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
3
rd
Generation
Third Generation Entering the 1960s, Sudbury’s dance scene was creating more performing opportunities for its students. Aside from annual studio recitals and occasional tours to regional competitions, stage time for local dancers had been amateur and quaint. Fashionably late, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet finally tiptoed through Sudbury in 1960 and in hosting auditions prior to their performance, they helped to stir enthusiasm for dance.32 The idea for an independent performing company 32 Royal Winnipeg Ballet: Ted Patterson, Richard in Sudbury still lingered, and with ballet Rutherford, Jim Clouser, Sheila MacKinnon as a common base in studio training, the ever-growing dance community (theoretically) supported the venture. The nonprofit Nickel Belt Ballet Company was founded and incorporated by charter in 1961, under the presidency of Morton Pilskow and artistic directorship of Daniel Stevich, a dancer/choreographer from Europe.33 The group’s focus was teaching ballet, presenting performances, undertaking public educational projects, encouraging Canadian music and choreography, and supporting excellence with awards and bursaries.34 Auditions were open to all dancers ten and over, and they were expected to attend at least one ballet class per week at any studio, as well as weekly rehearsals with the company.
33 Premiere performance of the Nickel Belt Ballet Company.
Training and repertoire consisted of classical ballet, modern ballet, jazz and folk. Guest teachers and choreographers included Tini Pel and Natasha Sawchuk of Sudbury, as well of Nancy Lima Dent and Cliff Collier of Toronto.35 Despite initial enthusiasm, there was little support from other local dance teachers; consequently, most company members were students from the Arts Guild, and they were featured in collaborative performances with the school.36 Soon after their first full-program premiere performance in 1963, the company was absorbed by the Arts Guild. Other notable dance projects in Sudbury included Canada’s Centennial Celebration in 1967, during which Tini Pel staged a collaboration of the local dance community, and the city welcomed Ballet Concerts, the touring chamber ensemble of the National Ballet of Canada.37 Sudbury audiences would again welcome this charming troupe in 1968 and later in 1971.38 Also around the mid 1960s, Ida Sauve formed an informal troupe known as the Ida Sauve Dance Company. Though it was too transient to incorporate, the group consisted of Sauve’s top senior students, performing and competing locally, regionally and even across the border.39 By the end of the decade, her home would be known as Ida Sauve’s School of Dancing.40 Other studios were waning however. As the Mine Mill Union was debating about closing its schools, Barbara Cook resigned in 1960 and established her own Sudbury School of Ballet.41 In her stead, the new Mine-Mill Ballet School was taken up by Joseph Bayer, of the Crouse lineage, and Ann Marie Konya.42 By 1961, however, the Crouse School of Dancing had adopted Mine-Mill location and it too folded within the year.43 The Arthur Murray Dance Studio also took a final bow in 1964.44 A few other short-lived studios came and went, one of which was Giselle Dance Studio where classes in tap, acrobatics, modern jazz, step-dancing, baton, and examination preparation were offered by Giselle Toner from 1962 to 1965.45 Another cameo school between 1967 and 1970 was Dee Dee’s Dance Studio, where former Toner student Diane Poirier taught tap, step-dancing, ballet, jazz, acrobatics, baton, physical fitness, and even go-go dancing.46 Finally, after Merilyn Peterkin decided to close her doors, the Gauvreau family purchased her school and renamed it Gerry’s School of Dancing in 1964. Though the school was gone by the following season, the aspiring young dancer Gerry Gauvreau, a former Helen Hymander and Shirley Simard student, was making headway teaching and directing at the Centre des jeunes.47
49 Performers at the Festival of Nations.
Growing in popularity since 1950 was Father Albert Regimbal’s French community cultural centre Centre des jeunes, also known as the Sudbury Youth Centre.48 Unlike other cultural groups in the city, dance was more than just folklore and tradition, it was considered contemporary and artistic: a statement clearly apparent with the inclusion of the Montreal Modern Dance Company at the 1954 Festival of Nations multicultural show.49 Dance training began here around 1964 under the direction of Florence Gauvreau and her son Gerry, who 49 Montreal Modern Dance Company to titled their program the Centre Civitas Christi perform at the Festival of Nations. Dance Studio (and later the Studio de Danse Civitas Christi).50 Within a few years, classes picked up at several of their satellite studios throughout the region, including the towns of Chelmsford, Azilda and Hanmer.51 With the affiliations of several local dance instructors, a wide variety of styles was offered in these dance programs, including ballet, jazz, tap, baton, ballroom, folk, step-dancing, gymnastics, improvisation, acrobatics, drama, modelling, and physical fitness.52 Notably, some of these teachers later included Glenys Lafrance, Leslie Kallio, Joanne Gervais, Barbara Roth Johnson, Ida Sauve, Diane Boulais, Denise Vitali, and Rheal and Giselle Rouselle.53 Further adding momentum to French Canadian culture and the performing arts, the Centre des jeunes sponsored the first tour of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens to Sudbury in 1964.54 It was here that another non-professional performing company was founded in 1969, one that Gerry Gauvreau would bring to new heights in the following decades.55
As the 1960s came to a close, the year 1969 witnessed the departure of Barbara Cook, who would also be missed by the Sudbury Little Theatre Guild where she had choreographed over the years. Directorship of the Sudbury School of Ballet was passed on to one of her senior students, Barbara Roth Johnson, who continued the tradition of ballet instruction and examinations.56 Many recall the 1960s as Sudbury’s dance boom, an exciting time where it seemed that there were more students per capita seeking to study dance than in any other city in Canada.57 Suzanne Bourque recalled eagerly hopping on a bus in the mid 1960s to spend her first pay cheque on dance classes – an influence that would carry on through her life.58 Exciting times were ahead in the 1970s, as a fourth generation of schools and dance projects was ushered in.
55 Ontario Folklorists in jazz, modern ballet, and
the 35 member Junior Corp.
54 Artistic Direcor of Les
Grands Ballets Canadiens, Ludmilla Chiriaeff.
Endnotes 32
“Royal Winnipeg Ballet Here Thursday,” The Sudbury Daily Star 12 Nov. 1960: 3. 33 “Nickel Belt Ballet Company Presents Premiere Performance Friday Night,” The Sudbury Star 14 Nov. 1963: 3. Fantasy ’62, program, Sudbury, 9 June 1962. 34 Fantasy ’62, program, Sudbury, 9 June 1962. 35 “Nickel Belt Ballet Company Presents Premiere Performance Friday Night,” The Sudbury Star 14 Nov. 1963: 3. 36 Nancy Lima Dent, letter to Tini Pel, 15 June 1962, Nancy Lima Dent Collection, Dance Collection Danse, Toronto. Fantasy ’62, Sudbury, 9 June 1962. 37 Tini Pel, personal interview, 10 November 2001. “New Ballet Group Here Saturday Night,” The Sudbury Star 21 Sept. 1967: 17. 38 Adrienne Neville, email interview, 1 December 2004. 39 Ida Sauve, personal interview, 8 October 2004. 40 Sudbury Bell directories, 1969-1970. 41 Barbara Cook, interview with Lawrence Adams, Barbara Cook Tape 5 of 6, Dance Collection Danse, Toronto, 16 March 1994. “Large Audience Attends Farewell Ballet Recital,” The 598 News 29 June 1960: 2. 42 “Open New Dance School at Sudbury Union Hall,” The 598 News November 1960: 2. 43 Sudbury Bell and Vernon directories, 1960-1962. 44 Sudbury Bell directories, 1960-1965. 45 Sudbury Bell directories, 1961-1966. 46 “Busy Social Season Ahead for the Gal Who’s in Shape,” The Sudbury Star 4 Sept. 1964: 6. Sudbury Bell directories, 1966-1971. 47 Sudbury Vernon directories, 1963-1965. Gerry Gauvreau, personal interview, 8 October 2004. 48 Alain Blanchette, et al. Du Centre des jeunes au Carrefour francophone: 1951-1990 (Sudbury, ON: La Société historique du Nouvel-Ontario, 1992). 49 “Festival of Nations at Sudbury Arena,” The Sudbury Daily Star 11 May 1954, final ed.: 3+. 50 Sudbury Bell directories, 1963-1969. 51 Debbie Bourgeois, telephone interview, 30 November 2004. 52 Sudbury Bell directories, 1964-1977. 53 Gerry Gauvreau, personal interview, 8 October 2004. Diane Boulais, telephone interview, 16 November 2004. Leslie Kallio, telephone interview, 13 December 2004. Giselle Rouselle, telephone interview, 24 November 2004.
54 55 56 57 58
“Les Grands Ballets to Give Performance Here,” The Sudbury Star 12 Feb. 1964: 3. “Dancers Dazzle Thousands,” Northern Life 12 June 1974: B-4 Helene Van Alphen, telephone interview, 26 November 2004. Gerry Gauvreau, personal interview, 8 October 2004. Suzanne Bourque, personal interview, 9 October 2004.