as a career. Franca did her first “professional” performance at fourteen, tap dancing in a London
revue, partly to prove to her father that she could actually
make a living as a dancer.
Still in her teens, Franca joined the small but influential
Ballet Rambert, and there she danced in many of the ballet
classics for the first time. She also worked with the great
choreographer Antony Tudor, dancing in the first production of his Dark Elegies in 1937. After a brief stint with the
International Ballet, she joined the leading British company,
the Sadler’s Wells Ballet, and performed such roles as the
Queen of the
Wilis in Giselle.
Franca’s forte
was not as a
prima ballerina
– rather she
was known for
her superb
interpretations
in dramatic
roles. Looking
for fresh challenges, Franca
left the Sadler’s
Wells in 1946
and joined the
Metropolitan
Ballet, where
Celia Franca, 1951
she took on
Photo: Ken Bell
responsibilities
Courtesy of The National Ballet of Canada Archives
as a dancer,
24
ballet mistress, administrator and choreographer. This allround experience would later prove extremely useful. When
the Metropolitan Ballet folded for financial reasons, Franca
became a freelance dancer and choreographer, producing
ballets for the Sadler’s Wells second company and BBC television. Hard to believe, but Celia Franca was still not yet
thirty years old, and she already had had an exceptionally
successful dance career by the time she was approached
about a potential new ballet company in Canada.
In summer 1950, Celia Franca was contacted by a balletlover named Stewart James, a man who represented a small
Toronto group interested in starting a new national company. He was on holiday in England and had volunteered to
make enquiries about possible candidates. James told her
there was as yet “no organization, no money, no dancers;
but possibly something might happen sometime.” Several
weeks later, something did happen: Celia Franca received
an invitation to attend the third Canadian Ballet Festival in
Montreal in November 1950.
The invitation came from three well-to-do Toronto
women, Aileen Woods, Pearl Whitehead and Sydney
Mulqueen. The three were leading members of a tight-knit
cultural elite, and as such had already logged hundreds of
volunteer hours organizing and fundraising for Toronto’s
premiere arts organizations through the 1940s. They were
the wives of corporate executives and highly placed civil
servants, and like many other elite women at that time, they
became enthusiastic “professional volunteers” in the arts.
Celia Franca and David Adams in Joey Harris’ Dark of the Moon, 1953
Photo: Ken Bell
Ballet became their great passion in 1949 when they saw the
Sadler’s Wells company perform in Toronto and they supported the organization of the Canadian Ballet Festival that
same year.
The women were not alone in their “dance fever”.
Ballet was surging in popularity at the time, at least partly
because of the heavy touring schedules of several reputable
European ballet companies “stranded” in North America
during the war years. During the 1940s and 1950s, Broadway
and Hollywood musicals were, of course, featuring dance –
in fact some of the biggest stars of the era – Rita Hayworth,
Cyd Charisse, Gene Kelly – could equally both dance and
act.
Closer to home, the manager of Toronto’s Royal
Alexandra Theatre, Ernest Rawley, loved ballet and began
booking it into his theatre in 1941. Charmingly determined,
he liked to say, “Torontonians are going to get ballet and
like it, or I’ll know the reason why.” Within a few years, the
touring ballet companies would come to Toronto for two
weeks and sell out completely, a feat not duplicated anywhere else but New York and Chicago. In 1951, Globe & Mail
columnist Frank Tumpane remarked, “In Toronto, at least,
people have been going kind of ballet-balmy the past couple
of years and scrambling for tickets for visiting companies
with a fervour that used to be reserved for Grey Cup Finals.”
Even the local dance teachers noticed the new interest in
ballet and had waiting lists of up to 300 students wanting to
attend their classes.
Several small ballet companies had sprouted up in
Canada during the previous decade. The best of the compa-
Jury Gotshalks and Irene Apinee, 1952
Celia Franca with Dark Elegies score, c.1955
Photo: Fed. News
nies was the Winnipeg Ballet, which had been founded in
1938 by the British dance teachers Gweneth Lloyd and
Betty Farrally. Lloyd and Farrally were an interesting pair.
Lloyd, a rather serious but inspiring dance teacher, and
Farrally, a vivacious young woman who had been one of
Lloyd’s students, both tired of their lives in a British industrial town and were ready for a fresh start in the New
World. They loved the Canadian prairies and settled in
Winnipeg where Lloyd had old friends. The two women
quickly established a school and a small performing group,
and within a year had begun creating original ballets,
inspired by Canadian and British stories, landscapes and
communities. The women had no experience with the
professional dance companies in England; however in
Canada, out of necessity, Lloyd became a choreographer
and Farrally became a performer. By 1949, Lloyd and Farrally
had an unconventional, but well-trained group of dancers
and a body of very strong, original works by Lloyd. They
had begun doing tours and were able to pay their dancers a
small salary by 1950.
In Toronto, Boris Volkoff had been training dancers and
mounting ballet performances since 1930. Trained in Moscow,
Volkoff had danced professionally around the world before
settling in Toronto in 1929. Over the years, he had trained
several Canadians who went on to fame and fortune in
New York (Melissa Hayden with the New York City Ballet
and Patricia Drylie with the Radio City Music Hall) and he
had choreographed everything from skating shows to huge
pageants for civic celebrations. He even created a couple of
ballets on native Canadian themes for the arts festival at the
1936 Olympics in Berlin. There were other promising groups
in Vancouver, Montreal and Halifax in the late 1940s, but
they were not aware of each other until the annual Canadian
Ballet Festival began in 1948. When Celia Franca arrived for
the 1950 Festival, much of the groundwork – training dancers,
educating audiences, securing patrons – had already begun.
When Celia Franca arrived at the Montreal airport for
the 1950 Festival, she was met by Gweneth Lloyd and David
Adams, a superb dancer – originally from Winnipeg – who
No. 64, Fall 2007
25
wanted to keep it going. She chose a core
group of twelve dancers and mounted
three ballet concerts featuring Coppélia
Act II, and for the last show, a pas de
deux from Giselle – two were in Toronto
as a part of the Varsity Arena Promenade
series and one at the Chalet de la
Montagne in Montreal in August.
Through the summer of 1951, Celia
Franca also ran a successful summer
school and auditioned dancers across
Canada for the full company, which
began rehearsals in mid-September.
There were hard feelings between
Celia Franca and the dance teachers who
had already launched companies in
Canada by this time. Boris Volkoff and
his wife Janet [Baldwin], and Lloyd had
Gotshalks Halifax Ballet arriving for the Canadian Ballet Festival, Montreal, 1950
initially welcomed Celia Franca, apparently hoping that they would play the
had worked with Franca in England. Throughout her stay
key roles in the new company and Franca might be brought
in Montreal, she was introduced to dance teachers, critics
aboard as a ballet mistress or choreographer. Franca herself
and dancers who encouraged her to move to Canada and to
admitted to James Neufeld that she probably was being
help build a national company. At the Montreal Festival,
asked to take on a ballet mistress job when she was first
Franca got a good sense of the dance scene.
approached, but after her initial meeting with Stewart
Franca gave several interviews during the Ballet Festival,
James in England she corresponded with the three women
saying diplomatically that she saw tremendous potential
and, in the Fall of 1950, they asked if she would consider
and enthusiasm for ballet in Canada. Privately, as she conthe artistic directorship.
fessed in an interview years later, she left Montreal thinkWhy the change? Of course, Celia Franca was wondering, “you’re all very promising, but you stink.”* By the time
fully qualified and had been recommended by Ninette de
Franca met with Woods, Whitehead and Mulqueen back in
Valois, the founder of the Sadler’s Wells Ballet. Woods,
Toronto, she had decided she wanted the job: “I think you
Whitehead and Mulqueen needed someone whose credenneed me here,” she said. Franca agreed to return in February
tials and reputation were impeccable and they wanted to
1951 to do an eight-month study of the feasibility of starting
make a fresh start,
a national ballet company. While in Canada, she would
to bring in someone
derive her income from doing filing work for the T. Eaton
from outside. And,
Company and at the end of the eight months she would
of course, the
make a recommendation.
Toronto women
At this point, one might wonder why Celia Franca
were starry-eyed
would consider leaving London when British ballet was
about the celebratthriving and she was right in the middle of it. Despite her
ed Sadler’s Wells
successes, Franca was frustrated. In an interview with
Company. As a
dance historian James Neufeld years later, Franca said she
result of the vogue
left her career at the Wells because one day she looked at
for the British ballet
the notice board and saw they were going to be doing
during the 1940s
Sleeping Beauty for two months straight. The freelance work
and 1950s, and
was wonderful, but this Canadian opportunity gave Franca
given Canada’s
an enormous challenge, a chance to run the show. She had
lingering affection
wanted her own ballet company since she was in her teens,
for all things British,
as she confessed in a September 1960 report to her Board of
Celia Franca must
Directors: “In my early teens ... I conceived a desire to have
have seemed a
a ballet company all of my own – Oh, blessed innocence –
perfect choice.
but I never really grew out of this obsession, in spite of the
Franca began
wise words of my relatives, who warned me of my ignolooking for dancers
rance and accused me of conceit.”
and supporters
Her dream then in sight, Franca tied up loose ends in
from her first
Earle Kraul, Maria Dynowska, Katherine Stewart,
Natalia Butko in Kay Armstrong’s Étude
London and flew back to Canada in February 1951. There
weeks in Canada,
Courtesy Grant Strate
was a good deal of interest in the company and Franca
and with a great
26
deal of help from her patrons
and new allies, the company
became a reality in September
1951, opening the curtain on
its first official performance
on November 12. It was a
rainy autumn evening as a
thousand people made their
way toward the Eaton Auditorium, above Eaton’s flagship
Yonge and College Street
store, in time for the 8:30 p.m.
curtain. The dancers had
already been there for several
hours, stretching and rehearsing, planning their entrances
and checking their spacing on
the stage. The musicians
tuned their instruments as the
theatre filled up. Many of
Toronto’s social and political
British newspaper clipping of
elite were in attendance. The
Celia Franca’s first tour of
curtain opened on Les Sylphides,
Canada, February 16, 1951
Courtesy of The National Ballet
Michel Fokine’s romantic
of Canada Archives
classic, a plotless ballet for a
strong leading man (David
Adams), and a chorus of ethereal, white muses. The music
of Chopin gave way to The Dance of Salome, a sensual, dramatic work choreographed and danced by Celia Franca.
After the intermission, two of the company’s stars, David
Adams and his wife Lois Smith, performed a pastoral excerpt
from Giselle. The evening was rounded out by a sophisticated Canadian ballet, Étude, by Vancouver choreographer Kay
Armstrong, and a
spirited rendition
of Polovetsian Dances
starring a young
Latvian couple,
Irene Apinee and
Jury Gotshalks.
Critics responded enthusiastically,
noting the elegance
and theatricality of
the presentation.
There had been
technical production
problems, and
many of the dancers
had lacked the technique to perform
the classical ballets
well, but, as Franca
put it, “it was a
start.” In eight
weeks, she had
shaped a company
of dancers and
Celia Franca and designer Kay Ambrose,1950s
Photo: Ken Bell
formed an ambitious vision that would take years to
achieve. She was able to accomplish this because she was
talented and determined, but also because she had landed
on fertile ground: dancers, audience members and influential supporters were on hand, awaiting her guidance from
the outset. Celia Franca and her supporters had difficult
times ahead, but their company had a relatively quick and
successful start.
In the early years, almost all of the ballets, both classic
and contemporary, were set by Franca from memory. This
was quite an extraordinary feat for one person since most
companies had had the classics in their repertoires for
years, and therefore there were professionals available who
could teach the various parts; they might also have had
some kind of written record of the choreography. The
National Ballet had only Franca, but she was well equipped
for the task – Franca knew many complete ballets, including all the roles. And, she had an amazing ability to recreate
ballets she had seen or danced. Of course, her friendships in
England were critical here too because she wanted the ballets, but had no money to pay for the rights to use them,
nor the usual fee to have the creator visit the company and
teach it. Several prominent choreographers trusted Franca
to mount their work faithfully and took very small fees or
none at all.
During the first two years, a startling number of ballets
were taken into the company’s repertoire. For example, the
National Ballet’s January 1953 Toronto shows presented
eleven ballets over one week, most of them pieces reconstructed by Franca. Equally astonishing were the numbers of
musical scores, sets and costumes that these works required.
Over the first ten years, the National Ballet company averaged just over five premieres every year.
The artistic direction of the National Ballet was controversial. Franca’s emphasis on large-scale ballets was not
particularly well-suited to a Canadian setting, with Canada’s
No. 64, Fall 2007
27
Lois Smith, David Adams and Celia Franca in Antony Tudor’s
Lilac Garden, 1953/54 season
Photo: John Lindquist
few proper stages and relatively small urban populations.
Throughout the company’s first decade, there was an ongoing debate about whether Franca was doing enough to
encourage Canadian choreography. In a 1963 speech, the
Canadian dancer and choreographer Brian Macdonald
articulated a view held by many of the company’s critics,
that a trio of British women at the National Ballet – Franca,
Betty Oliphant and Kay Ambrose – had imposed the British
dance scene of the 1930s and 1940s onto the Canadian
dance scene of the 1950s. With the exception of a few new
Canadian works, the repertoire listing of the time confirms
this pronounced British bias. In Franca’s defense, however,
it is hard to see what else she could have done given the
company’s meagre finances and her own artistic background. Ottawa-based dance critic Lauretta Thistle also
believed that the National was wont to “ransack the
Sadler’s Wells cupboard” at the beginning, but that in all
fairness, after its first twenty-five years, the company had
an “impressive” record of commissioning Canadian works.
Others agreed that a good deal of Canadian work was produced, but expressed frustration with how briefly the
Canadian pieces stayed in the repertoire. Many of these
works were never performed again after their first season.
Over that first decade, Celia Franca was central to
everything the company did. Until 1958, she was one of the
company’s star dancers and created or reconstructed most
of the company’s ballets from memory. Her success in persuading Antony Tudor to give the National Ballet several of
his ballets was a direct result of her friendship with him
and their mutual respect for each other.
She was a formidable leader, rarely allowing herself the
“luxury” of doubts and discouragement. Franca’s reports to
the Annual General Meetings were models of leadership
and vision. She did not dwell on the successes or failures of
the past year; she pointed the way to the future, describing
the great company that would some day exist, how very
much progress they had already made, and the additional
things she must have – a school, new costumes, a permanent
home. She described how other companies had encountered
28
even worse difficulties and overcome
them to become
among the best in
the world. Of the
Sadler’s Wells, she
noted that “Despite
the annual threat to
them of financial
disaster, of which
we have now had a
taste, the idea of
giving up the struggle never arose.”
Franca’s great
leadership skills
came through at
Conductor George Crum, 1955/56
critical moments.
Photo: Fed. News
In 1955, the comCourtesy of The National Ballet of Canada
pany was in the
Archives
middle of an
American tour that was losing a great deal of money, so the
board decided to cancel bookings in Buffalo, Philadelphia
and New York to cut their losses. Franca rushed back to
Toronto to meet the board and fight for the retention of the
New York booking. Journalist Ken Johnstone picks up the
story, “... she was told that creditors were pressing and that
there simply wasn’t enough money to risk on a venture that
couldn’t break even. ‘You’ve got to gamble,’ she insisted.
Celia Franca as the Lady in Black in Walter Gore’s Winter Night, 1958
Photo: Ken Bell
‘The theatre is all gamble, and if you don’t gamble you’re
through.’ ‘We won’t die if we don’t go to New York,’ one of
the directors observed. ‘That’s just where we disagree,’
Franca flashed. ‘I think we’ll die of slow rot if we don’t
expand. If we get good notices in New York we’ll get other
bookings, and more people at home will come to see us
when they see we’re accepted in the States.’” The board
decided that the New York engagement could only be salvaged if they could somehow raise $9,000 over the following two days. Through the efforts of Franca, Betty Oliphant,
the dance teachers and the board, they were able to raise
the money and keep the engagement.
George Crum, the National Ballet’s music director for
decades, also pointed to Franca’s courage: “Celia has no
fear. She has a remarkably stubborn way of making the
right decisions. She has no delusions about staging popular
successes ... Witness her insistence that we must do Romeo
and Juliet [premiered 1964]. What if it was a flop?
Remember she hadn’t seen it herself. That was the chance
she had to take … [also the decision to bring in another
choreographer, Antony Tudor] ... And she knew that she
was bringing in another authority, which necessarily might
challenge her own.” Founding an artistic organization was
not for the faint of heart … and Franca was willing to gamble and to fight. Grant Strate, charter member of the
National Ballet and later resident choreographer, arranged
with John Cranko to have his Romeo and Juliet set on the
company. As Strate says in his memoirs: “Romeo and Juliet
was the most significant and costly production the National
Ballet had so far mounted. It very nearly broke the budget.
How Celia had managed to talk her board of directors into
proceeding with it, I will never know. It was a huge risk,
but one which paid off handsomely.”
Franca also had a dedicated artistic team who worked
with her over the first ten years, including conductor
George Crum, ballet mistress Betty Oliphant, designer/
artistic advisor Kay Ambrose and the company of dancers.
All accomplished people in their own right. Their belief in
Franca’s vision and willingness to continue through severe
Celia Franca
Photo: Ken Bell
financial crises carried the company through its rockiest
years.
Celia Franca was, in many ways, the perfect person to
establish a national ballet company in Canada. She was
young and eager to take charge; she had a superb artistic
background, influential friends, and, at times, great personal charm. One needs only to take a tour through the
National Ballet’s home or see the company in performance
today to marvel at what she created. It took great strength
and vision and a good dose of bloody mindedness to keep
going through the early years. She had her critics, but as we
look back at the life of this remarkable woman, we must
first and foremost acknowledge her lasting contribution to
Canadian dance.
* Undated document, Publicity Department File “History”
Box 500 A1 “National Ballet Historical Information and
Statistics” National Ballet of Canada Archives, Toronto.
Dance Collection Danse extends a sincere thanks to The National
Ballet of Canada’s Sharon Vanderlinde/Manager – Education and
Archives, and Adrienne Nevile/Archives Coordinator, for their
superb work in supplying photographs for this article.
Grant Strate, Elaine Crawford, Yves Cousineau, Celia Franca,
Joan Killoran and Rebecca Bryan
Courtesy of Grant Strate
Cheryl Smith is a historian currently teaching at the University of
Waterloo. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto
in 2000 for a dissertation on Canada’s early ballet companies
and worked for several years as an arts manager for the Royal
Winnipeg Ballet and Danny Grossman Dance Company.
No. 64, Fall 2007
29
Banff Centre’s
Clifford E. Lee
Choreography Award
Clifford Lee, 1949
Courtesy Judith Padua
B Y K AIJA P EPPER
t was already a beautiful set-up: by
1978, The Banff Centre’s Summer
Dance Program had the dancers
and the theatre, as well as design and
production support, all nestled together
on the side of Tunnel Mountain in
Alberta. But that year, to top it all off,
a new element was introduced into
the mix – the annual Clifford E. Lee
Choreography Award. Now, in addition
to intensive training in a gorgeous
Rocky Mountain location, program
participants would also experience the
thrill of taking part in the original cre-
I
ation process and in the premiere performance of a choreographic work by
the current Lee Award recipient.
As the Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award approaches its 30th
anniversary in 2008, it continues to
make a key contribution to the
Summer Dance Program and, more
widely, to the Canadian artistic landscape. Each summer, a fresh crop of
dancers from the program’s professional division work on a new creation with the Lee Award choreographer during his or her six-week resi-
Deborah Washington and Graeme Mears in Mark Godden’s Sequoia, 1989
Photo: Monte Greenshields
30
dency. For whoever nets the coveted
award – usually an emerging artist –
the prestigious commission comes
with eager young dancers, a design
and stage crew, and $5000 cash. It’s an
exciting, demanding adventure for
everyone, culminating in public
performances at the 950-seat Eric
Harvie Theatre as part of The Banff
Centre’s multidisciplinary Summer
Arts Festival.
This past July, the Clifford E. Lee
Choreography Award was an important part of the Dance Program’s 60th
during this summer’s
four-day celebration.
Clifford E. Lee,
the man who made
the choreographic
award possible, was
also remembered.
On the anniversary
event’s final day,
dance historian
Vincent Warren
moderated a Dance
Dialogues panel
focussing on the
choreographers
Sarah Murphy-Dyson, Johnny Wright, Annette av Paul, Tara Birtwhistle,
who have spent
Brian Macdonald and Alexander Gamayunov; 60th Anniversary of
time at Banff and
Dance celebration at The Banff Centre, July 2007
Photo: Don Lee
featuring past Lee
Award winners.
Lee
might
seem
an unlikely
Anniversary celebrations, which were
champion of choreography, but his
beautifully orchestrated by program
support of the arts grew from a phidirector Annette av Paul (Swedishlanthropic desire to benefit his comborn ballerina who danced over a
munity. Born in 1905 in Tofield, souththousand performances with Les
east of Edmonton, Lee spent five years
Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal
as a teacher in Ryley, Alberta, before
before retiring from the stage in 1984).
earning a degree in pharmacy from
Six decades ago, in 1947, the Royal
the University of Alberta. At university,
Winnipeg Ballet’s (RWB) co-founder
he played the trumpet in the student
and artistic director, Gweneth Lloyd,
orchestra and continued his interest in
sent one of her students to teach ballet
politics. In 1939, Lee ran (unsuccessfulat Banff as part of the theatre program.
ly) for member of Parliament for the
Soon Lloyd herself was persuaded to
Commonwealth Cooperative Federjoin and the dance component blosation (CCF, later the New Democratic
somed. Lloyd’s name was often invoked
Gaetan Masse and Sandra Currie in Martine Époque’s Constellation 1, 1983
Photo: Kim Chan
Party) and, in the late 1940s, wrote a
column for the People’s Weekly, a CCF
paper.
In 1957, Lee invested in a housing
construction company that built prefabricated doors and windows. He then
became a partner in NuWest Homes,
which used prefabricated components
to build houses, and at one point was
ranked among the top Canadian companies. Another extremely successful
business venture was a pharmaceutical
business called Dispensaries Ltd.
Clifford Lee and his wife, Ottawaborn Lila McAdam Lee, retired to
Victoria, BC in 1962. Since personal
wealth was of little interest to the couple,
in 1969 Clifford Lee created a foundation in order to undertake philanthropic
work; he endowed it with most of his
NuWest Development shares. Sadly,
Lee suffered a stroke shortly after and
died in 1972 at age sixty-seven. His
philanthropic wishes, however, were
fulfilled through the Clifford E. Lee
Foundation, which continued to benefit communities throughout northern
Alberta and beyond for thirty-five
years. Over this time, the Foundation
received close support from Lila Lee,
who had worked in her youth for
Chautauqua, a well-known agency
that brought music and inspirational
lectures to citizens in Canada and the
United States through touring companies.
The Clifford E. Lee Foundation’s
very first grant was made in the arts,
to the Edmonton Art Gallery; the
Gallery commissioned sculptor James
Rosati to create a work for display in
downtown Edmonton. In 1971, when
the Foundation’s funding guidelines
were established, the arts were one
of the designated funding areas, along
with the United Way, First Nations,
health, the environment, social services
and international projects.
Arnold Spohr (then artistic director
of the RWB) was head of the Banff
Dance Program when the Clifford E.
Lee Choreography Award was devised
and inaugurated. His policy of trying
out emerging choreographers at Banff
must have set an agreeable climate for
the enterprise. But the individual credited with making the Lee Award happen
is Ken Madsen.
No. 64, Fall 2007
31
Arts, and I have considered very
carefully the suggestion that
your Board might be interested in doing for The Centre
something similar to The Clifford E. Lee Drama Award in
another arts discipline.
We would like to propose
for your consideration an annual Clifford E. Lee Award in
Choreography….
Ken Madsen, Neil Armstrong and David
Leighton
t first glance, Madsen is another
unlikely champion for the singular activity of creating dance.
An experienced businessman with a
Bachelor of Commerce degree from
the University of Alberta, in 1958 he
was appointed Assistant Director at
what was then called the Banff School
of Fine Arts. But cross-pollination is
what The Banff Centre is all about –
with its gloriously isolated location
and the rich variety of artists it
attracts from all disciplines, Banff is
the ideal place to make connections to
interesting individuals and new ideas.
Brian Macdonald, whose involvement
with dance at Banff began in 1960 (he
was program director from 1982 to
2002), recalls Madsen happily spending time in the studio, where he
enjoyed watching the dancers at work.
When the Clifford E. Lee Foundation wrote to Madsen in December
1976 about their interest in creating
another arts award along the lines of
the Clifford E. Lee Drama Award “…
in any field of Art, Music, Theatre,
Ballet and so on,” the dance world can
only be deeply grateful that Madsen
and his colleagues saw the value of
supporting choreography. On December
30, Madsen replied:
A
Madsen, besides being a fan of the art
form, was also an intelligent and perceptive man who understood the need
for the dancers he enjoyed watching
to have something worthwhile to
dance. In his letter to Downey, Madsen
quotes from a Fall 1976 article by
Penelope B.R. Doob in Dance in Canada
magazine. Doob’s article, he wrote,
“points out that [the National Ballet of
Canada] ‘has done very well in most
respects, but … it hasn’t yet developed
or attached to itself a major choreographer even though its dancers should
have lured one long since.’” Doob’s
belief in the necessity of such an individual provided fodder for Madsen’s
argument in favour of a choreographic
award to help develop dance in
Canada.
Elsewhere in the article, Doob
asks: “Would Karsavina, Fonteyn, and
Seymour have become such great
dancers without Fokine, Ashton and
Dear Mrs. Downey [Assistant
Secretary to the Lee Foundation]:
Dr. Leighton, Director of The
Banff Centre, Neil Armstrong,
Associate Director Performing
32
Stephanie Ballard’s Light Failing, 1982
Photo: Kathleen Watt
Stephanie Ballard, 2007
Photo: Svjetlana Tepavcevic
MacMillan? And can we imagine those
choreographers without their leading
ballerinas?” While the Banff program
is designed for young dance artists
who are mostly still students without
a great deal of professional experience,
Doob’s questions highlight the close
and necessary relationship between
dancer and choreographer, one that
Madsen had the insight to appreciate.
He saw that the Dance Program’s ability to offer creation and performance
opportunities would benefit both, and
would make the proposed Lee award
Gioconda Barbuto’s Chiaroscuro, 1996
Photo: Don Lee
unique – and, as he suggests in his letter, a welcome addition to the already
existing Chalmers Award in Choreography (established in 1974 and discontinued in 1997).
In follow-up correspondence with
Lila Lee in April 1977, Madsen mentions discussions with Macdonald and
Spohr over his proposal, adding: “I am
still waiting to hear from one or two
others. However, reaction so far has
been most favorable. The unique opportunity for the successful candidate
to spend off-season time here in Banff
working with our advanced students
and professional dancers, using our
production and staging facilities, including music/orchestral resources, etc., appears to have wide appeal and support.”
Terms of reference were drawn
up after consultations with individuals
such as the Canada Council’s Monique
Michaud and Dance in Canada editor
Susan Cohen. Then, as still today,
applicants required Canadian citizenship or landed immigrant status, and
submissions had to be supported by a
video of recent work, a proposal for the new creation
and letters of reference. The
use of Canadian music is encouraged, but not mandatory.
The first jury was made
up of Spohr, Macdonald
(who is still involved today)
and Peter Randazzo, cofounder of Toronto Dance
Theatre. The inaugural
winner was announced in
March 1978: Mauryne Allan,
the founder of a west coast
modern dance company,
Mountain Dance Theatre,
who won out over nine
other applicants. The jury
was roundly supported in its
decision by critic Michael
Crabb, who wrote in Dance
in Canada magazine after
the work’s August premiere
that Allan’s commission,
Spring, “stretched the
dancers in a healthy way,
developing their craft and
professionalism.” Crabb admires “the choreographer’s
capacity to frame her own
artistic impulse within the
limits of a company of
dancers whose technique and experience ranges widely” and wonders
how Allan would adapt the work for a
professional company such as the
Royal Winnipeg Ballet. In fact, a few
Lee Award commissions would find
their way into the repertoire of the
RWB, as well as Alberta Ballet.
One of those works to have an
extended life was Crystal Pite’s 1995
Lee Award creation, Quest, which was
taken up by Alberta Ballet. Pite was
on this summer’s 60th anniversary
choreographers’ panel, where she
explained how the Lee commission
gave her legitimacy at an early stage
in her career, which is now international. Gioconda Barbuto, who won
the following year, described how
important the design team’s support
was to her as an emerging choreographer still unfamiliar with making her
vision tangible. When 1982 Lee Award
winner Stephanie Ballard spoke, we
were reminded what a risky venture
creation is: Ballard felt that her commission, Light Fading, was not com-
Gioconda Barbuto, 1996
Photo: Michael Slobodian
pletely successful, but said images
from that work fed a major (and highly
respected) piece called Mara that she
later made for Margie Gillis.
A few hours after the panel, during
that afternoon’s Salute to Clifford E.
Lee Choreographers at the Margaret
Greenham Theatre, an excerpt from
Pite’s Quest, a spoof ballet about
chivalry, and from Barbuto’s highenergy and mysteriously shadowed
Chiaroscuro, were among those works
performed live. Other Lee Award
commissions appeared via a video
Gordon Crowder and Tara Butler in Crystal
Pite’s Quest, 1995
Photo: Don Lee
No. 64, Fall 2007
33
Lee Award Recipients
1978 Mauryne Allan – Spring
Recently Released
by DCD Press/Presse
1979 Judith Marcuse – Sadhana Dhoti
1980 Renald Rabu – Sparks
1981 Jennifer Mascall – Acoustic Noose
1982 Stephanie Ballard – Light Failing
1983 Martine Époque – Constellation I
1984 not awarded
1985 Constantin Patsalas – Notturni
1986 Christopher House – Go Yet
Turning Stay
1987 David Earle – Cloud Garden
1988 Randy Glynn – Capricciosa
1989 Mark Godden – Sequoia
Crystal Pite, 2007
Photo: Joris-Jan Bos
1990 Howard Richard – …And There
You Are, All Alone Together
1991 Edward Hillyer – De Profundis
montage, which spanned the decades
and showed the range of talent the
award has supported.
Despite numerous accolades over
the years, early in 2000 as the Clifford
E. Lee Foundation’s 35th anniversary
approached, the Board decided to wind
down the Foundation’s affairs. Lila
Lee had reached her 90s, and no family
members were interested in having
the same level of involvement. After
awarding several legacy grants, the Lee
Foundation held its last meeting in 2004.
In 1999, when the decision to fold
was already being considered, a gift of
$100,000 had been approved by the
Board for the endowment fund that
finances the Clifford E. Lee Award for
Choreography. Happily, through the
Board’s forethought and support, this
unique and richly situated award was
thus enabled to continue in perpetuity.
1992 Lola MacLaughlin – Waterwheel
1993 Bengt Jörgen – Bonds of Affection
1994 Michael Downing – Channel
Kaija Pepper is a writer and editor whose
work appears in a number of North American
publications, including The Globe and Mail
and Queen’s Quarterly. Her third Vancouver
dance history book, The Man Next Door
Dances: The Art of Peter Bingham, was
released by DCD Press/Presse this fall.
34
185 pages
90 photos
ISBN 0-929003-66-7
$30.00
1995 Crystal Pite – Quest
1996 Gioconda Barbuto – Chiaroscuro
[email protected]
Joe Laughlin – L’Étiquette
1997 Shawn Hounsell – Creaturehood
1998 Gaétan Gingras – Shaping
Worlds as Fire Burns…
1999 Allen Kaeja – Excavating ascent
2000 Wen Wei Wang – Snow
2001 not awarded
2002 Benjamin Hatcher – Covenant
2003 Andrew Giday – Maelstrom
2004 D.A. Hoskins – Configurations of
the Body
2005 Sabrina Matthews – losing ground
Peter Quanz – Quanz by Quanz
2006 Simone Orlando – Winter Journey
Thanks to Jane Townsend at The Banff
Centre’s Paul D. Fleck Archives for access
to the letters referred to in this article and
other related material. Thanks also to Jill
Sawyer and Pam Challoner for photographs.
Photography gallery/
Galerie de photographies :
Michael Slobodian
2007 Due to the special programming
for the 60th Anniversary of the
Dance Program, there was not
an award presented. Instead,
selected works from past Lee
Award recipients were remounted
to celebrate the Award’s legacy.
As we go to press, changes to the Banff Centre’s
dance programs are being announced. Details
have yet to be confirmed, but the Clifford E.
Lee Award, we are assured, will continue.
Brydon Paige
1933 – 2007
Brydon Paige passed away in
Montreal on October 8, 2007 from
heart disease. He had begun his
dance studies in Vancouver in the
1950s with Kay Armstrong and
danced with her company in the
Canadian Ballet Festivals. He had
a long association with Les Grands
Ballets Canadiens as a principal
dancer, resident choreographer
and ballet master. Paige was artistic director of the Alberta Ballet
from 1976-1987. In addition to his
work as a freelance choreographer
for ballet and opera companies,
he was artistic director of the
National Ballet of Guatemala and
the National Ballet of Portugal.
Linde Howe-Beck will contribute an
article on Brydon Paige to DCD’s
next Magazine.
Margaret Piasecki
February 1927 – May 2007
F
ormer Winnipeg Ballet dancer Margaret
(Hample) Piasecki passed away in May 2007
at the age of eighty. In addition to her work
as a company member, she is known in the Canadian
dance community as an historian and archivist,
founding the RWB Alumni Association in 1989.
Piasecki was a member of the fledgling company
during the years 1939 to 1949, from the time when it
was known as The Winnipeg Ballet Club. Auditioning at
age eleven, Piasecki, along with dancer David Adams,
was soon taken under the wing of RWB co-founder and
choreographer Gweneth Lloyd. The pair became two of
her first students. Piasecki danced leading roles for
Lloyd such as “Water” in Kilowatt Magic (1939), “Beauty”
in Beauty and the Beast (1941), and “Tragedy” in Visages
(1949), before retiring from her performance career to
raise her family. Later performances saw Piasecki
moving toward a dance career in television, film and
cabaret, securing her jobs in Montreal, New York City
and London. She retired from her performance career in
1958 to raise her family.
According to Piasecki’s friend and colleague
Stephanie Ballard, the Alumni Association and establishment of the RWB archives are Piasecki’s enduring
contribution to dance in Canada. As president of the
Association, she oversaw an incredibly active membership. She was a regular attendee of the “Monday morning group”, as they are affectionately known, consisting
of alumni members and associate volunteers who meet
weekly in the RWB building. The group sorts through
boxes of archives dating back to the company’s early
years. A fellow student and company dancer, Viola
Robertson, recalls the nature of the Alumni group as
being impromptu, with people showing up on a volunteer basis.
Piasecki’s active involvement in the Winnipeg ballet
community continued into her later years, as evidenced
by her support of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet school student performances and staying abreast of company
goings on. In September of 2006, Piasecki and Ballard
attended DCD’s Grassroots Archiving Workshop as part
of their latest archiving strategy, the Winnipeg Dance
Preservation Initiative.
Margaret Hample in a Winnipeg Ballet production of Michel Fokine’s
Le Spectre de la Rose staged by David Adams, 1948
Photo: Phillips-Gutkin and Associates Ltd.
Remembered as an avid storyteller, Piasecki often
fondly recalled her early years with the company, sharing stories about her past with those around her. Ballard
says, “Margaret approached everything whole-heartedly.
Her curiosity for learning new things was insatiable and
was combined with a strong drive and accuracy for historical detail.”
Piasecki is survived by her husband John, and three
children Mia, Della and Jon. The family has established
a scholarship in her name through the Royal Winnipeg
Ballet School, to be awarded annually to a promising
student. The scholarship is to be initiated as part of the
company’s 70th anniversary celebrations in 2009. It was
her hope to spearhead a large scale alumni reunion to
coincide with the anniversary.
– Emma Doran
No. 64, Fall 2007
35
Recent Donors
Margaret Atkinson
Clairellen Nentwich
Cheryl Belkin
Charlotte Norcop
Iris Bliss
Selma Odom
Ann Kipling Brown
Sylvia Palmer
Linda Cobon
Mary Pollock
In Memory of Gweneth Lloyd
Kate Cornell
Lorna Reddick
Marie Claire Forté
Janet Hagisavas
Allana Lindgren
Andrea Roberts
Rossetti de Montreal
In Memory of Ian Robertson
In Memory of
Lawrence Adams
Rhonda Ryman Kane
Joysanne Sidimus
Jill Sladen
In Memory of Eugenie Beatty
Mauryne Allan
Brenda Hamlyn Bencini
Marilyn Bower
Jane W. Smith
Robert Ito
Dominique Turcotte
Malca Marin
Martha Wilder
Rossetti de Montreal
Max Wyman
Mary F. Williamson
David Adams
November 1928 – October 2007
David Adams, a founding member of the National Ballet of Canada, died
at the age of seventy-eight in Stony Plain, Alberta, after a long illness.
Adams was a compelling stage presence and athletic partner adept in both
the classics and contemporary works. He quickly became the company’s undisputed male star during The National Ballet of Canada’s first decade. Adams
and his then wife, Lois Smith, forged a dazzling partnership winning the hearts
Lois Smith and David Adams, 1952
of audiences and attracting notice and support for the fledgling company.
A noted choreographer, he created two works for the NBC’s inaugural
1951/52 season – Ballet Behind Us and Ballet Composite. Later ballets included the Pas de Chance (1956), Pas de Six
and the The Littlest One (both 1959), the lyrical Pas de Deux Romantique (1960) and Barbara Allen (1960) to music by
Canadian composer Louis Applebaum.
Winnipeg-born David Adams began his dance studies in 1939 with Gweneth Lloyd and Betty Farrally, cofounders of what became the Royal Winnipeg Ballet where he danced as a teenager before leaving to join the Sadler’s
Wells Ballet in England. There, he later joined the Metropolitan Ballet where he performed with Celia Franca. Adams
returned to Canada in 1948 to dance and choreograph; Franca recruited him and his young wife as principal dancers
for the new National Ballet. Returning on occasion as a guest, he left in 1961 to become a principal dancer with
London Festival Ballet, joining the Royal Ballet in 1970; seven years later he became director of its educational group,
Ballet For All.
Returning to Canada, Adams settled in the Edmonton area where he worked with Alberta Ballet, making his last
stage appearance in 1978. David Adams is survived by his wife Meredith and daughter Emily, sister Joanne, and by
his first wife, Lois Smith, their daughter Janine and grandson Mark.
In the Spring 2008 issue, Michael Crabb will contribute a feature article on the partnership of David Adams and Lois Smith –
two of Canada’s most captivating ballet personalities.
Dance Collection Danse gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council,
City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, the George Cedric Metcalf Foundation, the Charles H. Ivey Foundation, all
the individual donors, and the late Nick Laidlaw. Dance Collection Danse extends lasting gratitude for the kind bequest from
the Linda Stearns Estate.
METCALF
FOUNDATION

Celia Franca in Canada - Dance Collection Danse

Transcription

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