SPECIAL 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION by RQD RQD

SPECIAL 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

Table of Contents General Managers with Passion! Gaétan Patenaude...........................p.5 Françoise Bonnin............................p.7 Lorraine Hébert..............................p.9 25 Good Reasons to Celebrate 25 Years of RQD........p.12

GENERAL MANAGERS WITH PASSION! In its 25-year history, Regroupement québécois de la danse has had the good luck of being able to count on three pillars, the dedicated general managers of the association: Gaétan Patenaude, from 1984 to 1994; Françoise Bonnin, from 1996 to 2002; and Lorraine Hébert, since 2003. Their steadfast service has been a great asset, a sign of stability in the face of many urgent issues and of the trust that RQD’s members have placed in their abilities. For this Special 25th Anniversary Edition, RQD wanted to collect their thoughts in order to learn more about how we got here and take another look at some crucial moments and the challenges that marked their years managing RQD.

Message from Gaétan Patenaude Founding member and former General Manager of Regroupement québécois de la danse

In the years before the Regroupement was created, in October 1984, I headed the Quebec section of the Dance in Canada Association, and it was in this role that I conducted a study of whether or not it would be worthwhile to create an association of dancers and choreographers. This was in the spring of 1983, and the Ministère des Affaires culturelles was looking for ways to improve socioeconomic conditions for artists. In addition, a proposal made by the Quebec section of the Dance in Canada Association to reorganize as a federation was rejected at the Association’s general meeting in Saskatoon in June 1983.

for the organization, design its representational structure (a board of directors, member categories and fees, committees, etc.), prepare a development plan for its first two years (projects, services to members, etc.), submit a funding request to the Ministère des Affaires culturelles and call an inaugural general meeting. The organization, incorporated under the name Regroupement des professionnels de la danse, was officially registered on October 4, 1984 and held its first meeting on February 9, 1985 at Centre St-Pierre, in Montreal. We were aware of the need to propose an inclusive structure at this meeting and deliver an inclusive message. It should be understood that, with the exception of a failed attempt to create an organization of dance companies, there was at the time no organization in the dance community that government departments and agencies could deal with and discuss how to improve the socioeconomic conditions of dance artists. The stakes were high.

In April 1984, a report on this study, entitled Vers une ère de la coexistence créatrice (toward an era of creative co-existence), was submitted to the Ministère des Affaires culturelles and distributed to the community. The report identified the community’s concerns over its development. The section on creating an association of dance artists says much about the community’s aspirations in 1984:

The message delivered by Jean-Pierre Perreault therefore invited the community to emphasize those things that we could rally around. He asked dance professionals to join together and identify means that could be used to improve their condition, rather than just put up with things as they were. This was in fact why the decision had been made to include all dance professionals: performers, choreographers, teachers and administrators. Since our priority was to improve the conditions of professional dance, it was decided that organizations should not be included as members. The issue of allowing organizations to become members was only raised later, a change that was made at the first Estates General of Dance, held in 1994.

“A key aspect of our analysis of this consultation is the need for an organization that is able to engage in much-needed advocacy work with governments and the media and play a liaison and coordination role with artists, groups and the various communities.” [translation] Given this broad-based desire for such an organization, the entire community was invited to attend a meeting organized by the Quebec section of the Dance in Canada Association on May 23, 1984. A decision was made at this meeting to strike a committee that would work on preparations for the creation of an association of professional dance artists. This founding committee consisted of Jean-Pierre Perreault (Chair), Daniel Soulières (Vice-Chair), Paul-André Fortier (Treasurer), myself (Secretary), and Michèle Morin (member).

On the strength of support from a representative general meeting of the community, the members of the organization’s first board of directors and its various committees began implementing their first development plan.

We had a mandate to draft a charter and general regulations 5

You will understand that it is not up to me to judge the work accomplished during the period that I served as General Manager. As a dance enthusiast, I believe that it is a good time to look back at the path that the community has taken over the last 25 years, starting with this defining moment when the Regroupement was created. Furthermore, many years later in my career I was an observer at the Second Estates General of Dance and saw how the decision to rely on democratic participation by members in the Regroupement’s activities had paid off. Reading the documentation, attending the various workshops and observing members take the microphone at the plenary session to suggest changes and comment on proposals, I was struck by how the dance community has matured, and how members have appropriated this instrument of affirmation that is the Regroupement. This is what I used to call “une force collective en movement” (collective strength in action). In closing, I would simply like to say that it has been a privilege to be so very closely associated with the affirmation of the professional dance community and the emergence of talented artists for some 15 years. During this time I have been closely associated with many artists, teachers and administrators on the Board of Directors and various committees, but I have also had the pleasure of being invited to attend rehearsals during the creative process and premieres. For me, these moments are of inestimable value, in both human and artistic terms, but also because they helped me by providing context to my thoughts on different issues, and helped better identify the means through which the conditions of professional practice could be improved. I still consider this unique experience of immense value. I would like to thank everyone who trusted me throughout these years. Thank you to my dance friends. I am proud to be an honourary member of the Regroupement québécois de la danse and, in this way, to continue to be one of you. I say BRAVO that we are together today, 25 years later. He work is not finished, improvement will always be possible, but for that we need to keep moving and continue supporting each other. October 15, 2009

First Estates General of Dance

I remember that Jean-Pierre Perreault felt that it was very important to have members sit on the committees. He hoped that the Regroupement’s projects would reflect the community’s desires and needs. The goal behind creating the Regroupement was to give dance professionals a collective voice, but the association was also to provide real services to members. Creating and maintaining a democratic life therefore became one of the main tasks of the elected members and general manager. This was a slower approach, but in the long run it gave better results.

Daniel Léveillé and Louise Lecavalier

Gaétan Patenaude

Interview with Françoise Bonnin Françoise Bonnin became General Manager of the Regroupement québécois de la danse in February 1996. Two years had passed since the first Estates General of Dance. The structure of the organization that had been called the Regroupement des professionnels de la danse du Québec had just been changed in order to allow organizations to join and participate as members. A new name was taken to mark this transition: the Regroupement québécois de la danse. Françoise Bonnin What was special about the Regroupement, and what still sets it apart today, is that it brings together all the dance professions in Quebec. When I began, the Regroupement had until then been mainly focused on the needs of individual members: the health of dancers, the condition of artists, the unionization of performers, etc. There were immense expectations and concerns surrounding the recent integration of dance companies. An attempt had previously been made to create an association of companies, but it hadn’t worked. The decision had therefore been made not to create another organization; companies would join the Regroupement. As with any change, there were some concerns.

that there was a great need to consolidate existing structures. This wasn’t necessarily easy to understand, since the dance community had always been in an extremely precarious position. Happily, the Agora de la danse and Diagramme had recently been created. They represented organizations that could support others and that fostered development of the community. This was one of the reasons why I then lobbied for incorporation of La danse sur les routes du Québec. I thought that we needed other organizations that could be independent, and that if we wanted to have additional funding in order to develop new, productive projects for the community, we needed to make room for them. Finally, another major challenge during my mandate was to organize the work that would follow up on the first Estates General of Dance. This had in fact quite strangely transformed into an absolutely gigantic five-year plan. I would even say that, in terms of the five-year plan, much was accomplished or undertaken just by following up on recommendations, such as dissemination through La danse sur les routes du Québec, greater visibility through the Étude sur la visibilité de la danse au Québec1 and the Québec Danse Web site, funding through M.A.L., professionalization through the creation of the Professional Development Program, and expansion through the Dance Training Program.

RQD - What were the main challenges you faced at the time? FB - Integrating companies into the Regroupement was certainly something unprecedented that would require specific attention. The Regroupement was the only association in Quebec for professional dance. It was even asked to play a role at the national level, since CAPDO, the national association, no longer existed. There was so much that needed our attention! Despite attempts to set priorities and rationalize our actions, I didn’t understand why we were so overwhelmed at the time, not until an attempt was made to identify the support organizations for each of the disciplines represented on the Conseil québécois des ressources humaines en culture (CQRHC). Most disciplines had several associations, sometimes as many as half a dozen, but the dance community had only one: the Regroupement québécois de la danse.

RQD - Is there any one victory that you’re particularly proud of? FB - I’d say that there were internal victories and external victories. Of course the strategic plan represented an important step forward. It allowed us to work with the members of the Board of Directors on developing our understanding of what the Regroupement is in order to carry out a viable and realistic plan.

At the same time, the other challenge was to counter a kind of ambient culture that was against the creation of new structures. Governments weren’t interested in being obliged to fund them, since their budgets were generally frozen, and the community was afraid that any new organizations would siphon funding away from artists and creation. But documents produced by the Mouvement pour les arts et les lettres (M.A.L.) allowed us to see that the organizational consolidation that had occurred 20 years earlier in the theatre had been one of the things that had allowed theatrical artists to improve their conditions. It became clear to me

But for me our greatest achievement was the creation of the Mouvement pour des arts et des lettres. And it was the issue tables on labour that preceded the creation of CQRHC that allowed association leaders to work together on a regular basis for the first time.

I’d like to relate an anecdote. One day, I noticed that I wasn’t able to reach anyone in the community, that even the mainstays of the association – those who participated the most – were unavailable. I organized a breakfast with a few people and I asked them what they thought the challenges would be in dance over the next few years. I believe it was Francine Bernier who said – you’re going to laugh – “You really want me to tell you what the challenge will be over the next four years? A broad-based burn-out throughout the community!” And so I said to myself; “You’ve got quite a problem on your hands!”

that is considered “leisure” activities – to acquire a good teacher certification program, as they have been trying to develop for many years now. RQD - What are your thoughts on RQD today? FB - I would say that I was very impressed by how the community rallied around the Second Estates General. I was happy to discover so many new people, a sign that the discipline’s emerging generation is very much alive and present. I was thrilled to see the progress that has been made professionalizing members, and hear our young voices. I believe that the Regroupement has a strong presence in Quebec’s social, political and artistic life, and that much progress has been made and much accomplished over the past few years.

When I recounted this anecdote to my colleagues on the theatre and music councils, they looked at me and said: “Oh really? You too?” That’s when, together with Dominique Violette on the Conseil québécois du théâtre and Andrée Girard of the Conseil québécois de la musique, we decided to conduct a study that would document the needs in dance, music and theatre2 and include the idea of a cultural worker. We then founded the Alliance pour le financement de la danse, du théâtre et de la musique, which led to the creation of M.A.L. I’ve always believed in the motto “together we are stronger.” And I believe that much has been accomplished by applying this philosophy. I believe that M.A.L.’s success is mainly due to the fact that it brings the disciplines together into a single voice. As for the dance community, it was possible to play a strong role in M.A.L.’s actions, to leave our fears behind and let ourselves make claims.

On the other hand, as a member of the Synthesis Committee of the Estates General, I had a deep sense of powerlessness, given the scope of the expectations and the challenges that lay ahead. It was reassuring to know that the recommendations would not constitute RQD’s next five-year plan, as they did in 1995, since they will be used as the basis for a development plan. I believe that this is a very positive step. The Regroupement will need to make some strategic choices based on its capacity to take action, since it cannot address all the community’s needs or be on all fronts. Of course setting priorities is extremely difficult, because the community is highly diversified and the needs are great. But some needs are shared by everyone, and once they have been identified, you need the strength to concentrate on a limited number of priorities in order to have the means to address them and be able to achieve tangible results.

RQD - Do you have any regrets, things that you would have liked to see happen? FB - Much was accomplished by following the recommendations of the first Estates General, even if it was ridiculously ambitious! But as they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Before leaving the Regroupement, I realized that mobilizing a community that works with the body is extremely difficult. In order to mobilize around funding for dance, which was a major issue, it became clear that we needed to rally all our stakeholders together around this issue so that our demands would become so front and centre that governments would not be able to turn a blind eye. This was also the period when the Regroupement became very active mobilizing our partners in the rest of Canada around this issue. But I clearly saw that it was very difficult to bring artists together with cultural workers – who are also in high demand – and that is when I realized that the best way to get everyone involved would be to organize a dance summit that would, first and foremost, be organized around artistic encounters, and that, by also attracting well-known individuals in dance, would generate considerable visibility in the media. I left before this could be achieved.

In order to end on a positive note, recently I participated in a superb Parcours Danse organized by La danse sur les routes du Québec. I was thrilled to discover new, young talent and catch up on the work of better-known choreographers. It was also very interesting to watch Danièle Desnoyers engaged in her creative process, and see the strong links that have formed over the last dozen years between the dance community and multidisciplinary dissemination. So much has been accomplished. Our celebrated collective action can be so productive and valuable! Comments collected by Judith Lessard Bérubé 1. Étude sur la visibilité de la danse au Québec, conducted by CROP for RQD, February 1999. 2. Étude sur la situation et les besoins financiers des artistes, des travailleurs et des organismes professionnels de la danse, de la musique et du théâtre, conducted by Le Groupe DBSF for the “Alliance pour le financement de la danse, du théâtre et de la musique”, with RQD’s cooperation, 2000.

I also would have liked to be able to provide some practical assistance to the dance instruction community across Quebec – and here I am including schools offering training 8

Interview with Lorraine Hébert photo: Martine Doyon

General Manager of Regroupement québécois de la danse since 2003

RQD - The Second Estates General of Professional Dance in Quebec were held in April 2009. The expectations surrounding this event are high. What progress has RQD made since the community undertook this highly democratic exercise and given its responsibility for following up on the event?

the Grands Chantiers project, it cast a wide net. Too large, some would say! But these themes were specifically chosen based on a desire to generate ideas outside of the usual framework, which turns the functions and sectors of dance practice into silos. The greatest challenge for dance is to organize and consolidate in a way that affects all the links in the chain, and, God knows, in dance these links are tightly bound!

Lorraine Hébert It should be mentioned that four years of work led up to the Estates General of Dance. The first support application for carrying out groundwork was submitted to the Flying Squad of the Canada Council for the Arts in the fall of 2004. The design, planning, and funding phases took more time than expected if we look at the first schedule of the Grands Chantiers project, presented to the three arts councils in 2006, under which the Estates General of Dance would be held in 2008. The problems encountered securing the necessary funding were such that a project manager could not be hired until December 2007, and work on the Grands Chantiers de la danse could not begin until March 2008.

It is in this spirit that we are working on the Master Plan for Professional Quebec Dance, since it requires giving form to a collective and systemic vision of the development of professional dance in Quebec. Of course we are taking inspiration from the recommendations, most of which were adopted unanimously, but we are applying them in light of the different strategic priorities, which allows us to better identify the stakeholders, subjects, functions and desired forms and levels of intervention so that we can obtain truly substantive results for the entire discipline. At this stage of the Master Plan, we are looking at how other countries – and here I’m thinking of Great Britain, for example – went about examining the issue of how to organize the discipline, taking into account every aspect of the chain, from training through to artistic mediation and including research, creation, production, and local, national and international dissemination. And if we can already see a need to set priorities, what immediately springs to my mind is the need to underscore the value of research and creation in dance and develop a better understanding of the production cycle in choreography. Because anything we might imagine as efforts to organize, independent of a given sector of practice, must allow artists to attain very high levels of excellence and compete by innovating. I still believe that significant improvements are needed in the conditions for research, creation and production in dance. The real challenge we face in developing the Master Plan is to propose intervention strategies that converge on reinforcing the very core of dance: it is an art of research and creation that requires substantive investments in training, promotion, dissemination, mediation and conservation.

As is well known, this has been an ambitious project, but we were convinced that the despite the considerable human energy and financial resources required, it was essential to embark on the process as proposed. The Grands Chantiers de la danse was first and foremost a process of consultation and dialogue, and a great many dance professionals had been invited to take part, in one form or another. We strongly believed that the ideas should be generated through a process that would foster exchanges between the discipline’s different sectors and generations. It should be recalled that the objective of the Grands Chantiers de la danse was to allow the dance community to develop a collective vision of how the discipline would be developed. This assumed a certain amount of knowledge of each other’s needs and realities and an understanding of the interdependencies between all actors in the dance chain, whether they are involved in training, research, creation, production, dissemination or services. It is true that, given the cross-disciplinary themes of 9

While the Estates General of Dance can be considered a great success from start to finish, they are nevertheless far behind us now, and RQD now carries enormous responsibility, given its resources and the different issues that continue to crop up, whether or not we are at work on a master plan. The challenge is to avoid giving in to the pressures that are coming from all sides and stay focused on the task at hand. This demands time and space to mull through the issues. It is important to do things well, and, given all the work that has preceded, the end result is sure to be of major importance to the discipline. This is the thought that comes to mind every day as I think about all the determination and conviction that led to our achievement in April 2009. With the gold mine that we have in front of us, I’m sure that we’ll find seams to work. This master plan needs to inspire, mobilize and foster commitment among many stakeholders and for many years. Of course we will need to take into account current opportunities and constraints, but if we were to leave it at that, we would have failed at our task: to think outside the box and in terms of the specific nature and realities of dance.

federal levels, and the period that follows them. RQD needs to find the means to open up to the world, to take advantage of the great leap forward that dance has taken in countries that have adopted development plans. Their plans are very inspiring in terms of how dance has been positioned in the public sphere and internationally; for dance’s place in schools; for the plans’ recognition of just how diverse dance styles are; for the importance of having a training system that provides a continuum of high-quality training from primary school, or leisure activities, all the way to institutions of professional dance training; for the need for infrastructures and equipment specifically for dance; etc.

RQD - You have spoken a lot about the Master Plan and the kind of thinking that will need to go into it, but what do you see as the future of RQD? LH - Even as we work on the Master Plan, we are committed to a strategic planning process, and for good reason! It’s clear that RQD will have a role to play in the Plan’s implementation, and this is even truer now than we might have thought when RQD launched the Grands Chantiers project. The Estates General were incredibly stimulating for the community as a whole, and several projects are either in discussion or in development. So our strategic thinking needs to take the following into account: our main concern is for RQD to be able to continue to playing its role well in terms of mobilizing and rallying energies and troupes around substantive projects. To this end, RQD must find a way to become better connected through permanent mechanisms for consultation and joint action. This implies a need to review our current advocacy structures, methods of consultation, and information and communication tools. It was in this spirit that, on the heels of the Grands Chantiers, we proposed a Dance Observatory as part of the Relance Culture program of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. Let’s hope that the program will be renewed for another year, since we received only a fraction of the amount requested and haven’t able to reconfigure our radar as we might have hoped.

There is so much to do, and even if we often say that RQD cannot do everything, in reality, RQD is often the only body that can take on most of the issues it receives. In saying this, I’m reminded of when choreographers were asked to join the Union des artistes after they filed a request for recognition by CRAAAP (Commission de reconnaissance des associations d’artistes et des associations de producteurs) in July 2008. They turned to RQD to act on their behalf in order to have creative and repertoire dance excluded from the Union des artistes’s jurisdiction. Eventually, after a long, hard, and costly legal battle and during the L’Allier commission, this led to the recognition that labour relations cannot be professionalized on a piecemeal or case-by-case basis. This is precisely the spirit in which we need to address recommendations that, adopted unanimously at the Estates General of Dance, demand better labour relations in the profession, either through the adoption of a code of ethics in each sector of dance, by establishing rules for improving communications within work teams, or by conducting a qualitative and quantitative study of unionization for dancers. As for the role that RQD may be asked to play in this area, in this type of issue the answer is never simple, but it is time that we examined the issue.

If there is one thing for sure, the Estates General represent a watershed for RQD. They stand between the period that I would qualify as a time that RQD positioned itself as an organization for mobilization and joint action in the Quebec professional dance community at the local, provincial and 10

Whatever choices RQD makes in the coming months concerning its direction, it has become imperative that we raise the issue of the organization’s current capacities and limitations. It is an honour to serve the community, but sometimes we forget that RQD is an organization that, like other dance organizations, has to deal with a striking shortage of human and financial resources. Are there things that you regret not having been able to do at RQD? LH - My lack of distance makes it difficult for me to answer this question. One can always do better, and I tend to think that you can do anything if you really set your mind to it. If I have any regrets, it is sometimes just being who I am, meaning that I’m always looking at the big picture, that whenever I look at an issue, I see relationships with everything else. Other people are able to quickly identify a few parameters that can be used to develop programs, action plans or projects. And they work! But there are times in the growth of a community when you need to invite everyone to the table, knowing that the more people there are to share a pie, the more people there will be to make things happen. That being said, I must admit that after six years at RQD, I find it increasingly difficult to be patient, and the threshold of my indignation at seeing the conditions imposed on dance artists and workers is sometimes very low indeed. I find that having a chance to work again with our consultant, Pascale Daigle of DS 20|07, on the Master Plan and knowing that starting in March we will be supported by a follow-up committee helps me find the balance and motivation I need to complete the Grands Chantiers de la danse project. It can’t be denied: this is an audacious gamble, but I’m convinced that, given the current situation, it’s worth it.

Launch of the Second Estates General at the Circuit-Est choreography centre

Comments collected by Judith Lessard Bérubé

Plenary session at l’Agora de la danse

25 Good Reasons to Celebrate 25 Years of RQD Editing and revision by : Fabienne Cabado, Lorraine Hébert, Judith Lessard Bérubé

Before it was called the Regroupement québécois de la danse, the association that today counts some 500 individuals and organizations from the Quebec’s various sectors of professional dance as members was called the Regroupement des professionnels de la danse du Québec. One man fought to found it in 1984; his name is Gaétan Patenaude. Gaétan has since become a coordinator for the permanent secretariat on the socioeconomic condition of artists at the Ministère de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition féminine, but in 1984 he was President and Coordinator of the Quebec Section of the Dance in Canada Association. His text for this Special 25th Anniversary Edition provides a good sense of the context at the time and the support for the new association. This article underscores some of the highlights in RQD’s short but rich history. We selected 25 subjects and asked 25 individuals to dig into their memories to provide a more human face to this review. It is a more personal view of the progress we have made, and it reminds us that behind all the actions and victories, there were people, passionate people who fought to give dance a place in society that would be as important as the place it had in their hearts.

They say that memory is the faculty that forgets. RQD wanted to give our collective memory a bit of exercise, so we jogged the memories of 25 people who generously gave new, personal views of 25 high points in RQD’s history. It was a kind of collective reminiscing, with holes and discoveries, that demonstrates just how much RQD’s history is intertwined with people’s personal lives. Do you remember…?

1. The creation of l’Agora de la danse It was Martine Époque’s fabulous laboratory at Groupe Nouvelle Aire that gave us Édouard Lock, Louise Lecavalier, Ginette Laurin and others, such as Louise Bédard and PaulAndré Fortier. It was also thanks in part to Martine Époque that the dance community managed to acquire a place for creation and dissemination. L’Agora de la danse came out of her determination and efforts, as well as those of Florence Junca-Adenot, then Vice Rector of Finance at UQAM, as well as the Regroupement. The time was 1986, the Festival international de nouvelle danse had made Montreal an international crossroads for dance, and Charles-Mathieu Brunelle led the Regroupement’s issue table of choreographers. “The Regroupement had provided choreographers with a forum, and its general manager, Gaétan Patenaude, had done a fantastic job of lobbying,” says the ex-choreographer, now in charge of Montreal’s nature museums. “He had made it possible for Quebec’s talent to become known to CAM, CALQ and the CCA. At the time, dance was as provocative, innovative and fresh as the media arts and the new media are today. But they were tough years in which choreographers worked in overheated studios with almost no room for audiences. L’Agora stood as a symbolic gathering place, the kind of place that this artistic explosion demanded.”

2. Study of occupational health and safety In 1988, RQD took on a taboo by launching a broad enquiry into injuries among Quebec professional dancers: their prevention, nature, frequency and seriousness. The initiative was so innovative and inspiring that its results were presented at the Montpellier dance festival in France. It raised RQD’s profile among the media and the general public, and allowed RQD to obtain the outlines of the first social contract for the professional dance community. Funded in part by the federal department of communications, the provincial ministry of cultural affairs and Quebec’s institute of research on occupational health and safety, the work was performed by a research group that examines the social aspects of prevention in occupational health and safety. Manon Levac, dancer and professor at UQAM’s dance department, was one of the people interviewed. “For me, this broad-based study was personified by the sociologist Michel Perreault. I remember his capacity to listen and the curiosity he demonstrated during two long and fascinating interviews in injuries in dance. For a dancer it isn’t easy to discuss such an intimate and disconcerting issue. I give him credit for having heard, rephrased and explored my answers, balancing sensitivity with rigour. I would add that, beyond this personal memory, this study allowed dancers to emerge from their isolation, and represented an important milestone in the recognition of our profession and its conditions of practice.”

Interview with Jean-Pierre Perreault

3. The symposium on media and dance Already, some 20 years ago, the general lack of media coverage of dance was a great concern. In 1989, the journalist responsible for dance at La Presse was let go and not replaced. This triggered the idea of bringing together dance professionals and media representatives from across the country and the United States. A hundred people spent an entire weekend debating media coverage of dance, how it might be improved in the print and electronic media, the relationship between critics and artists, and dance’s development in relation to new technologies. At the time, Diane Carrière was a choreographer, a performer, coordinator of the University of Montreal’s dance program, and President of the Regroupement. “It was an unprecedented time of activity and growth, and the symposium was one of the first events to unite people in the artistic community,” recalls Diane, now retired. “All the various stakeholders in the community appeared to send a message that the marketing of dance relies heavily on the media’s words and images. I’ll never forget the passion and spirit of Gaétan Patenaude, General Manager of the Regroupement and the driving force behind the undertaking, and Jeanne Renaud, its honorary chair and spokesperson.”

4. The birth of Diagramme, Gestion culturelle

the negotiating group before an agreement could be reached. The worst thing was that I couldn’t necessarily count on the support of the companies’ choreographers, who were individual members of the Regroupement. One day, JeanPierre Perreault even said that he wasn’t sure that letting companies join the association was such a good idea! He didn’t realize the significance of his words as he expressed his solidarity with the dancers. Perhaps he was afraid that the choreographers would gradually delegate their representational power at RQD to the administrators of their companies. The negotiations were tough and ran all the way down to the wire, but they allowed all dance sectors to be represented by a single organization, and that is what has made RQD so strong.”

In the tradition of the Dance Umbrella of Ontario, Quebec acquired its first dance administrative services organization in 1991. The challenge to create Diagramme came from the Regroupement, which helped select its first general manager and provided technical support during its first few months of operations. The idea was to provide independent choreographers with a lifesaver and an engine for their development. Danièle Desnoyers was one of the first people to take advantage of this vital assistance: “It was a time when I was slowly developing contacts in a European network of a new generation of choreographers,” she said. “I would often leave for several weeks with dancers on a tour, and this required managing large budgets and relatively complex logistics. Our collaboration with Diagramme was a great relief, but it also raised many questions, since we were looking for new approaches to managing an artist’s career, and many adjustments were required on the part of many people. When I see the number of artists who now benefit from this kind of structure, I say, ‘Wow, it’s great to see how much things have changed!’ ”

6. The first Estates General of Dance There was a proliferation of dance companies in the 1980s, and some had placed Montreal on the map internationally. A new generation including Émard, Blackburn, and Desnoyers, to mention a few, had trouble making names for themselves, and the general atmosphere was morose. Canada was emerging from an economic recession, politics were veering to the right across most of the country, and there were fears of budget cutbacks in arts support programs. This was the general environment when the first Estates General of Dance were organized. For close to a year, an organizing committee and seven work groups worked on developing some 80 recommendations that would lead to the first three-year development plan for Quebec dance. In February, 119 delegates from the various sectors gathered at l’Agora de la danse. Sylvain Émard, a young choreographer and President of the Regroupement, was among them.

5. The reorganization of the Regroupement In 1994, just as the Regroupement des professionnels de la danse du Québec was celebrating its 10th anniversary, dancers gained admittance into the Union des artistes. The prospect of salaried, unionized dancers was a concern to many dance companies that received operating assistance from the arts councils. They were looking for an organization that could defend their interests and give them a voice, so they naturally turned to the Regroupement des professionnels de la danse du Québec, but at the time it only accepted individuals as members. At the time, Pierre Des Marais, general manager of the Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault, was given a mandate to defend this request to professionals who were did not think highly of the idea of accepting companies into the Regroupement. It was a long process to convince them that the RPDQ’s structure, statutes and regulations should be transformed, but, following the first Estates General of Dance, the RPDQ would become the Regroupement québécois de la danse.

“I remember the excitement that surrounded preparations for this great consultation with the community. There were many expectations and unknowns. It was a first in Canada and, I believe, in North America. So this was quite an adventure for what was at the time the Regroupement des professionnels de la danse du Québec. The community faced great challenges, and everyone wanted to be up to them. I remember there was a strong tendency in the dance community to doubt its ability to analyze and clearly state its concerns. This sense of insecurity had even affected some of the comments that were being made, such that the Chair of the meeting, Monique Simard, raised the subject in the plenary session and pointed out that yes, we had what it would take. We needed to be reassured on this point. Happily, this is no longer the case.”

“At the time I believe over half of Montreal’s dancers were salaried workers, and the Regroupement’s members were afraid that the companies would come to dominate the organization,” recalls Pierre, now Co-Director of Danse Danse. “They were perceived as rich employers to be wary of. For their part, the organizations wanted a voice that would match their importance, and didn’t understand why the President of RQD would be an independent artist. Over the course of a year I had to keep coming back twice each week to meet with 14

7. Program for reimbursing dance training fees It isn’t easy to stay in shape when you have no contract and no money in the bank. In order to support performers and artistic excellence, the Regroupement created the Professional Training Reimbursement Program in 1994. Today, all eligible dancers can take advantage of the program, which operates on a “first come, first served” basis. It pays $7 per course taken in Quebec until its allocated funds are exhausted. Although it is taken for granted today, the program provides benefits that we had to fight for. Claire Adamczyk, cultural advisor on dance to Montreal’s arts council from 1983 to 2004, was on the front lines.

Les Soeurs Schmutt, Pas de danse, pas de vie! (2005)

9. Creating La danse sur les routes du Québec

“Implementing the training classes required considerable persuasion and perseverance. We had to convince the Montreal urban community’s arts council to get involved, because until that time it had only supported companies, not individuals. Then we had to convince dancers to give dance classes priority over the other types of training that was available. Later, the other two levels of government joined in, which expanded the available budget. I’m very happy with this project, which has been good for all dancers.”

At the first Estates General, the Dissemination Committee pointed out how Quebec works were circulating less and less in the province and that there was an urgent need to address this problem. The situation was serious and seemed hopeless, so in July 1995 Gaétan Patenaude hired Lorraine Hébert to develop a pilot project that she submitted to RQD before joining the French-language theatre team at the Canada Council for the Arts in December 1996. In addition, the first Parcours Danse was held in the fall of 1995, bringing together an invited group of presenters to meet a dozen different dance companies. In 1997 RQD obtained start-up funds from the Ministère de la Culture du Québec following several work sessions with presenters interested in the La danse sur les routes du Québec project, coordinated by Suzanne Benoît. Diane Perreault would pick up where Suzanne left off, coordinating the project. Several years later she was followed by Tessa Goulet who, in 2000, transformed DSRQ into a corporation associated with RQD. Paule Beaudry has been DSRQ’s general manager since 2003. In some 10 years, La danse sur les routes du Québec has become a model for other performing arts and in English Canada. Gilles Savary, general manager of Fortier Danse-Création and member of the board for many years, remembers its early days:

8. Celebrating International Dance Day In 1995 RQD organized the first event on April 29, which UNESCO had declared International Dance Day (IDD). At the time, cultural worker Ginette Ferland was a young artist who was very active in the dance collective Brouhaha Danse. She eventually became artistic director for the IDD celebrations, from 1998 to 2000. Among the many activities on the program for these dynamic days, she remembers a great urban parade that was covered by a televised news program, the Bal Dingue with the first modern ball, a choreographic creation directed by the public, and a cabaret of ethnic dances before the DJ arrived. She also proudly remembers family programming that placed professional artists and students from Montreal schools on the same stage, and she becomes emotional recalling four hours of solo and duo programming in a showcase window on Saint Lawrence Boulevard.

“When I began working in dance in 1987, the community spent more energy complaining than it did acting, and it was difficult to rally people around shared causes. La danse sur les routes du Québec came out of RQD’s commitment to solving a complex problem. It stands as proof that, with commitment and determination, we can shape our destiny. Since 1994, the progress in our community has been spectacular. We now know our ability to face challenges, and we are aware of the time needed to effect change. Often we don’t see the results right away, but we need to be patient and never give up, because future generations of dance and associated artists will benefit from our work.”

“It makes me nostalgic for a time when I wasn’t only crunching numbers and working on solicitation,” she says. “I can see myself trying to set up boxes at the back of Latitude Nord. We were all together, united around our practice, in front of the audience. It gave us great joy and strength.”

10. The birth of the Conseil québécois des ressources humaines en culture

from this unique experience, and I saw proof that everyone can benefit when we mobilize around shared issues.”

What is formally called “human resources” in culture is everyone behind the artistic life of a city or a discipline. And when we say that artistic achievements take great determination, we are speaking of the will and efforts of all these people! Starting in 1994, labour development issues became key concerns for several cultural organizations, whose collaboration over a period of five years would lead to the creation of the Conseil québécois des ressources humaines en culture. As general manager of RQD, Françoise Bonnin helped esta-blish this permanent forum for shared action, and served as its Vice President for two years.

12. Un Patrimoine culturel humain en péril A Quebec government commission on culture, charged with examining the roles of the Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec and the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles, received submissions from some 30 Quebec organizations at public hearings held in February 2000. RQD presented a position paper entitled Un Patrimoine culturel humain en péril (a human cultural heritage at risk), the result of two years of discussions on funding for dance on RQD’s board of directors. The document, written by Lorraine Hébert (at the time working as a freelancer), was of excellent quality and highly relevant, but it was the testimonials of artists attending the hearings that made the greatest impression. The newly elected president of RQD, choreographer Pierre-Paul Savoie, made a profound impression on Line Beauchamp with his passionate plea on the difficult and dangerous conditions under which dancers practise their art. As the official opposition’s spokesperson on culture, she decided to support dance, and continued to do so when she later became Minister of Culture. General manager Françoise Bonnin and artists Louis Robitaille and Ginette Laurin were also members of RQD’s delegation.

“What is important about CQRHC is that it has allowed artistic and cultural communities that didn’t know each other, that were not in contact, that weren’t engaged in discussions of any kind, to meet on a regular basis to discuss the challenges they had in common,” she says. “And what has changed is that, through these meetings and the establishment, during the same period, of the Mouvement pour les arts et les lettres, cultural workers have for the first time become people that we have a name for, and they are now an integral part of our considerations when we look at professional development needs.”

“We went all the way to Quebec City, and I remember how disappointed we were to see all the empty seats on the government’s side,” recalls the choreographer. “It sent the message that culture wasn’t all that important, and Pierre-Paul Savoie clearly stated our displeasure, pointing out that time was of the essence. From the reactions of the political representatives, I had the impression that they were unfamiliar with the realities and issues in dance. They had so little understanding that their proposals on making improvements were just Band-Aid solutions and didn’t address the basic problems. There was an enormous gulf between us.”

11. Founding the Mouvement pour les arts et les lettres In 1999, many budgets were being cut in order to eliminate the deficit, so in October, the Mouvement pour les arts et les lettres (M.A.L.) was formed out of a desire to promote the arts in all their dimensions and call for an increase in budget envelopes for the arts in Quebec. Today, M.A.L. serves some 15,000 artists and cultural workers under 7 provincial arts groups and 13 regional culture councils. RQD stands out among these groups for its fighting spirit and the level of commitment among members. As president of RQD from 1999 to 2004, Pierre-Paul Savoie participated in six different public demonstrations, and M.A.L. secured a 40% increase to the budget of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. “I had the privilege of making a contribution at a great moment in our cultural history,” says the choreographer/ performer. “This joining of forces and the mobilization that followed went a long way towards raising collective awareness and commitment throughout the cultural community. The commitment of RQD members has given the dance community its voice and brought it together. My strongest memories are of a gathering of 700 artists at TNM (Théâtre du Nouveau Monde), the public demonstrations and my presentation to the Commission de culture. I learned so many great things 16

13. Regulation amendments in response to the 2000-2003 Strategic Plan

“When the position opened up, things occurred quite informally, and I couldn’t have imagined all the doors that this new function would open for me,” she recalls. “This full-time position allowed me not only to hunt for funding, but also to think about the issues and consult with representatives from all sectors of practice. This analysis of our needs allowed me to develop a true professional training and development plan. Even though dancers have always been at the heart of our programming, over the years we have also managed to diversify the offering and the client base.”

Since RQD reorganized in 1994, it had operated with 4 sectoral committees and 14 sub-committees. Each worked independently and submitted multiple recommendations to the Board of Directors, which had 13 members. The machine was just too big; it was unmanageable. Its human and financial capacities were not up to the task of responding to all the demands. Through changes to its general regulations and the adoption of its first strategic plan (2000-2003), RQD was able to clarify its mission and refocus on some shared issues. Christine Bouchard, then general manager of LADMMI, was a member of the Board at that time. She had a front-row seat to all these changes: “Changes were needed in terms of how different groups would be represented within RQD,” says the current director of cultural programming at the Bibliothèque et archives nationales du Québec. “It was fascinating to see the number of opportunities for progress in the community, and the scope of the community’s needs was frightening. Our challenge was to make the best choices and satisfy individual and collective needs in all sectors. Everything went without a hitch. I didn’t sense any divides open up between the various groups, and if the mandates appeared very ambitious, they undoubtedly led to a better positioning of dance in the media and in the cultural landscape, both at home and abroad.

14. Professional development at RQD RQD’s creative workshop in videodance at Studio 303 (2009)

When she was hired as an assistant manager at RQD, Maryse Gervais had no idea that she would become, in 2001, its coordinator of professional development. Until then, dancers had enjoyed few opportunities to take Master classes in Quebec and, beyond the two training classes she organized every year (on average), continuing education was limited to the training classes organized by the performers themselves. In 2000, an agreement was signed with the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications and Emploi–Québec on how to implement a provincial strategy on human resource development in culture. It identified a budget envelope of close to $27 million, of which over a third was earmarked for a fund that would stabilize and consolidate Quebec arts and culture. With the support of the Conseil québécois des ressources humaines en culture (Maryse’s current employer), a new position was created at RQD for a cultural worker, and the available funding for action increased tenfold. Since Maryse left RQD, this role has been capably fulfilled by Dominic Simoneau.

RQD technical class

15. Canada-wide mobilization

ment to a new communications officer who today happens to be assistant editor of a magazine. So the portal project became the top priority. Funding was available for the Web site, which made it possible to have a communications position for a limited period and work with a multifunctional tool. The project itself was quite a story right up to the launch date, and we found it quite ironic that the government should be represented by the minister responsible for the fight against poverty... But these years at RQD also included all the communications work surrounding the organizational groundwork for the Mouvement pour les arts et les lettres. We were working hard to enhance the community’s willingness and ability to advance a policy agenda through our work with others. I remember myself saying, ‘Yes, we should write the minister. Think of Amnesty International!’ It has been an important part of my personal journey ever since.”

In 2000, the budget envelope of the Canada Council for the Arts was increased with $25 million of recurring funds. The fact that it had only committed $400,000 of this funding to dance set off one of the most intensive and demanding advocacy efforts ever mounted by RQD. In the first few months of 2001, RQD submitted a document entitled Danse en peril (dance at risk) to Jean-Louis Roux, Chairman of the CCA. Soon thereafter, the Regroupement joined forces with the Dance Umbrella of Ontario to develop an advocacy campaign called Dance at Risk – National Petition Action Group. All the major dance organizations from across the country lent their support, and 650 signatures were collected on a petition demanding better support from the CCA. In particular, the petition demanded that the CCA fund a country-wide survey on professional dance in Canada. Funding was granted for a preliminary study, and Louise Laplante, who had just left the Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault, agreed to coordinate it. “This story didn’t end as we might have hoped, after having put in so much effort,” says Louise, now with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and responsible for governmental affairs and special projects. “Having an agreement on a preliminary study raised many hopes, and we were very proud to develop the foundations of this first national survey. But faced with an estimate of the national survey, assessed by Deloitte and Touche at over $300,000, the Canada Council for the Arts abandoned the idea in favour of sectoral studies, including some carried out with Heritage Canada. Of course this decision was not well received by the Steering Committee, which consisted of key individuals from Canada’s dance community who were convinced of the necessity of a broadbased study.”

Home page of RQD’s Internet site (2010)

16. A communications department

17. The 2005-2008 Strategic Plan

In February 2000, RQD could finally count on a full-time communications resource. Several projects were under consideration, including the development of an Internet site. Catherine Caron was the organization’s first communications officer, holding the position until 2002. Her comments suggest the kind of communications opportunities that opened up when the Québec Danse site went online. Once underway, and with funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, two other people would contribute enormously to the cause of developing the Communications Department, which has since become RQD’s nerve centre: Marilou Aubin (2004-2006) and Judith Lessard Bérubé (2006-present). For some background, the following comments take us back to the department’s early days.

In the months that followed the arrival of RQD’s new general manager, its Board of Directors began a strategic planning exercise and gave Groupe DBSF a mandate to perform a diagnostic. The diagnostic, submitted for study by general management and the Board of Directors along with Normand Dulude of Groupe DBSF, would be based on RQD’s new directions presented to members at their 2004 general meeting. In the months that followed and with funding from the Flying Squad, general management met with consultant Stéphane Leclerc for six working sessions in order to establish an initial version of the 2005-2008 Strategic Plan. The plan was finalized in three working sessions with the Board of Directors. Clotilde Cardinal, a member of the Board from 2003 to 2007 and co-manager of Danse Danse, recalls:

“In 2000 and having run out of funds, we had to stop publishing our printed newsletter. This was quite a disappoint18

Anik Bissonnette

“After what seemed like endless hours of discussions in the diagnostic phase and then spent determining strategic directions, Stéphane Leclerc suddenly grasped the issues, and as if with two waves of a wand, she was able to create a great synergy between the various stakeholders that would help us – both elected administrators and co-opted members – to arrive at a suitable and eminently useful strategic plan. Because in the final analysis, if a strategic plan isn’t picked up and carried by everyone, it isn’t worth much more than the paper it’s written on.”

18. A plea for dance in Montreal In the fall of 2005, in preparation for public consultations on a municipal cultural policy proposal, RQD organized a series of consultation groups to develop a portrait of the community’s current situation and needs. The results of these consultations formed the basis of a position paper entitled L’avenir de la danse à Montréal (the future of dance in Montreal). RQD’s new assistant manager, copy writer Benoit Pelletier, drew from his public service experience to draft a position paper aimed at sensitizing public decision makers and at “helping them help us.” Dance was in a state of crisis following the loss of FIND and the recent trails and tribulations faced in an international tour of the Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault. These two events would be used to support RQD’s arguments. The demands included the need for equipment, infrastructures and financial support from Montreal’s arts council and were defended by Anik Bissonnette, RQD’s president, and its general manager, Lorraine Hébert. They were accompanied by Daniel Soulières, general and artistic manager of Danse-Cité.

organized for IDD. Since then, Pas de danse, pas de vie! underscores dance’s place in our cultural space by bringing the community and the public together for several days through a small grant from the City of Montreal’s office for festivals and cultural events. The event relies on the unfailing commitment of hundreds of artists; the help of many partners, including Place des Arts; and a human and financial investment from RQD! Rehearsal mistress Sophie Michaud recalls initial meetings of the event’s organizing committee: “We were looking for a slogan that would arouse some curiosity and, in a few words, communicate our passion for dance. This led to thoughts about the value and importance of dance beyond our personal experiences. To ask the question was to have an answer: dance is life! Thoughts abounded; playing with words, I threw out “Pas de danse, pas de vie!” One word, this famous pas, rang out for its double meaning: that of negation (without dance, what is life?) and of movement (a step). The room fell silent, people turned towards me, their faces lit up, and everyone repeated the phrase. It had everything we needed. The message was both clear and convincing. The slogan was adopted. And as time has passed, I find that the slogan has become more meaningful.”

“At the time not everyone was convinced of the relevance and effectiveness of this type of approach. Everyone was very impatient, the sense of urgency was palpable, and we had to work hard to convince people how important it was to work through the different stages of advocacy if we were to get what we were seeking. And we saw how the ‘Bissonnette effect’ created a receptive atmosphere, since this was when the Forum des équipements culturels made dance a priority.”

19. Launching Pas de danse, pas de vie! There was a time when RQD received grants for International Dance Day: from the City of Montreal, Quebec’s Ministère de la Culture et des Communications, du Maurier Arts and even Heritage Canada. In 2000 most of these grants disappeared, which explains why RQD put an end to its activities around IDD. This was the situation until 2004, when RQD members said that they were ready to pitch in and make a personal investment as volunteers so that a dance promotion event could be

Inauguration of Pas de danse, pas de vie! with Quebec Premier Jean Charest, accompanied by Anik Bissonnette, Marie Chouinard and a group of children (2008) 19

20. The RQD/CDA-ACD joint advocacy committee In July 2005, RQD saw a need for the dance community to work together at the national level and began calling for a joint advocacy committee with the Canadian Dance AssemblyAssemblée canadienne de la danse (CDA-ACD). The new committee would work at the federal level. From July 2006 to June 2007, their work with the Canada Council for the Arts led to the development of two documents on the realities and needs in professional dance in Canada and a joint presentation on the challenges that lay ahead for dance. The documents were submitted during national consultations on the CCA’s directions, values and priorities for the following three years. Two years of joint work by the two organizations had produced a rigorous and coherent set of ideas. The CDA-ACD’s members on the joint committee were Jim Smith, Shannon Litzenberger, Judy Maxwell and Bob Sirman, who was replaced by Dianne Milligan when he became Director of the CCA. RQD’s members were Louise Laplante, Lorraine Hébert, Clothilde Cardinal and Kathy Casey, artistic director of the dance company Montréal Danse.

Annual general assembly held in 2008

the discipline: renewal of the discipline, a qualified work force, the conditions of practice and artistic requirements, the dance infrastructure, and dance territories. Committee work would be coordinated by a team of three people. More dedicated to the cause than ever, Lorraine Hébert was on all fronts. Among her many memories, she recalls the long sleepless nights. “I felt that it was an enormous task to give artists and cultural workers who already had a lot on their plates,” she said. “They had been given ambitious mandates, and they invested so much energy, time and passion. I was afraid that they would be disappointed with the results, and I must admit that I began to have doubts about the structure we had established. How would we manage to distil material from all this mix of ideas that would meet the expectations of all the sectors of practice and embody a broad-based and coherent vision of the future? Now I know that we had chosen the right approach, and that sharing the risks – the biggest lesson from the Grands Chantiers de la danse – would put the wind in our sails.”

“What I remember best is our first series of meetings with CDA-ACD,” she says. “We were charged with drafting a joint document addressed to the CCA on what dance would need in order to grow. Bob Sirman (who hadn’t become director of the CCA at this point) was part of the CDA-ACD delegation. I had not met him before, and I found his approach to strategy development quite inspiring. He encouraged us to tell our ‘story,’ to lay out our needs as we experienced them in our day-to-day lives and in a way that would remain connected to our community’s passions, rather than to get tangled up in arguments full of statistics. It was really very inspiring!”

22.New social safety net for dancers Since January 2006, an agreement with the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec (MCCQ) and the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CSST) has allowed dancers without a work contract to receive workmen’s compensation benefits if they are injured during training activities structured and supervised by a professional. This agreement was the result of work carried out by CSST, MCCQ, CALQ and RQD representatives, and RQD is responsible for applying the agreement. Sylvain Lafortune, dancer and teacher, was present when the agreement was announced.

21. The Grands Chantiers de la danse project When Lorraine Hébert arrived as RQD’s general manager in October 2003, Louise Laplante had been fulfilling the role on an interim basis, one day per week, since July. The team was decimated, and the dance community was tired and didn’t see how the situation could improve without a real understanding of what was going on in the discipline. The idea of holding a second Estates General came up at the end of a meeting of the board of directors. But how could this be achieved? Where would we get the resources, the money? We needed to reassemble the troupes, to get an overview. The idea of the Grands Chantiers de la danse came up and became part of RQD’s strategic plan for 2005-2008. It took a year to define the structure: a steering committee and five issue committees that would be chaired by people from the community and made up of artists and workers representing the different dance sectors and generations. The themes for the discussions cut across

“I remember all the enthusiasm among everyone involved, both within the dance community and at the ministry and the CSST,” he says. “I felt that they truly wanted to understand what dancers were experiencing and see it reflected in their policies. These civil servants managed to set a big machine in motion, and it was no small victory.

I was also surprised by the scope of the work accomplished, unbeknownst to me, and I could see the amount of work required by RQD to bring closure in each file. I was also quite moved by what Gaétan Patenaude had to say. I had lost track of him for many years, but Gaétan had already done so much for RQD, co-founding it and skilfully leading it in the early years. I had understood that this agreement had been his baby, and that he continued to serve the discipline in his own way, discretely, efficiently and with passion, in his position at the permanent secretariat on the socioeconomic conditions of artists, at MCCCF. Once again, the dance community owed him something.”

Demonstration against budget cuts in culture (August 2008) Photo : La Presse

23. Advocacy at the federal level

24. An emergency fund for international dissemination

Since 2006, RQD has been active at the federal level defending public funding for arts and culture and, in particular, funding for international dissemination. Between the cuts to operating budgets at Canadian cultural centres abroad, the elimination of the PromArt and Trade Routes programs, and the Harper government’s repeated attempts to cut funding to the arts down to virtually nothing, the threat is always there and even growing, and dance is in jeopardy. Without political pressure, we could not even be sure of maintaining a status quo in funding. Whether it takes the form of media campaigns, petitions, demonstrations or meetings with politicians in power, work on advocacy is key to the community’s survival. Alain Dancyger, general manager of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, is someone who walks the talk:

Much had been invested in joint work and research to demonstrate how Quebec dance companies have been conquering international stages and to underscore the importance of public support for this crucial side of their activities, but RQD was obliged to file an exceptional application with the Ministère de la Culture to cover a lack of funds in the envelope allocated to CALQ for the circulation of dance works outside Quebec. Lorraine Hébert took advantage of the presence of Minister Line Beauchamp at a press conference announcing a new space for the Marie Chouinard dance company to provide an update on the issue and learn that the application had been heard. Anik Bissonnette, president of RQD, remembers how everyone was nervous before the issue had been settled. “I believe that everyone was already in a state of shock following the cancellation of the international tour of Joe, by Jean-Pierre Perreault, when we learned in the summer of 2006 that there was no money left in the CALQ envelope. This meant that some 20 companies could have been forced to interrupt international dissemination activities. Full-scale carnage! I can’t tell you the number of phone calls it took to secure this emergency fund. This victory was so important, and the support from the Ministère was essential.”

“I have been at both ends of the advocacy continuum, because we help develop and direct policy platforms but we also work with individuals and personalities,” he says. “I’ve had to deal with situations that are quite amusing, such as defending the issue of infrastructures for dance and being obliged to compare them with sewage systems. It’s surprising that a country like Canada, a member of the G8, is still using economic theories that date back to the start of the century. Against such a backdrop, my reasoning often draws on the absurd in order to understand the place of people in society and the reason why we are on this earth. I ask what we would do with our lives if, by some miracle, the entire population would be healthy and well educated. But this is a philosophical discussion that has been going on for a long time and that hasn’t changed. In this sense, we can say that an artist is always ahead of his time, and that advocacy is a real lesson in humanity and humility.”

25. The Second Estates General of Dance There was no exaggeration when the term Grands Chantiers (major work sites) was used to describe preparatory work on the Second Estates General of Dance, which were held at the end of April in 2009. Working in five different committees, some 60 dance professionals set to examining the five themes mentioned above. Of the 200 recommendations that they made after 18 months of meetings, studies and consultations, 79 were retained by the steering committee for public debate. Project manager Sophie Préfontaine coordinated this vast undertaking. “First and foremost, there were people: concerned, determined and generous. Then there were the bonds that grew between them: strong, lasting and productive. I have a very strong memory of the Grands Chantiers de la danse as something that I experienced like a dancer: in my body. As I watched the ideas take form and evolve and a shared path appear, in me, a life was taking form. I had completely integrated this notion of a work site! My greatest joy was to have been there on April 26, 2009 at the plenary session to have seen the entire assembly give itself an ovation as the last proposal was adopted. It was very emotional, and undoubtedly prepared me for the birth of my son, three days later, on April 29. Now I have two reasons to celebrate International Dance Day!”

Stephane Labbé, Élise Chouinard, Sylvain Cayouette, Kathy Casey and Sophie Préfontaine.

Plenary session at l’Agora de la danse

Christine St-Pierre, Minister of Culture, Communications and the Status of Women on a Trace chorégraphique by Françoise Sullivan

Margie Gillis

Plenary session at l’Agora de la danse

REGROUPEMENT QUÉBÉCOIS DE LA DANSE Regroupement québécois de la danse (RQD) is a non-profit association that represents and defends the interests of over 500 dance professionals, making contributions to public and political debates, both nationally and internationally. A unique meeting place for dance resources and expertise, RQD brings together individuals from all areas of professional dance― training, research, creation, production and touring―and draws on this broad representation to implement projects of benefit to the entire discipline. At RQD, all members are on equal footing: performers, choreographers, teachers, rehearsal mistresses and masters, specialized presenters, managers, companies, professional dance schools and service organizations. RQD was founded in 1984 by a group of dance professionals, and for 25 years it has played an active role in developing the many facets of the discipline. The Regroupement is also actively involved in raising awareness of conditions of practice in this demanding art form. RQD is intimately involved in the issues faced in this discipline, one that has reached a turning point in its development. RQD initiates and supports any type of project that would foster collective action and long-term interventions. RQD’s mission is to bring together all the individuals and organizations working in professional dance; the goal is to gather the collective strength needed to bring about change and promote professional dance in Québec. RQD was founded on the need for a common voice for the dance community, one that could remain above the fray and beyond the self-interests of any of its component parts. Our action is focused in five specific areas: • Commitment to the Association: Representing the association’s creation and repertory dance professionals; • Consensus building and mobilization: Supporting our members’ commitment to improving conditions in our discipline; • Public Relations and Advocacy: Raising awareness of the discipline’s development requirements, both in government and among funding bodies; • Raising the Discipline’s Profile: Creating a space for dance in the minds of the public and in the media; • Organizational consolidation: Providing the association with the resources and means needed to carry out its strategic plan.

Partners :

3680, rue Jeanne-Mance, bur. 440, Montréal (Québec) H2X 2K5 514 849 4003 - www.quebecdanse.org 24