The Canada Dance Festival has a strong commitment to include youth in all of its programming.  As the curator of the festival, I am most interested in presenting contemporary dance “with’ and “by” youth.  This year, a new group of young dancers will be joining the festival’s program.  They are the dancers from the Culturally Diverse Training Programs and they will be joining the dancers of the Pre-Professional Contemporary Dance Training Programs.  In total, there are four performances that showcase the talents of these amazing young dancers who are making the transition into the professional world of dance.

All four of these programs take place at Arts Court on Saturday, June5, Sunday, June 6, Monday, June 7, and Tuesday, June 8 at 2:00pm.  The first two days are taken over by the Contemporary Dance Programs.  On Saturday the 5^th, audiences will be able to experience dancers by choreographers Sylvie Desrosiers, Allen Kaeja, Sylvain Émard, and Christopher House.  On Sunday the 6^th, the choreographers are Tedd Robinson, Peggy Baker, and Roger Sinha.  This list of dancemakers includes some of Canada’s very best!

On Monday and Tuesday, young dancers from the Culturally Diverse Training Programs take the stage.  June 7^th will feature dances by Lata Pada and Zab Maboungu, and on June 8^th, the dances of Jai Govinda, Patrick Parsons, Menaka Thakkar, and BaKari Eddison Lindsay/Charmaine Headley will be featured.  These two programs will celebrate young people dancing the dances of their heritage – the dances that celebrate Canada’s pluralistic society.

When youth dance, I am always amazed by their directness.  Their energy is full-out, their emotions are present right there – heart on sleeve.  I know that choreographers are always very moved by the positive energy young people give their dances.  That is why everyone who is able to witness their performances is so moved.  I tell you, it’s the energy – full-out, positive!

On Wednesday evening, June 9^th, the CDF is moving to the Shenkman Arts Centre in Orleans to enjoy the choreography of Ginette Laurin.  En Dedans is being performed by 60 (!) dancers – the combined forces of all the Pre-Professional Contemporary Dance Programs.  This is a show not to miss – I guarantee it!

Saturday, June 5

The School of Dance – Contemporary Dance Division: “Concerto pour Danseurs et Violoncelle”
choreographer: Sylvie Desrosiers

The School of Toronto Dance Theatre: “Particle Theory”
choreographer: Allen Kaeja

L’École de danse de Québec: “Seuls ou avec d’autres  (Alone or with others)
choreographer : Sylvain Émard

The School of Toronto Dance Theatre:  excerpt from “Chiasmata”
choreographer: Christopher House

Sunday, June 6

LADMMI, l’école de danse contemporaine: “Grave”
choreographer : Tedd Robinson

The School of Contemporary Dancers :   “Square One”
choreographer:  Odette Heyn-Penner

The School of Toronto Dance Theatre:  excerpt from “Brute”
choreographer:  Peggy Baker

The School of Contemporary Dancers: “LIFE, BREATH AND OTHER IMPORTANT MATTERS”
choreographer:  Roger Sinha

Monday, June 7

Sampradaya Dance Academy: “Journeys”
choreographer:  Lata Pada

Nyata Nyata Danse:  “Nuances”
choreographer:  Zab Maboungu

Tuesday, June 8

Jai Govinda Dance Academy: “Natesh Kautuvan” & “Tillana”
choreographer:  Jai Govinda

Ballet Creole School:  “Antagonisms”
choreographer:  Jai Govinda

Nrtyakala – The Academy of Indian Dance: “Parashakti – Primordial Energy”
choreographer:  Menaka Thakkar

COBA School: “Ritual Essence”
choreographer:  BaKari Eddison Lindsay and Charmaine Headley

The history of contemporary dance in Canada is studded with the talent of many amazing solo dance artists – Margie Gillis, Paul-André Fortier, Peggy Baker are but a few who have developed international reputations. This year’s Canada Dance Festival is going to celebrate a whole new group. Each of them in their individual ways is building on the foundation set forth by even earlier contemporary dance individualists. It is through the solo act form where dance artists created solo dances for themselves, that they built their signature dance vocabularies. The most famous of these artists includes Martha Graham and the earlier pioneer Isadora Duncan.

Where an audience member attends a dance performance that includes solo dances created and performed by the same dance artist, they are entering a most personal world. The content of the dance is defined wholly by the artist as an individual, and that person is revealing very personal things about themselves. Some of what is revealed is intentional and some of it is intuitive. As there is only one person dancing, the relationship that is developed is 100% between the performer and the witnessing audience. It is as though the artist is speaking directly to the audience through their dancing. There are no rules here – what and how the dancer reveals the dance determines everything.

José Navas, artistic director of Compagnie Flak (June 10 – NAC Theatre) knows this so well. His international career was built on the foundation of his beautiful solo repertoire. He opens his program with a most evocative self portrait that sets the tone for the rest of the evening. “S” is a beautiful ensemble dance set to the solo piano music of Erik Satie performed live.

The Status Quo program will feature new solos by Amber Funk Barton and Shay Kuebler who have co-created the ensemble work, Status Quo. Now these two dance like you can’t believe. Their dancing is defining the next generation of Vancouver’s dance artists. (June 10!)

Nova Bhattacharya began her professional dance career as a soloist in the Menaka Thakkar Dance Company. At the Canada Dance Festival she will perform a series of solos she has created for herself to perform. Nova’s intensity as well as subtly guarantees a mesmerizing experience. I would not miss her June 10^th performance.

And, then there are performances by dance artists who began in Ottawa’s Le Groupe Dance Lab. Noam Gaguon is one of the founders of the legendary Holy Body Tattoo that really put Vancouver on the dance map. In every performance Noam goes for it like no other dancer, unless it’s Susie Burpee. In their separate shows solos once again created by themselves for themselves to dance will define a most specific moment in time. Noam performs on June 10^th and Susie on June 9^th.

Dance solos are specific. They’re intensely beautiful. They’re personal and they’re all about the dancing of the individual. Their communication is direct and so rewarding. I am 100% confident that each of these offerings will be very rewarding.

Partners: Dance & Music

Choreographers have very personal relationships with composers. Several of the programs at this year’s festival will certainly highlight that relationship, and one of the performances will go even further melding the two media into one expression.

Guillaume Coté is very well known as a principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada. He is becoming known (even in the international context) as a composer of very fine music. He recently won an Italian prize for composition for which he wrote a work for strings; he then decided he wanted to choreograph to his composition. What the audience will experience on Monday, June 7^th is the North American premiere of this most intimate collaboration. I am confident that what all of us will experience will be 100% breathtaking. Guillaume will also be part of the ensemble performing his work. He will be joined by Heather Ogden and Zdenek Kovalina also principals of the National Ballet of Canada and the ensemble of Coleman/Lemieux Company – Laurence Lemieux is also featured in the work. And, there is more. Zdenek Kovalina is the creator of the images projected throughout the work. He is a painter of amazing abstraction.

The program is shared by choreographer Peter Quantz. His dance is performed by three couples from the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. His dance was commissioned by New York’s Guggenheim Museum to celebrate the career of one of the 20^th Century’s most influential composers, Steve Reich. The music is Reich’s Double Sextet for which he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. Peter’s work was a huge success at its premiere performance – New York critics raved about the work.

Later in the week, Canada Dance Festival audiences will be able to experience Toronto’s COBA (Collective of Black Artists). Their dance is based on both Caribbean and African sources. The relationship between dance and music is also most intimate in their work. Traditionally, they are seen as one and the same, and there is no demarcation between dance and/or music. This integration is most beautiful. It is highlighted by the phenomenal dancing of Bakari who with the whole ensemble of COBA offers an evening of dance that celebrates the African Canadian experience in the here and now.

These two performances are going to give audiences dance experiences where the music is more than accompaniment and more than a background for the dance. Audiences will experience a celebration of this most intimate relationship and of how diverse that relationship may be.

I remember that several years ago when the Canada Dance Festival introduced Hip Hop 360, some of the contemporary dance community asked why we were getting involved in that fad. Obviously, even as dance artists, we don’t always know our dance history or how diverse the dance world is. (From my last article, maybe I’m already proving the need for the inclusion of the SOCIETY FOR CANADIAN DANCE STUDIES’ RENEGADE BODIES: DANCE IN CANADA DURING THE 1970’S conference!!). Bboying – break dancing – has a history of well over 30 years. Bboying began in New York in the Bronx and quite quickly became a way of giving youth a more positive, more community oriented identity. My own interaction with those involved in breaking has opened my eyes to the fact that art (dance) not only changes lives, it saves lives. Dancing is an art form – one that has occupied my whole adult life, and it is also a human activity that almost everyone has experienced in numerous contexts.

Two shows at this year’s Canada Dance Festival – STREET/STAGE on June 7 and STATUS QUO on June 11, both in the NAC Studio at 7:00pm, will easily celebrate the tremendous influences Urban Culture is having on the arts. It also celebrates dance “by” youth – dance that encourages younger dance artists to express themselves through dances defined by their own dance vocabulary and their own dance structures.

Street/Stage is the result of the Canada Dance Festival’s collaboration with Ottawa’s House of Paint, that glorious celebration of hip hop culture – breaking, graf, djing, and mcing! Last year, we made commitments to two crews – BBOYIZM (OTTAWA) and FAM (TORONTO) to encourage them to apply to granting structures so that they could find resources to realize their vision, and more importantly some creative mentorship to encourage them to translate breaking into a theatre form without losing the integrity of their street dance based choreography. Last year, they created short dances, and this year at Street/Stage, they will each perform significant dances of longer duration. I’m very excited to experience the results.

Bboying – breaking – break dancing always, at the very least guarantees amazing dancing. Dancing based on the individual strengths (power moves), fast paced rhythm, and attitude – positive attitude! It always gets everyone 100% caught up in its infectious energy. Dancing is the basis of the form. To translate it to the stage which will for the most part take a circular structure (the cipher) and puts it in a more objectified, frontal perspective is no easy matter. How to keep the integrity of the cipher is all important. How to keep its highly entertaining spirit will be no problem. Street/Stage guarantees a highly entertaining show of powerful dancing.

Several nights later, STATUS QUO will provide a whole other perspective. But, the dancing will be just as spirited, the moves just as powerful, and the experience just as amazing. Choreographer AMBER FUNK BARTON and SHAY KUEBLER come from a very different dance background than YVON SOGLO (Bboyizm) and the COLLECTIVE MEMBERS OF FAM. Theirs is still hip hop, but it’s from studio training. The structure is different. Amber and Shay use it in their unique vision of contemporary dance. The result is breath taking. Each of them will perform a new solo, and you will know why they are regarded as two of Vancouver’s hottest dancers. And then their ensemble will perform Status Quo, an unqualified success of last summer’s Dancing On the Edge Festival.

Status Quo offers a while new vocabulary, a really personal context and dancers from Vancouver’s hot emerging scene. That these younger dance artists are following their dream by creating their own world (they don’t follow anyone) is inspiring. And, Status Quo is one entertaining dance.

Both of these shows are not to be missed. Both will easily prove (my own quote): “There ain’t no dance without the dancing!” They are two of the over 25 shows that will animate Ottawa with fantastic contemporary dance June 4-12.

Brian Webb

Artistic Director

Canadian dance artists are really involved in a global culture. Some Canadian dance, particularly that from Quebec, but elsewhere as well, has strong connections to Western Europe – international co-productions in that context have really helped dance artist to reach much bigger audiences, to give their dances much longer performance lives, and to increase their resources making it easier for them to reach their goals. This is very exciting. Other artists are collaborating with artists from other countries. In some culturally diverse communities these collaborations are really extending the conversation on diasporas and now artists are inspired to create dances from all of their individual experiences.

The Canada Dance Festival opens on June 4 with a performance of IS YOU ME, the Par B.L.eux collaboration with BENOIT LACHAMBRE and LOUISE LECAVALIER, two of Canada’s true dance icons. They are mature artists who continue to risk jumping into the wild unknown with their dance adventure. They are both inspiring individuals, artists and dancers. Louise danced for many years and created so many signature roles in the dances of La La La Human Steps. Since leaving that company, she has continued her adventure with the new. Her sold out performances at the Canada Dance Festival in 2008 were unforgettable and magnificent. Benoit LaChambre is a wild man. He began dancing with Ballet Jazz de Montreal and then Toronto Dance Theatre, but for many years he has developed highly performative dance works. A major influence in Montreal’s dance community, he is better known in Europe than, for the most part, in English speaking Canada. His dance creations have been co-produced in numerous European dance centres and this has increased the context of both his creative practice and his career.

I can’t think of a better way to begin the festival than with a performance of their outrageously gorgeous, IS YOU ME. This is contemporary dance performed by dance artists whose vulnerability is inspiring.

Two dance companies, Sampradaya (Toronto) and Wen Wei Dance (Vancouver) are presenting the world premiere of dances created in collaboration with artists from other countries. Lata Pada, artistic director of Sampradaya began a dialogue with Piali Rae, artistic director of Sampad (U.K.). Last year they brought Dance Intense, a workshop on contemporary dance from the point of view of the South Asian diaspora, and there they decided to build resources to commission a new dance by Santosh Nair. His practice is centered around the Indian martial art form, Chau. STEALTH brings dancers from Sampradaya and Sampad together to explore a new form in what promises to be a highly energetic, integrated artistic statement. I’m confident you will be thoroughly entertained.

On closing night (June 12) WEN WEI DANCE and the BEIJING MODERN DANCE COMPANY will present the world premiere of their collaboration, UNDER THE SKIN. The artistic directors of each company, Wen Wei Wang and Gao Yanjinzi are the choreographers of this interaction between six dancers from each company. As well, the choreographers, both fine dancers themselves, will perform a movement conversation between each other. Having seen some video of the work in progress (filmed at creative research periods in Beijing), I can say that this is a dance extravaganza that will be a true celebration of people dancing together to find commonality. It’s high octane, beautiful, theatrical, and downright moving. It defines the Canada Dance Festival’s motto

Integrated Arts/Outrageous Beauty

Brian Webb
Artistic Director

The other day I was reading one of my favourite articles, Profiles, in the New Yorker. The jazz artist, Esperanza Spalding, was interviewed. She was most articulate in stating that her interest and practice was in new creations, songs written by herself. She had no interest in performing older works from the American song book or from the jazz repertoire. Of course this got me thinking about the Canada Dance Festival’s mandate – to present new works by Canadian dance artists.

I’m very excited about the line up for this year’s Canada Dance Festival, June 4-12. I’m confident that audiences are going to be thoroughly intrigued by the variety and quality of dance experiences being offered them. Contemporary dance by its very nature is always in a state of flux. It’s fluid, always evolving. There are new forms being introduced, new influences that challenge both artists and audiences, and new artists with fresh ideas. There are also established artists who are driving their work forward, encouraging themselves to approach their artistic practice with vigour and with rigour. Sometimes it seems almost impossible to keep up with the fluid nature that defines contemporaneity. But, the adventure of the new is what motivates all of us.

At this year’s event all those who desire to participate may expect to decide among 24 different shows. 16 choreographers will have their work experienced for the first time. Three dance companies are involved in international collaborations. And the, there are established artist like Paul André Fortier (Montreal) and Peter Bingham (Vancouver) who will present dance that pushes their artistic practice into new territory. Ginette Laurin of O’Vertigo is working with dancers from the five Pre Professional Contemporary Dance Training Programs who are graduating into the professional world – over 50 dancers are involved! In 2002, the Canada Dance Festival presented its last program of contemporary ballet – this year there is a shared program of new dance by Guillaume Coté (of the National Ballet of Canada) and Peter Quantz (a sextet for dancers from the Royal Winnipeg Ballet). Two programs are going to provide points of view on Urban Culture – Street/Stage is a shared program by bboy crews Bboyism (Ottawa) and FAM (Toronto) while Status Quo (Vancouver) showcases the talents of Amber Funk Barton and Shay Kuebler. Both of these programs promise high octane dancing.

Joining the festival this year is the membership of the Society for Canadian Dance Studies. They are the national organization of dance writers, historians and researchers. Renegade Bodies: Dance in Canada During the 1970’s will explore dance from the point of view of that seminal period – in many ways a beginning time in Canadian contemporary dance. Their interest in Canadian dance history provides a framework from which today’s artists have emerged. History. Contemporaneity. Are these ideas exclusive? Is there any context for interaction between the two? I’m excited for us to explore ideas in panels (open to the public) like Renegade Bodies: Artist Panel, Renegade Bodies: Film Panel and Dance a Definition of Culture in a Global World.

Over the next weeks, I will provide you with up to date information of the June 4-12 festival event. I will profile artists and happenings. I certainly hope that I will intrigue you enough that you will put our dates in your dance calendar. Stay tuned!

Brian Webb
Artistic Director

Here we are February 2010 and the next edition of the Canada Dance Festival is a couple of months away.  I’m very excited by what artists are planning for it as I am completing the curation of the June 4 – 12 event.  Once again I am confident that the capital region will be animated by much of the most dynamic dance being created in Canada today.  There will be something to be experienced for every dance taste – that is for everyone interested in contemporary Canadian dance!

By its very nature, the Canada Dance Festival is most eclectic.  It is our goal to offer the public dance that originates in many locales across Canada, dance that is created by dance artists from many communities – culturally diverse communities, aboriginal communities, communities regarded as centres of contemporary dance and communities where the dance artists are forced to work in a more isolated environment.  All of the dance will be of a quality that is undeniable and, all of it will reveal a vision where the choreographer has stamped it with their individual context.  The dances will be original, provocative, and entertaining.  They will be unique expressions of contemporary Canadian culture.

The one unifying concept that will define this year’s celebration is that the dancing will be at the heart of each creation.  Every person on earth has felt movement in their body; we know movement, albeit differently and to various degrees but we all know it.  Dancing, moving, is a basic human activity that celebrates our aliveness in the here and now, and it is from this point of view that we may even suggest that dance is universal – something we all know.  I find this amazingly powerful.

How we move, how we dance is as individual as each of us.  In moving, dancing, there is something that triggers a commonality, a kinship, something we recognize.  This is how dance communicates – by acknowledging our common awareness of movement.  The Canada Dance Festival celebrates dance that has been structured into moving works of artistic expression.  Central to each of these expressions is our common awareness of movement – our aliveness at that very moment when we sense even the movement of a heartbeat.

With this short article, I am letting you know the dates of the 2010 Festival, June 4 to 12.  I’m encouraging you to mark them in your calendars and I’m inviting you to attend our celebration.  From now until the festival event I will write a new article that will inform you of artists who are performing and of the dances they are dancing.  Here we are, entering the second decade of what we so recently called the new millennium.  Dance is alive.  It’s moving.  It’s expressing who we are as individuals, as members of various communities and as Canadians.  Be ready for our June event, it’s just around the corner.

The Canada Dance Festival is happy to unveil its new website. We are confident that you will find it easier to navigate, and that it will provide you with regular monthly updates as we work toward the June 5 – 12, 2010 festival event. A highlight of this month’s posting is the final report of Dancing Through Cultures written by Andrea Rowe. It is a very comprehensive document that gives you a very strong synopsis of what happened during our two-and-a-half day meeting.

Dancing Through Cultures was an exciting celebration of the dance being created by artists from various culturally diverse communities and Aboriginal communities. It was a moment in time that offered Ottawa dance audiences the opportunity to experience dance being created by artists passionate to reveal the Canadian experience. Alongside the performances, Dancing In, Through and Between Cultures Toward a Space of Mutuality was a dialogue by all interested people on how contemporary dance is a diverse and vital component of our culture.

Artists, presenters, educators and theorists presented many ideas in an open atmosphere that contributed to the ongoing dialogue regarding the values that define Canadian society in 2009. In Andrea’s paper, you will see that there are many points of view regarding racism, authenticity, opportunity, identity and recognition. I think that she captures the passion of the gathering as artists and arts workers who defined themselves as Canadian individuals participating in numerous contexts of community.

Our conversation went so far. Certainly there is more to discuss and to take action on to ensure that in the Canadian dance community we have respect and admiration for all dance artists who are working to express themselves. The CDF is committed to taking action so that our own culture is one in which we work in a transparent way to ensure that all Canadian contemporary dance artists are being considered.

The CDF does not work in isolation. The Advisory Committee that worked with the CDF to build Dancing Through Cultures is to be congratulated and thanked for their work. The collaboration that we developed resulted in a most dynamic gathering. I look forward to our ongoing dialogue.

Later in the summer, we presented our third edition of Hip Hop 360. What energy, innovation, and downright wicked dancing! The 605 Collective (Vancouver) and the two crews Bboyizm (Ottawa / Gatineau) and F.A.M. (Toronto) made Street/Stage unforgettable. At the 2010 CDF, audiences will witness how this initiative began in 2007 and is reaching new heights.

The 2010 edition of the CDF is just 8 months away! We are really moving forward. Our new General Manager, Debra Beauregard, is bringing so much positive energy to her position, and I think you will see the effects of it starting now!

April 2009 – In this article I’m excited to talk about quality — quality dance experiences. This is something we don’t do enough of in the Canadian dance community. Since the fall, I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing some incredible performances. And, of course, this brings me to my fundamental belief about all dance. It is the dancing itself that leads me toward finding meaning in what I am experiencing. It is the dancing that gives the choreography meaning. When the dancing and the dance are one in the same – inseparable – in my experience, I witness a dance event that is of the highest quality.

 Early in the fall, I was finally able to present Daniel Lévéillé’s La Pudeur des icebergs (The Modesty of Icebergs) in my Brian Webb Dance Company season in Edmonton, Alberta. This dance had been presented earlier at the Canada Dance Festival. What an experience – to be able to witness this dance several times over several years; it was truly joyful. The Edmonton shows were amazing! The dancing was pure, elemental, even primal and interpretations had matured beautifully. Images that I remembered from previous viewings were reinforced, and to paraphrase Antonin Artaud: that huge pile of flesh– seemed even more present – the time it takes – the slowness with which it is created, and then there it is. Time stands still. This dance is pared right down, transitions organic to the body are eliminated. What the dancers are left with is brutal. This is dance (ing) that hits me right in the solar plexus. The weight of it and the lack of sentimentality, even with the magnificence of Chopin to accompany it. Imagine – even Chopin sounded fresh, new, alive!

In January I attended performances at the Kalanidhi Festival in Toronto. Two performances there had amazing impact on me. This festival was dedicated to the memory of Chandralekha (1928-2006) the great contemporary Indian choreographer (I had the pleasure of presenting her company in Edmonton in 1996). Sharira, her last work, was performed. What a masterpiece! The two dancers have been performing it for six years, and their bodies know this dance. Chandralekha is another dance maker who had the ability to bring her dance to its primal root. In Sharira the living body is celebrated for its sexuality, its sensuality and its spirituality. It is a dance that is amalgamated with a most beautiful score performed live. The music features the singers, Umakant and Ramakant Gundecha (brothers). The aliveness of this work was disarming, even shocking, and each element contributed to the whole. 

Also part of the Kalanidhi was the great German dancer Susanne Linke, who was a very close friend of Chandralekha, and that is why she was there. She performed her newest work, Kaekou-Yin (Transmigration Now). This dance uses the Adagietto from Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony as its accompaniment. When the music began I wanted out!  But, it took a very short time for this fine dance artist to hold me tight. What a dancer… she is there, 100% present in the here and now. She controls herself in space with elegance and articulation. And she goes much further. Hers is a dance, dancing, at its most vulnerable. Susanne Linke is a humanist. She is her dance. In Canada, Paul-André Fortier is the only soloist I know who is this open, this vulnerable. Her dance is real – unpretentious, open and pure… there is no performance, only dancing.

And finally, I recently presented Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal in Edmonton. What a display of ensemble dancing. The audience of some 1,500 people recognized this and they responded with uninhibited affection. Why? Because the dancing was out of this world. Choreographer Aszure Barton has created a work for this company that these dancers simply inhabit. As an ensemble they are unbeatable… each one contributes to the whole.

This bjm program had its premiere at the last Canada Dance Festival. The program is a hit. This brings up another issue. I believe Louis Robitaille is an amazing artistic director – a man of vision and a man who has guts. He provides the space for artists like Aszure Barton and Crystal Pite (The Stolen Show) to create works that bring audiences everywhere to the dance experience. And this experience is fresh. The dances are new. They are part of our contemporary Canadian dance experience. Wow!!!

In all of these dance experiences it is the dancing that is alive. It is the dancing that gives the audience this “super” quality experience. The choreography is a vehicle for this most human expression … the dancing body!

Brian Webb