Spring 2021
Dance Central A Dance Centre Publication
Content Emily Molnar Page 4
Amy Bowring Page 15
Idan Cohen Page 21
Editor's Note Welcome to the Spring 2021 issue of Dance Central. Cherry blossom season in Vancouver has come and gone; Scotiabank Dance Centre continues to keep its doors open, albeit for limited activities and reduced opening hours, abiding to strict COVID-19 protocols. Let us celebrate the resilience of our dance community which has allowed such a myriad of creations to be realized under this one, single roof for 20 years. The purpose-built building is no less of a dream come true for its sole dedication to dance and its open door policy to all forms of dance. What a gem we have here in Vancouver and a great source of pride indeed! I am all eyes and ears to uncover the magic that happened, is happening, will be happening within and beyond this hub for all dancers in British Columbia. For this issue, I am excited to share interviews with Emily Molnar, Amy Bowring and Idan Cohen. Converging on the themes of redefining heritage and reimagining dance, they are each a trailblazer in their own right. Dr. Carolyne Clare and Rachel Maddock are commissioned for the first time with hopes of making Dance Central a collective effort towards promoting dance writing. As always, we thank all the artists who have agreed to contribute and we welcome new writing and project ideas at any time, in order to continue to make Dance Central a more vital link to the community. Please send material by email to editor@thedancecentre.ca. We look forward to many more conversations. In the meantime, stay safe and healthy everyone! Shanny Rann, Editor 2
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Emily Molnar and the Artists of Ballet BC © Cindi Wicklund
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Interview with
Emily Molnar by Shanny Rann When I think about dance icons who have graced Scotiabank Dance Centre in the past 20 years, Emily Molnar comes to my mind. Last year, she made a great leap of her career to become the artistic director of Nederlands Dans Theater. It was not an easy decision, in her own words. Under her leadership (2009-2020), Ballet BC has catapulted onto the international dance stage as a groundbreaking contemporary ballet company. We take pride in Emily’s achievements as one of the very few women choreographers who are actively redefining the face of dance. I reached out to her at the beginning of 2021 and asked on behalf of all her dance fans in Canada: “How are you doing, Emily?” SR: I am curious about your transition from Ballet BC to Nederlands Dans Theater. What are you encountering in your new role? EM: It is a new job, but it has a lot of correlations because the dance world is very small inside a global world. Due to COVID, it is an unusual transition within a very unusual year. I am very happy in my position here with Nederlands Dans Theater that we can still work. What is wonderful is that we have the funding and the support to continue making work. The dancers are seen as top athletes so they can actually connect, and we found this new way of touring through live streaming. We have two companies and they both have their own performance and touring circuits. In our last live stream, which happened a couple weeks ago, we had almost 10,000 people watching from 63 countries including Afghanistan. The one thing I have asked as an artistic
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director, and I would have asked this also of the dancers at Ballet BC before I left when COVID first started: “What can we do now during this time that we wouldn't normally be able to do?” That is what I feel I do as a director—hosting environment for people to come together. “How can we use this moment as an opportunity?” There has been a lot of learning about how to use this time creatively, how to come closer together. It was hard for me to leave Vancouver. I love Ballet BC, being in that community of such vibrant artists. But I really thought it is the right time for the company to move on and transition into a new separate self as an organization. For me, I felt it was the right time too and these jobs do not shift that often, so I had to go with that timing. I was sad to leave but I am excited to be here. It is a big company with wonderful people. It is a huge creation house. I have already been meeting new artists and talking about the future.
Emily Molnar in studio with Artists of Ballet BC © Michael Slobodian Dance Central Spring 2021
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Dance Central The Dance Centre Scotiabank Dance Centre Level 6, 677 Davie Street Vancouver BC V6B 2G6 T 604.606.6400 info@thedancecentre.ca www.thedancecentre.ca Dance Central is published quarterly by The Dance Centre for its members and for the dance community. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent Dance Central or The Dance Centre. The editor reserves the right to edit for clarity or length, or to meet house requirements.
Editor, Art Director Shanny Rann
Copy Editor Nazanin Oghanian
Design Layout Becky Wu
Dance Foundation Board Members: Chair Linda Blankstein Secretary Anndraya T. Luui Treasurer Janice Wells Directors Trent Berry, Samantha Luo, Mark Osburn, Sasha Morales,
Contributors to this issue:
Andrea Benzel
Emily Molnar, Amy Bowring, Dr. Carolyne Clare, Rachel Maddock, Idan Cohen
Dance Centre Staff: Executive Director Mirna Zagar
Photo credits
Programming Coordinator
Front Cover: Emily Molnar © Michael
Raquel Alvaro
Slobodian
Associate Producer Linda Blankstein
Dance Centre Board Members: Chair
Director of Marketing
Jason Wrobleski
Digital Marketing Coordinator
Vice Chair
Lindsay Curtis
Megan Halkett
Secretary
Membership/ Outreach Coordinator
Judith Garay
Nazanin Oghanian
Treasurer
Venue Services Representative
Annelie Vistica
Alice Jones
Directors
Lead Technician
Julianne Chapple, Tin Gamboa,
Chengyan Boon
Arash Khakpour, Andrea Reid
Comptroller
Rosario Kolstee, Anndraya T. Luui,
Elyn Dobbs
Heather Bray
Founded in 1986 as a leading dance resource centre for dance professionals and the public in British Columbia, The Dance Centre is a multifaceted organization. The Dance Centre presents an exciting season of shows and events, serves a broad membership of 300 professional dance companies and individual artists, and offers a range of activities unparalleled in Canadian dance. The Dance Centre is BC's primary resource centre for the dance profession and the public. The activities of The Dance Centre are made possible bynumerous individuals. Many thanks to our members, volunteers, community peers, board of directors and the public for your ongoing commitment to dance in BC. Your suggestions and feedback are always welcome. The operations of The Dance Centre are supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Province of British Columbia, the BC Arts Council, and the City of Vancouver through the Office of Cultural Affairs.
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A lot of what I am doing here are things that I believe in and have been working on for years. They are an extension of some of the work I started with Ballet BC. How do we support artists right now? How are we dancing? What is the narrative of the 21st century? How do we bring audiences together? What is the stage? All these questions that I have as an artist, a performer, and a choreographer, I continue to ask here. Nederlands Dans Theater is 60 years old, and I ask, “Are we 60 years old or 60 years young?” It is different in the sense there is a legacy to NDT but it is also a creation house that is dedicated to new work. We just worked on a new piece by Yoann Bourgeois, which was this upside-down set. Those are things that we are able to make here. That really delights me because the reason I am involved in this is because I believe in the power of what dance can transmit into the world. This is a great company to be in. SR: You were dancing with Ballett Frankfurt during your early career, then you came back to BC. Now you are returning to Europe with years of experience as an artistic director and you are obviously in a different life stage. I am curious to delve a little more into how you feel about your second move to Europe. EM: It certainly feels different, but it also feels like I have a history here, so it is not as foreign as it did the first time. I am an older person, so I have a bit more life experience behind me. What is ironic is that we are such an international community in dance that a
lot of the people I have been interacting with or speaking with actually live quite close to around here. So in a way, I feel like I am closer to some of my artistic community.
SR: You talked about legacy. Do you see it as a greater challenge to push boundaries with 60 years of legacy behind NDT as compared to when you were steering Ballet BC?
Everything is so global, you can still meet with each other anywhere you are in the world, because we tour and we obviously commissions for different companies. Choreographers are moving around all the time. I love that I have had the experience of the European and North American structure, although every country in Europe is also different in the way they support the arts. I can see the benefits of both systems and also how they relate or not. I love coming back here now having all of this other experience.
EM: History is always an opportunity if you pay attention to it, and if you hold it with respect. I feel really strongly with NDT that it is about bringing our history because it is also what built us to be the company that we are right now. All of those creative processes, all those creative minds that have come—that is what has built this house up. I want to bring that work forward. That will strengthen you.
One of the things I noticed was during COVID, for instance, there was no discussion about whether or not dance is an essential service. Theatres are staying open, we are present in the ongoing conversation because culturally, it is very much connected inside of the society. Not because in North America, people do not want the theatres open but there is just a different funding model that allows for something like that to happen. Back to your question, how does it feel? I feel like I am able to come fuller circle on some of the things I was exploring as a performer, I feel like I am really able to eat into them now as artistic director in this company. It feels like a bit of a home but also that I have left home.
The spirit of NDT is based on a rebellion against a classical heritage. How do you keep the essence of how something was made alive and how do you bring the legacy forward? Keep asking the question, and what else do I need to add to that. It is very special that we have the legacy. I think it is all in how we hold it, how we discuss it, how we continue to perform and present
It feels like a bit of a home but also that I have left home.
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Emily Molnar with Ballet BC Dancers Emily Chessa and Scott Fowler © Michael Slobodian
it, but I see it only as an opportunity, that we balance it, obviously with new voices and new conversations and staying alert with the world. We are not necessarily a repertory company, in the sense that we only do repertory work, we are actually building new work. It is the quality of those two things combined—how they work together, inform, and educate each other. That is the power of a company like NDT that there is that legacy and there is new work at the same time. SR: NDT attracts a lot of international dancers. Do you find yourself working cross-culturally now more than ever? 8
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EM: We had this with Ballet BC too, especially halfway through my tenure. We also toured around the world and did auditions. The company was starting to pick up a lot of notice from dancers around the world. But I would say yes, it is more established here [at NDT]. There are people auditioning from all over the world. One of the things I have spoken to the company about now is micro-auditioning. We always have this big audition that happens here, but can we go into more remote areas? Can there be a satellite community-engagement project that we do in remote places that we may not always be open to? We are finding talent and helping to
support them. Maybe eventually they will come and perform with us or choreograph for us. One of the things I am really trying to do is to make connections with artists sooner. Let us build more ways that we can find exchanges like internship satellites. If you are going to dance or choreograph, there can be different stages. The support is one of my big passions. My work with Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity is about what artists need at each point of their careers. We put a lot of attention on emerging artists, which is fantastic. Midcareer artists, established artists, sometimes they are the more complicated area, they need more individual opportunity or monitoring. We do not always pay as much attention to that. I find that thrilling here because we have the two companies: NDT 1 for mid-career and NDT 2 for emerging dancers. We used to have NDT 3 for dancers aged 40 years plus. I think that is really special because there is an intelligence along the way that is different. They are all important. All of that is such a beautiful journey and brings different points of view and different values to the table in a performer’s life. SR: What happened to NDT 3? EM: It was beautiful. It lasted for a few years, and I think it just became trickier financially to sustain a large company. While it was not large in the sense, there was only about five or six dancers, but it still needed its own kind of touring, track, and funding. But it is definitely an idea I would like to pursue as the director because I also
think the dancer who is 40 years plus is a very, very interesting performer. There is a dancer right now in NDT who is 40 years old, and she could keep dancing for years. The training has become more proficient in the sense of healthier bodies, healthier minds. We know how to deal with complex contemporary choreography. We have a lot more people helping with preventative medicine. There is a lot to offered to a dancer when they are in their early years that helps them take care of themselves better so that when they start dancing professionally, they are not wearing themselves out, they are able to dance for longer. SR: That is such a good thing to hear about, because we talk about dance as a shortlived career. EM: It is getting longer but not everybody wants to do it. Sometimes your body can still
History is always an opportunity if you pay attention to it and if you hold it with respect.
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do it but your interests go somewhere else. Sometimes the body shuts down at 25 and people have to retrain. SR: I know you made the decision to become a choreographer in your late 20s. Was it an organic choice on your own part? Have you always known that? EM: It only became more apparent to me once I started directing Ballet BC. When I was at the National Ballet School, there was always the joke that I would direct. I loved being in the studio making work with choreographers. I did not even have to make it myself. I just needed to be thinking about making. That is what brought me into the world with William Forsythe. Along that way, I was always looking at our environments, asking, how do we cast? How do we coach? How are we making dance? Why are we thinking in this way? I was often the dancer who was asking too many questions. I did not always say them, but I kept thinking. I think I am just really difficult. I was fascinated about why do we do all this? What does it mean? What is the psychology behind it? I found certain things fascinating. It was not always about my name being on a casting list or about the next part. Of course, when I was dancing, I went 100% there. But in my mid-20s, when I left Ballett Frankfurt, I thought I was going to stop and study anthropology because I was just overwhelmed. I did not think I was making a big enough difference in the world as a dancer. It was just my own little thought process which was not my comment on dance. It was more 10
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of my own participation of it. Then a little voice said, “Stop, Emily. Dance has never let you down the minute you walked into the studio. You kept learning about yourself, maybe the things around dance have let you down but not dance itself.” Something inside told me that I have to not leave the art form, I have to go deeper and continue to perform. I started to run a company for youth at Arts Umbrella and I started to choreograph. I needed these two things to start happening to build more tools and to have a conversation with what was interesting to me. Something was going on, but I did not know where to land it. It was about that moment I started to see—I wanted to choreograph, I wanted
to examine composition more and I wanted to take on more responsibilities. It was also about working with larger groups as a choreographer and building projects. I got as much of a high making a work as I did, supporting someone else's work. That is when I know directing is where I want to go because it was not just that I wanted to choreograph. I love doing it. I found it a fascinating practice which deserves full commitment, but something in me was also curious about holding spaces. I knew I wanted to direct more of a multi-platform, multi-voiced choreographic platform, which was in Canada at that point, Ballet BC. One day, it became something that was possible
for me, but I just really did not know how it was going to happen. I just knew I wanted to eat up more learning inside of the art form. It took me a while. I just kept building projects, working with people, and figuring out. Staying involved in the art form—that was important to me to keep finding out what do we need? Specifically, for Canada, where is the need? What exists that needs attention? I just wanted to make sure that anything I was participating in would be of relevance for more than just myself. SR: Margaret Mead found dancers to be good anthropologists because they are sensitive to the choreography of cultural behaviour. She studied Samoan culture and the role of dancing in it, but
Emily Molnar in studio with Artists of Ballet BC © Michael Slobodian
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dance is still a very understudied aspect of every culture. We do not think dance is important enough in what makes us human, but it is. Through your choreographing, you are studying human cultures to a certain extent, right? EM: Yes, I have often said that dance is one of the most beautiful acts of democracy. I remember being in a room with entrepreneurs from different fields in Vancouver, and I talked to them about what it is like for us to be in the studio. They were thrilled by this idea that dancers do not always speak the same language, we converge from all over the world, and we give our body weight to somebody which is a huge trust. We can laugh, we can build, and we make something together. This happens collaboratively in most dance studios a lot of the time. That is a beautiful act of democracy—this kind of cooperation, of community, of exchange and flexibility; being adaptive to the body-mind connection. There is so much about what we do that some of us in the field take for granted because we are in it. Dana Caspersen, a beautiful dancer from Ballett Frankfurt and The Forsythe Company, has a great book called “Changing the Conversation: The 17 Principles of Conflict Resolution”. She articulates it beautifully. There is a lot of psychology around what we do. As dancers, we cannot deliver an idea unless we get agreement from another human being. An act of dancing requires more than one person; it requires communication. It has got another person on the other side, who is going to give you their thoughts, you have to basically get an agreement in order to even exercise the idea. 12
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There is a constant need for communication directly with another human being at every level. That makes dance very, very complex. SR: You once said dancing is an honest act because we really expose our bodies on stage. Juxtaposing it against other situations where people come together to make an idea work, I feel dancing takes that communication to a more honest level because bodies do not lie. I think that is what makes dancing difficult too. How do you be honest with another person and trust them enough to hand over your body? EM: It [dance] allows us to be very vulnerable and very open. That requires a certain kind of groundedness or maturity, or it can also lead to anxiety and insecurity. I do think it is really hard for the body to lie. That is the privilege of performing with our full body, but it is also what makes dance super complicated. SR: I want to bring you back to Vancouver. Scotiabank Dance Centre is celebrating its 20th anniversary, can you talk a little bit about your memories there? EM: Well, I actually choreographed a piece with three or four dancers for the groundbreaking ceremony. I remember all those scarves with the same colors. I danced in the building as a dancer with Ballet BC when it first opened, and I remember us coming from our old studios into that new, beautiful building. Whenever I travelled across the world, I would tell people about this building in Vancouver
that is specifically for dance. It is such a beautiful proposition. It is not something that is usual in North America. I felt very proud to say that. What it represented for our dance community was a sense of pride. Here we are, all these different artists coming together on a professional level, being able to share, to be in a building where 605 Collective is making their next work alongside with Ballet BC for example. There are so many different intersections, cross-pollination from our communities. It continues to be very, very special—its location and all of that. I know it was a long endeavor to get there. It is something that we can be very proud of, not just in Vancouver and BC, but actually across the country. SR: What kind of advice would you give for young dancers?
to work out, just don't try to figure it out. Just go for it. I think my advice would be just go day by day and keep dreaming, keep doing the work and show up. Trust yourself. Trust the community. Let the world help you with that. It is this complement of dreaming but also making sure you want something that you are also giving yourself the chance to get it. I think showing up is important because it is a passionate endeavor that we do through our bodies. It can get vulnerable. That is exactly the moment when you want to let your dance help you through and let your questions move you through in the world. Every day we show up and we find out and we ask questions. That is what I would say to a young artist is keep asking, keep showing up, keep making sure to play. SR: Yes, play is important.
EM: If the profession is the only thing you want to do, then you absolutely have to do it. If you have any concerns about how this is all going
EM: Keep touching base. Keep grabbing more tools. Keep asking those questions. Get in front of
It is so important that we know our careers are for us to also guide, not just for the people who we think are going to help us make an opportunity. Dance Central Spring 2021
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people. If you find something curious, go search it out. Make sure you are reading, looking at other art forms and bring it all back into your work. It is so important that we know our careers are for us to also guide, not just for the people who we think are going to help us make an opportunity. First and foremost, we belong to our careers. They are in our hands. We have that choice. I would also say to young artists, we need you. So please, please go forward and dance with us. Because we need you in the profession. We need to keep finding out how we can describe the world through dance. And we need the young generation to help us with that.
SR: Will this advice also apply to choreographers? EM: Absolutely. When I talk about showing up, I have often thought, how can you write a book if you only know five words? If you really want to express the expansion of what we feel or think, you want to have a whole box. That is where training comes in. Something to write with, to write through your ideas. Keep learning along the way, because sometimes we stop. Training in your professional career is also a really important question. You can grab at anything and learn from it. That is important to any young artist. When you find something interesting, get closer to it. Keep looking around.
Emily Molnar is one of Canada’s most acclaimed dance artists. She graduated from the National Ballet School of Canada, and danced with the National Ballet of Canada, Ballet BC and Ballett Frankfurt under the direction of William Forsythe. From 2009 until August 2020, Molnar was the Artistic Director of Ballet BC and in 2014, she became the Artistic Director of Dance at the cultural education institute of Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. In 2016, Molnar was named a Member of the Order of Canada, one of Canada’s highest civilian awards. She became the Artistic Director of Nederlands Dans Theater in 2020. Scotiabank Dance Centre © Ivan Hunter 14
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Interview with
Amy Bowring by Dr. Carolyne Clare Over ten years ago, Dance Collection Danse's Executive and Curatorial Director Amy Bowring and I visited an aging dancer’s home because the dancer was not well and she wanted to give DCD her collection of dance books. I was struck by the dancer’s isolation and her gently masked grief. I also saw how Bowring was able to take on the role of caregiver, offering solace and meaning to a sick person, as if the dancer were family. Since that day, I have seen Bowring as being more than an archivist. For dance, she is also like a trustee, or a trusted person who has been given the authority to administer a deceased person's effects. Or perhaps she is more like a spiritual leader who skillfully provides comfort to grieving communities by enacting rituals, opening honest discussions and checking in to ensure that people's basic needs are met. Either way, her work takes courage. Our backdrop, a global pandemic, invites me to think about Bowring’s role in dance as being related to caregiving and grief. The pandemic has raised discussion about the positive impact of the arts on mental health, and other discussions about how caregivers, usually women, have been especially burdened by the pandemic. While I offer no analysis of labour and equity here, I am compelled to flag Bowring as a bit of an unsung hero for dance,
Amy Bowring © Michael Ripley
as she carefully works with performance, at the cusp of being, passing and recollecting.
A Dancing Ghost... CC: Amy, you have worked with deceased dancers’ stuff for almost 30 years. Have you ever seen a ghost dancing in the archive? AB: No, I haven’t seen a dancing ghost. I did get to visit Toronto’s Eaton Auditorium before it was renovated, which originally opened in 1930. It’s a storied place that I never thought I would get to see, even though I knew it was still there, locked away at the top of a shopping centre. When I walked onto the stage, placing my feet where many great dancers had
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performed, I had this overwhelming feeling that I will never forget. CC: So maybe you have felt a ghost… Can you please tell me how DCD is doing during the pandemic? AB: We have had to cancel or push back some of our in-person programs, like exhibitions and our Hall of Fame, which honours remarkable dancers who have made lifelong contributions to dance. Although this was disappointing, we are excited about our new digital project!
We have an amazing dance history in this country. We are filled with inspiring people who have brought their art forms from other places in the world. 16
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DCD Discover CC: What is your new digital project? AB: We are creating an online, open-source hub for Canadian dance records. We secured the funding in April 2020, with support from the Canada Council’s Digital Strategy Fund, and we have been able to focus on this project despite the pandemic. CC: What is an online, open-source hub for Canadian dance records? AB: Well, we are in the process of working with dancers across Canada to figure that out. In short though, it will be an online portal for people to view dance records held by individuals and organizations across Canada, not just the collection at DCD. The public will be able to upload digital copies of their dance records to the hub, which will enable other interested people to find and view that information. CC: If I am a Vancouver-based dance educator planning to make costumes for my students, I could search your hub and find hundreds of historical photos from across Canada that could inspire my work? AB: Exactly. You could probably find thousands of relevant photographs. CC: In order to contribute records to the hub, will organizations have to give their records to DCD?
DCD Discover screenshot
AB: No, some organizations might consider doing so, but most organizations will preserve their original documents and backup high quality digital copies. The records that are uploaded to the hub are for reference purposes only.
AB: It might be called “DCD Discover” but we are soliciting feedback from the community about that too.
CC: Will DCD help organizations learn how to safeguard their original records?
CC: How are you getting this feedback?
AB: Yes, we offer grassroots archiving workshops in cities across Canada and remotely. We tend to do one or two workshops a year. In addition, we welcome questions from other organizations and dancers throughout the year. CC: What will the digital hub be called?
DCD Live Labs
AB: We are hosting a series of virtual discussions, which we call Live Labs, and anyone can take part. Details on how to participate can be found on the development site for DCD Discover. During our Live Labs, participants are introduced to DCD Discover and are given the chance to provide feedback or answer questions. We asked: “What would you like to see in the hub?”, “What
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concerned about restricting access to materials in order to respect cultural protocols or to protect their intellectual property? AB: Yes, those concerns came up, and we are thinking through different ways of addressing the issue. For example, we’ve made it possible for creators to put watermarks on the records they upload so that images can’t be reproduced without permission. It’s also possible to restrict access to records altogether. For example, if a group of records are private, the database entry could simply inform a researcher that the record exists with further information on how to access the record itself. CC: Is DCD getting help to gather this feedback and make DCD Discover?
Leonard Gibson © 1950
colours do you like?”, “How can this be easier for you to use?” etc. CC: What kind of feedback have you received? AB: A good example is a piece of feedback offered to us by a presenter. They noted the challenge of finding current artist biographies, and they wondered if we could use the DCD Discover to host biographies. Dance artists could update their biographies themselves, adding new shows once they have completed them, and presenters could easily download the biographies from the hub. This would be a simple and useful way to use the DCD Discover. CC: That’s a great idea. Has anyone been
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AB: Yes, we are working with dgen, a data infrastructure design company. The company is based in the UK but they have an international team including staff in Canada. Once dgen has finished developing DCD Discover, our team at DCD will host it. CC: What kinds of things have you learned from dgen? AB: Accessibility is really important to dgen. That value inspired us to make DCD Discover simple, visually appealing, and free from archival ‘gobbledygook’ that is meaningless to the general public. We like this approach as we think it will capture people’s attention. Dgen has also encouraged us to use open-source software and to be transparent throughout the development of DCD Discover. It’s their
philosophy to make something imperfect available to the public and then get potential users to help perfect it in an iterative process. CC: Will researchers be able to search for records using keywords? AB: Yes, we are trying to make it easy for users to include descriptive information about the records that they upload. We will have to offer tutorials on how to do that, and we will draw upon some of the descriptors we have already developed and used for our earlier database.
Artificial Intelligence
CC: That’s funny! When will you officially launch DCD Discover? AB: The project should be complete by April 2021 and I hope that DCD Discover will make a big splash. (DCD Discover is now launched and accessible through https://discover.dcd. ca/items.) We have an amazing dance history in this country. We are filled with inspiring people who have brought their art forms from other places in the world, and who have felt things deeply and reflected their experiences on stage. It’s remarkable and fascinating and I hope that we
CC: I’ve heard that DCD Discover will make use of artificial intelligence. Is that true? AB: Yes! dgen has incorporated AI into the system, which automatically creates tags and descriptors of records. The AI system can also transcribe text that is embedded in the images! We have tested the AI system, and sometimes it comes up with crazy things but humans can correct those errors and the system will continue learning over time. It even learns from outside our system too; that’s pretty amazing. CC: Have you tested the AI function with some dance records? AB: Yes, we had some fun seeing if the AI system could decipher the Maud Allan family’s handwriting; that family had the worst handwriting of all time! The system did not recognize some of the letters as using the English alphabet.
Ballets Russes Program Vancouver 1917 Dance Central Spring 2021
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make more of these stories available online, which can bring all kinds people into dance. All of which will benefit dance communities as well. CC: Interesting, are there many dance records across Canada? AB: Absolutely, and hopefully DCD Discover will help us find out more. I do think it would be great if we could make the pockets of dance history from across Canada more visible. We know there are dance archives in museums, special collections, attics and basements across the country. I would love to see what teachers have done in other cities for example. It might be empowering for communities to keep their records and also build connections with other dancers by sharing information. CC: Do you think people from outside dance will use DCD Discover? AB: Yes, we hope they will. We are also toying with the idea that the hub could be used beyond dance, for other performing arts too, like theatre or circus. It could be a massive hub for performing arts history. If it will work for dance, it should work for other arts too.
Hopes for the Future CC: That sounds great. Before we wrap up, can you also tell me about your hopes for the future in general? AB: I have no crystal ball, that’s for sure. I’m hopeful that through the COVID-19 pandemic people will have a better understanding of how 20
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the arts affect the world. People have turned to the arts for their escape, for distraction, to be uplifted, to be moved, to engage with human emotions that we miss out on when not in regular contact with people. Hopefully, people will remember the value of the arts in their lives going forward. CC: I hope so too. Thank you, Amy! And you will tell me if you discover a ghost dancing in the archive? AB: OK Carolyne, will do.
Dr. Carolyne Clare is currently a Mitacs Accelerate postdoctoral fellow based at Simon Fraser University's School for the Contemporary Arts, where she is undertaking research with the BC Alliance for Arts and Culture. Her current research focuses on how the arts have supported wellness for BC residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Carolyne had the pleasure of working with Dance Collection Danse as a Metcalf Foundation Intern in 2010-2011. Her previous interview with Amy Bowring is published on https://www.dcd.ca/dhm/bowringdhm.html. Amy Bowring is the Executive and Curatorial Director of Dance Collection Danse, a national centre dedicated to the collection, preservation, and dissemination of Canadian dance legacies. As a dance worker, Bowring curates exhibitions, arranges archives, creates educational programs, teaches dance history, writes, copy edits, presents lectures, develops grants and much more.
Idan Cohen, Ne.Sans & the Yes Manifesto by Rachel Silver Maddock Idan Cohen’s work, which brings together dance, music, dramatic costumes and makeup has an enticingly theatrical quality. In Vancouver, a city where the current of postmodernism in dance runs strong (a minimalistic, “dance first, dance only” approach), Cohen’s work feels indulgent, like a forbidden fruit. Cohen’s company, founded in 2017, reimagines opera, seeking to reconnect the artistic disciplines found within opera with contemporary dance. At the meeting point of many elements, Cohen tries to give each part its own agency in performance. The Vancouver-based Israeli choreographer comes from a multidisciplinary background. His early life was characterized by the study and performance of classical piano, visual arts, and theatre. But Cohen says he was always more interested in the creative process than performing. At nineteen (“quite late”, he says), he began training in dance, and went on to work with Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company for six seasons. In his time at KCDC, he was given opportunities to develop his choreographic voice, creating and touring his first works on
Idan Cohen © Lior Noyman
the company. In 2005, Cohen left to start the Idan Cohen Dance Company. He spent the next decade making his own work, winning a number of European choreographic awards. As a well-rounded appreciator and practitioner of the arts, Cohen was always drawn to opera. But he says he was dissatisfied with the quality of dance in the productions, feeling the choreography was often outdated. After directing his first opera production in 2016, he relocated to Vancouver and founded Ne.Sans with the goal of deepening the connection between dance and opera.
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Dance, Music and Storytelling Cohen and I spoke on Zoom shortly after the run of Hourglass at Vancouver International Dance Festival in early March, a livestreamed duet set to four of Philip Glass’s solo Piano Études. In the work, pianist Leslie Dala shares the stage with dancers Rachael Prince and Brandon Alley. Hourglass has an interesting non-narrative sweep to it. Stage lights define an oblong performance space, the sides of which fall into a dark abyss. In opera-inspired (perhaps 18th century) costumes and exaggerated makeup, the dancers are like dolls trapped in a dollhouse, contending with complicated power relationships involving each other and a folding chair. The choreography, which shows off the dancers’ strong ballet technique, is dramatic, quick, and expansive, rising and ebbing with the arc of the études. Though there is some back-and-forth between the music and dancing in Hourglass, the movement primarily responds to the music. The music also has a strong visual presence: the piano is often “onstage” in shot of the camera, and Dala even performs his own gestural sequence in full costume and makeup. RM: I noticed the music had a prominent part to play in Hourglass. Can you expand on your relationship to music in your work? IC: I think because I started as a young musician, music has always been there as my main source of inspiration. Even when I created with non-classical themes—I did a piece entitled Joy Ride which was created to American music from the ’60s, like Jimi 22
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Hendrix and Janice Joplin and John Lennon— the soundscore of a piece was always the main theme, relating to something that has to do with a specific time within our history or culture. For Hourglass, I wanted the work to not only read as a dance performance but also as a concert—that the movement would stand on its own terms but also “support the music” so that the audience can experience both. The first opera I directed was in 2016 and it made sense to me because I always try and tell a story through this abstract form of art that is dance. Maybe it’s a story that isn’t necessarily linear, but one that is layered and abstract. Still, [music helps] to have a certain arc within the piece that conveys a certain journey that the dancers are going through. Those two things—that meeting point of storytelling and music—is opera. I studied theatre and visual arts and music and dance (again, these are the four main components of opera), so it was very natural to me in that sense. I could add that I was always excited by opera. To quote the No Manifesto of Yvonne Rainer, I would say I’m the opposite. I would say yes to everything. Yes to spectacle, yes to virtuosity, yes yes yes! And I think opera is very much that. It is very much the ‘Yes Manifesto'. RM: Yes, that’s interesting. In some ways, the No Manifesto was the start of postmodernism and minimalism in dance. If you see dance as coming through the lineage of opera, it used to be “extra” and so much more. I admit that I haven’t experienced much opera, living in Vancouver. How did you come into contact with opera?
Flick Harrison Dancers Racheal Prince and Brandon Lee Alley
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Hourglass Photo by Theo Bell Dancers Racheal Prince and Brandon Lee Alley
IC: It’s a good question. I think there’s a reason so many of us don’t come into contact with opera as dance artists. So often in opera the dance is outdated, and pushed into the background as a refresher or “mouth cleanser” and it’s not the most exciting part. But it doesn’t have to be that way. I’ve seen a lot of opera productions that I did not enjoy in the past. I was interested in that because I’m interested in the arts in general—in theatre, and film and visual arts; one of the things I enjoy most in the world is to experience and study the different forms of art. I started imagining ways that opera can be a wonderful, exciting contemporary form of art. 24
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Postmodernism, Modernism, and Definitive Terms in General Before we continue, let’s pause for a moment to think critically about the Western and exclusive nature of terms like “modernism” and “postmodernism” in dance. The definitive, academic terms assume there is an allencompassing lineage of development in dance history that loosely corresponds to that of the visual arts and music over the 20th century. Such a framework is damaging in many respects. It is inherently hierarchical in its assumption that “what came before” is untrue or undeveloped, colonial in its blatant
disregard of cultural and folk forms and has pushed a predominantly white perspective. RM: I wonder if the minimalist, dance-first and dance-only approach of many contemporary dance artists has been directly influenced by this codified way of thinking: that less is more, or that stripping away all other theatrical layers is somehow more “authentic”? IC: One of the arguments I often have with postmodernist dance is that the strength of postmodernism is layered and relating to the past, not by saying “no” to it but by quoting it or creating a multi-layered work that is in conversation with the past. When you think of postmodernism in visual arts, what postmodernism does is quote. It would take the Mona Lisa, for instance, and make a comment on it that would be embodied in the creation. With dance, because our main instrument is our bodies, and the body is always contemporary in the sense that it’s one of a kind—only you have your body and only I have my body—so postmodernism in dance tends to strip all layers. In the minimalist approach it stays only with the body, shies away from music or uses music as a background texture as opposed to something that has its own agency. I’m interested in the collaborative conversation between the arts, and that is opera. RM: For the modernists, there was this inherent appreciation or at least knowledge of the arts and dance in culture and making a statement against it really affected
people. In the 21st century, people may not have the same experience of appreciating stage performance first so they can find postmodernism dance alienating. IC: I agree, but I also think it is connected to one of the negative things modernism as a concept has done. When we think of modernism, it is a very European, masculine way of looking at the history of the arts. Modernists basically said: past—bad; present—good. What they did (Picasso is a very clear example) was break with the past. They thought romanticism or classicism is bad because it’s untrue, irrelevant and insincere, and so we’ll break it apart. It is a very masculine act. There is this sense in our history that what happened before me is bad and what I am bringing is good. I can’t stand that approach. It seems so white supremacist RM: And how do you think that plays out in the dance scene? IC: I think with postmodernism in dance especially, because dance is relatively young as an art form—it was only declared an art form in the late 19th century, before that it was always connected to music as part of a concert or opera—we’re still trying to find our way. Of course, dance has existed since the beginning of time, but not as an “art form” in our Western cultural context. I think we [as dancers] are still trying to compete with other art forms—to take agency and say ‘this is what we do, this is what dance is.’ It’s a little like growing pains, like a child saying ‘this is me, this is what I do!’ We could look for alternatives in a more creative way.
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When we think of modernism, it is a very European, masculine way of looking at the history of the arts ... I can't stand that approach. It seems so white supremacist. RM: Along those lines, the experience of a postmodern artwork when you don’t have the history (whether it be dance or visual arts or opera) can be so limited. And so for you, coming into a milieu in Vancouver where people may have different levels of experience with opera, what would you say is your goal for the audience experience? IC: It’s worth mentioning that there is so much opera in Vancouver—there’s Vancouver Opera, a beautiful company, and there are many independent smaller opera companies here that are doing a wonderful job. But I think so many of us as artists are kind of segregated in our own artistic discipline, and we create these mini communities where we all watch each other’s work, and it creates these mini pockets or bubbles. With the audience—I invest a lot of thought and energy into creating a coherent world within my pieces. It’s not that I’m trying to please the audience, which is impossible—
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some people will love the avant-garde somatic work and some people love the more balletic traditional work. I do what I do, I do what I love, and what I believe in, and say what needs to be said, but I definitely take the audience into consideration. I try to make sure what I am saying is translated well, and would have the effect that I want it to have. It makes me most happy when I hear that people who are not necessarily dance viewers (but are still passionate for the arts and life) enjoy it or at least it starts a discussion. I think if we were to be more inspired by different disciplines and artists in our community, we would all benefit. Because in the same way that many of us do not attend opera productions, so many opera people do not attend dance productions. Imagine if it were different! If we would benefit from the knowledge and interests of the visual arts, theatre, puppetry, and vice versa. They would benefit from our knowledge and perspective. I think this is what I’m trying to do in opera and
this is what excites me most—that you come to watch an opera production and it’s actually a dance performance. RM: With Ne.Sans, it seems like you are bringing multiple elements together, to create something that is bigger than the sum of its parts. IC: Yes, I think that’s a great way of describing it. It’s bigger than the sum of its parts, but it also highlights each part.
Orfeo ed Eurydice In April, Cohen finished three months of artistic residency with The Dance Centre. During that time, he developed and expanded an existing work Orfeo ed Eurydice, a reimagining of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s 1762 opera. Excerpts of the work-in-progress were pre-recorded and livestreamed from April 6-12, 2021. Even in non-pandemic times, the project would have been ambitious—involving seven dancers, five opera singers, a costume designer and Leslie Dala as music director/ pianist. After months of watching bare-bones digital shows, it was almost overwhelming on April 6 to see so many bodies on the digital stage in full costume and make-up. Orfeo ed Eurydice is delightful in its visual complexity; the choreography frames and guides the eye, blackouts act as a palette cleanser, and subtitles translate the lyrics to give context to the scenes. Something about the drama of it all succinctly captures human emotion: the human heart,
after all, is a complex, layered thing. In a postshow talkback, Cohen said he wants to bring “the human body” back to the world of opera, and in this early presentation of the work, the body is a central focus. As Shane Hanson, (Orfeo) sings a lament in Act One, the dancers peel away from him, covering their faces with their hands and moving slowly as if consumed with grief. Their fully embodied expression visually anchors the scene, heightening my experience of the centuries-old music. In this new work, artistic disciplines take turns in the spotlight, bolstered and supported by the others. And as he moves forward with Ne.Sans, Cohen is achieving his larger goal of connecting artistic communities through collaboration and multidisciplinary research.
Rachel (Silver) Maddock is an independent dance artist, writer and choreographer. She holds a Diploma of Dance Studies from Trinity Laban (UK) and a BA in Visual Culture & Performance Studies (SFU). Idan Cohen is an opera director and choreographer. He holds a BA in Choreography from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and an MA in DanceChoreography. He was born and raised in Israel, Kibbutz Mizra. The socialist community of the Kibbutz had a deep affect on his artistic life and work. Since 2005, he's been creating, performing and teaching successfully as an international award-winning director and dance artist.
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Orfeo ed Euridice Still shot from video taken by Yasuhiro Okada
