CANADANCE

Upcoming....

2012-01-25T08:59:00.000-05:00

On Friday, January 27th, I have the pleasure of seeing the Toronto-based Janak Khendry Dance Company perform Kaal-Time, a production which has been long in the works. Stay tuned! In the meantime, have a read about the company: http://www.jkdanceco.org/ And read the article I wrote about Mr. Khendry for Dance Collection Danse magazine, on page 6: http://www.dcd.ca/general/Resources/70DCDTheMagazine.pdf Happy dancing, watching, and writing -SM

Dancemakers TWOBYFOUR: Toronto may not recover from Vancouver (and that's all right!)

2012-01-22T19:03:00.002-05:00

Let me say quite transparently that I am a person with many different identities, or at least, I feel that way. There's my biracial-ness, which causes delight and sorrow on a yearly basis. But it always seems to save the day when conversation is waning at a party. So, thanks Mom and Dad! The other set of identities I have is to do with Canadian geography. And arguably, the dueling nature of the places and peoples in question make for a tougher time. Forget complex interracial identity: I'm caught in the volatile but not-terribly-aggressive crossfire between Vancouver and Toronto! I kid, but I have always felt straddled between these two places. While I grew up in Ontario and felt compelled to live near Toronto (for the available Masters and Phd programs in dance), I did spend 5 to 6 years training in and seeing dance in Vancouver. And so, I feel a tad biased towards the kind of output the west coast dance community has. The bias may come from the fact that I have seen more of it, but in all honesty, I feel like Vancouver dancers (specifically from the western theatrical sector), for the most part, MOVE. I go there three times a year or so to see my family (who essentially retired there), see dance, research, and visit old friends. And upon return to Toronto, I mourn the fact that my city cannot have the same access to certain Vancouver dance communities that I have. And so, my head/heart exploded when I heard a Peter Bingham piece was coming to Dancemakers (*blam*, that being the sound of my head/heart exploding). No airplane ride needed....a Vancouver institution (Bingham is the director of Vancouver's EDAM) was gracing Toronto! http://www.dancemakers.org/twobyfour.html. Dancemakers invited national and international artists to present three different programs featuring duets, to illuminate the remote communication and conversation that can arise from two people moving on stage.

Bingham is indeed an institution in Vancouver, and nationally, what with being the Don of contact improvisation in Canada. Seeing him perform also makes my head/heart explode. He, QUITE literally, can melt to the floor like butter in a hot pan. He can slither around pretty much any one or anything from surprising directions, and he can instantly be on another side of the room. As a first year student in university, this is the brief whispered conversation I had with my pal at my very first EDAM show: "Where'd he go?" "Oh, he's over there." "What?" "How'd he get there?" "Woaaaaah." So poignant, that conversation. So, when I've watched him or his dancers in the past, the narrative in my head is like a batman comic because of all the surprises and mind-blowing physicality I'm seeing: BOFF! BLAM! POW! This was indeed the case for audience members in the Dancemakers studio on Saturday night, as they watched Bingham's Right in Front of You.

The first piece in the program, The Moment Before, choreographed and performed by Toronto's own Andrea Spaziani, with dancer Amanda Acorn, was an example in earnestness. Theirs was a danced conversation that seemed to take them from warm up, through to process, to final performance. It seemed experimental on many levels; Spaziani had actual conversations with Acorn, and the two also broke the ol' fourth wall, with Acorn arranging Spaziani into a sprawled position in a chair in the audience: "Is this uncomfortable?" I think she asks. They were pleasant, and earnest in their dancing. A few unison phrases, which had them crashing to the floor, dotted the piece. They were charged, fire in their bones, and believed in what they were doing. It didn't hurt that they were feisty, technical movers, too. But in all honesty, and I had no intention of comparing them, the next one on the program nearly got me out of my chair. So, I see some familiar faces onstage for Bingham's Right in Front of You (the second piece on the program): James Gnam and Farley Johansson, two powerhouses who have obviously had many a sip of the contact improv punch. They are strong, and yet they melt like Bingham's butter in a hot pan. It might be my dance history background talking, but I was quite moved to see Bingham's legacy passed onto the bodies of Gnam and Johansson. We speak often about the fleeting and ephemeral nature of dance, and it is true, it does vanish in an instant, but in moments like this, where movement-integrity-training-and-aesthetic are present and written on the bodies of other dancers, I am convinced more and more of the permanence of dance. Yadda yadda. I digress. On the back wall of the studio theatre, a film projection of a mysterious skyline murmurs (a few tree tops and a grey sky are our only clues). Then, BAM!, a plane penetrates the shot (I'm guessing the Vancouver airport was the shooting location but cannot be certain). Because of this initial image, I found myself eagerly looking for extended metaphors of flying,planes,whathaveyou, in the gentlemens' stage journeys. So, for instance, James looks like he's in an airport bathroom washing his hands, looking over his shoulder (which perhaps is quite ridiculous, but I swear it sounded like there was a running sink in the soundscape). The exciting, risk-taking leaps and bounds that conclude the piece (the gents taking turns flying Icarus-like into the downstage corners, while the other gently catches the fall and guides Icarus to the ground) give way to much flying imagery. Or, the cock-eyed grins that dotted their sometimes dueling exchanges; it reminded me of patrons at the airport bar, exchanging stories until one has told the best of them all. Machismo mixed in with good humour. But, in the end I really did not need to look for the extended metaphors...it was engaging enough on its own. Sometimes you go to a performance and you know that the dancers are just good performers, not merely good technicians. They do not have to resort to actual spoken dialogue to have a conversation in front of you. They do not have to resort to Sarah Bernhardt or pantomime tactics to show fear, joy, humility, or confusion. And they do not have to don a moustache and bowler hat to make us laugh. These two dancers, well, they knew how to have a multidimensional chat, to make us laugh, sit up, lean over, with the greatest subtlety. It was an earnest, danced conversation, with the occasional whispered 'yeah!' or 'again!'. What was nice to see and hear on this evening in Toronto was the absolute gasps and 'oh!'s launching from the throats of audience members. The gents on stage did not allow any sort of passivity during their performance. Their sharing of weight, their running starts and high-flies toward the audience basically said "wake up! I'm going to fall!" And although their recoveries onto the ground were done with the same facility as a drop returning to a pool of water, the physical sparks that the danger created had everyone in that studio theatre in some kind of different position (cringing, all limbs crossed, leaning forward, hands over mouths). THAT is kinesthetic empathy. THAT is what makes dance exciting. For me. I was smiling so hard I hurt my jaw. The jaw will recover, but I hope that lucky audience never does. Thanks Vancouver dance! See you in a few!

Adhere

2012-01-19T15:18:00.000-05:00

Recently, I had the pleasure of working with The Contingency Plan Dance Collective, based in Vancouver, British Columbia.

After learning about specific experiences of solitude in the dancers' pasts, I penned a poetic text which intermittently surfaced and submerged into the soundscape. The directors were kind enough to post one version of the text in the lobby for audience members to read. I thank the company for allowing me the experience of creative writing, something I do with love and interest...but something I do not do as often as I would like.

Here is one permutation of the text I wrote for their stunning two-part program earlier this month. To learn more about this dynamic young company, visit: http://contingencyplan.ca/.

(Number 6 is my favourite):

-1-

I live in a hallway, always.
Every step forward, backward, cowering moment,
I am in a hallway, of some kind.
Of many kinds.
The cold spinal space between head and heart,
Productive rooms where everyone else seems to linger
I stand half-dressed in between them
Paused in stride
This hallway has mirrors, did I mention?
Where I jab at my own reflection.

Laughter, warm embraces where sternums kiss,
All I have to offer is a hole in a sock.
A biting ache of the cold air hitting
That lonesome soldier of a big toe
Squirming to get back in line
To the state of Feelin’ fine
But, who am I kidding? It was never meant to be.

On the train, the hallway between home and city
While everyone sleeps with gaping mouths,
heads cocked, thoughts momentarily muted
Some stand asleep, swaying with sensible beauty, like bobbing buoys on
An ocean. The train making subtle turns, careening down slight hills,
The sleep-standing folks, sliding their palms up and down the hand rails
Like elevator shafts.
I am awake, rattled,
Isolated in between him and her
Catching breaths of relief only when the journey stops
And the doors open

-2-

I’m walking away from somewhere a). I’m walking towards somewhere b).
This is choreography.
The ordinary confines of my living room,
Unfold and unfold
become the architecture of my heart,
the sheepskin rug a stage upon on which I amuse myself,
shadowing puppets, penning the soap opera sagas
of my well-played dolls (even the headless ones)
They love, sing, dance, die
Until intermission.
Act II
I put on my costumes and
become maestro of my own movement
betwixt the frame of my domestic proscenium (or, fireplace)
the music moves me
The incandescent, twinkling tones of any old pop song
Taking me on a pin-balling journey from here to there
Every corner of the room my very own
I’m walking away from somewhere a). I’m walking towards somewhere b).
This is my choreography.

-3-

You know you’re afraid of feeling alone when
You are engaged in the project of
filling up space
Blasting music into your ears from point a to point z
To suppress the murmuring sound of the sky train,
Or the high-pitched screaming that pervades your ears,
Brought on only by the most complete silence.
Your ears make their own noise when there is nothing to hear;

Pacing fidgeting crossing and uncrossing legs and arms
The boundless fear of stillness causing
A dance of tick-tocking limbs
To fill up the time, to shake the airwaves as you wait
for whateverthehell

Laughing at the slightest smudge of humour
Just in case someone says nothing
We must not risk the impending awkward silence
We must not risk it
The galaxy might explode if we let it become too quiet.

I may not know much at all,
But I do know that
the lonely person is the one who laughs too often.

So often, that her
voice sounds scuffed up like it
Dragged itself along the pavement,
Like it has laughed itself to tears.

-4-
The houses on my street were synonymous
With the people inside them.
Number 42, across and down the road,
was a woman, and a green garage door.
Number 36, across and down the other way,
Was man, wife, three kids, and a lawn of dying grass.
We were number 39, a couple with an only child,
And a horse chestnut tree which was casually
And gloriously dying.

The judging, the watching amongst us,
Filled our street with heart-melting
Calm.

But what is becoming of my neighbourhood?
my numbered neighbours
Uprooted and disappeared
Replaced by new houses
Without memories Without sun-faded walls or worn floors
Unremarkable
Without history depth or accident

Standing here, looking down the long and winding
Graveyard of my neighbourhood
Where 42, 36, and us 39s surveilled and swooned
Staining doorknobs and chipping porch paint
Over many hours, filing and sculpting our
Homes with our repetitive journeys,
None of these houses are alive.

No one is watching. I feel unwatched.

What is happening to my neighbourhood?

-5-
The moment of waking up, after a vivid assault of a dream,
Is a splash of cold water on the face,
A smack on the cheek that brings you instantly and completely
Into dark silence, from everything, to nothing.
To snap back into reality, 3am or thereabouts, should be
Reassuring, a breath or two of relief
An adjustment of pupil 1 and pupil 2
and then back to sleep.
Wine helps, too.

The dog that bites a vast chunk out of my knee in a sun-filled park,
the Japanese print hanging at the end of my childhood hall, of a woman scorned, that comes
to life and chases me into my own recesses, to smother me.
The invisible child who I misplace, the swallowed teeth
The crushing blow that I cannot administer
The furnace as monster.
The nonsensical, the whimsical, the fatal
For all the sweat and tears they give me,
For the damage to my guts they cause me,
I miss them when I snap to,
In the middle of the night.

-6-
He told me many years ago
To call him, Mr. Oldpoorsonofabitch.
And so I do.
How are you feeling today, Mr. Oldpoorsonofabitch?
His body is a resounding rejection of its status quo,
The loud speaker announces him,
he denounces himself-
If he had his way, his will, his still functioning opposable thumbs
He’d put up For Lease signs in the most pathetic of his body’s parts
Starting with his eye sockets
Then his ear drums
The hollow pores of his mind where
Vital information would come to drink,
Then the abandoned lots in his dried up gums
Where his incisors used to live in their glory days.

I’m Mr. Oldpoorsonofabitch, he would say,
And I’m having a moving day sale.
Everything can be bargained for,
Just come and see me and make an offer
You won’t be sorry.

The only thing, not up for negotiation,
Is the imprint of his old poor back half
On the bed where he now lounges.
He never saw what he looked like from behind,
But, he says, “I am sure
It is impressive, and pure.”

-7-
Solitude is commonplace for the human
open the blinds and see it elsewhere
The moon in the day time,
A pock-mark on the sky, it hangs awkwardly
It missed its flight
Like the ragged bird without its flock
Pecking at the sewer grate

The shadows that hide behind objects,
The spaces where light cannot reside
The blocking of a passageway
A bubble, a pocketed gurgle in the throat
Or the ones we created
That prevent the nitty gritty from getting
Into our tiny rooms.

The absence of water on a stretch of sand,
The pull of the tide that leaves the beach
A dismal grey carpet, revealing the dirty
Underbelly of all that it has stolen,
Killed, watered down
fossilized bodies of things long dead,
sunglasses without lenses,
All decorated against their will by
The lace of seaweed.

But the tide comes back in,
And so the moment passes.
But it does not pass for me.

Character 8 (Vignette): In the library.
Hands pacing along books lined neatly, alphabetically
I crinkle like paper, flaking at the dog-eared edges
Nothing is lonelier, more devastating

Than an unopened book.

Come – join me in the hallway.

Canadance Survey!

2011-05-14T12:05:00.000-04:00

Greetings readers,

Thank you in advance for taking a moment to complete this quick survey. My goal this year is to take this scatterbrained blog and turn it into something useful and relevant to the dance community in Canada. Please help my reshape this cyberspot by including your thoughts, feelings, inclinations, and points of interest.
Samantha Mehra

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Black and Blue Projects Fundraiser!

2011-03-18T11:25:00.000-04:00

Quoted from http://blackandbluegala.eventbrite.com/

"An Invitation to Heaven
An evening of dance and cocktails featuring the fiercely sensual performance of Heaven by blackandblue dance projects in association with CreatiVenture Collective.

Friday, April 1, 2011
Doors open at 7:00pm
Performance at 7:30pm
Cocktail Reception to follow Performance
Betty Oliphant Theatre
404 Jarvis Street
Tickets $100
*All proceeds from ticket sales go directly to blackandblue dance projects.*
$100 tax receipt will be issued for the full cost of the ticket.
Heaven
The gasp of breath, the surprising slap of flesh against flesh, and the stamp of foot to floor, sounds the body’s vulnerability and power- this is the score of “Heaven”. Deeply physical, “Heaven” is Ivanochko’s most explicit example of movement as metaphor for heart and mind. Starting from the idea that heaven is the ultimate place of union and love, this work explores the biological and emotional urgency of mating and the dissolution of self in the other. Stripped of clothing, the dancers’ bodies speak with an economy and sexuality that impacts viscerally. Naked, thematically and dramatically, this piece startles and seduces with its primal imagery and heart breaking honesty.
Choreographer: Sasha Ivanochko, Performers: Sasha Ivanochko, Brendan Wyatt, Brodie Stevenson*
*Brodie Stevenson appears courtesy of Toronto Dance Theatre, Artistic Director Christopher House
Audience Advisory: Nudity and Adult Content
blackandblue dance projects
Love, guts, brain and brawn are the stuffs of blackandblue dance projects. Born out of Artistic Director Sasha Ivanochko’s insistence on getting to the heart of the matter, the work is body centric, core physical and candid. Working from the belief that the body’s range of physical coordination has unlimited potential, her artistic discourse is informed by rigorous, intellectual and playful in-studio investigation. Marked by an unusual sense of beauty and an intuitive musicality, Ivanochko’s singular physical language explores and reveals the metaphoric implications of movement. The art of blackandblue and the artist are driven by a great longing, a love of the under-dog, and a fierce sense of inner flight. www.blackandbluedanceprojects.ca
"Sasha Ivanochko is so damned expressive, you could sell tickets to watch her cross the street" - NOW magazine"

Balancing Balanchine

2010-11-18T11:13:00.002-05:00

I really dig Balanchine's choreography. It is a visual symphony. It takes romantic ballet vocabulary and inverts it, twists it, pushes the hips off center, removes the star system from the company. It's about the dance, not the dancers.

George Balanchine, a ballet god to many, is often cited as the choreographer responsible for promoting the image of the emaciated ballerina. There has long been a debate about this. It would be more precise to say that he preferred ballerinas with long legs, short torsos, and small heads (choreographers, and fashion designers, too, have their asethetic preferences regarding bodies; this is not new). But if you have been to a ballet performance recently, you can probably remember the dancers who looked pre-pubescent, the ones whom you could not stop watching because of the circus-like, grotesque anomaly of their "greyhound" bodies. A student in my class this week put it well, remarking "You can't stop looking because you are wondering "how did you do that?" Really, it is extraordinary to see a ballerina with no visible meat on her bones who is accomplishing these virtuosic feats of strength without keeling over. You cannot tear your eyes away from the spectacle.

Balanchine dancers generally disagree with his part in the emaciated ballet body, and some have said in his defence that he did not actually promote anorexia in dancers; dancing his virtuosic, fast-paced, exceedingly difficult choreography is what changes the body itself: legs become leaner, ribcages widen slightly, arches in the back become prominent (see Jowitt's great "Forward to Petipa" article on Balanchine; I am referencing it quite a lot here!). Similarly, the thinner body appears to accentuate the angular lines that Balanchine played with: stick people are the most effective at showing lines.

Is this the case? Who knows. What we do know is that unhealthy eating habits and eating disorders are prevalent in the dance world; this is an epidemic not specific to ballet. Dancers are a) prone to perfectionism, which is a trait common among eating disorder sufferers; and b) working in a visual field which, given the use of the body, obsesses over the way the body appears. It is difficult to reconcile the pursuit of thinness; but how do we change the emaciated dancing body back to the athletic body? Where does this process begin? At the studio level? Or within companies? I ask: how do we change this? Thoughts are welcome.

It has been pointed out that dance and fashion take note of one another, and given the Kate Moss-Twiggy waif prototype, perhaps the dance world took note of the popular use of the body in everyday images (advertising). But recently, the fashion world has been undergoing changes, given the recent deaths of young models who essentially dropped dead from their poor health. Designers are rethinking and re'designing' their standards, setting a minimum bmi for their models. Some designers are not thrilled with this, arguing that fabrics hang best on thin models (my response is, why not use some coat racks and stick them on a conveyor belt as a runway show instead of telling a model to lose 5 more pounds)but there has been a move to reimagine the body in the fashion industry. With hope, this will happen in the dance world, too.

There are companies out there which really challenge the idea of the ideal dancing body by using arguably marginal bodies, companies which include dancers in wheelchairs, with missing limbs, who are overweight, or in their 80s, etc. These are companies of interest to me, as they are offering the public insight into other representations of the body onstage. They say to me, "We ain't your average dancers, but we have chops."

Below is an example (and sorry about the melodramatic music...but look at what these two can do with their 'Other' bodies:

The Importance of Embodied Practice

2010-09-23T09:11:00.000-04:00

Suzy Q. The Shim Sham Shimmy. Shuffle off to Buffalo. Falling of the Log. The Cincinatti.

No, these are not code words to get into speak-easies in the 1920s. They are the names of standardized tap steps, mostly popularized on the Vaudeville stage. And yesterday, paired with a mini-lecture on the convoluted history of tap dance, they became the subject of moving bodies.

I am a TA. I have been running tutorials for more years than I care to remember (a symptom of being in school for too long). Usually I am set up in lecture/tutorial courses, where speaking is favoured over moving, even though the object of our affections and attention are moving bodies made static in history text books. We usually read wonderful texts, and then I have the sometimes difficult task of getting these young dancers to talk about the material, as the theories and concepts can be daunting.

Yesterday, however, I had the opportunity to teach a tap class to two of the tutorials, complete with bluesy music, and bodily quotations of tap from that period. Not only did the energy in the room rise, but by moving in the way that dancers moved in a particular genre and time period, as Ann Cooper Albright suggests, we gained a faint insight into the physical experiences of stage dancers of old.

While movement experience is obviously remote to the moving individual, we can indeed have similar experiences and perhaps speak to one another about those similarities. So, the idea that we can minutely move back in time and relate to a dancer from centuries ago, sheerly through movement, is appealing to me as a burgeoning historian. I am slowly being convinced that this is the best way to learn dance history.

Shave and a hair cut...two bits.

The Dog Whisper-Dance

2010-05-17T07:12:00.003-04:00

It's seven in the morning. For the last few hours I have been lying awake thinking about all of the training left to do with my new dog, Mango (or, the Great Mangini).
While a lot if it has to do with getting her to stop going into enthusiastic convulsions whenever she sees new people or pups, most of it is a kind of structured improvisation, with a very specific movement vocabulary.

By now you're probably thinking 'way to stretch that one,' but I am true believer that animals, like humans, read body language and its energy. When we first got Mango, my hubby and I overdosed on the Dog Whisperer (Cesar Millan) books and shows. Millan consistently noted that dogs respond to touch and body language over sound, which is something I found to be rather backward. It turns out, though, that Millan is right, at least when it comes to our situation. We have found this to be the case, which is very thrilling for someone in the oft overlooked 'physical' arts.

The physicality I take on during our duets is confident and assertive, what Millan calls 'claiming the space.' My presence in certain areas of the house, or around the pooch, become mine as I stand a little taller and physicality delineate boundaries. Being a rather short person, I have practiced making myself appear larger (bending the arms to the side in a kind of second position) which causes a 'sit back and relax' reaction from the dog. On walks, I take the dominant role: the boundaries are that she cannot walk very much in front of me, or cross my path.

Interestingly, Mango is not one to bark, and communicates her needs more with physical quotations: tapping the glass to go outside, putting her paw on my foot when she's hungry, etc. I have known many dogs in my time, and this is the first one that, for the majority of things, mimes instead of barks. So perhaps she has her own toolbox of movement knowledge, too.

Mango sets the tone, and I insert the needed energy/vocabulary in order to move us both forward, on walks, in life. Everyday with her is an improvisational duet. She sets the pace, and I step in on occasion with the occasional gesture or posture to keep the piece continuing.

These postures have worked around human strangers, without them knowing. I used to detest public transit and large crowds, but applying the same kind of energy and space claiming has really opened up some sidewalks for me. That's no lie!

**FyI: Cesar Millan has some detractors because they feel he is being aggressive or hates dogs (which I disagree with); in any case, I love my dog and don't subject her to human-canine wrestling.

Tip #2: Care of Publicist Sabrina Furminger

2010-02-20T18:30:00.001-05:00

Read on: this is a great resource, given Sabrina's status as a successful Vancouver arts publicist...and my sister!

In the last six years, I’ve publicized the work of more than one hundred dance companies. I’ve worked with companies big and small and secured media attention from the biggest outlets in the country. When it comes time to promote a show, many emerging dancers can’t afford someone like me to get the word out, but this doesn’t mean that publicity is out of reach. Articles and interviews can be theirs if they master the art of writing—and wielding—a press release.

A press release is your primary sales tool. At the most basic level, it should state the facts. That said, the best press releases do more than provide factual information: they make a case as to why your work deserves media attention. What’s newsworthy about this work, or this collaboration? When you identify the unique story points within the body of the press release, you make the job of the assignment editor, reporter or producer that much easier.

My press releases are rarely more than one page long. Factual information comes first, primary story points second, a short biography last. I include a couple quotes from one or more primary collaborators within the body of the press release. This identifies the potential interview subjects for the editor, producer, or reporter. Your press release should end with the contact information for the person responsible for coordinating interviews and photo shoots.

If you’re moving forward without a professional publicist, you’ll need to develop your own media distribution list for press releases. The biggest asset that a publicist brings to a client is her media contact list, and it can take years to shape and hone and develop a sophisticated and effective list. Building your own list takes research and commitment. Read reviews and previews. Mine web sites for contact information, or pick up the phone and call the publication or broadcaster and inquire to whom you should be sending your information.

Be respectful when dealing with the media. You’re not entitled to an article or an interview. You might be premiering what you consider to be your opus, but the arts editor at the most important entertainment weekly might not deem it important enough for coverage. Don’t pester or harass the editor: one press release, one follow-up email or phone call, and then that’s it.

But whatever you do, don’t let up. Keep sending out those press releases in advance of each and every show. Even if you don’t score any publicity, you’re raising your profile and name recognition with that particular editor with each release.

Sabrina Furminger coordinates media and marketing campaigns for dance companies, theatre groups, galleries, and cultural festivals throughout the Lower Mainland. (sabrinafurminger@yahoo.com).

Tipped-off

2010-02-09T11:27:00.002-05:00

I make my whimpering return to the blogosphere after an excrutiating PhD examination period (excruciating because of my self-imposed anxiety). It was a true rite of passage and now I can safely say I acquainted myself with over 100 books. All in all, a positive experience!

NOW, With the new year having rung itself in, I want to shift strategies for the next few entries and offer 'tips' for dancers and/or writers. I am realizing now that I know so many wonderfully skilled people that could easily inform me on the basics of, say, self-promotion, publicity strategies, fundraising, etc. And I would like to pass on that knowledge to my meagre but loyal readership!

*drum roll please*

Tip #1: Need to self-promote? Can't hire a publicist but need your name to be known? When writing e-mails, to anyone, include either a link to your website, a description of an upcoming show, or even a brief bio about yourself at the bottom of the e-mail. Also, scour around for arts-based websites like Plank to see if they would like to either send a critic or include a brief mention of your work. It never hurts to ask. Also, GO TO CLASS. Your face and your movement are your business cards.

Stay tuned.

The Great Nutcracker Crackdown

2009-12-06T12:25:00.004-05:00

Dear Friends,

Tomorrow, the snowfall begins in Toronto. Charlie Brown Christmas has been played twice in my house, and already I have been hit with Christmas-shopping-related panic attacks. It's the holiday season!

One thing I always think of around this time of year is how The Nutcracker has become a common mode of celebration. The young and old attend the performance as part of their yearly festive rituals. Now, I only saw the ballet once when I was about 11, and had some tall lady with a mushroom cut sitting in front of me, so I was unable to feel the magic of this well-loved ballet. And recently, when I have caught glimpses of some of the sections, I am struck by how Orientalist the ballet and characters are (tell-tale signs that I am a jaded graduate student). So, I have not had an intimate and special relationship with the Nutcracker as so many others have had.

I do, however, LOVE the music. Apparently I'm related to Tchaikovsky on my mother's side (in some ridiculous way), so perhaps this is simply familial bias.

I am however curious what this ballet means to others. Do you like this ballet? Is it a holiday season staple for you? Do you have a strong early memory of it? Tell me about the Nutcracker!

This marks my final entry before the new year. Happy Holidays to all; stay warm and safe, and party hardy.

-S

Quotations in popular male dance.

2009-11-19T07:46:00.002-05:00

Last year, Darcey Callison created a piece called "(Re)tracing Fred," which I was very excited to see given my Fred Astaire obsession, one sparked at the age of
3 or 4. At my grandparents' place in the summers, my grandmother would throw on That's Dancing for me while she cleaned house. It was essentially a documentary of dance in popular film. Sammy Davis, Jr. narrated a section on the formidable Fred. In those moments, I was convinced that dancing was what I should do with my life, in some form or other.

In preparing for a lecture for a dance history class on Monday, I've been considering what Callison addressed in his piece: the process of quoting masculine images in male dancing. That is, Fred Astaire quoted male dancers in his signature style, one he would have come into contact with during his early Vaudeville days. From Vernon Castle, Fred incorporated a dashing ballroom etiquette. From African American tap dancers like Bill Robinson, he maintained an interest in intricate and complex tap sounds; from others, he incorporated a heel-heavy tape style. And so on.

How was this scrawny and awkard 'hoofer' a purporter of western masculinity? Well, he donned the tuxedo, a uniform of masculinity. He used his dancing to articulate his feelings to a love interest (a woman), aligning himself with heterosexual identity (which pleased the assumed general male heterosexual gaze). He often incorporated 'masculine' activity (as it was considered back then in his routines, from dancing in a weights room (Royal Wedding), while golfing (in Carefree; my golf-pro boyfriend says his technique needs work, though), or in brawl-form (Band Wagon). Ginger Rogers helped out, too. As Arlene Croce has suggested, the reason she was his greatest dancing partner was because she was able to act as if dancing with Fred was the most romantic and compelling thing in the world.
There is also the whole notion of 'male genius.' I took a creativity class last year and was amazed at how difficult it was to locate female geniuses in the literature. I found it difficult to name any myself, which points towards how I have been educated to think of male geniuses first. This aligns itself with the construction of masculinity as having the characteristics of the mighty, the innovative, the genius, the 'man can move mountains' ideology. Fred's work persona, one which was all about punishing rehearsal time and innovation (he changed the way dance was performed and filmed), helped sediment this idea of the male genius.

When we consider these characteristics of masculinity that Fred wore like a fine-tailored suit, we can see that his inspiration and quotation in future dancers helped to further these notions. For instance, Michael Jackson in his mid-career took on the genius-innovator mode by completely reimaginig the technique and quality of music videos (I mean, come on...compare Thriller to "I ran" by Flock of Seagulls and you'll see). He donned military garb, suits and fedoras (a direct Fred quotation), and even when his affectations might have upstaged him, his commanding and forecful moving body reinforced maasculine vigor. Before he began to dedicate himself to loving the world and humanity, his videos often incorporated heterosexual narratives (Billie Jean, The Way you Make me Feel).

And now, Justin Timberlake and Usher quote Michael Jackson. These lads are able to dance without being called sissies, mostly because they embody and reinforce what it means to be acceptably masculine in the homophobic west: genius, cool, innovative, heterosexual. The repetition of images in music videos and movies sediment these old visions of masculinity, without much room for considering alternatives. I feel for those who actively challenge these notions in every day life, because the proliferation of these images of masculinity make it a futile endeavour to change general public opinion on what it means to be masculine, to be male, to be a dancer.

The beat goes on.

New Dance Current Review!

2009-11-05T17:46:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts...I am currently in the middle of my busiest month in terms of grading, writing, and taking exams...so much to do!

In the meantime, read a dialogue review written by myself and Brittany Duggan in response to Meagan O'Shea's latest solo work:

Follow this link!:
http://thedancecurrent.com/reviews.cfm?review_id=265&view=

-S

Co.ERASGA's ADAMEVE/Man-Woman

2009-10-16T11:17:00.002-04:00

Vancouver's dance scene, as always, is a hub of engaging and thought-provoking pieces. Take a glimpse at Co.ERASGA's description of it's upcoming work, choreographed by the acclaimed Alvin Tolentino. I have included a link to his blog at the tail-end:

What started as a 20-minute work commissioned for the 20th anniversary of the Dancing on the Edge Festival in 2008, ADAM-EVE/Man-Woman comes to its full-length creation. In this new work for Co.ERASGA, artistic director and choreographer Alvin Erasga Tolentino challenges the social and archetypal place of man and woman, identity and gender. A dance creation revealing the body as passive and aggressive, yin and yang, masculine and feminine. ADAMEVE/Man-Woman features two of Vancouver’s most charismatic dancers Alison Denham and Billy Marchenski. Together they capture and interpret Tolentino's unique and eccentric choreographic style. ADAMEVE/Man-Woman poses a strange, tender, fascinating and startling dance journey in Tolentino's physical language that exudes boldness in its simplicity, complexity and sublime minimalism.

"Tolentino stretches our understanding of what dance can be"
-The Vancouver Sun

"An artist to be followed"
-Brussles/La Capitale

Choreography: Alvin Erasga Tolentino
Dancers: Alison Denham and Billy Marchenski
Lighting: James Proudfoot
Sound Design by Jeff Corness

(World Premiere)

December 9-12, 2009 @ 8pm
The Firehall Arts Centre

Box Office Info:
The Firehall Box Office
604 689-0926
280 East Cordova St
Vancouver, BC

Contact Info:
The Firehall Arts Centre: www.firehallartscentre.ca
Company Erasga: www.companyerasgadance.ca

The Blog: http://www.companyerasgadance.ca/en/blog.html

You've got chops, kid.

2009-10-01T15:35:00.003-04:00

Thank you for all those who commented. It gives me a very good sense of what viewers find enticing, annoying, silly. To me, I tend to agree with the idea that a good performer is one who is able to communicate something (a genre, an emotion, a concept, even the use of an object) without relying merely upon cheesy facial expressions. The communication comes from the body itself, moving to the enth degree of the skin and fingernails, starting that movement from the marrow. Generally, I go by whether I myself feel some kind of physical sensation (chills, leaning forward, jaw dropping) inspired by the dancer's performance. This goes for any dancer in practicing any dance genre. For instance, I am usually nonplussed by ballet, but heck, Mikhail Baryshnikov dancing makes me want to leap from my chair and chase after him. He is exciting! Even his dropping of the cups in this sequence is great:

This clip has been very popular on my facebook newsfeed these days. I always find it fascinating that children just MOVE int he presence of image or music. Likewise to Baryshnikov, though, I just drop my jaw when I see these tykes because of their engagement, their commitment to moving:

But, I think that butoh has created that physical sensation the most in me as a viewer. Indeed, with 'good' butoh, in my opinion, you are not passively watching but actively engaged, sometimes against your will. Being very theatrical and sometimes incorporating slowness, boundness, or other uncomfortable positions, it can make you grab onto the arms of your chair and squeeze them until they break. All this, and without the rhythmic execution of a particular and academized movement vocabulary (like ballet or jazz or modern etc.)

STILL, I am not opposed to jaw-dropping technical virtuosity. I enjoy having my ideas about the body's limits challenged to excruciating degrees. For instance, have you seen this? It's a ballet-circus fusion from China (Chinese State Circus? I have been having difficulty ascertaining what the exact company is).

Who/what gives you chills?

What are you voting for?

2009-09-25T11:32:00.004-04:00

To begin, let me acknowledge the passing of Patrick Swayze. He's an interesting one...in the midst of the 80s dance movie craze, he managed to maintain a virile and strutting image of the male dance without looking oafish, which combatted North American views of dance as a feminine 'sport.' He was a dancer, first and foremost. It's sad that he is gone but at least he was caught on film for us to admire whenever we please. Bye Swayze.

Now onto other business. I have some questions and would really appreciate feedback.
Since I have been forcing myself to watch So You Think You Can Dance Canada, and have been following the newest American version, I have questions that only avid followers can answer:

1) If you vote, what exactly are you voting for?
2) When you think to yourself, "I liked that" or "I didn't like that" or "That was weird!", what are you talking about? The costumes, the facial expressions, the dance vocabulary?
3) If you have a favourite dancer, what is it about her/him that you find enticing?
4) What are your views on the judges? Who is actually constructive and who is a pain in your backside?
5) Do you feel more educated about dance when you watch this show?

**If you don't watch the show, tell me why! What would entice you to watch it?

TALK!

Boys On Sale!

2009-09-08T13:05:00.004-04:00

Recently, I have been trying to get down with my community. My town is a beautiful, clean, pastiche sort of city full of incredible schools, resources, and opportunities. So, given the fact that I am a new homeowner and intend to set myself up here for years to come, I began perusing the simple-minded local paper to bone-up on my local knowledge.

Among the papers of late, there have been multiple-page spreads of dance school ads. One in particular caused me to adopt a stink-eyed look and slump back in my chair. It read something like "Boys dance free." Oh, the problems with that statement are numerous!

Instead of kowtowing to my knee-jerk reaction, let's look at the pros and cons, shall we?

Pro-Free Boys:
-The freebie method can encourage male youth to dance. For those in the know, boys are in the minority at dance studios. Teachers who have taught little girls for so long and who do not encounter boys might not have the kind of practice they need to teach boys their gender-specific RAD exercises, or how these young lads carry their weight, etc.
-Parents who are strapped for cash these days but want their kids to actually do something with their post-school hours have a pretty sweet option with this deal. For those parents with a girl and a boy, I guess they can look at it as a BOGO deal (Buy one, get one free).
-More boys in studios might encourage less favouritism in studios and competition pieces. I have noticed that when there is a lone boy in a group, he is usually highlighted in some way because being a boy in a large group of girls is 'special.' Maybe this will also encourage a more egalitarian approach to choreography, and less big-headed dance dudes (Although not true in every case, I have met my fair share...and some of it comes from being treated like a King in the studio setting from a young age).

Con Free Boys:
-The girls' parents have to pay based purely on a gender clause. Parents with girls get a bad deal through no fault of their own. Unless there is some magical gender-turning pre-natal pill I don't know about.
-It's kind of sexist, no? I understand private businesses can sometimes make these ridiculous offers because it is within their rights, but that does not amount to 'ethical' in my eyes.
-Maybe there aren't a lot of male dancers relative to female dancers, but company structures are still largely patriarchal. Not a lot of female artistic directors these days! In the cases where women are artistic directors, the vast majority did it through starting their own companies and claiming ownership of the role. Good on them.

Please join me in adding to either side of the debate!

-SM

Crossing the threshold: A dancesnob's tentative embracing of So You Think You Can Dance

2009-08-26T17:10:00.004-04:00

Hell has frozen over, friends.

This year, after many consecutive ones in which strangers and friends asked me the questions that many contemporary modern dancers, scholars, and performance artists fear and loathe: "Oh! You dance? Do you watch So You Think You Can Dance? Why don't you try out?" I have done the impossible.

Normally after hearing those series of sentences (and believe me, they are always asked of me in that same way), I would hold myself back from tearing my own hair out, and either smile patronizingly, or bore my friends to death with the evils of "SYTYCD" and its sociological implications. But this year, I figured that I should just calm down and realize that, hey, I was a little studio dancer jazz bunny, did most of my RAD ballet exams, and I love to tap dance and twirl around without the moldy encrustations of dance theory, gender studies, and ethnographers dictating my movements. So here I am: Samantha T. Mehra is watching SYTYCD.

I decided that it was okay as long as I watched the Canadian version, since I am notoriously patriotic and annoyed that I know more about International forms than I do about the back of my own national hand. I also told myself it was okay because dance seems to be popular again, in CANADA. From small kids, to teenagers, to husbands and wives in their 60s, people are watching this show, loving it, getting addicted to it.

It's been weeks now, and I am slowly falling back into my old habits. I thought I too could get addicted, but sometimes I forget it is on, I don't know the names of any of the judges, and when I do watch, I find myself changing the channel to the weather network. This is not good.

I will try to keep watching, and keep asking myself why I am not 'jazzed' about this show. I am not even making an effort to hate it like I used to, and I am still not engaged. At this point, I relate it to several of these factors. Perhaps if you're reading this meager blog, you can suggest other ways for me to look at it; I need the help, believe me!

1) The dancing itself is boring, not very good, or repetitive. I seem to see the same tricks, grand leaps, popping and locking by silly young boys, and messy loose hair week after week, so much so that I cannot tell the dancers apart. At least in Chorus Line, though the dancing was 'meh,' I knew who Morales was, and that one of the fellows was in the Michael Jackson Beat It video.

2) Dance in this context is uprooted from its meaningful and artistic space, and immediately sexualized to the point that the stage might as well become a throbbing vulva. I don't find this kind of dance very interesting unless it is burlesque, where that is the whole point, and there is some kind of latent mockery and humour to the whole thing.

3) I actually can't escape the way dances are performed and then mis-labeled. For instance, last year I would much rather that they say 'inspired by capoiera' rather than just calling this overly choreographed, sparkly stage-based duet between two men 'capoeira'. Capoeira is improvised with an understanding of how to use the body, done sometimes in huge circles, and has behind it a very compelling Brazilian history that was completely erased and then bastardized within the span of two minutes on this show. The same goes for the ballroom stuff (samba), but that's a different story.

Alright, so I am having a hard time reforming. Do I need help? Or will my fellow SYTYCD viewers blackball me?

Upcoming....

2009-08-25T08:54:00.001-04:00

So You Think You Can Dance Canada will be up to bat in my next post. Stay tuned!

New Review!

2009-08-10T15:45:00.002-04:00

Below is a link to my latest Dance Current Online Review for the 2009 Toronto Fringe Festival dance events:

http://thedancecurrent.com/reviews.cfm?review_id=255&view=

Dances for a small stage - Vancouver

2009-08-07T09:36:00.002-04:00

Last night I happened upon Dances for a Small Stage at The Legion in Vancouver's commercial drive area...it was a refreshing evening featuring emerging artists from the fields of theatre, music and dance. Sometimes these DFaSS lineups are hit or miss, but last night the program took us through moments of hilarity, contemplation, and whatever else comes to mind.

Highlights included Owen Belton performing some of his guitar-and-voice compositions; Belton is a frequent collaborator with Crystal Pite (who was in attendance last night)and I believe composed the score for her National Ballet of Canada piece, Emergence.

David Raymond & Tiffany Tregarthen (Out Innerspace Dance Theatre)performed a riveting duet which drew our attention to how even the simplest gesture or movement of a joint or limb can be made fascinating when dynamics and timing are 'switched' up. Their delicacy and connection to one another was palpable, and had the audience leaning forward in their chairs, fascinated. There was an elegance and an innovation surrounding these two which leads me to believe they are a couple to watch. I wanted their duet, set to a simplistic murmuring soundscape, to continue for the rest of the evening.

Justine Chambers was similarly riveting in her solo performance. There was a remote care for the gesticulations of the fingers, and a quick-slow dynamic which always seemed to surprise us. One moment she is upright, and in a blink of an eye has transitioned to the floor.

But not everything was contemplative and sombre. Billy Marchenski gave us a comic rendition of the nutcracker (where he was dressed to the 9s in Nutcracker regalia, cracking nuts with his teeth), and the Contingency Plan (Leigha Wald, Vanessa Goodman, and Jane Osborn) danced wildly and enthusastically to a soundtrack of retro pop hits as they situated themselves at a high school reunion, inviting audience members up for a much-desired slow dance. The piece culminates in a shedding and piling up of their prom dresses as they pulsate and mock-play instruments, like early humanity celebrating around a campfire.

It's on tonight as well; go see it!

Vancouver's Movers

2009-08-01T11:32:00.002-04:00

G'day from Vancouver, B.C. On assignment here to research and write an article about Vancouver-based choreographer Jennifer Mascall....but also enjoying seeing my family and hearing about the exciting adventures of my emerging artist dance friends.

I have nothing of substance to say this time, except that Vancouver's contemporary mod. dance scene is generally quite thrilling, and I wish I could transport myself back and forth between Toronto and the west coast just to glimpse the wonderful work going on here, from both emerging and veteran artists.

Luckily I will be seeing three dance pieces in the next week, making my trip complete.

Happy August.

A conversational dead end?: What is Dance?

2009-07-19T14:34:00.004-04:00

The Toronto Fringe Festival, which ran from July 1-12, has seen the recent inclusion of dance events into a largely theatre-based sequence of shows. I have never been to the Fringe, let alone its dance performances, and so I wasn't sure what I was going to be seeing in terms of quality, innovation, theme, and so on. As I understand it, neither do the Fringe organizers. I've had several people explain to me that the selection process is lottery-based, where artists apply and are awarded a space and series of performance times. I'm not sure how this works for the annual 'favourites' of the festival, but the lottery is the basic idea.

Of the 8 dance events, I attended 5, all of which I reviewed for The Dance Current online (and which should appear in the next week or so). So I won't go into the details of the pieces here. Instead, I'll deal with the frustrations over my own opinions, over concepts like 'dance,' and how I couldn't resolve any of the issues raised for me.

My first question cropped up at a performance which had been billed as 'dance' quite explicitly in the programs, but turned out to be a physical comedy show. For the first half of the show, I was incensed that they had called it dance, most likely because of the non-dance-specialists attending the show; I did not want this performance to be a 'dance' impression for newbies. So, I was ticked off because of my dance-advocacy self. Then, I calmed down and attempted to be forgiving. What might make this dance? There was some air guitaring, and grinding and bopping to the music, which I suppose would be called dancing at a club or alone in one's bedroom. Then there was a lot of mime and facial gesticulations which do require a level of physical training....but I said 'mime', and not 'dance'. What`s wrong with me?

This is doubly frustrating as this comes on the heels of some posts about comedian physicality, and the dance of the funny bones seen in Katt Williams and Bea Arthur...perhaps I appreciate them more as physical comedians because of their heighly choreographed and skilled work. Perhaps the piece I saw was just a poor effort. I`m not sure. I`m so conflicted!

Even after forcing myself to broaden the term, I couldn't reconcile what I saw. As someone who likes to think of herself as open-minded, I am quite hypocritically set in my ways as to what constitutes a live dance work. Heck, I even consider video dancing and burlesque to be dance genres, so why not this?
What I can say, is that there was no innovative movement, no sense of choreography, and even when improvising there was a training lacking (I think of contact improvisation as dance which, while not choreographed, is performative and requires a high level of training, understandings of weight and flow, and skill). Further, dance didn`t seem to be on the agenda for these artists, who were more interested in using props and making the audience laugh. These do not sound like choreographer or dancer priorities, although they are sometimes incorporated; even in those cases, though, comedy and props are usually carried alongside other tools like technical training, spatial organization of bodies, etc.

I think my frustration is that while we can call things dancing, there is a difference between the everyday and the performative, the untrained and the trained, or even common and high art. The experience made me realize that I`m a kind of snob, highly culturally informed by my training as a ballet, modern, and tap and jazz dancer, and as a young academic in a western framework clinging to the coat-tails of long-established scholars. I willingly exclude some performances from my idea of `dance`theatre, and privilege others.

That being said, I`m not an outright dance fascist. I consider international forms, as well as burlesque, musical theatre, butoh, and even the `so you think you can dance`performances (which are oft snubbed by scholars and artistes) dance, and hesitate to place them on a hierarchy because of aesthetic difference. But the question of what does or doesn`t deserve the label `dance` simultaneously highlights the cultural background of the person who answers it, and creates a discussion which I think, at this point, cannot be resolved.

Michael. The Michael.

2009-06-25T18:48:00.005-04:00

I honestly don't know where to begin.

First of all, I am being a little presumptuous here, but I don't think I will write about my favourite (still-living) icons on this blog anymore. It seems that homages are, in two instances, followed by deaths. I know Bea Arthur was in her 80s and had cancer, but let's be serious, this Michael Jackson passing is hard to take.
Part of me dies when one of my idols dies. I feel as if my childhood, or the 80s even, is now, really, truly, dead.
What can I say about Michael.
My first ever dance competition piece was to "Billie Jean." As six year olds, we thought we were the coolest kids around. I remember the image and feel of my thriller tape, and how that little audio cassette felt powerful in my hands. I think I maybe wore it out, actually.
I sang Black or White in an elementary school production, probably as a fifth grader. I remember being glued to the tv set for Mikey-Mikes videos, and how his ever-changing face was a source of much criticism. I didn't seem to mind; I found him enchanting and fascinating. His talent was recognized by dancers and musicians in my circle of friends, and this recognition seemed to become a truth as I grew up and began to discern it for myself.
I saw some 3d Michael Jackson movie as a 4 year-old at Disney Land. This is perhaps the most vivid memory of the whole trip (with the exception of when I cried as we left, but that memory is made strong by a picture my mother took of me sobbing in my mickey mouse ears).

He has shown up in moments of my life that all seem, not by coincidence, vivid, happy, central to my experience on the planet.

He danced, which is what I love best about it. Pop stars of today continue to try to surpass his uniqueness, but all goes at it are futile. He is loved, but frustrating, as he articulated a mesermizing and unbeatable aesthetic which makes JT and Usher look like mere copy-cats, mimetic figures of the classic Michael Jackson.

As my sister has pointed out, the same press that vilified him is now falling all over itself with devastation. I poo-poo this. In my homage to him a few weeks back, I put all of that on a shelf to my left and dealt with the basic deal of his eminence as a dancer and musician, an inventor in both capacities. Hopefully this is what we remember, and not his peter-pan swash buckling and Jesus Juice. I don't want to remember that; what is the point? I am making the choice to remember the art of it all.
Anytime I have been in a club or a bar, a party or a casual get-together, the sight of an MJ video or the brief sample of one of his many songs elicits an enthusiastic reaction unparalleled by any artist in popular memory. This is the phenomenon of Michael Jackson, the magic of his reach across years, pop artists, press devils, controversies, and all.

I still can't believe it.

The Canadian Conference Crisis

2009-06-24T12:09:00.008-04:00

Greetings, did you miss me my small but significant readership?

I feel as if I've just emerged from a high-adrenaline trip around the globe, when it fact I was busy finishing papers, editing conference presentations, and going on two sojourns, first to Boston, then to Palo Alto.
The latter, the SDHS conference held at Stanford University, got me to thinkin'. I realized that although there was a culturally diverse presence in terms of Indian, African, and Asian diasporic dance scholars or subjects, there was a Canadian poverty, a gaping hole which made me wonder whether my place in these conferences will be limited in future because of my concern with Canadian dance criticism and history.

Before I get down to the nitty gritty, I would like to paraphrase these two conferences/symposiums for posterity's sake, or to fill you in if you were planning on going, but could not!

Boston, Boston University: The Spirit of Diaghilev SymposiumI did not present at this conference (obviously), but listened to the silver-haired wisdom of Ballets Russes scholars who knew their stuff and flexed their research muscles. The attendance was smaller than SDHS, but no matter. I was able to put faces with certain favourite names of mine, like Joan Acocella, Milicent Hodson, and Lynn Garafola....and of course, I was mesmerized by the city itself (nothing like a good stroll down the Freedom Trail, topped off with a nice dinner at an Irish Pub in Quincy Market). We even attended an evening at the Boston pops; the first half consisted of music by Russian composers for ballets, and the second consisted of musical theatre, culminating in a sound of music singalong finale.
Subjects of interest to me included Millicent Hodson's reconstructions of Ballets Russes productions (Sacre du Printemps, for example), ones I had come across during my masters research on Kokoro. It was lovely to hear this sincere and hard-working woman discuss her research methods of both text-based research and interviews with aging dancers who had some performing legacy and memory (a good reason, as Helen Thomas points out, to reconstruct dances now, as dancers who are the only 'keepers' of memory and material are aging and with their passing will take with them some of the 20th century's choreographic jewels).
I also loved listening to Joan Acocella speak on Nijinsky, referring to him quite intimately. I love that moment when a researcher who, after having immersed herself in literature on a particular subject posthumously, speaks about him as if they were dear friends. Her introduction to the Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky is beautifully written, succinct, and gives first-timers on the subject a taste of this genius' madness, early life, and choreographic personality.
*A special thanks to the magnificent Selma Odom for organizing this trip.

Palo Alto, Stanford University: Society of Dance History Scholars--"Topographies: Sites, Bodies, Technologies"

Woe is me, I had to travel to California and bask in the sunshine for a conference.
SDHS, in collaboration with the Dance Critics Association, organized this Stanford-based conference which reached across theoretical and diasporic lines (something which I have been told is a newer dimension to these conferences).
Although my favourite moment was the 3 hour or so showcase of California-based dance (particularly one hula artist who admits to working with contemporary and San-Francisco contextual influences) at the ODC commons, Saturday turned out to be a wonderful series of discussions. The first panel I went to included an interesting take on butoh-fu as topography given by a former NYU grad student; following this, I attended a three-person panel on burlesque practice in England and California (one scholar spoke on Carol Doda, an odd an contradictory feminist/strip artist; another spoke on corporate strip).
Then came an interesting DCA-driven panel on writing about dance and disability. On the Panel was Judy Smith of Axis Dance, a company which hires dancers of mixed abilities (on Sunday, two dancers, one in wheelchair and one standing, danced a duet), and Ann Cooper Albright, who I think was my favourite personality all weekend. The issue raised in this setting was an important one: how does a critic write about dance and disability without being criticized? Smith, interestingly, noted her relief when a critic actually criticized them without pandering or patronizing, looking at the work itself and not submitting to feelings of guilt or fear of upsetting politically correct lines.
The last panel of note was the 'Dance and Publishing' panel, which included Albright with an editor from Oxford University Press. Attendees piled into this small room, thick with body-heat, to hear about how to imagine a market, how to talk to your editor, and basically how to get your name out there.

The last point was my initial point of frustration. As publishing houses are limited in Canada (not to mention the funding of publishing the book), what really are my chances of getting something in print? And, given the relatively large number of presses in the U.S., which of these would be interested in Canadian content?

I ask the latter, as I found that there was a poverty of interest in Canadian dance at the conference, a suspicion later sedimented through several discussions. "So what is going on in Canada"? was the usual. The only mention of Canadian dance in the panels I saw was Edouard Locke and Louise LeCavalier, which I believe is a reference from the 1990s when she was still with the company (excuse my generalizing). This might not have been the case in other panels, but the interest was geared towards what seemed like everything but Canadian content.

Still, whatever content there was came from the folks at York University: Suzanne Jaeger spoke on Quebec's enfants terrible, Susan Cash and Darcey Callison and myself
spoke on Canadian subjects....which was nice. And, I believe Allen Kaeja surfaced during the dance for film screenings. People seemed invested in my work, as they were so curious about the Canadian/Vancouver dance scene, which for some odd reason I thought Californians would know more about, being on the same manouevrable coast-line.

I suppose my question is: am I wrong? Is there a disinterest in Canadian dance in the United States and if so, how can this be amended? What would make a U.S. book publisher want to disseminate knowledge about Canadian Dance Content?

Happy Canada Day, all!