Second Generation

Dance Community: Training, Education and Performance

Excerpted from earthdancers: Dance, Community and Environment Masters of Arts thesis by Julie-Anne Huggins York University, April 2005

FOR EDUCTIONAL USE ONLY

2

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Second Generation

The Sudbury community was quickly catching on to the idea of social dancing, and not stepping on each other’s toes. Not only were many studios helping people discover their right foot, but two franchises boasted the latest in fashionable ballroom: Don Barré Schools of Dancing (1952-1956) and Arthur Murray Dance Studios (1955-1964).20 In 1954, the Hymander school closed and in its stead, Shirley Simard began offering instruction in ballet, pointe, tap, acrobatics,

22 Shirley Simard’s Dance Studio: Rachelle

Villeneuve (front), Mary Catherine Keenan, Pauline Cushing, Rosie Matichuk, Kathleen Young, Marilyn Peterkin, Ida Sauno (back).

22 Crouse School of Dancing recital: Regina

Jakubonis, Joan Noble, Jane Sutton, Heidi Tauebert, Jane Collard.

musical jazz and baton twirling at Shirley’s Dance Studio.21 Further, Simard’s dancers began Sudbury’s tradition of attending Royal Academy of Dancing ballet curriculum examinations in 1956.22 There were also a few obscure names and studios that briefly sprouted up in this period, including Classic and Moderne School of Dancing (1953-1954), Mrs. Ludwig Konya Dancing School (1953-1958), B. Tanski Dancing School (1954), and Joan Thorburn of the Espanola Dance School (circa 1956).23

23 Sixty-five students of the Espanola

Dance School in dress rehearsal for Jack and the Bean Stalk.

22 Spring flowers in Garson

Community Dance School’s first recital: Margaret Kalssen, Leslie Hoffman, Sharon McDougall, Susan Reeves, Linda Hollingshead.

22 Mine Mill Dance School students as guests in the Garson

Community Dance School’s recital: Gloria Barylski, Catherine Sadick, Tini Pel, Luigi Renzella.

It was during this second generation of the dance scene that the Mine Mill Union was furthering its involvement in the arts. Despite the disappointing (de)tour of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 1954, the union sponsored the performances of Sophia Golovkina and Leonid Zhdanov of the Bolshoi Theatre in 1954, as well as Canadian dancer/ choreographer Willy Blok Hanson 26 Nancy Lima Dent. in 1955.24 Further, they established the Mine-Mill Dance School and the Garson Community Dance School in 1955 under the directorship of Toronto modern dancer/choreographer Nancy Lima Dent, where she offered classes in ballet, modern and folk.25 Though Dent had also been commissioned to help develop an adult dance company, she returned to Toronto in 1957 and the project remained abandoned.26 This same year, RAD ballet instructor Barbara Cook was invited from Toronto as Dent’s successor to direct the Mine-Mill Dance School.

Heralding a growing dance enthusiasm were the performances of American ballerina Marina Svetlova in 1957, Toronto’s Don Gillies in 1958, and the National Ballet of Canada, which returned for its second consecutive performance in 1958.27 In the midst of the hype, former student of the Mine-Mill Dance School Tini Pel started offering dance classes at the Wahnapitae Dance School in 1957.28 By 1958, she turned her focus to a larger project and opened the Arts Guild school, which addressed a variety of art forms. Her dance classes offered tap, character, ballroom, ethnic, national, jazz, modern, RAD ballet and examination coaching.29 The end of Shirley’s Dance Studio also marked this period, as Simard returned to Toronto in 1958, selling the studio to one of her former students who renamed it the Marilyn School of Dancing.

Merilyn Peterkin, having also studied with Helen Hymander, offered classes in ballet, tap, acrobatics and baton. Further,

27 Kay Ambrose of the National Ballet of

Canada with dolls named after ballerinas Lois Smith (as the Swan Queen) & Lillian Jarvis.

Swan Lake to be performed in Sudbury.

her affiliation with the baton-twirling majorettes of all the local marching bands provided more performing opportunities for her dancers aside from their annual recitals.30 Around this time, Ida Sauve began teaching classes in acrobatics, tap, ballet, baton, modern, jazz, and modelling from her home, having trained with Helen Hymander, Shirley Simard, Merilyn Peterkin, Nancy Lima Dent and Barbara Cook.

Young and ambitious, Sauve would eventually develop one of the foremost dance schools in the area.31

Endnotes 20 Sudbury Bell and Vernon directories, 1951-1965.

21 Sudbury Bell and Vernon directories, 1953-1955.

22

“Dance Student Display Their Knowledge,” The Sudbury Daily Star 25 May 1956, final

ed.: 17.

23 Sudbury Bell and Vernon directories, 1952-1959. “Espanola Dance School Readies

Show,” The Sudbury Daily Star 2 May 1956: 3.

24 “Grand Concert Thursday,” Mine Mill News 26 April 1954: 1+. “Famed Dancer Coming,”

Mine Mill News 3 Feb. 1955: 5+.

25 “Sudbury and Garson Dance Classes,” Mine Mill News 22 Nov. 1955: 1+.

26 “Choreographer Coming to Sudbury,” The Sudbury Daily Star 7 Nov. 1955, final ed.: 5.

Betty Meakes, “People ‘n’ Things,” The Sudbury Daily Star 10 June 1957, final ed.: 15.

27 Betty Meakes, “Ballerina, Other Artists Outstanding In Last Concert of Current Series,” The Sudbury Daily Star 15 March 1957, final ed.: 3. “Receive Flowers at End of Evening of Dance,” The Sudbury Daily Star 18 March 1958: 13. Betty Meakes, “‘Joe Bftsplk’ Weather Frowns on National Ballet Company,” The Sudbury Daily Star 8 May 20 1958: 15.

28 “Tina Pel,” Mine Mill News 26 Nov. 1957: 5. “The Second Annual Dance Recital,” Mine Mill News 9 June 1958: 8.

29 “Arts Guild Dance Studio,” Northern Life 13 March 1974: B3.

30 Merilyn Peterkin, telephone interview, 30 November 2004.

31 Ida Sauve, personal interview, 8 October 2004.