Editor's Note

Welcome to the Spring 2024 issue of Dance Central.

This year for International Dance Day, The Dance Centre tapped into the excitement of Olympic Games Paris 2024 by appointing Philip Kim, aka Phil Wizard, as our Message ambassador. Phil will be representing Team Canada in breaking, the latest addition to the Olympic sports this year. Blurring the boundaries between dance and sports, this urban dance style originated in the United States in the 1970s with roots in hip-hop culture. Leading up to the Olympics, Phil will be rehearsing at Scotiabank Dance Centre while inviting the breaking community into the dance hub.

Rachel Silver Maddock brings us an interview with Jennifer Mascall about the funding model that artists are not only being subjected to but also helping to shape through their collective efforts of improvising, surviving and most of all, creating. Mascall reminds us of the economic impact of arts despite the increased competition for grants and the increasing labour that is asked of artists in their applications.

Joining this issue as a first-time contributor to Dance Central, Charlotte Leonard writes about her archival work with Karen Jamieson Dance and the award-winning oral history and archival research project – Coming Out of Chaos: A Vancouver Dance Story (COoC). Both Jennifer Mascall and Karen Jamieson are instrumental in shaping the dance community of Vancouver through their prolific dance creations over the decades, and more importantly, how they tirelessly advocate for social issues and pave the way for the next generation of dance artists.

We thank all the artists who have contributed, and we welcome new writing and project ideas at any time to make Dance Central a more vital link to the community. Please send materials by email to editor@thedancecentre.ca. We look forward to many more conversations!

Shanny Rann

Editor

Title image: Byron Chief-Moon [front] and Brian Solomon [back] performing Man WIthin at the Vancouver International Dance Festival, 2007 from the archives of Karen Jamieson Dance © Chris Randle